Voices of Refugees

Massacre at Sea "Ko Kra island"

Ko Kra is an uninhabited island of three and half square miles of rock and jungle, off the coast of southern Thailand. Thai fishermen used the island to hold the Vietnamese refugees hostage

Until the spring 1981, Thai fishermen hunted refugee woman on that island. According to UNHCR, one female refugee was severely burned when southern Thai fishermen, attempting to flush her out, set fire to the hillside where she was hiding. Another cowered for days in a cave, waist deep in water, until crabs had torn the skin and much of the flesh away from her legs.

By Oct 1980, 160 refugees had died on that island alone. The total no doubt went well beyond 200 before a detail of six or eight marines was stationed on the island in the spring of 1981 and halted the carnage.

The office of UNHCR has the ultimate responsibility for supervising the refugee camps, report that during a trip that should last 3 or 4 days, 80 percent of the refugees who survive have been attacked by fishermen an average of 3 to 4 times before reaching shore. Dr Mehlert’s CARE report concerning rape noted one case when a nine year old was raped, and several when eleven and twelve year old girls suffered gang rapes. Her research revealed that women 15-20 years of age faced a 60 percent chance of being raped, not once but up to 40, 50 or more times.

Roy Branson, the editor of SPECTRUM , holds graduate degrees fron Harvard University and the university of Chicago. He recently spend time in Thailand investigating the plight of Indochinese refugees.

Please read for more details

Courtesy of Roy Branson http://spectrummagazine.org/files/archive/archive11-15/12-3branson.pdf

The island become "Thailand Dive Sites" now.