Thai colonel denies abandoning migrants at sea

By Chalathip Thirasoonthrakul

BANGKOK, Jan 21 (Reuters) - The Thai colonel at the heart of allegations the army towed hundreds of Rohingya migrants out to sea and left them to die denied any abuse on Tuesday, saying he gave them food and water and helped them on their way.

At a hearing of parliament's Foreign Affairs committee, Colonel Manat Kongpan said the migrants were stripped to the waist when they were first detained on Thai soil, but were not beaten or whipped, as some media reports have alleged.

"It's true that they were asked to take off their shirts," said Manat, who is head of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), a Cold War-era anti-communist arm of the military, in the southwest coastal province of Ranong.

"We gave them food and asked them where they wanted to go. They told us to Malaysia and Indonesia," he told the committee. Reporters were allowed to observe the hearing for the first 30 minutes.

"The villagers in Ranong then helped them repair their boat and towed it out to sea. The villagers also prepared food to last them for 10 days. It's not the villagers' fault the refugees got lost," he added.

It is not clear why ISOC, a shadowy army structure revived after a 2006 military coup, has become involved with the Rohingyas, rather than the immigration or border police who normally process illegal aliens.

"LEFT TO DIE"

Manat's account is at odds with that provided by the Arakan Project, a small non-governmental organisation dedicated to the plight of the Rohingya, a Muslim minority from Arakan state in northwest Myanmar, abutting Bangladesh.