BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra announced an independent commission to probe the deaths of 78 detained protesters as violent attacks shook the mainly Muslim south.
Thaksin's announcement came amid mounting domestic and foreign concern over events in the southern province of Narathiwat, where the protesters were crushed or suffocated after being rounded up and bundled into trucks.
Three bomb blasts and a shooting in the region left three people dead and about 40 wounded late Thursday and early Friday.
"I will set up an independent commission headed by Pichet Sunthornpipit, ex-Parliamentary ombudsman, and comprised of legal and Muslim experts and experts on crowds, to investigate the correct and fair information," a tired and sombre-looking Thaksin said in a televised address.
A total of 87 people died in the incident at Tak Bai in Narathiwat province on Monday. Six were shot dead at the chaotic demonstration and three others were found drowned in a river near the protest site, the foreign ministry said.
However, Thaksin did not say when the investigation will begin, or what time frame it has to complete its work.
"I also welcome any investigation attempt by other independent organisations. I will treat the case transparently, straightforwardly, and the public must learn the truth. Government must not conceal any fact, as the government has no hidden agenda," Thaksin said.
During his 23-minute address Thaksin expressed "regret" at the demonstrators' deaths. He said he is not prejudiced against Muslims and would compensate the victims.
But he stuck to his earlier explanations that there was a shortage of trucks because of a holiday, and that protesters were weak from heat and dehydration.
"I will try my best to restore stability in the south as soon as possible," Thaksin said, repeating a denial that he will resign as government leader in the Buddhist-majority kingdom.
"Please do not spread rumours about my resignation. It's only the Thai people who will decide my fate," said Thaksin, who faces a general election early next year.
Thailand's south is in the grip of a violent separatist insurgency that re-emerged early this year and has since left at least 418 people dead.
The latest bombings occurred in the southern town of Yala Friday morning. Eight people were wounded, including three police, when the first roadside bomb went off at morning rush hour.
Another more powerful device then exploded at the same location, wounding 12 police including forensics experts investigating the first bombing.
Two people had been killed and about 20 wounded when a bar in Sungai Kolok, Narathiwat province, was bombed late Thursday.
On Friday in the same province, Chalermchai Sonthichaikul, 25, of Bangkok, was gunned down outside his company's construction site, police said.
"It's part of the daily unrest," a police investigator told AFP.
Thailand's independent National Human Rights Commission on Friday visited Tak Bai, the scene of Monday's tragedy, to begin its own probe. Their mission lasts until Monday.
Commission chairman Saneh Chamarik told AFP "it is quite obvious" that violations of human rights occurred in the deaths of the protesters.
An outlawed separatist group, the Pattani United Liberation Organisation, issued on its website Friday a fresh warning of further attacks against the security forces. The group told tourists to "avoid police stations, music concerts, cafes, bars, nightclubs, railway stations and airports."
Thaksin's and his foreign minister had moved to assuage the rising criticism earlier Friday.
The prime minister met with Muslim leaders from the three southernmost provinces and expressed regret to families who had lost loved ones in the tragedy.
Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said he called his counterparts in Indonesia and other Muslim nations "and they understood and were satisfied" with his explanation of the incident.
But Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, urged Thailand to bring to justice officers responsible for the detainee deaths while thousands of Malaysians staged angry protests.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged Thailand "to conduct a swift and independent investigation" into each death.
10/29/2004 - 17:46 GMT - AFP