The media people were lured first to a shed,
under the pretext of giving an interview, by then Foreign Minister.
Then after an hour or so, after the interview, they found that
they were locked in the shed. And they could not get any where
near the vicinity of the hospital also, after managing to come
out of the locked shed.
At 5:00 AM on the early morning of January
25, 2000, Armed Forces Day of Thailand, all lights went out in
the hospital and the vicinity. Two hundred Thai commandos raided
the hospital under cover of darkness. The young hostage-takers
prepared to take down the Thai commandos as they had vantage points
in the hospital and they could see the commandos clearly. And
most of all, they were fully armed also. In case, they had chosen
to stand and fight they could have easily taken down half the
Thai commando force in the exchange of gunfire, before they met
their fate.
Giving in to the pleas of the Thai people in
the hospital – sandwiched in between the two oposing forces
- the hostage-takers surrender to the Thai commandos . The Thai
patients begged the young hostage-takers to lay down their weapons.
They promised they would urge their authorities to be lenient
on them (Ten Lions) . And also, believing the Thai officials to
be law abiding and rational people, and most of all, to show that
they were not violent, at the least, the hostage-takers laid down
their hardware when the Thai commandos raided the hospital, firing
their automatic weapons indiscriminately, without due consideration
given to the lives and danger of the Thai patients and staff in
the hospital.
The foreign dignitaries from 190 countries,
who came to participate in the United Nations Conference on Trade
and Development (UNCTAD) held in Bangkok, Thailand, from February
12- 19, 2000, were held in awe and expressed their consternation
and indignation when they learned of the murder of the young hostage-takers
in cold blood; they were all stripped to their underwear, made
to kneel and then shot at the back of the neck, in execution style.
At least, one was seen shot behind his neck with his hands still
tied behind his back.
This brutal and grisly act of the Thai commandos
reflects the nature of the Thais on the people of Burma, especially
the officer commanding the operation on that day – General
Surayud Chulanont.
On January 25, 2000, at 8:30 AM General Surayud
Chulanont took the stand at the ceremony celebrating the Armed
Forces Day of Thailand, a hero, who had cold-bloodedly murdered
10 unarmed hostage-takers at dawn of this auspicious day for Thailand.
A few days after the murder at Ratchaburi,
the Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai showed his grief and also, made
it known to the world, that he had no part in the killing of the
“Young Lions”, by privately paying a visit to a Thai
Buddhist Temple at Ayudhaya, the ruined old capital of Thailand,
and performed a merit-making ceremony, offering alms to Thai Buddhist
monks. When the Thai press queried the Prime Minister over the
merit making, he replied, “for those hostage-takers”.
Given this as evidence, nobody in his right
senses would buy the denial by the Thai Army that it had no hand
in the killing of Johnny in July 2000, after the KNU people had
handed him to the Thai soldiers as claimed by the VBSW.
These shows of Thais’ penchant for killing
handicapped and unarmed people especially, whether out of the
habit of acquiescing to the Rangoon military junta for trade favours
and others, or of sheer desire to take revenge on the people of
Burma, stemming from a long simmering and standing animosity and
enmity between the two peoples, with respect to history, certainly
do not augur well for Thailand in the future.
Especially, Thailand openly exercising an acquiescing
policy on the lawless and illegal regime in Rangoon is in complete
contrast to the will of the people of Burma specifically, and
the international community in general. And that will certainly
bring chaos and instability in Thailand, if not in the region
also, in the years to come.
Most importantly, Thailand should embrace and
uphold the most basic of democratic ideals – law and order
– at the least, in case it professes as claimed to be practising
democracy. In that vein and order we believe nobody is above the
law, even the presidents, the prime ministers etc. and least of
all – Thai Army Chiefs and the lot in Thailand. The rule
of law is the main requisite for the future prosperity and posterity
of any country on earth.
However, the random killings of people, most
importantly and notably, the likes of Johnny and many other Burmese
student activists and others since 1988 and till today, by the
Thai authorities certainly testified to the fact that Thailand
does not profess or practice democracy in any sense of the word;
much less on the people of Burma as clearly evidenced in Johnny’s
case and others.
Given this Thailand should be deemed as a country
on par with its western neighbour Burma, running amok with despots
in uniform; the only anomaly is most of the lot in Bangkok wear
civilian attire. Even then a number of the despots in Thailand
are still in uniform and killing like the lot in Burma.
And what more! Thailand is under obligation
to answer all questions relating to the atrocities and the injustices
done on the people of Burma, specifically as regard to the likes
of Johnny and his friend Bay-da and others, after we rid our country
of the lawless and illegal military junta in Rangoon in the very
near future.
And of course, Thailand has to explain the
murder of the other nine “Young Lions”, who have graciously
and bravely laid down their lives in order that others - all Thai
patients and staff in the Ratchaburi Province Hospital on that
day - could live on and tell the true story of what had really
happened at Ratchaburi and who killed them and why?
[Than
Set Kyar Aung]
