Rohingya boat people: Navy shot them Thai villagers say

Forced back to sea to die, trafficked & sold, now shot at by Navy, Rohingyas escape violence in Burma, only to meet violence once again here.

A leading human rights group on Wednesday accused Thai navy personnel of shooting at least two Rohingya asylum seekers and called on the government to investigate the incident.

New York-based Human Rights Watch said that Thai sailors on Feb 22 opened fire on a group of Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar after forcing them onto a boat being sent back to sea in Phang Nga province, 600 kilometres south-west of Bangkok.

At least two were killed after they jumped off the boat and attempted to swim back to shore, Human Rights Watch said, citing testimony from Thai villagers and Rohingya survivors.


The predominantly Muslim Rohingya are an ethnic minority group from Rakhine State in western Myanmar who were the target of communal violence last year. A Myanmar law passed in 1982 denies them nationality.

"Rohingya fleeing Burma should be given protection, not shot at," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "The Thai government should urgently investigate why sailors opened fire at boat people helpless in the sea and prosecute all those found responsible."

The Thai military has been accused on several occasions of forcing Rohingya asylum seekers back to sea and of involvement in trafficking Rohingyas to jobs in Malaysia and elsewhere.

"Our government has a policy to take care of the Rohingya on humanitarian grounds, so they won't be pushed back," Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatara told journalists Monday.

"We will investigate this," she said of the alleged deaths in Phang Nga.

(Source: Bangkok Post, HUMAN RIGHTS, Navy accused of killing Rohingya, 13 Mar 2013, DPA News agency, Deutsche Presse-Agentur, link)