Thai security forces who killed the God's Army rebels at a hospital in the town of Ratchaburi allegedly executed some of the insurgents from Myanmar at point-blank range, according to eyewitnesses who spoke to Thai media.
"Shot one by one," reported the Bangkok Post in a front-page headline yesterday.
The Post cited hostages who said some of their captors were shot in cold blood. One hostage, identified as a senior hospital official, said she saw police hold the rebels at gunpoint.
``They were shot in the head after they had been told to undress and kneel down,'' the official was quoted as saying.
Authorities displayed the bodies of the captors, wrapped in white sheets, to the press on Tuesday before burying them without ceremony. Top police officials said they had all died fighting.
The Khao Sod newspaper published photos of the bodies of five of the rebels, taken before they were shrouded. The bloody corpses were stripped to their underwear. Government spokesman Akapol Sorasuchart said an investigation would be launched to find out how the photos were obtained.
The Post said some members of the Thai commando unit had received training from US Marines in "anti-terrorist tactics."
One member of the team assembled to free the hostages included a senior police officer who "has a reputation for extra-judicial killings," The Nation newspaper reported.
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai yesterday sidestepped reports that the commandos killed the insurgents after they had surrendered, saying the reason they were dead was that the Thais shot faster.
Basking in overwhelming public support for Tuesday's operation, Chuan said that a controversy over summary executions was a sign of success.
"If some Thai officials had died in this operation, the questions would change to, `Why did we send our officials to die?'" Chuan told a news conference after a security meeting to review the crisis.
"The reason is easy [why no hostage-taker survived]," Chuan said. "We shot faster than they did."
At least eight Thai commandos were hospitalized with injuries after the assault.
Outrage in Thailand over the allegations of summary executions seemed unlikely amid reports which have played up the deaths of several patients during the siege.
The same reports, however, said it was unclear whether the crisis contributed to the patients' deaths.
Part of the problem faced by Thailand's military in dealing with the hostage standoff was that it began on the eve of Thai Army Day, and the military apparently did not want their celebrations marred by an embarrassing focus on guerrillas from Myanmar who were able to defy Thailand's military.
The annual holiday commemorates a historic battle in which Thai forces triumphed over invaders from Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.
The rebels who took over the hospital were demanding that the Thai army stop bombing Myanmar's ethnic minority Karen refugees and others along the Thai border with Myanmar.
Thai officials have strenuously denied purposely bombarding innocent civilians, and said they had shelled the border zone as a "warning" to the Karen guerrillas not to stray into Thai territory.
The rebels asked the Thai government for two helicopters and 10 doctors, apparently hoping to fly out with the doctors to their rebel zone in Myanmar, where some of their comrades were suffering injuries either from the Thai bombardment or from an ongoing Myanmar government offensive against their base.
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