2 weeks Ago
There was no miracle as the clock ticked past midnight of Oct 25 marking the end of the 20-year statute of limitations in the Tak Bai case. None of the 14 defendants, including one group of seven senior military, police and interior officials and another group of junior officers, showed up voluntarily or were brought by police to stand trial in Narathiwat and Pattani provinces. Their whereabouts are not known, but some of them, including former Pheu Thai list-MP Gen Pisal Wattanawongkiri, former commander of the Fourth Army Region, are believed to have taken refuge overseas.
Former Pheu Thai list-MP Gen Pisal received permission from the Deputy House Speaker to take leave of parliament while he sought medical treatment overseas. Under public pressure amid claims he had really fled overseas to escape trial, he resigned from the Pheu Thai Party over a week ago. Today, the Narathiwat provincial court is expected to announce its decision to dismiss the court case as the statute of limitations is now expired and none of the defendants were brought to stand trial.
Legally speaking, this means they can emerge from their hideouts and walk free again without fear of being arrested. But morally, they will have to bear with the stigma for the rest of their lives of being fugitives who refused to stand trial to prove their innocence. They may also be blamed if the dismissal of the court case heralds a renewed surge of violence in the Deep South by insurgent groups and ongoing pressure on the government from people asking if it did enough.
One may wonder why it took so long, almost 20 years after the traumatic incident, for the case to be accepted by the court in Narathiwat on Aug 23, and the Pattani court the same month, while another eight -- army officials involved in delivering over 1,000 protesters in 50 army trucks were charged. And what was done under successive governments? As a matter of fact, some actions were taken during the period, beginning with an inquiry into the violent incident by the Songkhla provincial court in 2009 as required by the Criminal Procedural Code due to the fact that people had died during their detention by the authorities. The court focused its probe on only two aspects: who were the dead, and how they died, with the omission of a key aspect, that is who were responsible for their deaths.
The findings confirmed that 78 people died of suffocation while they were trucked from Tak Bai police station to the Ingkhayuth barracks in Nong Chik district of Pattani, about 150 km away. The question of who was responsible for the deaths of the victims was omitted because the security forces simply performed their duties as ordered. The case was shelved.
An independent committee set up during Thaksin administration in 2004, a few months after Tak Bai tragedy took place, faulted senior military officers, without naming names, for not following the rules of engagement in crowd dispersal by using army recruits and paramilitary rangers to quell the protesters instead of seasoned officers. But the panel did not hold any officers accountable for the deaths of the protesters: 78 who died of suffocation and seven who were shot dead. However, 59 protesters were hit by prosecutors with multiple charges, including inciting violence.
The case was eventually dropped under the government of Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont. In 2011, the government of Yingluck government ordered compensation, amounting to about 641 million baht to be paid to families of the dead victims and the disabled. Despite the compensation, some families were far from satisfied because they feel that justice eludes them, as no authorities were held accountable for the deaths of their loved ones.
But most kept their grievances and bitterness in their heart without openly speaking up for fear of their own safety, said Kamonsak Leemawo, an MP of the Prachachart Party. He also claimed several families were told not to pursue criminal or civil litigation against the authorities in exchange for accepting state compensation. A lack of legal knowhow was another reason why most families have kept silent over the years; until last year, when 48 families grouped together in consultation with Muslim lawyers to file a lawsuit to the Narathiwat court against nine authorities to hold them accountable.
On Aug 23, the court accepted the case for consideration against seven of them, followed by the issuance of arrest warrants after they refused to show up to acknowledge the charges. Sadly though, their last-ditch plea for justice was dealt a huge blow due to the expiry of the statute of limitations, leaving them no chance of getting the redemption they deserve which is more meaningful than financial compensation. The idea of promulging an executive decree to extend the statute of limitations is unconstitutional and against the principle of law that a law cannot be applied retroactively in a way which is not beneficial to the offenders.
Having the Tak Bai case dropped or dismissed amounts to adding insult to injury for the victims' families and in the psyche of Muslims in the Deep South who saw the case as an iconic symbol of injustice and brutality by the state. An apology from Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, although commendable, is too little to heal the wounds and restore the trust of Muslims in the Deep South. The government needs to do more such as creating an inquiry committee to find out the whole truth of what happened to make sure it will not be repeated.
It may be wishful thinking to hope the failure of the justice system to bring those responsible to account will not be used as a pretext for escalating violence in the conflict. Regardless, the innocent have already suffered long enough. Veera Prateepchaikul is former editor, Bangkok Post.
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