6. The search for the missing persons.
When Anand took up office, the missing were no closer to being found, and rumours continued as to military involvement in a cover-up. By 18 June, 46 deaths were confirmed, with 742 people still unaccounted for, according to the House of Representatives sub-committee in charge of the official search. It was claimed that there were mass burial sites at various army installations. The army immediately denied the allegations and indicated that it was ready for any inspections considered necessary. On 25 June, a large pit was dug at one military centre in Bangkok, but no corpses were unearthed. This was followed up by claims by Chalerm that bodies of the slain had been dumped from an aircraft into a forest along the Thai Burma border in Kanchanaburi Province. By 20 June, the number of missing, as reported by the Bangkok Past, had dropped to 699. Yet this number was in dispute, with private hotline centres claiming that nearly 1,000 people were still unaccounted for Dissatisfied with the slow pragress being made by the official body in finding the missing, the pro-democracy movement set up its own "May ‘92 Heroes' Relatives Committee”, whose aim was to" press for a speed up to the search for missing people ". In response, Anand pledged to step up the search, instructing officials to cooperate more closely with the private organisations who listed many more than the official police reports of 280 still unaccounted for