Less well known atrocities in Thailand Reddit — Thailandtv.news

With the news of the prosecution of some of the people involved in the Tak Bai massacre – I wanted to ask the community about less well known atrocities in Thailand they may have heard about?

I’ll start:

During the Vietnam War, thousands of boat people were abducted and killed by Thai pirates while fleeing vietnam. From at least 1979 to 1981 hundreds to thousands of Vietnamese women and children were captured and transported to Ko Kra. Figures vary depending on the sources. Once there the pirates would leave them on the island returning only to hunt, rape and kill the women and children for sport. Many were trafficked into the sex trade. Many more were killed.

Those that survived described Ko Kra as “Hell on earth”.

Here’s a few quotes:

Until spring of 1981, Thai fishermen hunted refugee women on that island. According to UNHCR, one female refugee was severely burned when southern Thai fishermen, attempting to flush her out, set fire to the hillside where she was hiding. Another cowered for days in a cave, waist deep in water, until crabs had torn the skin and much of the flesh away from her legs.

Boat number VNKG 0980, carrying 120 people, left Rach Gia on Dec 29, 1979. On Dec 31 a pirate boat, orange-red in color with number 128 on the bow, rammed the refugee boat, cracking it. The pirates disabled the refugees’ engine and enlarged the crack, so water poured in. After robbing the refugees the pirates left, taking the pretty girls with them. About 50 people hung on to the pirate boat when their boat started sinking. The pirates left the survivors on Koh Kra. On the night of Jan 1, 1980 A Thai navy boat number (# 18) came to Koh Kra. The navy men forced all the refugees to strip and stand naked. After observing the naked refugees, the navy men left. On Jan 2 another navy boat, #17, visited the island. They forced the female refugees to publicly strip and stand naked, then searched them before returning to their boat. Navy boat #17 remained nearby until January 4, when they left. While the navy boat was present, the pirates were nowhere to be seen. As soon as the navy boat left, 4 pirate boats came to island, but there was nothing left to take. They took turns raping the women in public, among the victims’ friends and families. Five girls were gang raped: KH 15 years old, BT 17, AH 12, HY 11 and MT 15. On the 5th day, Mr Schweitzer arrived with police boat and rescued the suffering refugees.

That’s just a tiny part of it. 1250 people were rescued from Koh Krah in all so we must presume the number of victims to be higher.

The worst atrocities committed by pirates on the Gulf of Thailand may never be known. The most pitiful victims probably have been silenced forever.

These are the women who have been abducted and held as sex slaves, either to be passed among fishing boats on the high seas or to be sold to brothels in southern Thailand.Their number is unknown.

Members of San Jose’s Vietnamese Women’s Association, which has been collecting money for a campaign to locate missing women, estimate that as many as 3,500 women have been abducted over the past 12 years. And they say many of those women must still be living in bondage.

Eventually a few people would be prosecuted, including a gang of seven pirates from Phak Phanang though the majority of victims would see little to no justice or recompense for the suffering they endured. In fact, the victims were not allowed to be plaintiffs in the Thai law system and instead were termed witnesses. The “witnesses” were intimated and pressured by state officials, police and relatives of the pirates into dropping the charges.

As far as I can determine – though this may be due to my age – the treatment of the Vietnamese boat people at the hands of Thai pirates is a very seldom talked about event in Thai history.

Here’s a link for those interested:

https://refugeecamps.net/KohkraPast.html

What stories have you heard about in Thailand which may or may not be well known?