STAFFDEL LUSE, THAI OFFICIALS DISCUSS HUMAN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 000291

SIPDIS

STATE FOR G/TIP MTAYLOR, DRL/IL MJUNK
DOL/ILAB FOR JENNIFER PIORKOWSKI AND BRANDIE SASSER,
H FOR GATZ PLS PASS TO LUSE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/03/2019
TAGS: ELAB KTIP PREL PHUM PGOV TH
SUBJECT: STAFFDEL LUSE, THAI OFFICIALS DISCUSS HUMAN
TRAFFICKING, ALLEGATIONS OF UNIDENTIFIED REMAINS IN THAILAND

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Classified By: Pol Counselor George Kent, reason 1.4 (b) and (d).

SUMMARY AND COMMENT
--------------


1. (C) Summary: In a December 12 discussion with Professional
Staff Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Keith
Luse, who was in Thailand to explore alleged trafficking
issues, Thai forensic science expert Porntip Rojanasunan
claimed that ten thousand unidentified bodies turn up in
Thailand each year. Subsequently, Porntip's staff clarified
to the embassy that the number of unidentifiable corpses was
two orders of magnitude lower. In addition, Dr. Porntip
referred to a "killing field" located in the Mae Sot area
along the Thai-Burma border, which "no one wants to
investigate." Porntip requested USG training for her
institute. A Royal Thai Police (RTP) official told Luse he
was concerned about Thais trafficked into Malaysia, and he
also cited good cooperation with U.S. DHS/ICE personnel. UN
officials based in Bangkok claimed USG trafficking in persons
(TIP) reports had motivated governments throughout Southeast
Asia to make progress on TIP; they also noted difficulties in
combating TIP in the Thai-Malaysian border area.


2. (C) Comment: The embassy is deeply skeptical of Porntip's
claim that up to 10,000 unidentified bodies appear throughout
Thailand each year; statistics of violent deaths/homicides of
all categories over the years have traditionally shown only
4000-5000 such deaths nationwide annually, with most victims
identified. Embassy finds Porntip's staff's estimate of
dozens, rather than thousands, much more credible. Post is
following up with local authorities and others to try to
confirm the extent of the issue. Regarding the alleged site
near Mae Sot, a credible NGO source separately described to
embassy an alleged disposal area 20 minutes from Mae Sot
where he claims to have found traces of up to 40 charred
remains in 2005. The victims were allegedly migrant workers
killed after they allegedly failed to pay alien smugglers,
refused to pay police protection fees, or caused trouble
inside factories. End Summary and Comment.

Expert Concerned about Unidentified Remains
--------------


3. (C) Director General of the Central Institute of Forensic
Science at the Ministry of Justice Porntip Rojanasunan met
with visiting SFRC Staff Member Keith Luse, accompanied by
Poloff, on December 12. Porntip remarked on the overwhelming
number of unidentified remains reported to her institute on a
yearly basis. According to Porntip, over the past 10 years,
an average of 10,000 sets of unidentified human remains were
discovered per year. She claimed to have found 1,000
unidentified bodies in Pattani province alone this year, but
said she did not receive a request from the National Human
Rights Commission or other government offices, such as the
police, to investigate the cases. Porntip suspected that the
bodies found in Pattani were mainly Cambodians, and a few
Burmese, noting that Muslim men were easily identifiable by
their circumcision. Unidentified Muslims bodies, she said,
tend to be separated from other unidentified bodies and
buried immediately in cemeteries. However, she was
distressed because the non-Muslim corpses are often cremated
by Chinese Buddhist foundations in an act of good faith by
the foundation.


4. (C) Note: Porntip's high figures clashed with those of a
lower-level official from the Central Institute of Forensic
Science who told us subsequently on January 8 that the
Institute received 200 initially unidentified bodies in 2008.
Since they had identified 116 bodies, the Institute
considered the official number for 2008 to be 84 unidentified
bodies.

