The death of the 28 April 2004 incident at Kruesae mosque and other places along 4 Deep South provinces, which lead to 108 deaths by hands of state officers on the same day, led to a question of Thai judicial system particularly the extrajudicial killings of 28 persons at Kruesae mosque and another 19 youths at Sabayoy, Songkhla province. The extrajudicial killing could be done only for the purpose of life defended or to prevent the others from the death threat that acting by perpetrators. The extrajudicial killing has to be done only on due cause. The death of 108 bodies, therefore, is considered to be the operation of the state officers that claimed to be done on duty.
The Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP) has observed the death inquest testimonies. In the case of Sabayoy, the relatives requested the court to call for 4 police officers who represented at the crime scene to be witness. In this case, the death certificate issued the cause of the death that out of 19, 8 bodies found to be shot on the head or face and most of them were shot on the back. The next testimony of the death inquest is July 11 this year.
The case of the death of 32 persons at Kruesae mosque, the public prosecutor issued the case to the court on 20 August, 2004, the black case no. Chor 4/2547 and the red case no. Chor 3/2549. The Pattani court had an order on 28 November, 2549. Main content of the order is that all of them died from the fighting with the state officials. Some death persons carried knife and pistol. Four of them died at 5 am in front of the mosque. Another 28 persons died at 2 pm inside the mosque. Cause of the death is that the shooting and explosion at significant organs. The operation of the state officials was done under the excessive force of Gen Panlop Pinmanee, Col Manas Khongpaen and Major Thanaphat Nakchaiya. The Pattani court transferred the court order to the public prosecutors to follow the judicial process by prosecuting these three high ranking officers.
However, it has been 1 year and 5 months after the Pattani court order but no further action has been made since then. This leads to public concerns on the delay of the judicial system as well as obstacle to access and accountability to justice of Thailand.
WGJP greatly concerns on the increasing violence that taking place in the south where majority of people do not trust state officers. One of several causes is the injustice. WGJP hopes to see the improvement of all Thai justice agencies so that they could be real shelters for people. WGJP, therefore, is calling for following requests:
1. To call for Thai government to seriously practice nonviolence means of operation beginning by ending any sign of supporting violence. Any lost from the south is the pain of all people living in Thailand soil. It should not be the cause to break society apart.
2. To request the Office of Attorney General to speed up its duty in order to bring justice to the victims of the event of 28 April 2004 by sending the case file to the investigation officers so that they can bring the suspected persons to the judicial system under free and fare trail. It should be realized all the time that The delay of the justice is the injustice.
3. To request the Thai government to review the use of the martial law and the Emergency Decree particularly on the part of the obtaining of person, the visiting day and the detention places that do not according to the laws which cause to a lot of torture cases.
All these requests are for building trust on justice system to the people particularly those are living in the Deep South provinces. This death inquest case is not only in the attention of people in the south and international society but also the important cause of solving violence problems of the Deep South provinces.
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Contact persons: Angkhana Neelapaichit 084 728 0350
Suri Krisanakarn 083 784 5440
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About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984. The above statement has only been forwarded by the AHRC.
