Convictions in major Thai human trafficking trial

This file photo taken on May 14, 2015 shows Rohingya migrants in a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman Sea. Photo: AFP . Christophe Archambault
This file photo taken on May 14, 2015 shows Rohingya migrants in a boat drifting in Thai waters off the southern island of Koh Lipe in the Andaman Sea. Photo: AFP . Christophe Archambault

A Thai court found dozens of people guilty of human trafficking offenses today in a mass trial exploring links between corrupt officials, including a senior army general, and the grim but lucrative trade in Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants.

Thailand’s junta launched a crackdown in May 2015 on a network funneling desperate migrants through southern Thailand and into Malaysia, holding some for ransom in jungle camps.

It unspooled a crisis across Southeast Asia as gangmasters abandoned their human cargo in camps where hundreds died from starvation and malaria, and at sea in overcrowded boats which were then “ping ponged” between Thai, Malaysian, and Indonesian waters.

Rights groups long accused officials of ignoring — and even orchestrating — the trade in humans through Thailand’s southern provinces.

The area was the crucial link in a criminal trial that stretched from Myanmar to Malaysia.

The crackdown revealed a lattice of military, police, local political, and mafia figures acting as traffickers, agents and logistics men, all soaking up cash from some of Asia’s poorest and most vulnerable migrants.

On Wednesday, judges at Bangkok Criminal Court began delivering a stream of verdicts for the 102 defendants. One other accused person died while on remand.

The offenses include human trafficking, ransom, and murder. All deny the charges.

Media were barred from the courtroom itself, relying instead on an audio replay of the complex proceedings.

 

Soldiers and kingpins

Judges placed heavy reporting restrictions on much of the testimony, citing national security concerns. But the case has still lifted the lid on the power networks dominating southern Thailand.

Army Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpan, a top figure in the security apparatus covering the south, is the highest-ranking official on trial.

In 2013 he was promoted to head the Internal Security Command (ISOC) for the south. Current junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha was army chief at the time.

Another well-connected alleged kingpin is Pajjuban Aungkachotephan, better known as Ko Tong or “Big Brother Tong”

Police accused him of using private Andaman Sea islands, close to tourist spots such as Koh Lipe, to shift boatloads of migrants to the mainland, where they were packed into trucks and taken to fetid camps straddling the Malaysian border.  

An army captain, four ranking police officers, a nurse, and several officials, including the mayor of Padang Besar in Satun province, are also among the accused.

By the court’s lunch break, 38 defendants had been convicted for a range of offenses including human trafficking and slavery.

Among them were guards at the jungle camps where migrants were held, including a Rohingya man who acted as an interpreter, and a string of local officials.

Thailand’s role as a key trafficking route spilled into full view after officials found dozens of shallow graves in the hidden camps dotting the steep, forested hills of the Thai-Malaysian border in May 2015.

They revealed the horrors endured by some migrants, who were starved and held in bamboo pens by traffickers who demanded up to USD1,000 for their release.

 

Big business, big money

The verdict is being closely watched inside and outside Thailand.

The government is desperate to dispel the kingdom’s notorious reputation for human trafficking and close one of the darkest chapters in the country’s recent history.

Junta chief Prayuth angrily denied that the case reflects systemic corruption within the security services.

“[Gen.] Manas alone will not make the entire military collapse,” he told reporters.

Critics say the case was prematurely concluded and describe a trial marred by witness intimidation, secret evidence hearings, and restrictions on media reporting.

“We expect there are many more perpetrators out there,” Amy Smith, from Fortify Rights, told AFP.

“This is a big business with big money.”

The senior policeman who initially headed the investigation, Maj. Gen. Paween Pongsirin, fled Thailand under threats to his life.

Days before he left, he told AFP the case had been pulled before it could delve further into the complicity of officials.

Stateless Rohingya Muslims have fled neighboring Myanmar in the tens of thousands since sectarian violence flared in 2012.

They were joined by Bangladeshi economic migrants on rickety boats southward across the Andaman Sea, seeking work and sanctuary in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Thousands are believed to have died at sea, in a migrant flow that garnered few headlines until the trafficking crackdown in 2015.



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