Police suspect they have found bodies of missing reds

Police will examine the 169 bodies found buried at two temples in Rayong province to determine if they could be the red-shirt protesters said to have gone missing during last year's riots.

Pol Lt-General Santhan Chayanont, commander of the police bureau's Law and Case Office, led a team yesterday to inspect Wat Klong Takwa and Wat Huai Yang of the eastern seaboard's Klaeng district. The police discovered 72 bodies at the first temple and another 97 at the second.

Santhan said he was acting on an order from deputy national police chief General Priewpan Damapong, who is close to the new government.

According to the temples' abbots, the bodies had been brought in by two men from a local charity organisation who told them that the corpses had not been claimed and there were no legal cases related to their deaths. Santhan said the bodies would be exhumed for DNA tests to determine the identities, adding that those involved with their burial would also be questioned.