There is considerable media, blog and Twitter commentary on the discovery of mass graves at three temples in Rayong. The first English-language report PPT saw was in The Nation (also here, where it got attention), with Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha commenting on earlier media reports:

Prayuth
Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha on Friday urged for calm following the discovery of three mass graves where 169 bodies were buried under suspicious circumstances in Rayong.
“Authorities should be able to give a scientific explanation on the 169 bodies,” he said.
On Thursday, police exhumed for forensic checks on suspicion that the bodies might be linked to the disappearance of the red shirts during the last year’s riots.
The bodies were buried in separate burial grounds of three temples.
Although the temples’ abbots said the bodies were understood to be 1989 Typhoon Gay victims from Chumphon, police would carry out checks to verify on how and why the bodies had to be transported from the South for burial in the East.
It is important to note the two bits we have highlighted. There is doubt expressed and a date of 1989. It is also worth considering whether the authorities or others regularly use temples for mass graves and to recall earlier events where bodies have been piled up (e.g. natural disasters) and political crackdowns over many years, including 1992, April 2009 and April and May 2010.
The Nation’s next report is of speculation that the bodies were of missing red shirts:
Deputy national police chief General Prew Damapong denied Friday that he ordered the checks on 169 unidentified bodies on suspicion of linkage to the missing red shirts, in three mass graves in Rayong.
“I have no involvement in the matter,” he said.

Mass grave site
Prewpan said he had no knowledge about the mass graves until he read the newspapers this morning. He added that he would check why police’s legal commissioner Lt General Santhan Chayanont invoked his name as authorising the search of the mass graves.
He said he had no jurisdiction over Rayong which is under the Provincial Police Region 2.
In related development, three reds leaders refused to speculate whether the bodies found were the missing red shirts.
Pheu Thai MP and reds leader Nattawut Saikua said the red shirts were closely monitoring the police investigation into the 169 bodies. He said he would check on the investigative progress in the next few days. “In my personal opinion, I will not draw any conclusion before the complettion of forensic checks,” he said. He urged police to complete the checks in a speedy manner in order to prevent the issue from being politicised.
Reds chairwoman Thida Thawornseth said the government was obligated to dispell lingering doubts on the mass graves. Thida said she could not confirm or deny about the missing red shirts.
Pheu Thai MP Weng Tojirakan said he wanted Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung to take charge of the checks into the 169 bodies.
That the red shirt leadership is reluctant to comment in detail is interesting.
The Bangkok Post has a story that combines much of the information mentioned above and then a flurry of stories on what are essentially denials. One of the most interesting is by former security boss for the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, Suthep Thaugsuban, who is reported to be remarkably sure of what happened in this case:

