Amnesty
International had urged the Thai government to impartially investigate
the deaths.
Lucky
to Breath
Another
detainee lambasted the way Thai authorities dispersed the
demonstration and transported the Muslims, who were fasting during the
holy month of Ramadan.
"I
am lucky to be able to breathe today. Think about it: I'm a small
person and there were four to five people piled on me," said the
man, also in his mid-twenties.
A
third man, who declined to be named, burst into tears, recounting
their detention ordeal.
"Can
you imagine being laid down on the floor and there are a lot of people
on top of you? You can't even move. You can't even do anything."
The
three men, interviewed by AFP in Narathiwat province, were among more
than 1,100 Muslims freed by the Thai army from six different sites
after being held since Monday.
Tearful
Reunions
 |
|
A Thai woman cries as she walks with her released son. (AFP)
|
During
a brief respite in the monsoon rains earlier Saturday, 231 detainees
left an army base where they had been held in Pattani province.
They
boarded four buses that took many of them to Narathiwat for tearful
reunions with relatives.
"I
was terribly concerned in the past six days. I could not sleep and was
worried but now I've seen them again. I feel relieved," an
elderly man, Samsudint Yo Tanyong, said after seeing his son and three
nephews.
He
asserted that the men rarely went out but last Monday they had joined
others seeking the release of six men accused of passing guns to
separatists.
Of
the detainees leaving the base in Pattani, some showed black eyes,
cuts and bruises. Two could only walk with the help of friends.
The
men, from teens to seniors, appeared in high spirits but when one saw
a driver he recognized he broke into tears and rushed over to embrace
him.
"I'm
glad I could go home," a young detainee from the border town of
Sungai Kolok told reporters.
"They
treated us well for the past two days but before that we slept in
water."
Continued
Harassment
 |
|
Freed Muslim detainees disembark from a bus as family members await outside the community hall in Narathiwat. (AFP)
|
About
two dozen soldiers, some armed with assault rifles and pistols,
watched the departure and made it difficult for the men to talk freely
with reporters.
The
army soldiers filmed detainees who spoke with journalists.
Troops
urged the men to clap their hands and chant.
The
detainees wore T-shirts given to them by the military.
Thai
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in his weekly radio address
earlier Saturday that the detainees would receive money and clothing
"since their shirts were stripped off during the arrests".
Relatives
who had been waiting outside the base for days rushed home when they
heard that the men would be freed.
An
army statement issued at the camp said 1,178 detainees were released
Saturday while another 113 remain under detention.
Among
those still held, 76 were allegedly linked to violence in the
Muslim-dominated south while the rest had failed drug tests or had
criminal records, the statement said.
"(They)
will be detained by the army under martial law provisions until
Monday. After that they will be passed to police custody and police
will take any legal action required," army spokesman Somkuan
Saengtattaranetr told AFP.
Most
of Thai Muslims live in the five southern provinces bordering
Malaysia.
Pattani,
Yala and Narathiwat are the only Muslim majority provinces in the
majority-Buddhist kingdom.
Muslims
in these provinces have long complained
of discrimination in jobs and education and business
opportunities.
The
South was a rich Malay kingdom until it was overrun by the Buddhist
kingdom of Siam in the late 16th century when it declared its full
independence from its earlier status of semi-independence under the
rule of the Thai kingdoms of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya.
In
1909, it was annexed by the Kingdom of Siam as part of a treaty
negotiated with the British Empire.
Both
Yala and Narathiwat were originally part of Pattani, but were split
off and became provinces of their own.
There
still exists a separatist movement in.
Former
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad urged Thailand to consider autonomy
for its Muslim south, and called on separatist groups to drop their
goal of independence.
