20 Years of Injustice in Thailand, Daily Brief, October 29, 2024

In the early morning hours of October 25, 2004, more than 1,000 ethnic Malay Muslim men, women, and children gathered in front of the Tak Bai district police station in southern Thailand.

Some were there to protest what they believed to be the unjust detention of six village defense volunteers who were arrested for allegedly providing government-issued weapons to separatist insurgents.

Others said they went to Tak Bai to go to the market and got stuck in the crowd. Some said they were bystanders, watching what was going on.

The situation got heated, and what followed can only be described as a massacre.

Seven protesters were shot dead. The army crammed about 1,300 people into 26 military trucks and took them to an army detention facility more than 150 kilometers away, causing 78 to be crushed to death. The army held the others for several days without appropriate medical attention, leading to amputations and other severe injuries.

Today, 20 years later, successive Thai governments have failed to bring to justice former officials charged with murder and other offenses connected with the massacre, despite overwhelming evidence against them.

The victims of this violent crackdown and their families have never given up on their quest for justice.

Earlier this year, Tak Bai victims and their families filed lawsuits and Thailand’s attorney general brought another case in September. In all, 14 officials have been charged; all have fled and are now facing arrest warrants.

This may sound like progress, but for the fact that article 95 of Thailand’s Criminal Code states there is a 20-year statute of limitations, meaning no new legal action can be taken.

In the face of the decades-long injustice for Tak Bai victims, all the more reasons for the Thai government should amend this article. There should be no statute of limitations for serious violations of human rights under international law.