Nine years after Tak Bai incident
October 25, 2013 marks the 9th anniversary of the Tak Bai incident in Narathiwat in which 85 Malay Muslims died, 78 of them of suffocation after they were stacked on top of one another on trucks for five hours ride to the Ingkayuth army camp in Pattani.
All the criminal court cases have been over and the families of all the dead victims and the injured have been compensated although some of them are yet to receive the full amount of compensation. Total compensation for the 85 dead victims amounts to 561 million baht while 49 injured were paid 60 million baht with two still have not show up to claim their compensation. One was disabled and paid 6.3 million baht.
On top of that, 58 people who were charged and whose cases were eventually dropped were paid two million baht in compensation and 766 others who were detained but not prosecuted received 11 million baht in compensation. The other 514 detains have not shown up to claim compensation.
Altogether the government has paid 641 million baht in compensation for the Tak Bai incident.
But the money has not healed the wounds inflicted on the minds of many victims and their families. The wounds have left a scar in their memory.
In a recent interview with the Isranews reporters, Mrs Yuwareeyor Menaa, a 45-yaear housewife, said that although the tragic incident had been over for nine years she could still remember the incident which was her worst nightmare.
She recalled she was then three-month pregnant when went to see the protest in front of Tak Bai district police station. "There were so many people there so I went closer to have a look and I could not get out because all exits were blocked by security officials. I tried to crawl out because I was concerned with the baby in my body but I couldn’t," she said.
Mrs Ywareeyor and about 50 other women and children were trapped in the middle of the protest which eventually turned violent with gunshots being fired into the crowd. However, they were later released and driven home by the officials.
But the men, including her husband, were trucked to the Ingkayuth army camp in Nong Chik district of Pattani which was about 150 kilometres away.
Concerned with the safety of her husband, Mrs Yuwareeyor said she went to the camp the next day to locate her husband to find out whether he was still alive but was told he was taken to a prison.
The authorities could not tell which prison, so she went to Pattani and Yala provincial prisons but her husband could not be found. Finally, she went to Narathiwat prison and successfully located him and felt relieved that, at least, he was still alive.
Her husband, Mr Aware, was held in custody for 16 days before he was finally released on bail. But he had to fight a court case for two years before the case was dropped.
The Tak Bai district police station which was the scene of the protest has been abandoned and in dilapidated condition. The front gate is padlocked and the wall is barbwired although the sign bearing the name of the station is still there.
A pavilion opposite the police station has been turned into a play ground for youngsters. Ten-year old Abdul Hakim Huseng who was at the playground when Isranews reporters visited the site said he knew something about Tak Bai incident from his mother. He said he saw some bullet traces at a pillar of the pavilion but didn’t know what they were until somebody told him.
The boy said that the area surrounding the police station and the station itself have never been developed since the incident.
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Caption : The area surround the Tak Bai district police station