84 people were killed after the Thai military violently dispersed the demonstrators, firing upon the crowd and killing six people. The remainder, 78, died through suffocation, beatings and heat stroke after 1,300 arrested protestors were inhumanely packed into four army trucks.
This brutal response is the latest use of overwhelming state violence to suppress the dissent of the people in the predominantly Muslim provinces in the South. Instead of addressing their legitimate concerns of political and economic marginalisation, the government has instead escalated a conflict that has claimed some 350 lives since March this year.
Currently a climate of fear is restricting Thailand’s hard-won democratic space. Since Thaksin came to power an estimated 2,800 alleged drug dealers and users have been assassinated or ‘disappeared’ under the government’s anti-drug campaign.
While the Thaksin government hesitates to investigate or accept responsibility for the killings, such impunity has only been encouraged by the US Bush Administration’s inflammatory rhetoric and aggressive militaristic strategy that is directed principally at Muslim and Arab peoples. In the name of the “War on Terror” such militarization, repression and war is being encouraged all over the globe, specifically in Iraq, Palestine, and now Thailand.
Focus on the Global South condemns the atrocities and calls for the full accountability for those responsible for the killings and an immediate end to the repression in the South.
Focus on the Global South calls for an end to repression, war and militarization conducted under the ‘war on terror’ in Thailand, Iraq, Palestine and all over the world.
*Focus on the Global South is a research and advocacy organisation based in Thailand, India and the Philippines.
