Second migrant gravesite found as arrests continue

Investigators on Tuesday discovered a second remote jungle gravesite believed to contain the remains of trafficked migrants as police arrested the a fifth suspect in the scandal.

Please join us on our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/bangkokpostlearning

Five more graves have been found at another Songkhla jungle camp where Rohingya were penned like cattle and died, as world outrage grows. (Photos by Pornprom Satrabhaya)

New migrant graves found as police make 5th arrest

Wichayant Boonchote and AFP

Investigators on Tuesday discovered a second remote jungle gravesite believed to contain the remains of trafficked migrants as police arrested the chief of the village near the first set of mass graves discovered Friday.

Cooking utensils found at the camp.

Yali Khrem, headman for Taloh's Moo 8 village in the Songkhla town of Padang Besar turned himself in to police yesterday, bringing to five the number of local politicians and foreign nationals arrested over the discovery of more than two dozen bodies Friday in the hidden Sadao district trafficker camp.

Arsan Intanu, a member of tambon Padang Besar municipal council, Ro-ae Sonyale and Ali Lamoh, both assistant village chiefs in Padang Besar and a Myanmar national identified as Soe Naing Anwar were arrested Monday.

Pol Lt Gen Prawut Thawornsiri, spokesman for the Royal Thai Police Office said police have initially pressed charges of human trafficking, illegal detention, and kidnapping for ransom against the suspects.

National police chief Somyot Pumpunmuang (right) visits a Rohingya migrant who survived and was rescued from a human-trafficking camp at a hospital in Songkhla province on Monday.

Three others are still at large.

The latest arrest came as investigators scoured the jungle-covered Khao Kaew mountain for other camps and migrant-detention sites.

A second camp was uncovered just a kilometre from Friday's discovery. Pol Lt Gen Prawut said it was found last night 25 kilometres west of Padang Besar.

"We also found five graves, but cannot yet confirm whether any bodies are in them. Authorities will look into this," he added.

Pol Lt Gen Prawut said five officials from Padang Besar have been arrested on human trafficking charges since the first camp was discovered. He said authorities are checking if two local officials still on the run have fled the country.

Local police also have been hit by the scandal. A separate police statement issued Tuesday said 15 law-enforcement officers in southern Thailand have been transferred from their positions, including a senior officer in Padang Besar and another in Satun province.

Rohima Khatun, 25, a Rohingya from Myanmar, says she was beaten and tortured while held at a human trafficking camp in Songkhla before she managed to escape. She is under treatment in hospital at Songkhla, where she has given statements to police.

Rohingya woman flees 'torture' camp

Paritta Wangkiat

Padang Besar: A Rohingya woman was discovered Monday after she fled a jungle camp near Songkhla's Padang Besar town where she was allegedly detained and tortured.

The woman, who later identified herself as Rohima Khatun, 25, was found by villagers close to Roop Chang mountain in Padang Besar subdistrict near the jungle camp where around 30 graves and at least 26 bodies thought to be Rohingya and human trafficking victims have been unearthed.

The rescued Rohingya woman is under medical care at a Songkhla province hospital.

She was taken to the Padang Besar hospital Monday afternoon. Khatun appeared to be in a state of shock and confusion when the Bangkok Post visited her in the hospital. She could not explain her background in detail. "I was beaten many times," said Ms Khatun through a translator while constantly crying.

Identifying herself as a Rohingya, she said she was taken from somewhere in Myanmar and detained in a jungle camp in Thailand for around four months. Eventually she managed to run away.

There are around 400 people in the camp, mostly Rohingya and Bangladeshis, Ms Khatun said. She could not identify or locate the camp.

Observers believe she might have come from a camp different to the one where a mass burial site was discovered since that camp was said by witnesses to have held around 800-1,000 people.

"They said police were coming. Everybody ran. But I couldn't run because I was too sick to move," she said. After everyone fled, she walked down the mountain until villagers found her. She could not say how long she walked for.

Ms Khatun said her 10-year-old daughter was with her in the camp but now she has no idea where the child is.

You can read our previous coverage here: http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/549355/suspected-migrant-graveyard-discovered-in-songkhla

สามารถฝึกอ่านออกเสียงและดูคำแปลได้ที่ : http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/551723/second-migrant-gravesite-found-as-arrests-continue