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Published on January 20, 2008

The refugees said 20 armed men in uniform raided their shelter late on Friday and took off with more than 350 birds. They said the military claimed that the fowl were suspected of carrying the H5N1 bird-flu virus.

"The chickens belonged to us. We had raised them for food. How can the soldiers just come and steal them?" a refugee said.

A military officer from the Khao Kho special unit overseeing the refugee shelter, who did not disclose his name, admitted that their soldiers had taken the poultry and already culled them to prevent the spread of the deadly disease.

He said the military was just following the instructions of the Public Health Ministry and Livestock Development Department in controlling the virus. He said a Hmong boy was recently reported as coming down with bird flu-like symptoms and the livestock office had asked the military to get rid off all the chickens in the area.

However, Prasit Rantachawanont, provincial livestock chief, denied that his office had asked for the slaughter of the chickens, as no mysterious deaths of birds in the area had been reported.

Dr Don Saendee from Doctors Without Borders, who is stationed at the shelter, said a lab test from Khao Kho Hospital confirmed that the Hmong boy was suffering from human flu, not avian flu.

The Hmong refugees said they suspected the military might have had an ulterior motive in taking and disposing of their flock.

"If the Thai government was afraid of the bird-flu virus, why was the task of seizing the chickens assigned to the military, and not to public health officials?" a Hmong refugee posed.

The Nation