Soldiers, police and defence volunteers were on high alert on Saturday as residents of the southern border provinces marked the 10th anniversary of the Tak Bai tragedy.
A student holds a protest placard as she marks the Tak Bai 10th anniversary at the central mosque in Muang district of Pattani province on Saturday. (AFP photo)
The Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) directed all security units to be alert for suspicious vehicles and people in Pattani, Narathiwat, Yala and part of Songkhla.
The concerns were underlined by reports that nine vehicles had been reported stolen and could be used by insurgents for car bombs during this period, the Public Relations Department quoted Col Pramote Prom-in, a spokesman for Isoc's southern forward command, as saying.
On Oct 25, 2004, 78 protesters crammed into army trucks were suffocated to death during a five-hour journey from Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province to an army barracks in Nong Chik district of Pattani, 200 kilometres away.
Another seven were killed in a clash between security forces and about 1,300 people who had gathered in front of the police station in Tak Bai to protest against the detention of six local defence volunteers.
In Narathiwat, the centre of the tragedy, Humvees were deployed on Saturday in all 13 districts including Tak Bai and authorities were looking for stolen pickup trucks and one care, police said.
Protesters clash with authorities during a rally in front of the police station in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province, on Oct 25, 2004. (Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd)
Pol Col Thanongsak Wangsupa, the acting Yala police chief, said Yala municipality could be one of the targets for militants seeking to make a "symbolic" statement against authorities on the Tak Bai anniversary.
Human Rights Watch urged the government to take action against those responsible for the massacre. It warned that failure to bring justice to the victims would hamper attempts to fight attacks and violence in the religiously sensitive region.
"What happened in Tak Bai 10 years ago must not be forgotten," Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, said in a statement released on Saturday.
"Delivering justice for the victims of this massacre is an important step to ending atrocities and respecting the rights of the southern Muslim community."
Then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2004 expressed regret for the deaths but said there had been no wrongdoing by military personnel. After the 2006 coup that ousted Thaksin, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont offered a formal apology for Thaksin's hard-line policies in the South, and charges against the surviving protesters were dropped.
An inquest in 2009 found that security officials had performed their duty without wrongdoing. Family members attempted to appeal the decision, but their appeal was denied in June 2012.
The families of the dead victims and those injured or maimed in the rally received financial compensation from the government of then-premier Yingluck Shinawatra in 2012.
In August last year, the Supreme Court ruled that security personnel were blameless because they had only been performing their duties.
According to statistics compiled by Deep South Watch for the period from January 2004 to August 2014, violence in Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala has been responsible for 6,207 deaths, about 90% of them civilians, and 11,248 injuries.
Deep South Watch also analysed the 6,097 deaths recorded up to April this year and said that 58.5% of the victims were Muslims and 38.7% were Buddhists. Of the 10,908 injured, 59.24% were Buddhists and 31.9% Muslims.