Victims' relatives dismiss airdrop of cranes

Children collect them to exchange for food

WASSANA NANUAM

Relatives of those killed in the Tak Bai tragedy have belittled the release of millions of paper cranes, saying it won't make their loved ones come back to life or end unrest in the deep South.

Arsor Abdul Sorni, 70, mother of Ma-useng Sorni, who was shot dead in the Oct 25 Tak Bai protest, and Maronee Sorni, 34, the victim's elder brother, sat silently in their house in Tak Bai district when over 100 million paper cranes were air-dropped over the deep South.

``We feel nothing,'' Mr Maronee said. ``Paper cranes are meaningless to us. Can the cranes restore peace? More importantly, can these paper birds bring back my beloved brother? My brother was innocent, but killed in the protest as he went there to see it.''

In Salamai village where he lives, five men died in the Tak Bai incident, four of suffocation while being taken to Ingkayutthaboriharn camp in Pattani. No paper cranes fell in the village. ``There is not a single crane in my village. If some cranes were dropped here, I might keep them or throw them away. They mean nothing to my family,'' said Mr Maronee.

Mrs Arsor said the loss of her son made her sad and she missed him. His body, with a gunshot wound in his back and many bruises, was still vivid in her mind.

She received 100,000 baht in financial assistance from Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and another 6,000 baht from Narathiwat provincial authorities.

The money will never make her forget how her son was killed, she said. She still felt pain.

About 1km from Salamai village, paper cranes were dropped at Khlongtan and Paiwan villages. Hundreds of cranes were found dropped in Tak Bai river and no villagers, except children, showed interest in collecting them.

Air force C-130 aircraft yesterday dropped tens of thousands of cranes over Tak Bai's municipal areas and along the Thai-Malaysian border at Ban Taba village.

``Under our crane-dropping plan, we will focus on districts plagued with violence such as Tak Bai, Sungai Padi, Sukhirin and Waeng district in Narathiwat. Due to strong winds, we could not fly below 3,000 feet.

``As a result, many cranes did not fall on targeted areas,'' said air combat commander ACM Chalit Pukpasuk, who supervised 54 crane-dropping aircraft over 38 districts in the three southern provinces.

The aircraft made 300 trips to drop paper birds.

Meanwhile, children armed with baskets and plastic bags and sacks went to crane-dropping venues to collect paper birds in exchange for eggs, sugar and rice from local authorities.

Sakeeya Yusor, 10, said she wanted to collect as many cranes as she could to exchange them for eggs and rice.

``We don't know the meaning of paper birds and why they're being dropped from the sky, but we're collecting them because it's fun,'' she said.

Her friend, Areeya Jaeni, 10, also did not know the meaning of the paper birds, but said she was asked by adults to collect them to exchange for goods.

Narathiwat Governor Pracha Terat had urged locals to collect cranes and exchange them for food.

Twenty cranes can be exchanged for one egg, 50 cranes for 1kg of sugar or rice. All cranes collected would be given to authorities who will boil them and mix with lime to build a monument to peace.

Pattani Governor Cherdphan na Songkhla has offered to trade a box of UHT milk for 20 cranes. All cranes handed back to authorities will be hung on trees in front of the provincial hall as a symbol of peace, he said.

The governor urged locals not to destroy the cranes as they were folded by Thais as a gesture of goodwill and peace