Tak Bai victims yet to get justice

Seven protesters were shot dead on the spot, while 78 oth¬ers were suffocated or crushed to death as they were being trans¬ported to an Army detention facility in Pattani province after a crackdown on a protest on October 25, 2004.

The protesters were demand¬ing the release of six suspects accused of being involved in the theft of government weapons handed to security volunteers.

"The Thai government has repeatedly promised justice for the Tak Bai victims and the local community. The government has completely failed to deliver," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

The governmentappointed factfinding committee con¬cluded in December, 2004 that the methods used in dispersing the protesters were inappropri¬ate and not in conformity with established international guide¬lines and practices.

In addition, the panel found that the commanding officers had failed to supervise the trans¬portation of protesters in cus¬tody, leaving the task to be per¬formed by inexperienced, lowranking personnel.

Three senior Army officers were identified as having failed to properly monitor and super¬vise the military's operations, leading to the deaths and injuries of Muslim protesters.

The officers named were LtGeneral Pisarn Wattanawongkiri (then commander of the Fourth Army Region), MajGeneral Sinchai Nutsatit (then deputy commander of the Fourth Army Region), and MajGeneral Chalermchai Wiroonphet (then commander of the Fifth Infantry Division).

The International Crisis Group released a report on Tuesday saying the authorities' increasing reliance on poorly trained and loosely supervised paramilitary and militia forces was complicating efforts to tack¬le the insurgency in the South.

The report - "Southern Thailand: The Problem with Paramilitaries" - examined the need for the government to review the use of irregular forces such as paramilitary rangers and village volunteer militias and to crack down on private sectarian vigilante groups.

The plethora of forces in the South complicates commandandcontrol arrangements, weakens accountability and, in some cases, exacerbates com¬munal tensions, it said. Instead, attention should be directed towards professionalising the regular military and police.

"Subcontracting security to poorly trained paramilitaries and militias is no solution", says Crisis Group analyst Francesca LaweDavies. "They often fail to provide security, and their involvement in humanrights abuses hands militants a propa¬ganda victory".

The Nation