• Burmese
Monday, May 12, 2025
No Result
View All Result
NEWSLETTER
The Irrawaddy
31 °c
Yangon
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Junta Watch
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Books
  • Donation
No Result
View All Result
The Irrawaddy
No Result
View All Result
Home News Asia

Buddhist Monks Lead Commemoration of 1976 Thai Massacre

The Irrawaddy by The Irrawaddy
October 7, 2016
in Asia
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0 0
A A
Thai Buddhist monks walk with candles through Bangkok’s Thammasat University on Oct. 6, 2006 / Adrees Latif / Reuters

Thai Buddhist monks walk with candles through Bangkok’s Thammasat University on Oct. 6, 2006 / Adrees Latif / Reuters

4.1k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

BANGKOK, Thailand — Buddhist monks, survivors, mourners and activists gathered Thursday to mark the 40th anniversary of one of the darkest days in Thailand’s history, when police killed scores of university students at a peaceful protest, and vigilantes defiled the dead.

Students at Bangkok’s Thammasat University had been protesting the return from exile of a hated former dictator in 1976 when they were trapped by a right-wing mob and heavily armed paramilitary police, who fired guns and grenades at the defenseless crowd of several thousand.

After the students were subdued, thugs rushed in and grabbed as many as a dozen. They were then taken to a nearby public field, beaten to death, hanged and abused, with the bodies tossed onto a makeshift funeral pyre. The official death toll was 46, though credible independent estimates put it at more than 100.

RelatedPosts

Chinese Security Companies Pose Threat to Myanmar’s Sovereignty

Chinese Security Companies Pose Threat to Myanmar’s Sovereignty

March 1, 2025
899
Myanmar’s Junta Cracks Down on Smuggling on Thai Border

Myanmar’s Junta Cracks Down on Smuggling on Thai Border

October 21, 2024
1.8k
Outgoing Thai Foreign Minister Met Myanmar’s Jailed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Secret Visit

Outgoing Thai Foreign Minister Met Myanmar’s Jailed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Secret Visit

July 12, 2023
3k

The disorder was used as an excuse for the army to seize power later that day, undoing a student-led democratic revolution three years earlier.

The anniversary comes as Thailand is again under military rule since a 2014 coup, a situation referred to by some speakers at the anniversary ceremony.

“I think we all have heard the term ‘Brexit’ used to describe the process of Britain leaving the EU. I would like to propose that the first necessary condition for democracy in Thailand is ‘Mexit’; meaning the first necessary condition is to take the military out of politics,” said Surachart Bamrungsuk, a former student leader who was present at the Thammasat tragedy and then was held in prison for two years on trumped-up charges.

“If we can’t take the military out of politics, then don’t even think about democracy,” said Surachart, now a professor of political science at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

This year’s commemoration has drawn broader interest than usual because an invited speaker, teenage Hong Kong democracy activist Joshua Wong, was not allowed into the country by Thai authorities, making headlines worldwide. Wong was supposed to speak at Chulalongkorn, which this year joined Thammasat for the first time in marking the anniversary.

The rector of Thammasat, Somkit Lertpaithoon, said the university teaches its students about the violence and even has survivors on its staff.

“Even though the events of Oct. 6 may not be documented in Thai history, the new generation still strives to learn about it,” he said in a speech at the university.

The Thammasat massacre has always been a sensitive issue, both because the images of lynchings speak to a dark side of the Thai character and because the assault on the university showed how the state could carry out human rights abuses with impunity. No perpetrators were ever punished.

An increasing awareness of human rights since 1976 has led to much questioning of the use of state violence, especially because of a sometimes-violent struggle for political power that has troubled Thailand for the past decade, including bloody street battles in Bangkok in 2010.

“The massacre is still of interest 40 years after the fact because it remains officially unresolved. Those who were involved in the violence have not been held to account, even as there has been a wave of transitional justice processes around the world, and even expanded questioning and investigations in relation to the violence of April-May 2010,” Tyrell Haberkorn, a fellow in political and social change at the Australian National University, said earlier this week.

“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,” she said.

Your Thoughts …
Tags: Thai
The Irrawaddy

The Irrawaddy

...

Similar Picks:

Myanmar’s Junta Cracks Down on Smuggling on Thai Border
Burma

Myanmar’s Junta Cracks Down on Smuggling on Thai Border

by The Irrawaddy
October 21, 2024
1.8k

Junta officials have been inspecting goods, raiding warehouses and seizing goods from markets in Karen and Mon states, merchants say.

Read moreDetails
Chinese Security Companies Pose Threat to Myanmar’s Sovereignty
Video

Chinese Security Companies Pose Threat to Myanmar’s Sovereignty

by The Irrawaddy
March 1, 2025
899

In an interview with The Irrawaddy's Ei Kay Kyaw, Dr. Miemie Winn Byrd says the junta’s new law allowing China...

