Rohingya tell of beatings by Thai forces

By: WIMOL NUKAEW AND AFP

Published: 4/02/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: News

A group of Rohingya found adrift off Sumatra on Monday say they were beaten, towed out to sea and left to their fate by Thai security forces, the Indonesian navy says. The boat people said 22 of their number had perished as they drifted at sea for three weeks in a wooden boat that had no engine and was held together with rope, navy officer Tedi Sutardi said.

''Fishermen found a wooden boat without an engine drifting in the sea with 198 Burmese migrants,'' Mr Sutardi said. ''They said Thai authorities towed them out to sea and set them adrift.''

The migrants, all men, said they had been cast adrift by Thai security forces as they tried to flee persecution in Burma.

They also spoke of nine other boats set adrift by Thai forces.

They showed scars from beatings they said they had received at the hands of the Thais, matching similar allegations from another group of 174 Rohingya who were found off Sumatra on Jan 7.

Meanwhile, a group of Ranong residents yesterday staged a rally to protest against the UN refugee agency plan to set up a refugee centre for Rohingya boat people.

The protesters, numbering about 1,000, gathered at a park in Muang district, Ranong. Some carried placards criticising the plan.

About 100 protesters later moved to the Ranong immigration checkpoint upon learning UN High Commissioner for Refugees officials and Ittiporn Boonpracong, deputy director-general of the Foreign Ministry's Department of International Organisations, were visiting a group of Rohingya being held there.

The protesters submitted a letter to Songsit Jarupran, a legal official of the UNHCR.

Sucheep Patthong, a protest leader, said the group was opposed to Rohingya people entering the province.

Mr Sucheep said the UNHCR should raise the Rohingya issue with Burma. The UN agency should not pass the responsibility onto Thailand, he said.