Thai protesters died in custody (78 suffocated)

[Pert_UK]

"At least 78 people died in southern Thailand after being arrested and loaded into army trucks following Monday's clashes with security forces. Officials said almost all the dead suffocated as they were taken to an army barracks several hours away.

The new death toll is in addition to six people who died during the clashes themselves, which erupted on Monday following the arrest of six Muslim men...

The violence began on Monday after a crowd gathered at the district police station in Takbai, Narathiwat, to protest against the detention of six men accused of providing weapons to Islamic militants...

Southern police chief Manote Graiwong...said that many of the demonstrators were armed and appeared to have taken drugs...

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra...has praised the security force's response...

Muslims in the south have long complained of discrimination, and civil servants and security officers have been targeted in a wave of violence which began in January this year. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/3954587.stm

[Southpaw Bookworm]

1. Taking lessons from the U.S.

Wasn't it in Iraq that a large group of "detainees" died in a similar manner?