Govt slammed for not providing justice to victims of crackdown
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The People's Information Centre (PIC) has attacked the government and other relevant agencies for doing little to deliver justice to victims of the April-May 2010 crackdown.
PIC released a statement earlier this week demanding that the government, the ruling Pheu Thai Party, the Democratic Alliance Against Dictatorship (DAAD), Truth for Reconciliation Commission of Thailand (TRCT) as well as the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) take immediate action in delivering justice.
Some 89 people died and thousands were injured in bloody incidents at the height of the political violence in 2010, but relevant authorities have yet to nail down the culprits.
“Justice has not been delivered yet and so far, not a single government official has been prosecuted for those deaths and injuries,” the PIC said. What’s worse is that there are signs that amnesty would be granted to those involved, the statement said.
The PIC added that though the courage of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra’s government in compensating victims should be applauded, it was not enough.
“It will be a true betrayal if the government, the Pheu Thai Party and the DAAD follow Thaksin Shinawatra’s suggestion that victims of the 2010 crackdown sacrifice their right to justice for the sake of reconciliation,” the PIC said.
“No amnesty should be granted before the truth comes out and culprits are prosecuted.”
The centre also lamented the fact that more than 40 red-shirt supporters were still behind bars – a clear sign that commoners are not treated as equal to yellow shirts, the conservatives and even the DAAD leaders.
As for the TRCT, the PIC said it should release a clear-cut report on the 2010 crackdown. The centre also criticised NHRC for never condemning the excessive use of force on April 10 and May 19, 2010.
“The NHRC should focus on who violated human rights, not on who will gain politically,” the PIC said.
Meanwhile, Department of Special Investigation (DSI) chief Tarit Pengdith said yesterday that his agency had not yet given up on trying to find out who should be held accountable for the deaths and injuries in the crackdown.
“We are using all the means available to acquire more evidence, including satellite images,” Tarit said. According to him, the DSI usually stops investigating cases if no progress is made in two years.
As for the victims, Tarit said the DSI had, at the very least, found evidence suggesting that security officials might have been responsible for at least 22 deaths, and has forwarded these cases to the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
“We have also found that some 12 deaths might have been caused by the DAAD because weapons used to kill these victims did not match the ones used by security officials,” he said.
Security officials were among those killed.
