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Published on February 20, 2008

Adisorn Piangket, one of the October 6 student activists who fled into the jungle after the incident, yesterday warned Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej he was turning friends into foes for his distortion of history.

Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung, meanwhile, defended the premier against accusations he incited hatred via the Army's radio station in October 1976.

Adisorn, who is also one of the 111 former executives of the disbanded Thai Rak Thai Party, said Samak had better apologise to the public for his statement that only one person died in the incident.

"We have pictures of dead people as evidence that many people were killed without justice," he said.

Adisorn said he lost his younger brother in the jungle and his parents were hunted down and had to flee for their lives. "The October 6 incident is not a topic to joke about. It is a tragedy that many young students were killed. We must help bring the truth about what really happened,'' he said.

He supported calls for a committee to set the record straight over the October 14, 1973 and October 6, 1976 incidents. "We need a neutral committee such as the media or an international body as members," he said.

Interior Minister Chalerm said the people who hosted the Army radio station that were accused of inciting hatred were Akom Mokaranond, Colonel Uthan Sanitwong, Uthit Naksawat and "Tamayanti" (the pen name of writer Khunying Wimol Siripaiboon).

He said Samak was not yet interior minister and was not involved in inciting the massacre. However he admitted that Samak was part of the extreme right wing movement.

Chalerm said the incident was triggered by a drunken policeman whose gun went off accidentally. He said he knew this because he was standing close to the policeman, who later died.

"The situation then developed into fighting. People who accuse Samak misunderstand the situation,'' he said.

Samatcha Hoonsara,

Sathien Viriyapanpongsa

The Nation