Youtube is carrying footage of the events of Black May 1992 (though, for some reason, the clip is titled “black September”). The clip shows special warfare forces that were under the ultimate command of Surayud Chulanont invading the Royal Hotel that had been established as a temporary hospital for those injured in the suppression. It is said to come from the report of General Pichit Kullawanit who headed the Defense Ministry’s Fact Finding Committee established after the 1992 events. (Of course, Surayud has denied that he gave any order to shoot.)
The video has attracted considerable interest with over 16,000 hits in one week (one of Youtube’s most viewed for the week).
And, to demonstrate the continuity in military brutality, Youtube also carries a number of clips related to the Tak Bai massacre which took place under Thaksin’s government.
7 responses so far ↓
1 Vichai N. // Nov 28, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Your oversight, Andrew Walker, of the most recent extrajudicial Thai military abuse of prisoners-insurgents handed over by Malaysia is amazing. But I am reproducing that particularly news item below because this could be, again, another Thaksin Crime Against Humanity:
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Thaksin govt executed suspects extradited by Malaysia: Sonthi
(Compiled by BangkokPost.com from Agencies)
Coup leader and army commander Gen Sonthi Boonyaratkalin has charged that the Thaksin Shinawatra government “executed” suspected Islamic insurgent leaders extradited by Malaysia to Thailand.
The sensational assertion came on the eve of a two-day trip to Malaysia by Gen Sonthi.
He said that the reported killings of Muslim suspects during the Thaksin era had made Malaysia reluctant to hand over suspected insurgents.
Gen Sonthi provided no further details of his charges. Here is what Gen Sonthi told reporters:
“I am confident that the Malaysian government will extend full cooperation to us. Malaysia used to cooperate with the previous government in handing over some suspects to us, but the previous government did a bad thing by executing those suspects, which made the Malaysians angry and reluctant to cooperate with the previous government.
“The previous government made the mess and left a dirty job behind, and this government is cleaning up the mess and the dirty things that were left behind.”
The Thaksin government was long known “to disappear” suspected insurgents, but the allegations raised by Gen Sonthi are new and seem to add to the possible charges against the Thaksin government.
Malaysia began quietly extraditing suspected insurgents long before Mr Thaksin became prime minister. The number and identity of suspects never has been made public.
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2 Bangkok Pundit // Nov 28, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Vichai: So who are these suspects? Will the media follow-up and ask for any details?
3 patiwat // Nov 28, 2006 at 6:51 pm
Surayud has always denied giving the order for his men to shoot – I remember an interview he gave for Time magazine where he specifically denied it. Yet the public forgave him for the atrocities performed by his troops.
It’s interesting to compare this with some other state atrocities committed since then. The junta has announced they will continue investigations for atrocities committed during Thaksin’s War on Drugs. Although investigations into the Krue Sae Mosque massacre have clearly fingered Pallop Pinmanee as the person who ordered soliders to shoot, criminal charges have never been filed against him. Same thing for the Tak Bai tragedy. Nobody at ISOC was ever charged for the “Red Tank” murders during the 1970’s either. And I don’t recall a single Krating Daeng or Navapol leader was charged for the 6 October Massacre.
It seems that Thais are very forgiving to their leaders when they order atrocities, doesn’t it?
4 Huh // Nov 28, 2006 at 9:36 pm
Youtube videos can be saved using this site:
http://keepvid.com/
The result is an FLV file, which can be played with any free FLV player.
5 Global Voices Online » Blog Archive » Thailand: // Nov 28, 2006 at 10:47 pm
[...] New Mandala links to a video from May 1992 that shows Thai soldiers kicking and beating people who were protesting against the government then. The soldiers were under the ultimate command of Surayud Chulanont, the current prime minister of Thailand. Preetam Rai [...]
6 Vichai N. // Nov 28, 2006 at 11:37 pm
Patiwat sounded somewhat gleeful that past Thai leaders who committed atrocities had been let off easy in the past. Maybe not this time Patiwat. Thaksin Shinawatra and his extrajudicial police generals, and his, extrajudicial military generals, may yet be tried for their horrific crimes because Thai people are no longer so forgiving (despite the Patiwat cheers) nor that naive.
Patiwat I thought you are the one who seek pragmatic solutions to end the breakdown of law and order at the South? Then why are you are not cheering General Sonthi’s revelations about the Thaksin government’s executions of the Muslim prisoners repatriated from Malaysia?
Those revelations by General Sonthi demonstrated sincere remorse to add substance to the profuse apologies to the Southern Muslims by PM Surayud a few days ago. Winning back the trust of the Southern Muslims would be extremely difficult after years of Thaksin savage treatment of the suspected insurgents-prisoners, many believed to have been tortured, executed and disappeareds. General Sonthi’s revelations was an excellent gesture and shows this junta/Surayud’s government’s firm intentions to win back the trust from the Southern people so severely fractured by Thaksin’s abuses.
7 patiwat // Nov 29, 2006 at 9:15 am
Vichai, I’m not gleeful at any of those atrocities – re-read my post.
And why should I be chearing Sonthi, when a week after his “revelations”, over a thousand schools are closing down until further notice because of escalating violence? Sonthi expressed remorse over Black May as well, but that didn’t bring back the lives of the people who his soldiers shot.
If Sonthi is so remorseful about the atrocities committed by the Army in the South, then why isn’t he prosecuting the people who gave the order to shoot at Krue Sae and piled up the protestors at Tak Bai?
Remorse isn’t helping the problem in the south – if anything, it’s making things worse. I want results, not PR.
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