Pisan Wattanawongkiri: Ruling MP and fugitive in Tak Bai massacre case

File photo: Lt General Pisan Wattanawongkiri//The Active

Retired Lt General Pisan Wattanawongkiri, a former 4th Army Region commander and now list MP for the ruling Pheu Thai Party, looks poised to avoid legal action despite being the top suspect in the deadly 2004 Tak Bai crackdown.

Pisan is of seven defendants being sought by police as the case nears its 20-year statute of limitations, which is set to expire on October 25.

All seven former senior state officials called to account for the 78 men killed during the incident went missing on August 23, when the Narathiwat Provincial Court accepted a criminal lawsuit filed against them by 48 survivors and families of the deceased.

The plaintiffs took the case to court after a 19-year wait, during which police failed to press charges against any official for the Tak Bai massacre.

The Narathiwat court issued arrest warrants after the defendants failed to respond to summonses. Pisan, the first defendant named in the lawsuit, is among at least two of the suspects who have left the country, according to police.

Seeking medical treatment overseas

Pisan, 74, recently submitted a request for leave of absence from Parliament until October 30, claiming he requires medical treatment overseas.

National police chief Pol General Kitrat Phanphet said last week that Thai law enforcers are working with Interpol to locate those suspects believed to be hiding overseas. Police are also hunting for the defendants believed to be on the run in Thailand, he added.

On October 25, 2004, soldiers and police were deployed to disperse a large protest outside Tak Bai police station in the southernmost Malay-Muslim majority province of Narathiwat.

Some 1,500 mostly Muslim protesters had gathered to demand the release of six village defence volunteers, detained for allegedly lying that their state-issued guns had been stolen. The authorities suspected that they had handed their weapons over to separatist insurgents.

The security forces opened fire on the crowd, fatally shooting seven protesters. Another 1,370 were arrested and crammed into six military trucks to be transported to an Army camp in Pattani, some 150 kilometres away. Seventy-eight of the detainees suffocated or were crushed to death during the five-hour drive.

‘How could I order their killing?’

In February 2012, eight years after the incident, Pisan issued an apology but again denied ordering the killing of protesters at Tak Bai.

“How could I have ordered their killing, when many of them were like family to me?” Pisan had told reporters, claiming he had personal ties with many of the victims.

The retired general also complained of being left to fend for himself with no state assistance in the ensuing court battle. He claimed local residents, including religious leaders and parents of the victims, were the only ones aiding him by providing evidence and witness testimony.

“Everyone helped me, otherwise I would have been sent to jail,” he said.

Over 15 years in the South

Pisan was born on November 5, 1949, in the northern capital of Chiang Mai. He graduated from the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School before earning a bachelor’s degree at Chulachomklao Royal Military Academy.

He went on to complete special military courses at the Army’s Command and General Staff College.

During a decades-long military career, which was cut short by the Tak Bai incident, Pisan worked for over 15 years in the southern provinces covered by the 4th Army Region.

He served as commander of the 4th Infantry Battalion, deputy chief-of-staff of the 5th Infantry Division, and deputy commander of the Surat Thani military district.

In 1995, he was promoted to chief-of-staff for the Defence Ministry’s permanent secretary. Later, he worked under then-chief of the Army, General Chaiyasit Shinawatra, a cousin of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was prime minister at the time.

Pisan became commander of the 4th Army Region in April 2004, during a resurgence in insurgency-related violence in the deep South under Thaksin’s premiership.

The violence began on January 4, when around 150 insurgents raided an Army ammunition depot in Narathiwat, killed four guards and making off with 413 assault rifles and ammunition.

On April 28, Thai security forces killed 32 militants during a standoff at Pattani’s historic Krue Se Mosque. Then came the Tak Bai massacre on October 25.

After retiring at age 60, Pisan entered politics, serving as adviser to several Cabinet members including ministers for agriculture and cooperatives, the interior, and social development and human security. He became a full-fledged lawmaker last year, elected as a list MP for the Pheu Thai Party.