After 40 years, the Thammasat University massacre remains "a wound Thailand does not want to remember"
On 6 October 1976, paramilitaries cracked down on a mass student demonstration, killing more than 100. The perpetrators were never identified. Few commemorations of the massacre are held. With Thailand is still under military rule, this "makes it even more difficult to commemorate these events” since the military wants “everything [. . .] wrapped in silence," source tells AsiaNews.
Bangkok (AsiaNews) – Buddhist monks, human rights activists and onlookers gathered today in Bangkok to commemorate the Thammasat University massacre. On 6 October 1976, the authorities carried out a bloodbath against student protesters, killing more than a hundred of them.
Despite the fact that the tragedy is still alive in the memory of Thais, no official or mass commemorations is planned.
"Such tragedies are a difficult moment that Thais, and more broadly East Asians, tend not to remember," a source told AsiaNews,
The fact that Thailand is under a military regime since 2014 "makes it even more difficult to commemorate these events, and everything is wrapped in silence," the source added.
On 6 October 1976, thousands of students from Thammasat University (central Bangkok) took to the streets against the return of exiled dictator Thanom Kittikachorn (prime minister from 1963 to 1973). Eventually, the students were cornered by right-wing paramilitaries who fired at them and threw grenades at them.
After subduing the students, the paramilitary grabbed some students, taking them to a nearby public place where they were abused, beaten to death, and hanged. Unceremoniously, the bodies were then tossed onto a makeshift funeral pyre. The official death toll was 46, though credible independent estimates put it at more than 100.
"The unrest,” the source said, “was described as Communist-connected. In the 1970s, there was great fear of communists, Vietnam, etc. They said that the students were commie insurgents, who had to be fought and eliminated."
This year’s commemoration received more attention than usual after Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong was arrested and then expelled from Thailand. He was supposed to speak at Chulalongkorn University, which this year joined Thammasat University for the first time to mark the anniversary.
“Even though the events of 6 October may not be documented in Thai history, the new generation still strives to learn about it,” said Thammasat rector Somkit Lertpaithoon.
After 40 years, the massacre is an unsolved case because the perpetrators have never been identified or punished.
“The incident has relevance to the current state of Thai politics because it becomes possible to continue to stage coup after coup while repressing dissent because those who have done so in the past have not been held to account for doing so,” said Tyrell Haberkorn, a fellow in political and social change at the Australian National University.
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