Thai authorities will prosecute eight more former security personnel over their roles in the Tak Bai crackdown two decades ago, when 78 protesters suffocated or were crushed to death when crammed into army trucks, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) said on Wednesday.
All eight — six soldiers and two civilians — are charged with premeditated murder with foreseeable consequences.
The use of overcrowded trucks to detain protesters was inappropriate, though there was no intent to cause death, OAG spokesperson Prayut Phetcharakhun told a press conference.
“The suspects could have foreseen that their actions would have led to the suffocation and deaths of the 78 people under their responsibility,” he said.
Mr Prayut said that Attorney-General Amnat Jedcharoenruk had decided to ask the police to bring the eight suspects to court for arraignment. If police are unable to do so by Oct 25, the statute of limitations will expire, he added.
The Criminal Court in the southern province of Narathiwat last month accepted a related complaint filed by the victims’ families against security personnel after a years-long legal struggle.
The seven defendants in the latter case were due to appear in court for witness questioning and evidence examination on Sept 12 but none showed up. Arrest warrants were issued for six of them.
A summons was issued for the seventh defendant, former Army Region 4 commander Gen Pisal Wattanawongkiri. He is currently protected under parliamentary immunity as a list-MP of the governing Pheu Thai Party.
The seven defendants implicated in the first case are accused of murder and unlawful detention for mishandling the demonstration and its aftermath.
The eight suspects in the second case are: Gen Chaloemchai Wirulpetch, Sub Lt Nathawut Lueamsai, Wisanu Lertsongkhram, Lt JG Wisanukorn Chaisarn, Piti Yankaeo, CPO3 Pitak Srisuwan, Lt Col Prasert Matmil and Lt Rithirong Promrit.
Tak Bai timeline
The Tak Bai incident arose from the arrest of six village defence volunteers in the community in Narathiwat on Oct 19, 2004. Local police had accused them of handing their government-issued guns to insurgents and claiming that they had been robbed of the firearms.
At 10am on Oct 25, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in front of the Tak Bai police station to call for the release of the six detainees. At 1pm on the same day, Lt Gen Pisal, then the commander of the 4th Army responsible for the South, ordered officials to begin dispersing the protest.
A melee ensued and seven protesters died from gunfire. Security personnel then moved in to subdue the remaining demonstrators and prepare them for transport to an army camp.
Gen Chaloemchai, then commander of the 5th Infantry Division, was in charge of mobilising 25 military trucks for prisoner transport and Lt Col Prasert supervised the convoy. The other six suspects drove the trucks.
Mr Prayut said that with only 25 trucks available to transport as many as 1,000 arrested demonstrators, the suspects should have been aware that congestion on the trucks could lead to death.
The trucks set out for the Ingkhayutthaborihan military camp in Nong Chik district of Pattani. Seventy-eight of the detainees perished during the two-hour trip.
Then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra apologised for the Tak Bai incident but stopped short of accepting responsibility. Police had said initially that some protesters were armed. No one has ever been prosecuted over the deaths.
The crackdown, which drew international condemnation, occurred while the area was under martial law. It was one of the deadliest incidents during a separatist insurgency that reemerged that same year and has since killed more than 7,600 people in the three predominantly Muslim provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala.