One of the most well-known incidents of a separatist uprising was the slaughter.
Hours before the statute of limitations on the incident, which has resulted in no state official being found guilty, Thailand’s prime minister expressed regret for the deaths of scores of Muslim demonstrators who were crammed into army vehicles twenty years ago.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Thursday, “I am deeply saddened for what happened and apologise on behalf of the government,” promising to make sure that such incidents don’t happen again.
One of the most well-known incidents of the separatist insurgency that re-emerged that year and has since claimed the lives of over 7,600 people was the security crackdown in the southern town of Tak Bai in 2004, which claimed 85 lives.
78 people were suffocated or crushed to death while chained and stacked on top of one another in army trucks in Thailand, a country with a large Buddhist population. The tragedy garnered international notice and considerable outrage. Seven more people were killed by gunfire.
Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin Shinawatra, a major contributor to the ruling Pheu Thai Party, oversaw the crackdown, which became well-known as the Tak Bai massacre.
No fairness
There have been two unsuccessful attempts in the last two months to charge security officers.
The families of the victims filed a criminal case against seven high-ranking officials in August, including a politician from the ruling party and a retired general, but none of them appeared at the hearing. The attorney general filed a second case against eight other individuals last month, but it hasn’t moved forward.
Paetongtarn stated that the incident should not be politicized and that it would be against the constitution to prolong the statute of limitations.
According to Thai police, they had sent Interpol red warnings and were aggressively pursuing all 14 suspects.
“While the case is coming to an end, history and memories endure,” stated Ratsada Manooratsada, a lawyer representing the relatives of the victims.
“(The families) will never forget because the perpetrators were not brought to justice.”
