RIYADH: Thailand’s prime minister apologized on Thursday for the massacre of 85 Muslim protesters 20 years ago for which no one has ever been held responsible.
“I am deeply saddened for what happened and apologize on behalf of the government,” Paetongtarn Shinawatra said. The massacre took place under the administration of her father, Thaksin Shinawatra, a key figure in the ruling Pheu Thai Party.
The security crackdown in the southern town of Tak Bai in 2004 was one of the most high-profile events of a separatist insurgency that re-ignited that same year and has since killed more than 7,600 people.
The "Tak Bai massacre" in predominantly Buddhist Thailand captured international attention and drew widespread condemnation.
It started when security forces opened fire on a crowd protesting outside a police station in Narathiwat, one of the Muslim-majority southern provinces Thailand colonized more than a century ago.
Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. (REUTERS/File Photo)
Seven people were killed by gunfire. Subsequently 78 people suffocated after they were arrested and stacked on top of each other in the back of Thai military trucks, face down and with their hands tied behind their backs.
It remains one of the deadliest days in the decades-long rebellion by Malay Muslims against rule by the Thai state, which rumbles on to this day.
Attempts to prosecute security personnel have failed, including two in the past two months.
In August, a court accepted a criminal lawsuit by victims’ families against seven senior officials, among them a retired general and ruling party lawmaker, but all of those failed to show up at a hearing. A separate case against eight other personnel filed by the attorney-general last month has made no progress.
The defendants last week missed their final scheduled court date before the deadline to try them, heightening the chance they will never face justice.
In their absence the court said that it was scheduling the next hearing for October 28, at which point the proceedings are expected to be dismissed.
Paetongtarn said the incident should not be politicized, adding the statue of limitations could not be extended because it would be a breach of the constitution.
Thai police have said they were actively tracking all 14 suspects and had issued Interpol red notices.
“Although the case is expiring, history and memories do not,” Ratsada Manooratsada a lawyer for the victims’ families told Reuters.
“(The families) will never forget because the perpetrators were not brought to justice.”
UN experts weigh in
In Geneva, UN rights experts said they were extremely concerned that no one would be held accountable over the massacre.
In a joint statement, the UN experts said they were “extremely alarmed that without further action,” the cases “will end prematurely when a statute of limitations expires.”
“Failure to investigate and bring perpetrators to justice is itself a violation of Thailand’s human rights obligations,” the UN experts said.
“International law also prohibits statutes of limitations for torture and other forms of ill-treatment.”
The statement was issued by the UN special rapporteurs on extrajudicial executions, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, protecting freedoms while countering terrorism and freedom of opinion, as well as the working group on enforced disappearances.
UN experts are independent figures mandated by the Human Rights Council who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.
“Families have waited for nearly two decades for justice,” the experts said, urging the Thai government “to prevent further delays in accountability and ensure their rights to truth, justice and reparations are upheld.”
They also called for further investigations into the fate of seven people who disappeared in the incident.
(With Agencies)
