Samak rewrites Tak Bai massacre-Bangkok Post

SOUTHERN UNREST / TAK BAI TRAGEDY
Samak condemned for distorting facts
Bangkok Post: February 26, 2008

A rights activist group has condemned Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej for twisting the facts on the Tak Bai tragedy in a recent television interview.

The Justice Working Group for Peace released a statement yesterday accusing Mr Samak of distorting the facts about the death of 78 Muslim protesters who suffocated while being transported from a protest site in front of Narathiwat’s Tak Bai police station to a military camp for interrogation in October of 2004.

Mr Samak told the Al-Jazeera television reporter the protesters died because they were weak. He said they were suffering from dehydration and lack of food because they had been fasting.

”That caused them to fall onto one another on the trucks and they died as a result,” he said.

The activists said in the statement Mr Samak’s information contradicted the findings of House and Senate inquiry committees and an independent committee which was set up during the Thaksin Shinawatra administration.

The statement was signed by [FACT signer] Angkhana Neelaphaijit, Pornpen Kongkajornkiart and Suree Krissanakarn.

They said Mr Samak’s comments during the interview were not based on facts and violated the dignity of the dead victims. What he said would destroy public trust in state officials and create suspicion among those seeking justice, particularly the people in the deep South.

The activists pointed out that the prosecution had withdrawn the charges that were laid against 58 Tak Bai protesters in late 2006.

Also, the Surayud Chulanont government had on Oct 26 paid compensation to the people who were injured and disabled or lost their relatives in the incident.

They urged Mr Samak to study the findings of the previous inquiry committees and at the same time show responsibility as a prime minister by ensuring a speedy inquiry into the real causes of the deaths.

Some of the deaths were said to have occurred before the victims were manhandled onto the trucks.

They said the government’s action on this issue would be a key factor in determining a solution to the violence in the far South.

Yesterday morning, a 45-year-old brick factory owner was shot and wounded in Ban Lukoh village in Rangae district, Narathiwat.

On Sunday night, a security convoy was ambushed in Ban Pareh Ruboh village of Cho Airong district and a 37-year-old police sergeant was injured.

In Sungai Padi district, a 50-year-old Muslim man was killed and his wife seriously injured when militants fired on their house in Ban Ai Batoo.