Thai authorities have yet to admit culpability in the death of a Halockhanee resettlement camp resident that was found beaten to death after being arrested last Friday. Two Border Patrol Police (BPP) officers involved in the arrest, however, have been temporarily transferred.
According to a source at a BPP checkpoint near Halockhanee, two officers involved in the arrest have been temporarily transferred from the checkpoint to Yakadee, 10 miles away.
Two officers from the Royal Thai Police, meanwhile, were dispatched from Kanchanburi to conduct an investigation on March 9th. No charges or punishments have been issued.
The victim, Nai Lon, was found with his neck broken and marks of a beating on March 7th. He had been arrested the day before as he attempted to smuggle 16 migrant workers into Thailand.
On Friday afternoon the BPP notified the New Mon State Party (NMSP) liaison office in nearby Sangkhlaburi, Thailand that they had arrested a Mon man from Halockhanee. Halockhanee, just across the border in Burma, is one of a group of resettlement sites located in territory controlled by the NMSP.
According to a source in the NMSP liaison office, the BPP informed the party that they had arrested a man for attempting to traffic migrant workers. After binding his hands, however, the BPP told the NMSP that he “rolled his body down a hill,” and that they had not tried to locate him.
A search party dispatched to find Nai Lon, however, could not locate him. The NMSP then called the BPP, who suggested that the party look for Nai Lon near piles of belongings left by the migrant workers who had fled while Nai Lon was being arrested.
The next day, his body was found head-over-heals at the base of a hill, approximately 120 feet from piles of clothes left by the migrant workers. According to a medic and other sources in the search party that found him, Nai Lon’s neck w as broken and he had blood coming from his mouth and ears. His body was also covered in bruises, including marks that appear to have been left by the soles of boots and the barrel of a rifle.
The BPP, however, continues to maintain that Nai Lon was, alternately, killed by “rolling down the hill” or by one of the migrants he was bringing into Thailand.
The source at the BPP checkpoint near Halockhnee, meanwhile, surmised that the death stemmed from a personal conflict. According to the source, one of the BPP officers transferred is married to a Mon woman who has been having a conflict with the wife of Nai Lon.
The officer returned to the checkpoint late on March 6th, said the source, while the rest of the group involved in the arrest returned by 4pm. “We have not been ordered to kill like that,” said the source. “Maybe it was a personal issue.”
