Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra apologized on Sunday for the deaths of scores of Muslim protesters who were run over by military trucks in the country’s south two decades ago.
It is believed to be his first public apology for the incident, known as the “Tak Bai massacre.” It comes nearly four months after the amnesty expired and the murder case against seven suspects was dropped.
The massacre has long been a symbol of state impunity in Thailand’s Muslim-majority southern provinces, where an insurgency has raged for years between government troops and separatists seeking greater autonomy for regions that are culturally and religiously distinct from the Buddhist-majority country.
Thaksin, who was prime minister at the time of the massacre, said on Sunday he wanted to apologize for any actions that “made people feel uncomfortable.” “When I was prime minister, I had a strong desire to take care of the local people,” he said in response to a question about the massacre. “If I have made any mistakes or caused any resentment, I would like to apologize.”
Anchana Himmina, co-founder of Thai rights group Duay Jai, said it was the first time Thaksin had apologized. “If he is sincere (about the apology), he should apologize to the victims’ families… face to face,” she said. On October 25, 2004, seven people were killed when security forces opened fire on a crowd demonstrating outside a police station in Tak Bai town, Narathiwat province, near the Malaysian border.
Then 78 people died after being arrested and piled on top of each other in the back of a Thai military truck, face down and with their hands tied behind their backs. In August last year, the provincial court accepted a criminal case filed by the victims’ families against seven officials, including a former army commander who was elected to parliament for Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party in 2023.
But officials neglected to appear in court, preventing the case from moving forward, and in October, Prime Minister Phatthongthayn Shinawatra (Thaksin’s daughter) said it was not possible to extend the deadline.
The case has become synonymous with the lack of accountability in a region governed by emergency law and populated by military and police units. Despite years of allegations of abuses across the region, no member of the Thai security forces has been jailed for extrajudicial killings or torture in the ‘Deep South’.
More than seven thousand people have died in this conflict since January 2004.
