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How to deal with Thai state crimes
Ugly Truth Thailand - November 11, 2018
This would involve re-writing the military constitution and scrapping the 20 year National Strategy; a laudable but impossible task without building a mass social movement. [See https://bit.ly/2O5ZNNx]
In addition to destroying the political power and legacy of the military, it is important to punish state criminals who were responsible for violence. Without this, they will continue to enjoy impunity.
The Commoners Party has also stated that it wants to punish state officials who are guilty of state crimes, although there is little detail about how they would achieve this. What is also worrying is that they say that there is a "hidden history" of these events which needs to be exposed. Given that there have been many studies and publications about Thai state crimes, this sound a bit like an excuse to delay any action.
The fact of the matter is that we know who is responsible for various atrocities. [See http://bit.ly/1TKgv02 or http://bit.ly/2d1iZbj]
Those guilty of the 6th October 1976 blood bath are known, but they have all died of old age. However, when it comes to those who ordered the shooting of demonstrators on 14th October 1973, although Tanom Kittikachorn and Prapart Jarusatien are both dead, the third tyrant, Tanom's son, Narong Kittikachorn is still alive. He needs to be brought to trial.
We know the architect of the 1992 atrocities against pro-democracy demonstrators. It was coupster Suchinda Kraprayoon. He also needs to be brought to trial.
We also know that Taksin Shinawat was responsible for the extra judiciary killings in the War on Drugs and also the killings of Malay Muslims at Takbai in 2004. He should be in the dock.
Finally, Anupong Paochinda, Prayut Chan-ocha, Abhisit Vejjajiva and Sutep Tuaksuban all have blood on their hands from ordering the killings of pro-democracy red shirts in 2010. Prayut and other dictators also need to be prosecuted for staging military coups and destroying democracy. This is especially important given that the newly appointed heads of the army and air force have hinted that if there is "chaos" in the future there might have to be another coup.
Bringing these tyrants to justice is not an easy matter. But it has been done in other countries like Argentina and South Korea. However, anti-military political parties need to be honest and open about what it will take to achieve this.
Source: https://uglytruththailand.wordpress.com/2018/11/11/how-to-deal-with-thai-state-crimes/.
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