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5. (C) Porntip told us that her Central Institute of Forensic
Science hoped to start a program in southern Thailand to
provide Chinese Buddhist foundations that deal with
unidentified remains with refrigeration equipment and cameras
to record and preserve the bodies. Porntip asked Luse for
U.S. government assistance in providing or supporting
training programs featuring international forensic
anthropologists. Porntip hoped to provide experts at her
Institute with further training on identifying the
nationality of 750 remains through DNA and other methods.
Porntip was heading a forensics training program for military
officers, teaching them how they can use forensic science to
further their intelligence gathering. She told us that drug
dealers often fund insurgents through the illegal narcotics
trade, and she warned that smugglers often trafficked
explosives at the same time as people.


6. (C) Porntip told Luse that she had recently worked on a
case involving unidentified Burmese remains in Phuket
province. According to Porntip, the unidentified Burmese
were most likely migrant workers. However, the morgue
classified the remains in the same category as the remains of
deceased criminals and had cremated the bodies before she
could review them further. According to Porntip, the bodies
were cremated to avoid opening a police investigation into
the matter. Porntip expressed frustration at police
reluctance to start criminal investigations into unidentified
remains.


7. (C) Separately, Porntip spoke of a "killing field" in Mae
Sot, along the Thai-Burma border where several unidentified,
burned remains were discovered. Porntip believed bodies were
taken to the location, and burned on large tires. However,
she had not received Ministry of Justice permission to open
an investigation into the bodies or site. (see para 2 comment
for an independent view on the Mae Sot site.)

Police Cite Need for Evidence to Launch Investigations
-------------- --------------


8. (C) Luse also met separately with Police Colonel Suwichpol
Imjairach and Police Colonel Lieutenant Yannapong Setpayapan
of the Children, Juveniles, and Women Division (CWD) of the
RTP at their main office. Suwichpol relayed RTP concerns of
Thai workers being exploited and abused in Malaysia, and said
that CWD focused its efforts on the prevention and
investigation of trafficking crimes and protection of
trafficking victims in Pattaya, Chiang Mai, and Phuket.
Suwichpol thanked Luse for understanding the complexities of
law enforcement in the volatile southern region, noting the
dangers of police work in the midst of insurgent activity.


9. (C) According to Suwichpol, CWD always contacted U.S.
DHS/ICE representatives when an American citizen was involved
in a trafficking case, such as the December 11 raid in
Pattaya that resulted in the arrests of four pedophiles,
including one Amcit. Suwichpol promised to continue to
investigate suspected traffickers using an anti-money
laundering law that facilitates the issuance of arrest
warrants, but added that the CWD must operate in the confines
of evidence as required by law. He said that he would try to
secure future evidence from interviews with trafficking
victims, and stressed that he could not start police
investigations without having identified trafficked victims.

UNIAP to Begin Work with Malaysian Government Against TIP
-------------- --------------


10. (C) Representatives from the UN Inter-Agency Project
(UNIAP) on Human Trafficking in the Greater Mekong
Sub-region, meeting with Luse, praised the impact of the

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annual State Department TIP report. UNIAP Regional Project
Manager Matthew Friedman commented that the report caused
competition between ASEAN countries in ratcheting up anti-TIP
programs. Friedman added that UNIAP was trying to work with
the Department of Special Investigations (DSI),but noted the
risks of surveillance in TIP hot spots in southern Thailand
due to insurgent activity. UNIAP aimed to quietly assist the
Malaysian government, hoping to encourage GOM efforts to
further combat TIP. (Comment: In November, Embassy Kuala
Lumpur briefed UNIAP on anti-trafficking in Malaysia,
provided UNIAP with contact information for government and
civil society, and urged the project to begin activities in
Malaysia. End Comment.)


11. (U) This cable has been cleared by Staffdel Luse, and
coordinated with Embassy Kuala Lumpur.
JOHN