Police have cited force majeure as the reason they did not pursue legal action against an army officer and seven others involved in a crackdown on protesters that led to dozens of deaths in Tak Bai 20 years ago.
Police “had no intention or had not foreseen the deaths of the protesters during the transport process” after the army moved in to break up the protest in the southern province of Narathiwat, said the letter dated April 25, 2024.
Romadon Panjor, a Move Forward Party MP, posted a copy of the letter sent by the Royal Thai Police to the attorney general on his Facebook account on Friday.
The letter said the Region 9 Provincial Police commander decided not to indict Gen Chalermchai Wirunpeth and seven other people for the deaths of the Tak Bai demonstrators because the incident was “force majeure”, a legal term for an unforeseeable event.
The letter was signed by Pol Lt Gen Ittipol Atchariyapradit, an assistant to the national police chief, and bore a stamp reading “very urgent”.
The police decision was based on an investigation report and autopsy by the Nong Chik police station in Nong Chik district of Pattani province, and an investigation report by the Songkhla Provincial Court.
The investigation by Nong Chik police covered the deaths of 78 demonstrators who perished during transport in an army convoy from the rally site in Tak Bai to the Ingkhayutthaborihan Military Camp in Nong Chik on Oct 25, 2004. Seven others died at the site in Tak Bai, which was beyond the jurisdiction of Nong Chik police.
Gen Chalermchai, whose name appears in the letter, was the Fifth Infantry Division commander at the time. The unit was directly responsible for the dispersal of a demonstration calling for the release of six detained defence volunteers at the Tak Bai police station. The names of the seven others were not disclosed.
The letter was sent on the same day that injured protesters and family members of the dead victims filed a lawsuit against nine top security authorities at the Provincial Court in Narathiwat asking the court to take criminal action against them.
It is not known whether Gen Chalermchai is among the top officers named in the complaint, which comes just a few months before the expiry of the 20-year statute of limitations in the case.
Mr Romadon said in the social media post that some family members of the victims had filed a complaint to the House Committee on Legal Affairs, Justice and Human Rights after authorities convinced them to drop an attempt to take the case to court.
His statement was in line with that of the Cross Cultural Foundation, which said on Thursday that families were intimidated by a group of people on March 7 claiming to be police lobbying them not to file the suit.
The Tak Bai tragedy occurred when Thaksin Shinawatra was prime minister. It has been seen as a major contributor to an upsurge in violence in the three Muslim-majority southern border provinces.