BANGKOK (AFP): All seven defendants in a notorious Thai massacre -- including a former ruling party MP -- on Tuesday missed their last scheduled court date before the deadline to try them, heightening the chance they will never face justice.
Their absence from the hearing in Narathiwat means that unless they turn themselves in or are arrested in the next 10 days, no one will be prosecuted for the "Tak Bai" incident, in which 85 people were killed on October 25, 2004.
The 20-year statute of limitations expires next week and relatives of the victims expressed anger, promising to fight on "for the sake of the dead".
Seven people were shot dead when security forces opened fire on a crowd protesting outside a police station in Narathiwat, one of the Muslim-majority southern provinces Thailand colonised over a century ago.
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.
It remains one of the deadliest days in the decades-long rebellion by Malay-Muslims against rule by the Thai state, which rumbles on to this day.
With the time limit looming, the Narathiwat provincial court in August accepted a criminal case filed by victims' families against seven officials, a move Amnesty International called a "crucial first step towards justice".
Under the Thai criminal code, at least one of the defendants must appear before court to acknowledge the case for proceedings to begin.
Among the accused is Pisan Wattanawongkiri, commander of the army's southern region at the time of the massacre, who was last year elected to parliament for the ruling Pheu Thai party.
He resigned from the party Monday, it said Tuesday, adding he was undergoing medical treatment in Britain. The move means he automatically loses his seat and with it his parliamentary immunity to prosecution.
The court said that in their absence it was scheduling the next hearing for October 28, at which point the proceedings are expected to be dismissed.
Rasada Manurasada, a plaintiff attorney, told reporters it was the defendants' "last chance" to make their case.
"If you all run away in the hope that the statute of limitations will expire, it will remain in people's minds," he told them in a message from the courthouse steps.
Tak Bai has become synonymous with lack of accountability in a region governed by emergency laws and flooded with army and police units.
"The court issued an arrest warrant but nobody has been arrested," said Muhamad Sawaree Useng, 36, who lost his older brother.
"We are very tired but we have to fight for fairness for the sake of the dead." - AFP
