forensic
results showed that 13 Burmese nationals whose bodies
were found at a waste site in Prachin Buri on Tuesday
died of suffocation and choking, Police Commissioner
General Sant Sarutanond said yesterday.
The group - three men, seven women and
three children - was not murdered as earlier speculated,
Sant said. "Some corpses had broken necks, but we
believe that they were broken after they died," he
explained.
Defence Minister General Chavalit
Yongchaiyudh said: "The group may have tried to
evade detection by police by hiding in an enclosed space
or in the rice sacks. When they were inside, there may
not have been enough air," he said.
The victims had not died from being
beaten, he said.
Police found the bodies of the 13
Burmese on Tuesday, dumped at a garbage site in rice
sacks. It was initially presumed they had been murdered.
However, preliminary autopsies at the
Police Hospital in Bangkok indicate they appear to have
suffocated. A border pass was found with one body,
showing that one person had crossed the border at Tak's
Mae Sot district.
Maj-General Chid Samathiwat, commander
of the police forensic department in Bangkok, estimated
that the 13 victims were aged between 12 and 25 years
old and that they died late on Monday night.
Chid said the victims' heads were
twisted due to rigor mortis but their necks were not
broken as had previously been thought.
Chavalit said police believed the dead
could have been Burmese labourers destined for Prachin
Buri and Nakhon Nayok as both provinces were in urgent
need of workers.
In Rangoon, Burma's military junta
asked the Thai government to launch an inquiry into the
deaths.
