File photo: People attend a special prayer for victims of the 2004 Tak Bai incident at a mosque in Tak Bai in Thailand's restive southern province of Narathiwat on October 25, 2019.//AFP
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra should ask her Japanese counterpart during the ASEAN Summit in Laos to extradite a suspect in the Tak Bai massacre to stand trial in Thailand before the statute of limitations runs out on October 25.
People’s party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, also the Opposition leader, told a press conference today that two of seven suspects due to stand trial have fled the country, one to Japan and another to the UK.
The suspect believed to be in Japan can either be extradited as a wanted man or deported as a persona non grata.
Since there is no extradition treaty between Thailand and Japan, Natthaphong suggested that the PM takes an opportunity during the ASEAN plus 3 summit in Laos to ask the Japanese prime minister for help in getting the unnamed suspect deported to Thailand for trial.
Referring to Thailand’s successful acquisition of a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, the opposition leader said that the government’s success in also getting the Tak Bai suspect deported to stand trial would further bolster the country’s standing in the international human rights protection community.
There are only 15 days left before the statute of limitations runs out, said Natthaphong,
If the suspect is not sent back and others are not brought before the court before October 25, the deep wounds inflicted on the psyche of many Thai Muslims in the Deep South by the massacre will not heal.
Chief among the seven fugitive suspects is Gen Pisan Wattanawongkiri, a Pheu Thai MP and former commander of the southern-based Fourth Army Region.
Last week, the Narathiwat provincial court issued a warrant for his arrest, at the request of families of the victims, before he also flees the country.
Last month, the court issued warrants for the arrests of six other defendants, after they refused to show up for trial.
The six defendants are Maj-Gen Chaleomchai Viroonpetch, former commander of the 5th Infantry Division, Pol Lt-Gen Wongkot Maneejan, former director of operations centre of the Royal Thai Police, Pol Lt-Gen Manoj Kraiwong, former commissioner of Region 9 Provincial Police, Pol Maj-Gen Saksommai Phuthakul, former superintendent at Tak Bai police station, Siwa Saengmanee, former deputy director of Southern Border Provinces Peace Centre, and former Narathiwat governor Wichom Thongsong.
Seventy-eight Thai Muslims died of suffocation after being piled several layers deep on trucks, to move them from Tak Bai district of Narathiwat to the Ingkhayut army barracks in Pattani province on October 25th, 2004.
