Thaksin libel case to touch on Krue Se, Tak Bai massacres
President of the National Assembly of Thailand Chuan Leekpai has acknowledged a libel charge he made about former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Chuan, who also serves as Speaker of the Thai House of Representatives, gave a lecture to members of the Democrat Party on October 28, 2012, blaming Thaksin for making “mistakes” regarding the Krue Se, and Tak Bai massacres in Thailand’s Deep South in 2004, during his administration.
The 84 year old politician, a former Thai PM between 1992-1995 and from 1997-2001, was indicted on Tuesday for defamation in a suit filed by Thaksin, who claimed Chuan defamed him in that 2012 speech.
Bizarrely, the case sat at the office of the public prosecutors for years, reported Thai PBS World, and was not taken to court until the prosecutor in charge of the case told Chuan that he wanted to see him on Tuesday, to acknowledge the charges, as the case is due to expire tomorrow.
Ramet Rattanachaweng, an assistant to the House Speaker and spokesman for the Democrat Party, revealed that Chuan told him not to allow the case to expire “as a matter of principle.”
Thaksin wants the police to charge Chuan with defamation and violation of the Computer Crimes Act. However, the police decided to indict Chuan for defamation.
Remarkably, it appears Chuan wants the case to come to court because it will touch on the Krue Se, and Tak Bai massacres.
Chuan added the massacres and Thaksin’s brutal anti-narcotic campaign launched in 2003 also will be raised during the trial.
In the Krue Se Mosque in Pattani Province, 32 people were killed by Thai security. Many more people died in violent clashes between security forces and armed protesters in Songkhla and Yala provinces on February 28, 2004.
In the Tak Bai incident on October 25, 2004, in Narathiwat, 78 protesters died of suffocation when they were forced to lie, face down on top of one another in the back of a truck by security forces, for a 150 kilometer journey to an army barracks in Pattani. Seven other protesters were also killed.
Thaksin was adamant on his weekly interview on Clubhouse that “he had nothing to do with it.” He said he was playing golf at the time when he was told of a protest by hundreds of people to demand the release of a group of detainees held at the Tak Bai police station on charges of supplying weapons to Muslim insurgents.
“The police asked for my instruction. I told them it could not be tolerated as the law must be law. That’s all I said.
“I think six people died on the spot. Local authorities, police and to some extent the army, were responsible for what happened.
“I knew arrests were made. But after that, I knew nothing. Nobody kept me updated until I found out later that many people had died.”
Thaksin revealed he was later told by a Malaysian special branch police officer that the whole incident was staged by a group of military officers “who did not want me in power.”
“Those who were responsible for this were military officers. After the protest in front of Tak Bai police station, everything was in the hand of the military. I knew nothing from that point on.”
“As for compensation for those who lost their loved ones, go and ask Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, who was the army chief.”
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit declined to comment yesterday in response to Thaksin’s claim that he must know how many families, of those who died, have been compensated in the Tak Bai tragedy.
Gen Prawit said…
“Go ask Thaksin!”
The Krue Se and Tak Bai massacres are blamed for the unrest in the Deep South, which continues until today.
