With a little over a month to go before the statute of limitations expires, the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) has ruled to indict 8 former security personnel on a premeditated murder charge for their involvement in the 25 October 2004 Tak Bai Massacre.

Prayut Phetcharakhun, spokesperson for the OAG, said today (18 September) that the indictment was on the grounds that, while there may not have been an intention to cause death, it was inappropriate to cram such a large number of protesters into trucks to transport them, and it should have been foreseeable that the protesters would die from suffocation. The ruling is made despite the inquiry officer’s opinion that they should not be indicted because they were performing their official duty.

All eight people – 8 soldiers and 2 civilians – are charged with premeditated murder. The OAG has ordered the police to summon the accused in to hear their charges and to have them report to the public prosecutor in Pattani to be indicted. In addition to Gen Chalermchai Wirunpeth, former Fifth Infantry Division Commander, who the OAG said issued the order summoning troops to Tak Bai Police Station for the crackdown, the remaining 7 people were mostly involved in operations, including the drivers of the trucks transporting protesters.

The indictment came after the Narathiwat Provincial Court accepted a lawsuit filed by the families of those killed in the Massacre against another group of 7 officers involved. Only Gen Chalermchai is named in both lawsuits.

When asked why the list of people being indicted by the OAG is not the same as the defendants being sued by the victims’ families, Narong Sirasan, deputy spokesperson for the OAG, said that the inquiry officer who worked the case only listed the 8 accused and did not charge anyone else. When the OAG received the case file in April, there was no information on who else was involved.

The Tak Bai Massacre resulted in the death of 85 people. 7 were shot and killed during the police attempt to disperse the 25 October 2004 protest in front of Tak Bai Police Station. 78 more people died from suffocation or organ failure after they were detained and stacked on top of each other in trucks and transported to Fort Ingkhayutthaborihan, a military base in Pattani, 150 kilometres from the original location of the protest.