Suthep and friends
The Abhisit Vejjajiva government had never received any reports from police or intelligence officials of missing red-shirt protesters during the April-May political protests last year, Democrat Party key member and former deputy prime minister Suthep Thaugsuban said on Friday.
Security officials had not hidden or disposed of any bodies, Mr Suthep said.
He was responding questions about the 169 unidentified bodies discovered in three temples in Rayong’s Klaeng district.
Officials from a foundation in Chumphon province were responsible for the bodies. They had transferred them to another foundation in Rayong, he said.
That would tend to fit with the mention of typhoon deaths in 1989. But he then trots out the usual Abhisit regime nonsense regarding deaths in 2010:
“… Protesters were injured or killed by the armed men among the red-shirts.”
“We can see that authorities could not get hold of the bodies. The people who took the bodies away were rescuers, nurses and foundation workers.
“Therefore, I don’t suspect that government officials were behind the bodies,” the Democrat former secretary-general said.
In other words, if there are any unidentified bodies from 2010, Suthep is apportioning the blame to others, including the red shirts. PPT is unsure whether Suthep has stated this line so many times that he now believes it or whether he is sounding a little desperate.
In another Bangkok Post story (which combines information from the earlier stories and adds more detail), one of Suthep’s partners in crackdown, Department of Special Investigation director-general Tharit Pengdit stated:
… the DSI had never received reports about missing people during the April-May political violence last year.
“It would be too soon to conclude that the unidentified bodies were the red-shirt protesters and it would be more appropriate to wait for the autopsy results first,” Mr Tharit said.
In the same story, Justice Ministry’s Central Institute of Forensic Science director Pornthip Rojanasunand, who is associated with several spectacular cases and several spectacular failures (think GT200), makes some observations of which this is noteworthy:
As for the suspicion that the bodies could be the missing red-shirts, we might not be able to verify it because we cannot find out where, when and how they died from examining their bones….
It seems that the police are keeping Pornthip’s Institute away from this particular investigation. It seems they may have some doubts about her credibility and political neutrality. That probably follows her work on the submerged containers in 2009 and various allegedly red shirt bombings.
Also in this report, Police chief of the Office of Legal Affairs and Litigation Santhan Chayanont, explained that:
… police had suspicions about the 169 bodies because there were no death certificates or reports of their deaths.
He said police would look into whether the bodies were victims of Typhoon Gay from Chumphon province in 1989, as claimed by the temples’ abbots. “The police question why the bodies were moved from Chumphon to Rayong, since there are many burial grounds in Chumphon,” Pol Lt-Gen Santhan said.
Finally, in its series of reports, the Bangkok Post has a story that appears to provide “answers” to the mystery of the bodies in super quick time:
Suspicions that missing red-shirts may be among 169 bodies found in Rayong are likely to carry little weight after a Chumphon-based rescue group confirmed it handed over the bodies to its counterpart in Rayong as part of a cemetery clean up ceremony there.
Sanguan Nilrattanothai, president of the Association of Buddha Prateep Lang Suan, a community based volunteer rescue organisation in Lang Suan district of Chumphon, on Friday insisted his group sent the bodies to one of its affiliated organization in the province in August last year.
According to Mr Sanguan, the Rayong-based group wanted to host a clean-up ceremony at a local cemetery but found out that there were a few unidentified corpses there. It then asked his agency to send more bodies to take part in the religious event which was a usual tradition practice.
He said the delivery of the bodies had already been on the news once when they were sent to attend a cemetery clean-up elsewhere. However, he did not elaborate.
Chukiet Chanbamroong, a rescue worker, said the 169 unidentified bodies had been collected in the past 10 years. Most of them were foreign migrant workers who worked in the fishing sector. He said the transport of the bodies to Rayong was legal as it was approved by Pol Col Supoj Boonchooduang who was then chief of Lang Suan police station.
Pol Col Supoj, who is now chief of Sawi district police station in Chumphon, told reporters he had endorsed the Association of Buddha Prateep Lang Suan’s request to transfer the bodies to an Eastern province but could not remember the number of the bodies. He said he examined the skeletons and gave his permission as there were no irregularities.
Is that really the end of the story? There are essentially no dates in any of the stories. The capacity for volunteer organizations to take and dispose of unidentified bodies is not questioned. That both Suthep and Tharit claim not to have heard about or had reports of missing red shirts in 2009 and 2010 raises several questions. Suthep appears to think that only reports by security forces count for anything and that media reports and statements by families of the missing mean nothing….
The idea that there have been 169 foreign workers killed in the fishing industry – notorious for its poor treatment of workers – is, likewise, not questioned. Do foreign workers not count? PPT has often written of impunity in the state sector and this part of the grave story suggests it exists for local business people employing foreign workers too.
The notion that there may be mass graves littering Thailand and hundreds of deaths without death certificates or explanation is an interesting one that potentially says a lot about the country’s society and politics.
PPT thinks this story deserves to run further. Whether it will is another question. We note that Bangkok Pundit has a post on this story too.
Update 1: A regular reader sent us a link to former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on the mass graves, from Thai-ASEAN News Network, and it is certainly worthy of quotation here:
Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva has called for a transparent probe into the case of 169 bodies found in Rayong Province….
Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva said various groups should not speculate on the causes the deaths and suggested that a thorough investigation be conducted to clear all doubts.
Abhisit added he did not know if the issue was intended to deviate media attention from ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra….
PPT would have thought that even Abhisit might have been able to drag himself away from his deep loathing of Thaksin to make a sensible comment on the discovery of a large number of bodies. That Oxford education seems to have done precious little for Abhisit’s basic humanity. Well, I guess we’ve known that for some time.
Update 2: The Bangkok Post has a longer and updated report on the bodies. As noted above, that the bodies may not be missing red shirts doesn’t alter the fact that there are unidentified bodies being transported, buried and dug up deserves attention.
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