http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lx6V0SB7VuA
Uploaded on Jan 29, 2012
The true story of what happened in Southern Thailand,
25th October 2004. It happened years ago. So is it an old story?
Is it not worth exposing? What do you say about 9/11?
...
Students demand justice 10 years after Thai protest killings
Source: rappler.com
The anti-government protest on October 25, 2004, in Tak Bai town was one of the bloodiest days in a conflict that has left 6,100 people dead in Thailand's Muslim-majority south
PATTANI, Thailand – Dozens of students rallied at a mosque in southern Thailand Saturday, October 25, to demand justice for the deaths of 85 protesters a decade ago, a tragedy rights groups say is fueling a violent insurgency.
The anti-government protest on October 25, 2004, in Tak Bai town in Narathiwat province was one of the bloodiest days in a conflict that has left 6,100 people dead in Thailand's Muslim-majority south.
Seven people were shot dead as security forces broke up the scene, while 78 protesters were suffocated or crushed to death after being stacked on top of each other in army trucks bound for neighboring Pattani province, their hands bound.
No one from the security forces has faced charges over the deaths.
Around 100 Muslim students gathered peacefully inside the courtyard of a mosque in Pattani on Saturday, raising placards asking for justice as well as singing songs and reciting poems and prayers.
They were planning to stage a flash mob in the streets outside but were warned against a public protest by army officers, said an Agence France-Presse correspondent at the scene.
Thailand's military imposed a nationwide ban on political gatherings of more than five people two days before staging a coup in May – but the southern provinces bordering Malaysia have been smothered by emergency powers curtailing civil liberties for a decade.
"We want to know why they were transported in that way….Tak Bai victims still haven't received justice," said Chalida Tajaroensuk, director of the People's Empowerment Foundation which organized a seminar about the killings earlier Saturday.
Human Rights Watch also demanded justice for the victims, questioning why no one had been prosecuted even after a government-appointed committee at the time concluded inappropriate methods were used to break up the rally and transport protesters.
"Thailand's failure to prosecute security personnel responsible for the Tak Bai killings is a glaring injustice that brings the police, military, and courts into disrepute," said Brad Adams, HRW Asia director, adding this had "fueled conditions for the insurgency."
The lush, forested deep south was an ethnic Malay sultanate until Buddhist Thailand annexed it a century ago, and separatist unrest has simmered ever since.
Thai security forces stand accused of widespread human rights violations, including arbitrary arrests, abuses and extra-judicial killings.
Meanwhile the rebels conduct near-daily ambushes or bomb attacks on security forces and terrorize civilians – both Buddhist and Muslim – with assassinations and arson attacks.
Several rounds of peace discussions floundered last year amid political chaos in Bangkok but Thailand's junta chief and new premier has said he is ready to restart negotiations. – Rappler.com
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OCTOBER 25, 2014
Source: Human Rights Watch
(New York) – The Thai government has yet to bring to justice police and military personnel responsible for the deaths of scores of protesters in Tak Bai in southern Thailand in 2004.
On October 25, 2004, army and police units fired on ethnic Malay Muslim protesters in the Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province, killing seven. Another 78 protesters suffocated or were crushed to death while being transported to an army camp in Pattani province. The military detained more than 1,200 people for several days without appropriate medical attention, and a number of severely injured protesters lost their limbs. In August 2013, the Supreme Court ruled that security personnel were blameless because they had only been performing their duties.
“Thailand’s failure to prosecute security personnel responsible for the Tak Bai killings is a glaring injustice that brings the police, military, and courts into disrepute,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The Thai authorities’ failure to deliver justice to southern Muslims has fueled conditions for the insurgency in the deep south.”
On December 17, 2004, a fact-finding committee appointed by the then-government of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra concluded that the methods used in dispersing the protesters— including firing live ammunition and deploying army conscripts and rangers inexperienced in dispersing protesters—were inappropriate and not in conformity with established international guidelines and practices. The committee also found that commanding officers failed to supervise the transportation of protesters in custody, leaving the task to be performed by inexperienced, low-ranking personnel. The inquiry identified three senior army officers as having failed to properly monitor and supervise the military’s operations, leading to the deaths and injuries of protesters.
Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha has said that military-imposed government will resume dialogues with separatist groups, but he has not addressed abuses against ethnic Malay Muslims. While he was army commander-in-chief, Prayuth often told human rights activists and journalists that the Thai public should not be reminded about the Tak Bai killings.
Human Rights Watch repeatedly recommended to Thai authorities that making a demonstrable commitment to holding abusive officials accountable was crucial for addressing unrest in the southern border provinces. Previous Thai governments have provided financial compensation and other reparations to some Tak Bai victims and their families. However, assisting some victims does not relieve the authorities of their legal obligation to prosecute those responsible for unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture, and other abuses in the southern border provinces, Human Rights Watch said.
Human Rights Watch also urged the Thai government to repeal the Emergency Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situations, in place in the southern border provinces since July 2005. Section 17 of the decree provides immunity from criminal, civil, and disciplinary liability for officials acting under the decree. The burden is placed on the complainant to prove that the officials in question did not act in good faith, or acted in a discriminatory and unreasonable manner.
The cycle of human rights abuses and impunity in Thailand contributes to an atmosphere in which state security personnel show less regard for the civilian population and abusive insurgents commit ever greater atrocities, Human Rights Watch said. Since January 2004, Thailand’s southern border provinces of Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat have been the scene of a brutal internal armed conflict that has claimed over 6,000 lives. Civilians have accounted for approximately 90 percent of those deaths. The Pejuang Kemerdekaan Patani insurgents in the loose network of BRN-Coordinate (National Revolution Front-Coordinate) regularly attack both government officials and civilians.
“What happened in Tak Bai 10 years ago must not be forgotten,” Adams said. “Delivering justice for the victims of this massacre is an important step to ending atrocities and respecting the rights of the southern Muslim community.”
