Today, April 24, Thailand’s daily newspapers reported that members of the People’s Alliance for Democracy were attacked in the northeastern city of Udon Thani. According to the news, hundreds of people stormed a meeting organised to discuss the current political situation and criticise the outgoing prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, and his Thai Rak Thai Party. The assailants threw rocks, bottles, shoes and other objects, injuring some of the participants, and trapping them inside a university building for hours. Outside a local Thai Rak Thai MP, Wichai Chaijitwanichkul, allegedly incited the perpetrators. Some of those involved were reportedly drunk.
The attack follows two similar disturbing incidents at the end of March, when a mob surrounded the office of the Khom Chad Luek newspaper in Bangkok, and another shut down a Democrat Party rally in Chiang Mai. In both instances the attackers were supporters of the Thai Rak Thai Party, apparently organised by party officials.
The use of the poor as a tool for political violence is everywhere extremely dangerous. Some of the greatest atrocities in history have followed from the cynical manipulation of the poorest and most excluded parts of society by the richest and most powerful. The destruction of Cambodia, massacres of alleged communists in Indonesia and frequent intercommunal hostilities in India all speak to this pattern. The effect is to make a large part of society complicit in bloodshed, which will thereafter help to sustain the horrible silence or lies used to conceal the truth of what has really happened and who was really responsible. Thailand has also seen such incidents. In the 1970s groups like the Village Scouts and Red Bulls were formed with the purpose of attacking alleged communist insurgents or sympathisers, and most notoriously were connected with the mass murder of protesters at Thammasat University in 1976. At various times, Thai politicians have used local support bases to threaten all kinds of opponents.
What is most disturbing about these latest attacks is that they appear to be aimed at upsetting the unprecedented spontaneous non-violent protests that have swept across Thailand over the last few months. The full consequences of this uprising against a government that only last year was widely viewed as untouchable are yet to be understood. It is certain that they will be significant and lasting. But the one distinctive and enduring feature of all the protests is that they have been peaceful. The hundreds of thousands who have gathered in parks, squares and intersections across the country have raised only their voices in anger. They have gathered and dispersed with discipline and goodwill. Up until recently, all parties appeared to have understood that there would be nothing gained from more killings, torture and disappearances of the sort that exhausted Thailand in earlier years of struggle against successive military dictatorships.
It is therefore of tremendous importance that there be a proper and adequate legal and administrative response to these assaults. There must be full investigations, and charges lodged against persons found to have been responsible for inciting violence. In each case there will be ample evidence by way of photographs, video and eyewitness testimonies upon which to take the necessary action. Serious questions must also be asked about the role and handling of these incidents by the police: how is it that hundreds of officers stationed at Udon Thani were reportedly unable to protect the meeting there? What steps have they taken to arrest and charge the ringleaders, including accused politicians and other influential persons?
This deliberate and organised mob violence is a very unwelcome intrusion into the political struggle in Thailand. The Asian Human Rights Commission urges members of all parties, especially the leadership of Thai Rak Thai, to condemn these attacks without reservation. All persons concerned with the future of democracy and human rights in Thailand should urgently denounce efforts to drag Thailand’s political life back into the dark ages. It must be made clear that such attacks, whether organised by local politicians or otherwise, will not be condoned or permitted under any circumstances. Let the struggle for the future of Thailand continue, as it has over the recent months, in peace.
