BANGKOK, THAILAND: After being in a state of denial for weeks, Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has finally admitted to international media that Thai authorities pushed Rohingya boat people back out to sea and abandoned them.

In an exclusive interview with CNN on Thursday (12 Feb), Abhisit said there was reason to believe some incidents had occurred.

"It's not exactly clear whose handiwork it is," he said. "All the authorities say it's not their policy, though I have reason to believe some instances did happen, but if I can find evidence as to who exactly did this, I will certainly bring them to account."

Panitan Wattanayagorn, deputy secretary to the prime minister, earlier said the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) had been assigned to integrate all security regarding migrants along the West Coast.

Colonel Manat Kongpan, commander of Isoc's Fourth Region, Friday (13 Feb) told reporters the military had not committed any such inhumane acts towards the boat people.

"Thais should not pay attention to such crazy news reports. If anyone had died, there'd be bodies," he said. "The media are simply quoting those wanting to attack Thailand."

The Navy arrested nearly 1,000 Rohingya boat people in Dec and Jan. They were shifted to the strategic military island of Koh Sai Daeng before being towed back out to sea and abandoned.

Abhisit said that "at times" there had been "a lot of pressure in terms of the numbers of these people coming in".

The government believes the boat people to be normal economic migrants and is trying to persuade other countries to help tackle the problem.

Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh and Burma have all been invited to discuss the matter. Thai foreign minister Kasit Piromya said Indonesia, which recently rescued some of the boat people, would lend a hand.

However, Burma maintains the stateless Rohingyas are not its citizens. The Burmese consul-general to Hong Kong this week defended the junta's policy by telling the South China Morning Post the Rohingyas were "ugly as ogres" and that their "dark-brown" skin was in contrast with the "fair and soft" ethnic Burmese majority. (The Nation/ ANN)