Photo: Thai Muslim student holds a protest placard as she marks the Tak Bai 10th anniversary of the deaths of 85 anti-government protesters at the central mosque in Pattani province on October 25.//AFP
Geneva, Switzerland - UN rights experts said they were extremely concerned that no one would be held accountable over a notorious massacre in Thailand once the 20-year statute of limitations expires on Friday.
All seven defendants in the Tak Bai incident -- in which 85 people were killed on October 25, 2004 -- last week missed their final scheduled court date before the deadline to try them, heightening the chance they will never face justice.
In their absence the court said that it was scheduling the next hearing for October 28, at which point the proceedings are expected to be dismissed.
In a joint statement, the UN experts said they were "extremely alarmed that without further action", the cases "will end prematurely when a statute of limitations expires".
Seven people were shot dead when security forces opened fire on a crowd protesting outside a police station in Narathiwat, one of the Muslim-majority southern provinces Thailand colonised more than a century ago.
Subsequently 78 people suffocated after they were arrested and stacked on top of each other in the back of Thai military trucks, face down and with their hands tied behind their backs.
It remains one of the deadliest days in the decades-long rebellion by Malay Muslims against rule by the Thai state, which rumbles on to this day.
"Failure to investigate and bring perpetrators to justice is itself a violation of Thailand's human rights obligations," the UN experts said.
"International law also prohibits statutes of limitations for torture and other forms of ill-treatment."
Hundreds of Muslim students take part during fourth anniversary of the Tak Bai tragedy in Yala province on October 25, 2008.//AFP
The statement was issued by the UN special rapporteurs on extrajudicial executions, the right to freedom of peaceful assembly, protecting freedoms while countering terrorism and freedom of opinion, as well as the working group on enforced disappearances.
UN experts are independent figures mandated by the Human Rights Council who do not speak on behalf of the United Nations itself.
"Families have waited for nearly two decades for justice," the experts said, urging the Thai government "to prevent further delays in accountability and ensure their rights to truth, justice and reparations are upheld".
They also called for further investigations into the fate of seven people who disappeared in the incident.
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