Thai police arrest man suspected of running deadly jungle camp

Thai police have arrested a man they say is the key figure behind a brutal human trafficking network that ran a jungle camp where dozens of bodies of persecuted Muslims have been found.

Soe Naing, widely known as Anwar, was detained last Tuesday as authorities closed in on a camp near the Thailand-Malaysia border where as many as 400 trafficked migrants, mainly Rohingya and Bangladeshis, were imprisoned for ransom, Police Col. Anuchon Chamat, the deputy commander of police in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, told Reuters.

Anwar was initially charged with fraud for not releasing a trafficked Rohingya after receiving a ransom payment. Police on Monday announced additional charges against him for human trafficking, false imprisonment and holding people for ransom. Three local government administrators have also been arrested on the same charges, and an additional four Thais are being sought for arrest, Chief of Royal Thai Police Gen. Somyot Poompanmuang told a news conference. Eight people have been arrested in relation to the alleged network.

Anwar's arrest and the uncovering on Friday of the camp, containing 26 bodies, is the first major bust of a trade in humans that activists and some Thai officials say has been allowed to flourish for years amid indifference and sometimes complicity by Thai authorities.

"This is huge. He's a big guy, a top guy," Anuchon said.

Anwar denies involvement in trafficking and says he made a living tapping rubber and selling fried bread. People with grudges against him circulated his photo and accused him of trafficking, he told Reuters in a Nakhon Si Thammarat police station on Tuesday. "There are many Anwars. I'm also called Anwar. But you have to consider which Anwar is actually a human trafficker," he said.

Four other people were earlier arrested for alleged involvement in the network since January, Anuchon said, adding that phone records indicated the operation likely stretched to Malaysia, Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Phone records, financial transactions and witness testimony point to Anwar, a Rohingya living in the southern Thai province of Songkhla, allegedly playing a central role in the operation, Anuchon said. Police are also collecting DNA evidence from the grave site, which may contribute to any potential murder charges, he added.

Case documents reviewed by Reuters, as well as interviews with police and witnesses, provide some insight into one of the alleged networks involved in the smuggling of the more than 100,000 stateless Rohingya Muslims who have fled violence and poverty in Myanmar since 2012 — often held at sea and in camps for months as they are shunted from Myanmar to Thailand and then Malaysia.

Amy Smith, the executive director for Southeast Asia at rights group Fortify Rights, said the camp was just one of the many that trafficking survivors say are strewn across southern Thailand. "To our understanding, this is the first mass grave that's been uncovered by Thai authorities. This demonstrates Thailand's level of complacency in conducting proper investigations," she said.

Human Rights Watch said in a statement Friday that the "long involvement of Thai officials in trafficking" calls for an independent investigation to uncover the truth and hold any higher-ups accountable.

Reuters previously documented the involvement of some members of Thai security forces in trafficking, and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has acknowledged some official complicity.

Stung by being downgraded by the United States to the lowest category on its annual report on human trafficking — citing a lack of enforcement and the involvement of some officials — Thailand's military junta has ordered a crackdown on traffickers and introduced the death penalty in cases in which their victims died.

During a visit by a Reuters reporter Saturday to the camp, police and rescue teams could be seen pulling bodies in various stages of decay from the earth.

Two police witnesses who spoke to Reuters recounted allegations of beatings and murders in the camp.

One, a former inmate who helped lead police to the site, said those being held were regularly beaten while on the phone to relatives in order to extract money. Those who couldn't pay or who crossed the traffickers were often killed.

The witness, who cannot be identified because he is in police protection, said he saw 17 people bludgeoned to death in the 10 months he was in the camp. "I saw four people beaten to death in the space of two hours," the witness said.

Police said on Sunday that initial forensic examinations of the bodies found at the site showed no signs of violent death, such as bone marks or breakage.

One of those allegedly murdered was a 25-year-old identified only as Kasim, whose family had paid $2,870 for his release. But, hearing that Kasim's uncle had passed information on his detention to authorities, Anwar ordered Kasim killed, the witness said.

The uncle, Kullya Mei, separately told Reuters the camp guards called him before they killed Kasim, placing the phone to his nephew's face. "He said, 'They're going to kill me. What did you do?'" Kullya Mei recalled. The next thing he heard, he said, was his nephew screaming.

Reuters was unable to independently verify Kullya Mei's account. Anuchon said police were investigating the allegation.

Al Jazeera and Reuters