Thailand will indict ex-security personnel over the deaths of 78 Muslim protesters in 2004

BANGKOK (AP) — Eight former state security personnel accused of responsibility for the deaths of 78 Muslim protesters who were arrested in southern Thailand in 2004 will be indicted on murder charges, the prosecutor’s office announced Wednesday.

The case earned special notoriety because of the manner in which the victims died. They were arrested, had their hands tied, and were loaded onto trucks, stacked like firewood. By the time the vehicles reached an army base where they were taken to be detained, 78 had died of crushing or suffocation.

The long-delayed legal action in connection with what is known as the Tak Bai massacre came just over a month before the statute of limitations expires on the case. Even though the suspects have been indicted, the charges can still expire if none of those named appears in court before an Oct. 25 deadline.

The deaths occurred shortly after a Muslim separatist insurgency erupted in Thailand’s southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, the only ones with Muslim majorities in the Buddhist-dominated nation.

Muslim residents have long complained they are treated like second-class citizens in Thailand, and separatist movements have been periodically active for decades. Heavy-handed crackdowns have fueled the discontent. Fighting continues to this day, but at a lower level.

On Oct. 25, 2004, thousands of protesters gathered at the police station in Narathiwat’s Tak Bai district to demand the immediate release of six Muslim men who had been detained several days earlier. The detainees, members of an official village defense force, were accused by police of handing over weapons to insurgents, but reporting them stolen.

After the protest turned violent, around 1,300 protesters were