The popularity of the government and Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra would be eroded if all those accused in the Tak Bai massacre case were allowed to walk free, a prominent law lecturer has warned.
Prinya Thaewanarumitkul, director of the Law Centre at Thammasat University, said on Monday the government's failure to bring to justice people accused of responsibility for the 85 deaths during the dispersal of the Tak Bai protest rally 20 years ago could deal a major blow to the prime minister, her administration and the Pheu Thai Party.
"Pheu Thai is promoting its work. The popularity of Ms Paetongtarn is improving," he said at a Tak Bai remembrance ceremony held at the Oct 14, 1973 Memorial.
"If the case is not handled in a straightforward manner, it will affect [the prime minister]," said Mr Prinya, who was a protest leader at the Black May rally in 1992.
"What the public is watching is the stance of the government and Pheu Thai on this matter," he said.
The former student leader said Ms Paetongtarn had full authority to direct police to arrest those accused under arrest warrants. Under the law, the prime minister directly supervised the police force.
The popularity of Ms Paetongtarn had risen due to Pheu Thai's cash handout and the party was second in popularity only to the People's Party in a poll conducted by the National Institute of Development Administration last month.
The 20-year statute of limitations in the Tak Bai case expires on Oct 25 this year. A total of seven people have been named and accused of responsibility for the massacre.
Eighty-five demonstrators were killed, either at the rally scene outside Tak Bai police station in Narathiwat on Oct 25, 2004, or while being taken to the army's Ingkhayutthaboriharn fortress in Nong Chik district of Pattani. Seventy-eight people suffocated during the journey after being stacked like logs on the back of army trucks.
Families of the victims and of the many people who were injured sued the authorities responsible. In August this year, the Narathiwat Provincial Court finally accepted the case for trial.
The Tak Bai case is divided into two groups. The first involves seven authorities involved in issuing and executing the order leading to the deaths of the protesters. They were sued by the families of those who were killed or injured.
The accused in the first group are:
- Gen Pisal Wattanawongkiri, then Army Region 4 commander
- Maj Gen Chaloemchai Wirunpetch, then 5th Infantry Division commander
- Pol Gen Wongkot Maneejan, then director of the operations centre, Royal Thai Police front office
- Pol Lt Gen Manoj Kraiwong, then chief of Provincial Police Region 9.
- Pol Maj Gen Saksommai Phutthakul, then superintendent of Tak Bai police station
- Siwa Saengmanee, then deputy director of the Southern Border Provinces Peace Centre
- Wichom Thongsong, then Narathiwat governor
The second is people involved in the deaths during transport to the army camp for interrogation. They have not been sued. State prosecutors said on Sept 18 they would sue them at the Pattani Provincial Court, the province where the army camp is located. But the locations of the eight suspects are unknown.
The second group comprises:
- Maj Gen Chaloemchai Wirunpetch, then 5th Infantry Division commander
- Lt Col Prasert Mattamin
- Sub Lt Nutthawut Luamsai
- Wissanu Loetsongkram
- Lt JG Wissanukorn Chaisarn
- Piti Yarnkaew
- CPO3 Ratchadet Sisuwan
- Lt Ritthirong Promrit
Maj Gen Chaloemchai Wirunpetch, then commander of the 5th Infantry Division, is in both groups.
The focus is on Gen Pisal, who is currently a Pheu Thai list MP and as such has immunity from prosecution while the parliament is in session. He reportedly went overseas for medical treatment. (continues below)
A police officer makes a phone call during a search for former Narathiwat governor Wichom Thongsong at his house in Muang district in Nakhon Si Thammarat on Oct 5, 2024. (Photo: Nujjaree Raekrun)
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and other Pheu Thai key members have said they do not know where Gen Pisal is.
Gen Pisal and the others are named in court arrest warrants. Gen Pisal is believed to have gone initially to the United Kingdom, and Mr Siwa to Japan.
On Oct 5, police searched the houses of Pol Lt Gen Manoj in Muang district in Surat Thani and Mr Wichom in Muang district in Nakhon Si Thammarat, more than a month after the arrest warrnts were issued. They came up empty-handed. Unsurprisingly, neither was at home.
The Tak Bai massacre occurred when Thaksin Shinawatra, Ms Paetongarn's father, was the prime minister.