Thailand will prosecute eight former security personnel for their roles in a deadly crackdown two decades ago, where 78 protesters died from suffocation or were crushed while being packed into army trucks, the attorney-general’s office announced on Wednesday.
The announcement comes just weeks before the case’s statute of limitations expires on October 25, following a related complaint filed by the victims’ families against seven former senior security officials, which was accepted by the court last month. Notably, only one individual is implicated in both cases.
“The suspects should have foreseen that their actions would result in the suffocation and deaths of the 78 people under their custody,” said attorney-general spokesperson Prayut Bejaguran during a press conference.
The case centers on the high-profile incident in the town of Tak Bai, located in the southern province of Narathiwat, in 2004. During the crackdown, seven protesters were shot and killed, and an additional 78 suffocated or were crushed to death after being piled on top of each other in army trucks.
Although the Thai government at the time expressed regret over the Tak Bai deaths, it denied any wrongdoing. Initially, police claimed that some protesters were armed. The crackdown, which took place under martial law, drew widespread international condemnation and remains one of the deadliest events during the separatist insurgency in Thailand’s predominantly Muslim provinces near the Malaysian border. Since 2004, the insurgency has claimed more than 7,600 lives.
The incident occurred under the administration of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. His daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, recently became Thailand’s prime minister.
Just last week, a Narathiwat court summoned a former military commander and issued arrest warrants for six retired senior security officials after they failed to appear at a criminal hearing regarding the complaint filed by the victims’ families.
