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At about 11:00 they arrived at the UniOcean factory and the owner told them that they did not need workers. They then proceeded to Ban Song Khwe about 1 hour walk on a jungle path from the UniOcean factory. At about 11:30, after few minutes walk on the footpath from the UniOcean factory, three middle-age Thai men, one holding a long-barreled gun and the other two slingshots, arrested all of them (none, of the Thai men was in uniform). At this point, the migrants were not handcuffed or hit, just taken to a nearby motorcycle taxi stand at the livestock market.

At the taxi stand, the three Thai men asked the 12 migrant workers (in Thai) what they were doing and where they were going. Aye Min, who could speak Thai, responded that they were looking for a job in the wool factory at Ban Song Khwe. The man who carried the gun asked to see their registration cards. Four of them had migrant worker registration cards: Latt Latt Moe, Mar Win, Ma Zer (1), Sandar Hlaing (all female).

The Thai men agreed to release only two females, Latt Latt Moe and Mar Win, and instructed them to find 300 Baht for each of the 10 detained workers. Latt Latt Moe and Mar Win left that area to find the money that the Thai men had asked them for.

As soon as Latt Latt Moe and Mar Win left, the three Thai men forced the remaining party to leave the motorcycle taxi stand on foot for the Ban Song Khwe village's headman's house. The village headman's house is across the street from the taxi stand. Village headman's name is Boss Lun San. The Thai men brought the ten Burmese victims into the house. One of the inhabitants of the headman's house was a Burmese woman, so Aye Min asked them why they had been detained by the Thai men and if they had in fact been arrested. At this point the Burmese migrants in the party were still unclear about what had happened to them and if the three Thai men were authorities or civilians. The Burmese woman living in the house explained to them that the three men were henchmen of the headman, Boss Lun San. She also said that they had beep arrested by the men under the authority of the headman Boss Lun San.She said that if the party wanted to get free, they would have to give money to the headman. The party chose Aye Min to find necessary money. The money needed was now 2,500 baht, effectively bargained down from the original bribe of 3,000 baht. Soe Soe and Ma Zer (1) gave their earrings to Aye Min to sell. One of the village headman's henchmen took Aye Min by motorcycle to Aye Min's room in the workers' barracks behind Mae Sot Ceramic Limited Partnership in Tambon Mae Pa so that Aye Min could find money.

Once at the barracks, Aye Min tried to collect money from other Burmese workers living with her. As the Thai man, accompanied by Aye Min, was not in uniform, his Burmese migrant friends surmised that the Thai man was a drug abuser, not an official. As a result, about 20 Burmese migrant workers attempted to catch the Thai man, holding bamboo sticks and other tools used for construction work. Unable to get on the motorcycle, Thai man started to run away, with the Burmese men and Aye Min chasing behind him. This was at around 2:30 p.m. As the Thai man neared the headman's house with the pursuers chasing, some of the headman's cronies fired 1 or 2 warning shots with a rifle, dispersing the pursuers and sending them back to the factory.

Now with reinforcements, the headman's cronies turned to chase the Burmese migrants. They caught six of the migrants almost immediately, one of whom was Aye Min. The cronies tied the 6 migrant workers hands with rope and took them to the area next to the taxi stand, across the road from and in, plain view of the village headman's house., The other nine kidnapped Burmese and the village head­man were inside the house.

Then, according to each of the 9 kidnapped Burmese (from inside the headman's house), for approximately two hours the village headman's men and taxi drivers proceeded to intermittently beat the six Burmese men. The kidnapped saw the men bloodied and on the ground but still alive.

Both the kidnapped and a female eyewitness, who were standing at a shop next to the taxi stand, saw green pick-up truck take the kidnapped away. A few minutes later, the eyewitness at the shop also saw a cream-colored pick-up truck arrive to pick up the other six beaten men from the headman's house to an unknown location.

Another eyewitness at the Ceramics factory stated that at about 6:00 p.m, five Thai policemen wearing brown uniforms, four other officials wearing tan uniforms (the eyewitness was unsure whether these officers were from Thai Immigration or were militiamen), and two Thai soldiers wearing camouflage, arrived to the work­ers barracks at the Ceramic factory, where the 20 Burmese workers had previ­ously attempted to catch the Thai kidnapper. The officials arrived in three pick­up trucks, one of which was an official police pick-up with maroon and white paint.



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