Protesters condemn 'distortion of history'

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Oct 6 massacre survivors slam 'Samak's lies'

Protesters condemn 'distortion of history'

ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT

Former students and relatives of those killed during the violent suppression of the Oct 6, 1976 student uprising at Thammasat University condemned Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej yesterday for distorting historical facts. About 200 former students, victim's relatives and academics rallied at the October 14 Memorial yesterday.

They took Mr Samak to task for stating in a recent interview with CNN that only ''one unlucky person'' was killed.

Phol Phanatham, a former student, showed a police forensic document which recorded 48 deaths on Oct 6.

''There had to be more deaths, as relatives of the lost people did not dare report to police at that time for fear of being labelled communists,'' he said.

Suthachai Yimprasert, a Chulalongkorn University history lecturer and student activist in the mid-1970s, said historical facts should not be distorted by any person in power.

The Oct 6 crackdown was a brutal crime committed by the state against innocent people led by students protesting against dictatorship, he said.

''There was systematic provocation of royalists that led to the massacre. It was a narrow-minded and ignorant reaction of the Thai elite towards those who thought differently,'' he said.

''Sadly, our nation still has a tendency to refuse those who do not think the same way as the mainstream.''

Lek Wittayathorn, mother of a Ramkhamhaeng University student who was killed, said she was saddened to hear Mr Samak repeatedly say that only one person died.

''While I was looking for my son, I saw people strangled at Sanam Luang. I later found my son's body at the Police hospital.

''How could there be only one death, as Mr Samak said?'' she said.

As prime minister now, Mr Samak needed to take responsibility, Mrs Lek said.

''How can a leader of our country lie to the people and hurt the feelings of the parents of those who died?''

Orissa Airawanwat, former secretary-general of the People's Vocational Front of Thailand, said Mr Samak was at the core of the anti-student movement.

He had been instrumental in provoking the rightist ideology since Oct 14, 1973 through a military radio programme, the former Bangkok Technical College student said.

Kongjeth Promnumpol, chairman of the group Relatives of the October Heroes, said people of the October generation did not expect Mr Samak to apologise.

''We just want Thai society not to forget that a brutal massacre was committed against unarmed and innocent students and democracy lovers by those who were afraid of losing power through democratisation,'' said Mr Kongjeth.

Bangkok Post Feb. 18, 2008

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Adisorn warns PM to back off

Dwelling on events of Oct 6 could split PPP

POST REPORTERS

Former Thai Rak Thai (TRT) executive Adisorn Piangket yesterday warned Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej that his allies could easily turn on him if he continues to dwell on the controversy surrounding the Oct 6, 1976 massacre of student protesters at Thammasat University. The warning from Mr Adisorn showed the fragile relations between Mr Samak and loyalists of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Some members of the People Power party (PPP), which is made up largely of members of the dissolved TRT, are former student activists who once held a grudge against Mr Samak over the incident. However, Mr Samak and those PPP members later agreed to bury the hatchet and work together to fight the coup makers who deposed Mr Thaksin two years ago.

Mr Adisorn was a student activist at the time of the earlier Oct 14, 1973 uprising and is one of the 111 former TRT executives banned from politics after their party was dissolved for poll fraud.

The issue was also fiercely contested by Mr Samak and Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva during a debate on the government's policies in parliament on Monday. Mr Samak pointed out that he was not the interior minister at the time of the uprising. He took the job on Oct 22, 1976 _ two weeks afterwards _ and was never linked to the violent suppression of the student movement on Oct 6.

Activists and relatives of victims of the uprising were angered by Mr Samak's recent interview on CNN in which he said that only ''one unlucky person'' was killed in the uprising.

Those who were at the scene believe that hundreds of demonstrators died, although the official death toll was 46 people killed when armed police and soldiers stormed Thammasat University.

Mr Adisorn yesterday urged the prime minister to apologise to the public for making the comment, saying it was not appropriate to make light of an incident involving the deaths of many people.

Bringing up such a sensitive and divisive issue could turn friends into foes, he told reporters.

But Interior Minister Chalerm Yubamrung defended Mr Samak, saying those who levelled accusations against the prime minister were mistaken.

Mr Chalerm said Mr Samak had no authority to quell the student movement because he was made interior minister only after the Oct 6 incident. He said Mr Samak had just said what he had seen.

He said the violence broke out because a drunken police officer at the scene accidentally fired his gun.

Mr Samak conceded in parliament on Monday that he told foreign reporters only one person died in the Oct 6 incident, and that is what he saw happen at Sanam Luang. He said he did not go to see dead bodies at other places.

Mr Adisorn said the incident was the most brutal suppression of student activists Thailand has ever seen.

''The incident is not a topic that should be treated lightly. It is about the loss of lives,'' he said.

''The architects of the Oct 6 massacre of students must be made to pay for their actions. It is a trauma in society that needs to be dealt with,'' he said.

On the evening of Oct 6, after the suppression of the uprising, a military junta by the name of the National Administrative Reform Council took charge and put in power a civilian government led by Tanin Kraivixien.

Mr Adisorn said a lot of people were persecuted under the authoritarian rule of that government.

He said the history of the Oct 6 incident was in need of revision. Independent bodies such as the media or human rights organisations should take the initiative to do so, he said.

Muanchon Saengsuk, one of the student activists who took part in the uprising on Oct 14, 1973 and fled into the jungles and joined the Communist Party of Thailand, supported calls to revise the history of the incident.

Mr Muanchon accused Mr Samak of telling lies when he said in the CNN interview that only one man died.

He called on other ''Oct 14 people'' to come forward and disprove what Mr Samak said of the Oct 6 massacre.

He said ''October people'' were regrouping to make known their stand.

Bangkok Post Feb. 20, 2008