By Thai Newsroom Reporters
FORMER SOUTHERN ARMY commander Pisal Watanawongkhiri has recently resigned as Pheu Thai MP, thus rendering the ruling party unaccountable for his previous acts involving the Tak Bai incident.
Chief government whip Wisut Chaiyanarun confirmed today (Oct 15) that Pisal who was believed to have fled the country to evade arrest for alleged involvement as Fourth Army Region commander in 2004’s manslaughter of 85 southern villagers has formally resigned as Pheu Thai MP.
Due to Pisal’s earlier status as a party-listed lawmaker, a certain person on last year’s Pheu Thai list of electoral candidates will be automatically picked in his place, thus negating a by-election for MP in a 60-day period.
The Pheu Thai under de facto party boss Thaksin Shinawatra who performed as prime minister at the time of the Tak Bai incident a couple of decades earlier has been today held unaccountable for the retired general’s previous acts, according to the chief government whip.
Given a 20-year litigation period for the manslaughter case scheduled to end on October 25, Pisal would remain at large, believably abroad, whilst the largest ruling party could practically do nothing about it.
The southern protesters were reportedly killed shortly after they had been rounded up by army troops outside Tak Bai police station in Narathiwat and carried aboard crammed army trucks where 78 of the detainees suffocated on the way to an army barracks in Pattani.
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Top and Front Page: Former Fourth Army Region Commander Pisal Watanawongkhiri. Photos: Matichon
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