Read moreDetails
Outgoing Thai Foreign Minister Met Myanmar’s Jailed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Secret Visit
Myanmar’s Crisis & the World

Outgoing Thai Foreign Minister Met Myanmar’s Jailed Daw Aung San Suu Kyi in Secret Visit

by The Irrawaddy
July 12, 2023
3k

The minister’s warm ties with the junta and the timing of his visit before a key summit raise questions over...

Read moreDetails
Junta soldiers in Lay Kay Kaw on Dec. 14.
Burma

Myanmar Regime Continues to Shell Karen State Border Town

by The Irrawaddy
December 27, 2021
8.1k

The humanitarian situation is deteriorating as civilians seek refuge in Thailand amid continued fighting, including junta air strikes, in and...

Read moreDetails
Captain of Thai Youth Football Team Rescued From Cave Dies in UK
Asia

Captain of Thai Youth Football Team Rescued From Cave Dies in UK

by AFP
February 16, 2023
5.1k

Duangpetch Promthep, 17, died after being taken to a hospital from the school he was attending on a football scholarship;...

Read moreDetails
Thai security forces evacuate people who were stranded inside the Terminal 21 shopping mall following a gun battle, to try to stop a soldier on a rampage after a mass shooting, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand February 9, 2020. / Reuters
Asia

Death toll hits 21 from Thai rampage after attempt to stop shooter

by Reuters
February 9, 2020
4.5k

One member of Thailand's security forces was killed in a raid into a shopping mall to try to stop a...

Read moreDetails
Load More
Next Post
US President Barack Obama talks to the media as he meets with State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C. on September 14. / Reuters

Obama lifts sanctions against Burma

Members attend a meeting at the Lower House of Burma’s parliament earlier this year. / Soe Zeya Tun / Reuters

This Week in Parliament (October 3-7)

No Result
View All Result

Recommended

Fury Over China’s Support for Myanmar Junta Eclipses Quake Aid Gratitude 

Fury Over China’s Support for Myanmar Junta Eclipses Quake Aid Gratitude 

5 days ago
1.2k
Inside the Myanmar Junta’s Post-Earthquake Theater of Control

Inside the Myanmar Junta’s Post-Earthquake Theater of Control

5 days ago
989

Most Read

  • Myanmar Junta Chief Meets China’s Xi for First Time: State Media

    Myanmar Junta Chief Meets China’s Xi for First Time: State Media

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • A Troubling Message from China’s Ambassador to Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • KNU Hails Seizure of Myanmar Junta Base on Thai Border

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Breaking the 60-Year Political Cycle in Myanmar

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Myanmar Junta ‘Seizes Eight TNLA Positions’

    shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get The Irrawaddy’s latest news, analyses and opinion pieces on Myanmar in your inbox.

Subscribe here for daily updates.

Contents

  • News
  • Politics
  • War Against the Junta
  • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
  • Conflicts In Numbers
  • Junta Crony
  • Ethnic Issues
  • Asia
  • World
  • Business
  • Economy
  • Election 2020
  • Elections in History
  • Cartoons
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Commentary
  • Guest Column
  • Analysis
  • Letters
  • In Person
  • Interview
  • Profile
  • Dateline
  • Specials
  • Myanmar Diary
  • Women & Gender
  • Places in History
  • On This Day
  • From the Archive
  • Myanmar & COVID-19
  • Intelligence
  • Myanmar-China Watch
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Fashion & Design
  • Videos
  • Photos
  • Photo Essay
  • Donation

About The Irrawaddy

Founded in 1993 by a group of Myanmar journalists living in exile in Thailand, The Irrawaddy is a leading source of reliable news, information, and analysis on Burma/Myanmar and the Southeast Asian region. From its inception, The Irrawaddy has been an independent news media group, unaffiliated with any political party, organization or government. We believe that media must be free and independent and we strive to preserve press freedom.

  • Copyright
  • Code of Ethics
  • Privacy Policy
  • Team
  • About Us
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Burmese

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Burma
    • Politics
    • World
    • Asia
    • Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
    • Ethnic Issues
    • War Against the Junta
    • Junta Cronies
    • Conflicts In Numbers
    • Junta Watch
    • Fact Check
    • Investigation
    • Myanmar-China Watch
    • Obituaries
  • Politics
  • Opinion
    • Commentary
    • Guest Column
    • Analysis
    • Editorial
    • Stories That Shaped Us
    • Letters
  • Ethnic Issues
  • War Against the Junta
  • In Person
    • Interview
    • Profile
  • Business
    • Economy
    • Business Roundup
  • Books
  • Donation

© 2023 Irrawaddy Publishing Group. All Rights Reserved

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.