From: mptj@vax5.cit.cornell.edu
Newsgroups: soc.culture.thai
Subject: crackdown information & action
Date: 5 Sep 92 02:19:26 EDT
Distribution: soc
Organization: Cornell University

I just received the May-June edition of Decade Magazine. This 14th edition is 
sub-titled "phreutsapha khon kla" (I apologize for not using any standard
transliteration. I'll need some practice), and is devoted mostly to the 
May crackdown. Unlike many other accounts of the event it is written very 
clearly, with a lot of facts, both cold and statistical (such as 
the age distribution of the demonstrators and their income) and 
personal accounts from people who barely made it to tell their stories, 
which could make you shiver with terror and rage. Most of these people 
gave their names and other details, including pictures. This is NOT
just another magazine, and if you have been feeling that there was no
real investigation of the event and no real search of the missing people,
this is one place where you might find a lot of information. Articles from
western magazines are also quoted.

The magazine is sold for 50 baht in Thailand, and if there are a few of you,
you might consider a joint yearly subscription (3000 baht). This can be
obtained by sending a check to 

borisat nang-seu dee 
234/78 soi sin-sayam
thanon asok-dindaeng
huai khwang
krunthep 10310
PT (=post office) dindaeng


Reading what many people went through, I ca'nt help feeling that each
and every soldier who shot a demonstrator is a cold-blooded murderer, and 
that every policeman who tortured people in the jailhouse is a sadist
that should be put in a mental hospital. It is only too bad that the
ones who did need this mental treatment eventually were the victims,
and I happen to know one. The justice that should be sought is not that 
Suchinda will stop playing golf, smiling. This is not enough.
Officers, soldiers and policemen should pay for their deeds personally,
if a standard of a soldier who uses his brain before using his triger-
finger is to be established. This standard may save thousands of lives
the next time there is a demonstration in Thailand. These men should not
be linched: only a thorough investigation into each case can decide whether
a man is innocent or guilty. Among the soldiers there were many who 
helped wounded people, and I am sure that hardly any of them wantd to
be in that situation. But still, tens of thousands of bullets were shot.
The men who shot them should not be encuraged to shoot again by letting
their part be forgotten. It is exactly this lack of justice that 
encurages violence during the elections. gangster-politicians and their
gunmen just know they can get away with it: Did'nt Suchinda get away
with the most obvious crime?

I have a suggestion for the government here: It is common that when the
police ca'nt nail down all the people associated with a crime, they 
promise some kind of amnesty or consideration to the "little fish"
in exchange for information that will lead to the "big fish". They are
also provided with protection against the big fish. A soldier 
can be considered a small fish, but an officer is a big one. And someone
on the level of Suchinda is a whale. The meathod is: protect the small 
fish and sue the big ones. The thousands of soldiers who were at the scene
of the crime should be made to understand that it is OK to talk; that 
if your commander did something immmoral, telling what he did is the 
right, the moral and just thing to do. And here is the real challenge 
for the government (and I do hope that Dr. Yunyong in Chula passes it on to 
them): it is much easier to just sit back and relax, to
let things pass until they are forgotten. But if you see yourself
having a responsibility to anything at all, if the word "government"
means anything to you, if you want to do something to save lives of your
fellow countrymen, and if you want people to view your country as a place
where human life is valued (a place that should be visited, perhaps...)
than you should make the brave decision: strive for justice.


If you have read this far, thanks. I hope it will make you try to 
move something.
	

	Abi