The apology is believed to be the first he has made in public over the incident known as the “Tak Bai massacre”, and comes nearly four months after the statute of limitations expired and murder charges against seven suspects were dropped.
The massacre has long stood as an emblem of state impunity in Thailand’s Muslim-majority southernmost provinces, where an insurgency has rumbled for years between government forces and separatists seeking greater autonomy for a region that is culturally and religiously distinct from the Buddhist-majority country.
Thaksin, who was premier at the time of the massacre, said yesterday he wanted to apologise for any actions that may have made people “feel uneasy”.
“When I was a prime minister, I had a strong intention to care for local people,” he said, when asked about the massacre during his first visit to the area known as the “deep south” in 19 years.
“If there was any mistake or any discontent caused by me, I would like to apologise.”
Anchana Heemmina, co-founder of Thai rights group Duay Jai, told AFP it was the first time Thaksin had apologised.
“If he is sincere (about the apology), he should (also) say sorry to the families... face to face,” she said.
On Oct 25, 2004, security forces opened fire on a crowd protesting outside a police station in the town of Tak Bai in Narathiwat province, close to the Malaysian border, killing seven people.
Subsequently, 78 people suffocated after they were arrested and stacked on top of each other in the back of Thai military trucks, face down and with their hands tied behind their backs.
In August last year, a provincial court accepted a criminal case filed by victims’ families against seven officials, including a former army commander elected to parliament for the Shinawatras’ Pheu Thai party in 2023.
But the officials avoided appearing in court, preventing the case from progressing, and in October Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra - Thaksin’s daughter - said it was not possible to extend the statute of limitations.
The case has become synonymous with a lack of accountability in a region governed by emergency laws and flooded with army and police units.
No member of the Thai security forces has ever been jailed for extrajudicial killings or torture in the “deep south”, despite years of allegations of abuses across the region.
The conflict has seen more than 7,000 people killed since January 2004.
SYMBOLIC ACT
Thaksin’s comments came after a series of bombings in Yala province on Saturday night (Feb 22) and at Narathiwat airport in Narathiwat province yesterday morning when his plane was about to land, reports the Bangkok Post.
“Someone might want to frighten me but my heart is strong. I felt indifferent to four previous assassination attempts. Regardless of any kind of reception, I can take it all,” Thaksin said in Narathiwat yesterday.
He called the bombing at Narathiwat airport a symbolic act.
Thaksin said that people in southern border provinces gave him a warmer welcome during his visit yesterday than the tense looks he received at the private schools in the region he visited two decades ago.
The present attitude of local people was a good sign for solutions in southern border provinces, he said.
He said that international cooperation would increase to solve the problems in the southern Thai border provinces, and that Indonesia had promised to help.
“I expect progress this year,” said Thaksin, who is the father of Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
There would be more international cooperation to tackle the people who had more than one citizenship and crossed the border to launch terror attacks, Thaksin said.
There would be negotiations to convince wrongdoers to return to Thailand and contribute to national development, he said.
- Additional reporting by Bangkok Post