No justice for Tak Bai

The return of a former defendant in the Tak Bai lawsuit who disappeared to let the statute of limitations expire shows the strength of Thailand’s culture of impunity.
Wissanu Lertsongkram is one of 14 accused in the Tak Bai case who simply returned to work on Saturday, a day after the 20-year statute of limitations expired. The court closed the case after all defendants did not show up.
Like the other 13 defendants in the case, which consists of two lawsuits, Mr Wissanu allegedly participated in crowd control at Tak Bai Police Station on Oct 24, 2004. He was a rank-and-file soldier assigned to drive one of 25 trucks that carried over 1,300 protesters to an army base in Pattani province some 150km away.
Seventy-eight of the protestors in the army trucks died due to suffocation or organ failure. Another seven protesters had earlier been shot dead by state security in front of Tak Bai Police Station.
Past governments dropped charges against armed protesters and paid over 600 million baht in compensation to victims, but no officials have been brought to justice over the matter.
The question is what the government and justice system will do to contain the backlash. Sadly, not much.
Society has just witnessed another defeat of the justice system. What is more ugly is that it appears that no one will be probed and held responsible for failing to arrest 14 defendants who are not elusive criminals but are officials or retirees.
Pol Lt Gen Samran Nualma, assistant national police chief, said police had tried their best by searching 52 sites and holding 241 stakeouts. Their best was far from enough.
The government and the Pheu Thai Party failed to rise to the occasion. Indeed, the party had a golden opportunity to rectify the Tak Bai issue, which occurred during the tenure of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Instead of trying to bring major defendant Gen Pisal Wattanawongkiri, a former Pheu Thai list-MP and the then-army Region 4 commander, to court to address the issue, the party treated the case as a personal matter, letting Gen Pisal send a letter of resignation to the party.
As if that were not enough, Deputy House Speaker Pichet Chuamuangpan of Pheu Thai approved Gen Pisal’s leave request, even after the court agreed to take up the Tak Bai case.
The People’s Party proposed issuing a royal decree to extend the statute of limitations of the Tak Bai lawsuit. However, last week, the Council of State replied that the idea was not legally possible. A royal decree can only be issued during a national emergency that affects national security or extreme financial issues.
Meanwhile, human rights activists and academic experts have proposed revising the law by making human rights violation cases by state officials against civilians perpetual instead of having a 20-year timeframe.
After missing the opportunity to bring defendants to court, the government can redeem itself by revising the related legislation to help end the country’s culture of impunity.