Tak Bai: Justice looms 20 years after deadly crackdown in deep South

File photo: Relatives of the victims of the Tak Bai massacre gather recently, demanding justice for the case that happened in Narathiwat province 20 years ago.

Two decades after the deadly Tak Bai incident, 48 survivors and families of the deceased have finally secured a court decision to bring senior state officials to trial over the deaths and injuries.

In late October 2004, a large crowd of men gathered outside Tak Bai police station in the southernmost Malay Muslim-majority province of Narathiwat, demanding the release of six detainees.

Seven protesters were shot dead on the spot and 78 others were suffocated or crushed to death after being bound and stacked in military trucks and transported to an army detention facility in neighbouring Pattani province.

Just two months before the statute of limitations’ expiry on October 25, the Narathiwat Provincial Court on August 23 accepted a criminal lawsuit against seven senior state officials involved in security forces’ response to the protest.

The court will begin examining witnesses on September 12.

The lawsuit, filed on April 25, accused nine senior officials of colluding in murders and unlawful detention. However, judges ruled that only seven have a case to answer.

The plaintiffs brought the case to court after more than 19 years in which police had failed to press charges against any official linked with what is now known as the Tak Bai massacre.

Seven defendants

The first defendant named is retired Lt-General Pisan Wattanawongkiri, who was Fourth Army Region commander at the time of the protest and is now a list MP for the ruling Pheu Thai Party.

The others are former Fifth Infantry Division commander Maj-General Chalermchai Wirunpeth; Pol Lt-General Wongkot Maneerin, former director of the Royal Thai Police’s Forward Command Centre; Pol Lt-General Manot Kraiwong, former chief of the Provincial Police Region 9; Pol Colonel Saksomchai Phutthakul, former superintendent of Tak Bai police station; Siwa Saengmanee, former deputy director of the Southern Border Provinces Peacebuilding Centre who went on to become Interior Ministry deputy permanent secretary; and former Narathiwat governor Wichom Thongsong.

The two other officials named in the original lawsuit are former deputy Fourth Army Region commander Lt-General Sinchai Nutsathit and former deputy superintendent of Tak Bai police station, Pol Colonel Pakdee Preechachon.

What happened that day

On October 25, 2004, around 1,300 protesters descended on Tak Bai police station to demand the release of six village defence volunteers being detained there on suspicion of filing a false report about the robbery of their state-issued guns.

The number of protesters swelled to an estimated 1,500, prompting the deployment of security personnel from various army and police units.

Lt-General Pisan, who was responsible for discharging martial law in Narathiwat and other insurgency-hit southern border provinces, ordered an operation to disperse the protest. Seven protesters were shot dead during the crackdown and 1,370 were arrested.

Those arrested had their arms tied behind their backs before being stacked face down on top of one other in 25 army trucks.

They were transported to the Ingkhayutthaborihan army camp in Pattani’s Nong Chik district about 150 kilometres away. Seventy-eight were found dead on arrival after the five-hour drive. Many survivors suffered severe injuries or permanent disabilities.

Some officials attempted to shift the blame, claiming the victims died due to extreme fatigue caused by morning-to-sunset fasting during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The aftermath

In December 2004, a fact-finding committee appointed by Thaksin Shinawatra’s government concluded that the methods used to disperse the protesters – including firing live ammunition and deploying army conscripts and rangers with little or no crowd-control experience – were inappropriate and did not conform to international guidelines and practices.

The panel also found that commanding officers failed to supervise the transportation of protesters in custody, leaving the task to inexperienced, low-ranking personnel, according to Human Rights Watch.

Three army commanders – Pisan, Sinchai and Chalermchai – were blamed for failing to properly supervise the operation, leading to the major loss of life as well as injuries.

In late 2006, Narathiwat public prosecutors decided to drop their investigation into the fatal shooting of seven protesters after concluding that the perpetrators could not be identified.

In May 2009, the Songkhla Provincial Court held a post-mortem inquest and ruled that the 78 detainees died of suffocation while being held in custody by officials who were carrying out their duties.

However, police declined to charge the officials after claiming the incident was a “force majeure” – a legal term denoting an unforeseeable event beyond their control.

Prime Minister General Surayud Chulanont, who led the military regime after the September 2006 coup against Thaksin's government, issued a formal apology in November for his predecessor’s “flawed” policies in the deep South.

Two days later, criminal charges against the surviving protesters were dropped.

In 2012, the government of Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin’s sister, offered compensation payments of 500,000 to 7.5 million baht to those injured and the families of those killed in the Tak Bai incident.

Thaksin finally offered an apology in October 2022, 18 years after the incident, but stopped short of accepting responsibility.

The ex-PM maintained that he did not order the operation, pointing the finger at then-Army chief General Prawit Wongsuwan, who would later become a key player in Thai politics.

Watershed year

2004 was a watershed year for the separatist insurgency and violence in the restive southern border region.

In the early hours of January 4, around 150 insurgents raided an army ammunition depot in Narathiwat’s Cho-irong district and killed four guards on duty during the long New Year break. The perpetrators made away with 413 assault rifles and ammunition.

The next day, PM Thaksin declared martial law in the border provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani, and Yala.

On April 28, separatists launched pre-dawn attacks across the deep South, sparking daylong battles with security forces that left 107 militants and five officials dead.

Dozens of retreating militants holed up in the historic Krue Se Mosque in Pattani, where security forces killed 32 of them after a nine-hour standoff.

Six months later, a second and even more deadly bout of violence occurred with the Tak Bai incident.

Over the past two decades, more than 7,500 people have been killed and over 14,000 injured in 21,000-plus insurgency-related incidents, mainly involving shootings, ambushes and bomb blasts.