“Burmese Cemetery’ claims 2 more victims

PHUKET CITY: The bodies of two men, both believed to have been Burmese nationals, have been found in Phuket City within two days of each other.

Police report that both men, thus far unidentified, appear to have been stabbed to death.

The first corpse was found in the afternoon of Saturday in mangroves behind a Burmese workers’ camp near Tah Chin Canal, and close to Srisena Rd.

Pol Maj Ekasit Pinkaew of Phuket City Police Station said that the victim was wearing a black T-shirt and short black pants, and reported that the victim had “multiple” stab wounds to his body.

The second body was spotted floating near the Rattanachai dry dock yesterday morning by a member of the public who alerted the police. The corpse was wearing a football shirt and black underwear, and had – unusually for a Burmese worker – Chinese characters tattooed on his back. More than 10 stab wounds were found on his body.

Maj Ekasit speculated that both men were murdered on land on or around the same day before their bodies were dumped in the water. He said that the first corpse appeared to have been in the water for one or two days.

“From the manner in which they were dressed, and the type of stab wounds, my belief is that they were Burmese nationals,” said Maj Ekasit.

He added that no employer or relative of either of the two men had filed a missing persons report to the police.

In 2002 and 2003 there was a string of bloody Burmese-on-Burmese murders, which apparently stopped in July last year.

Asked why there had been no reports of Burmese being murdered since then, Pol Lt Col Chartchai Nicrodhanon, the Deputy Superintendent of Crime Suppression at Phuket City Police Station, told the Gazette that fighting between Burmese workers had died down after police had recorded detail of fishing companies, the names of their boats and their crews, and had taken mugshots of crew members.

“Usually, there would be problems when Burmese crewmen came ashore; they would drink together, get into arguments and kill one another.

“After Burmese were allowed to apply to be registered as legal workers, the number of murders decreased because [crew members] were worried that there were official documents about them [that might lead to them being identified].

“Also, the employers were worried about official problems so they started to control their workers more strictly, preventing them from doing bad things,” Col Chartchai explained.