Bodies of 13 Beaten and Drowned by Corrupt Thai Businessmen Burmese Found--Children Among Dead by Phairath Khampha 19 March 2002 Thailand's police on March 5, 2002 launched an investigation into the brutal killings of 13 people - including five children and some with heavily bruised bodies - who were found in rice sacks on a garbage dump site in Prachinburi Province's Muang district. They were illegal labourers who at first were suspected to have been killed because they were no longer useful. This is a very common ploy used in Thailand by wealthy businessmen who would not rather pay these people for their labours. Forensic evidence, however, suggested they had suffocated, perhaps while hidden in a truck enroute while being smuggled into Thailand. Burma's military junta asked the Thai Government to launch an inquiry into the deaths of the 13 Burmese nationals. A husband and his wife were arrested at separate locations for their responsibility for the deaths of the young Burmese. Police rushed to scene after being alerted by a local villager. Provincial deputy police commander Pol Col Pinit Satcharoen said that some of the victims had broken necks and severe bruises, while others appeared to have been drowned. Their clothes were still wet and their bodies bore no trace of gunshot or knife wounds, Pinit said, adding that some were also suspected of having been poisoned. The victims were a man, seven women, three boys and two girls. They were believed to have been dead for at least eight hours but less than 24 hours before being discovered, Pinit said. The rice sacks containing the bodies were dumped under sacks of fertiliser and animal waste. "We are still looking for more evidence at the scene," Pinit said. Police found tyre track traces near the scene, leading them to believe the victims were murdered elsewhere and moved to the site by truck before being dumped. Police said those killed were Burmese immigrants as they wore longyi -Burmese sarongs. A note written in Burmese and Burmese bank notes were found among the bodies. Several local villagers told police that the dead were workers from a nearby construction site. Police transported the bodies to the Police Hospital in Bangkok for autopsies. Prachin Buri Governor, Chaijit Rattakajorn, said the sacks were produced in Samut Prakan and were imprinted with a logo from the Krungthep Animal Food Co. The murders come at a time when the government was trying to encourage employers of Burmese workers to join a registration programme, allowing the government to better ascertain the number of Burmese workers in Thailand. Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh said he believed the victims were Burmese nationals working illegally in Thailand. In January month, 20 corpses, of ethnic Burmese, were found floating downstream in a river along the Thai-Burmese border in Tak's Mae Sot district. They had been killed by their Thai businessman masters who did not want to pay them for their year's labours. This a common ploy used by wealthy Thai businessmen so that they do not have to pay for the labours of illegal workers, usually from Burma. [see related story] Such workers typically are paid at the end of one year of indentured services. Hence, by killing them, such businessmen stand to save vast amounts of money. And since typcially there is a strong hatred ofBurmese among the Thai population often such crimes do not cause concern as no one often could care less. In October 2001, the Labour ministry registered around 560,000 of an estimated two million illegal workers in an effort to control the flow. The wealthy owners of factories in Thailand complained this would lessen their profits. Burma seeks inquiry into bodies mystery But a forensic investigation found they suffocated, probably accidentally during the difficult journey from Burma. Officials in Thailand said they believed the Burmese were the victims of an illegal smuggling racket. A police spokesman, Major General Pongsapat Pongjaroen, said it was possible the victims had suffocated as they crossed the border underneath a truck. Migrant workers The head of the police forensic department, Major General Chid Samathiwat, said he estimated the victims were aged between 12 and 25 years old and that they died late on the night of March 4. He said the victims' heads were twisted due to rigor mortis, and that their necks were not broken as was previously thought. Before the forensic findings emerged, Kyaw Win, Burma's deputy chief of military intelligence told reporters he believed the 13 Burmese had been murdered. "This is something that should not have taken place at all at a time when we are repatriating," he said. "We will make a request through the foreign ministry to the Thai Government to take serious action against the murderers after investigation and to prevent similar incidents from breaking out and to give Burmese workers protection." The Burmese workers in Thailand are unpopular with the local population. Couple detained in dead Burmese case A husband and his wife were arrested at separate locations for the responsibility for the deaths of the 13 young Burmese, including three children police said on March 7. Police apprehended Som Poonsombat in Kamphaeng Phet province and his wife Boonta Puto in Phitsanulok province at about 4am that day, said General Amnuay Petchsiri, deputy police commissioner-general. They were working as job brokers dealing in illegal migrant workers, including the ill-fated batch of 30 Burmese smuggled through Tak's Mae Sot district on March 4 for employment in factories near Bangkok. The Burmese were loaded onto a modified pickup truck and put in rice sacks to evade detection by police at checkpoints along the way. They were then covered by sacks of fertiliser with a blanket laid across the top. Thirteen of the Burmese suffocated during the trip while buried under the heavy pile, Amnuay said. When the driver arrived in Nakhon Sawan, he opened the truck's storage area and found 13 of the Burmese, including three children, had suffocated. The other 17 workers survived and were dropped off in Pathum Thani's Lam Luk Ka district. The driver wrapped the dead in rice sacks and them at a dump in Prachin Buri. It was presumed that the survivors were abandoned in Bangkok. "Police are looking for them," he said. Amnuay insisted that the 13 were not murdered. Initial reports said some of the corpses had bruises, but they might have been caused by their struggles to get air. The husband and wife team could face fines of up to Bt20,000 and jail terms of up to ten years each for recklessness causing death as well as the smuggling of illegal workers, he said. Lt General Kitti Sintisuwan, a provincial police commissioner, said the arrested man and wife were profiteers who lacked morals. "Their illicit network earned big money from Thailand's urgent need for cheap labour while those Burmese decided to use an underground route to land a job in our country because their homeland has no work to offer," Kitti said. Police were still hunting for four suspects as well as the truck that was used to transport the illegals. Besides Somporn, the driver; Sunthorn, Thong and Burmese national Ma Tuey were also identified as suspected collaborators.