Tak Bai case: NHRC calls for accountability, law reform
Letting the 20-year-old case die will be like ‘adding salt to wounds’ of victims’ relatives, says rights commission
The National Human Rights Commission stated on Wednesday calling on the government to ensure each suspect in the 20-year-old Tak Bai case faces justice and victims are given better remedial measures.
The NHRC also urged the government to improve relevant laws.
The NHRC said that ignoring the case for 20 years without bringing the suspects to justice was like adding salt to the wounds of the families of the slain and injured victims.
It said it was unacceptable that the government would allow the case to expire on Friday without bringing any of the state officials responsible for the casualties to justice.
The public prosecutors and relatives of 48 of the 85 Muslim protesters killed during a crackdown in Tak Bai on October 25, 2004, have filed lawsuits against 14 defendants, but neither case has been brought to the Narathiwat Provincial Court.
Seven protesters died at the scene of the crackdown in front of the Tak Bai Police Station in Narathiwat, while 78 others died of suffocation when they were piled one on top of the other in military trucks to be transported to a military camp in Pattani.
The NHRC said the failure to bring the suspects to justice and learn the real truth via a court trial was a violation of the victims’ rights and a violation of the right to know the truth about human rights violations.
The NHRC’s statement listed three demands, namely:
- The government should ensure each suspect enters the judicial process and nobody is allowed to enjoy impunity due to the expiration of the case
- The government should provide remedies to the injured victims and relatives of the slain victims, not just with money but also by finding the complete truth of the incident
- The government should amend the law so that cases in which authorities cause massive deaths and injuries to the people have no statute of limitations.
