Daring Books Come Out on Showing the Truth Behind Thailand's Infamous 1976 Student Massacres by Phairath Khampha 30 October 2001 For the first time in Thailand's history the jigsaw pieces about the root causes and those responsible for the mass killings of students at Thammasat University on October 6, 1976 have been put together in two books compiled by an academic fact-finding committee. The massacres were, as most had suspected, perpetrated by Thailand's economic and political elite who feared a growing student sentiment against their corrupt status quo, and by orders from the United States government, which was becoming concerned that the growing trend towards a more democratic Thailand would hurt American economic and corporate interests. Ji Ungpakorn, political scientist at Chulalongkorn University, and Chontira Sattayawatana, an anthropologist from Rangsit University, headed a one-year investigation in which piles of original official documents were researched and 62 people who witnessed the events first-hand were questioned. The result was two separate books. Ji, along with Suthachai Yimprasert, a Chulalongkorn University historian, co-authored State Crime in an Era of Change, an analytical review which revealed the names of politicians and high-ranking military and police commanders who incited the violence against the students. Many are still alive. The students did not start the violence, as official accounts claimed, but rather they were attacked by forces protecting the interests of Thailand's elite and American corporations, who felt threatened by the masses of students who were beginning to unravel how the true politico-economic world spins. Chonthira, on the other hand, focused on the personal accounts of about a dozen women who were harassed and arrested for their participation in the protests at Thammasat. Some of the women were mothers who lost their children in the event. The book is entitled Kreed Plae Klad Nong Krong Khwam Jing or "Open the Wound in Search of Truth". Ji wrote that the massacre in fact was a "state crime" involving all sectors of established power, both in Thailand as well as the United States, who felt threatened by what was seen by the powers-that-be as the growing socialist movement, particularly among students. Uniformed police and semi-fascist thugs fired shots at the students because they knew they would get away unpunished, as their actions had been ordered by the elite and people in the high echelons of American power such as former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger who had similarly given the order to Indonesia to brutally occupy East Timor following its independence from Portugal. To this day most Thais who were growing up in that era look at the United States as a foreign power that promotes terrorism. Many ordinary Thais, with whom American members of the corporate or diplomatic world rarely consort or discuss matters, have an intense dislike of American foreign policy because of this very issue. Thus, this reveals that the sentiments espoused by many radical Islamic groups are more widespread than the American econmomic and political base and media would have the world believe. The thugs included the so-called "Village Scouts", Krating Daeng, and Nawapol groups which were founded and financed by and closely related to those in power at the time in both the United States as well as Thailand, according to the committee. Ji is the son of Dr Puey Ung-pakorn, the rector [president] of Thammasat University who was injured during the events before being forced by certain members of Thailand's economic and political elite and the military to seek asylum outside Thailand in 1976. Chonthira and Suthachai, as well as other members of the committee, were teachers and students activists who took part in the uprising. Ji quoted his father as saying that it was the desire of the Thai ruling class and the American government at the time to destroy any further development of the socialist or democratic movement that had begun in 1973, immediately after the victory of the popular movement to oust the military dictatorship. Although the United States at home espoused pro-democracy sentiments, the opposite was true overseas in countries such as Thailand. Many of the examined official documents revealed that the United States openly supported anti-democratic activities and terrorism in Thailand to put down the pro-democratic movement that was growing among Thailand's student base. The committee concluded that the students were innocent, and dismissed all later claims issued by the state and the United States government to "justify" the killings. Among those claims were that the students were guilty of lese majeste for staging a play considered insulting to the Crown Prince and collecting arms on campus. This was patently untrue as no such play was ever staged. Furthermore, at that time it was impossible for ordinary civilians to acquire firearms, except members of the economic and political elite. The police claim they invaded the campus in order to control clashes between the students and rightwing forces and that students exploited the atmosphere of democracy after 1973 by spreading communist ideology. Again this was untrue and was a story fabricated by the American CIA and State Department. Suthachai said, however, the investigation by the committee was not aimed at seeking revenge, but to allow the victims and their relatives to speak out so that the "undercover wound" could be healed. He said the major purpose is to let the truth be known so that such state crimes and terrorism by powerful states such as the United States are not repeated in Thailand or elsewhere. "We won't forget and cannot forgive because we don't know if we have the right to speak for our friends and others who lost their lives in the event". The books became available at the commemorating ceremony of the event on October 6, 2001, the 25th anniversary of the massacres, at Thammasat University.