TOURISTS watched in horror as dozens of Rohingya refugees were tied up and beaten by Thai Navy officers on a tourist island in the Andaman Sea, according to a report by Phuket journalist, Alan Morison.

One tourist who witnessed the incident on the Similan Island of Koh Baed on
December 23, said guards armed with M-16 rifles forced the refugees to lie face down in the sand for at least two hours, then whipped them with straps if they tried to sit up or move.

The refugees were naked to the waist their wrists were bound, and there forced to lie face down on the sand.

When the tourists tried to photograph the incident their cameras were taken from them and any pictures of the refugees were deleted.

‘’Some of the refugees tried to sit up, but they were hit across the back and heads with whips made from jungle vines’’ said the 23-year-old Australian student tourist.

Thai officials confirmed that the Thai Navy apprehended a group of 93 Rohingya boatpeople on December 23, and took them to the island of Koh Baed for processing.

A Royal Thai Navy spokesman refused to comment any further on the incident.

Earlier reports on Mr Morison’s phuketwan.com website said the army had been secretly holding refugees on a secluded Andaman island, then towing them into international waters where they were set free with only paddles for power.

The Rohingya are a Muslim ethnic group who come from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Refugee International, a Washington-based advocacy group, has criticised the treatment of Rohingya refugees, and said that sending them back to sea with only paddles to power their boats was a contravention of international law.