Thailand History : The Red Drum Massacres

[DrB0b]

An earlier post by Mid on the execution of Khrong Chandawong and a recent conversation with some Thai friends on the suppressed aspects of Thai history reminded me of this "forgotten" atrocity. I'm posting it for two reasons, one is that it's an incident that deserves to be remembered and the other is it might serve as a reminder to some of the realities of political and military power in Thailand. I can't provide a link to the original as, even though the BP still have a link on their website (http://www.bangkokpost.com/peoples_progress/),
it no longer leads anywhere. A PDF copy of this article is available at http://www.robinlea.com/pub/RedDrums.pdf

From Bangkok Post special publication magazine "Oct 14, 1973 - People's Progress, 30 years on" dated 14 October 2003


The Red Drum massacres of 30 years ago
The Red Drum massacres of 30 years ago represent excesses in counter insurgency that no one wants to revisit. But memories die hard and a healthy way of living with the horrors is to admit them.

About 3,008 people - accused of being communist suspects - are believed to have died after being pushed down 200-litre red drums alive or semi-conscious and incinerated. The atrocities began in military camps in a small village in Phattalung about two years before the events of October 13, 1973, and continued through 1975, according to a former special branch police officer.

To put to rest the souls of the villagers, thousands of people from the southern provinces of Phattalung, Surat Thani, Songkhla, Trang and Nakhon Si Thammarat converged for religious rites at a rubber plantation in Ban Kho Lung, in Phattalung's Si Nakarin sub-district on April 10 this year.

The plantation housed two companies of soldiers, one from the Senanarong barracks in Songkhla, and another from the Ingkayuth Boriharn barracks in Pattani.
"It was the policy of the Thanom Kittikachorn government to decisively flush out communist insurgents," said the former special branch police officer.

But the government never specified what "decisively" meant. While the soldiers at Ban Kho Lung resorted to pushing suspects down red drums before burning them, forces in Nakhon Si Thammarat killed entire households and left the bodies right there, he added.
"As subordinates, the officials merely followed orders. Mistakes were inevitable."
Police also played their part in the drastic suppression, killing suspects based on lists sent from intelligence units, he confirmed. They sent on some of the suspects to the military camps at Ban Kho Lung. But the officer emphasized he never witnessed any of the red drum executions.





The suppression waged by the police and the military drove thousands of villagers into the arms of the outlawed Communist Party of Thailand.

Fon Silamul, now a provincial councilor, was one of them, his operational patch the Phu Banthad mountain range. He remembers how fear convinced him to join the party after soldiers and police visited the homes of his relatives and took the men for questioning at Ban Kho Lung camp.

When relatives went to visit the men at the camp two days later, they were told that some had been released but others were now dead. Not one ever returned home.

Mr. Fon said he could not remember a single man - "old or young" - remaining at home in the villages of Ban Na, Lamsin, Khao Khram, Ban Tone, Ban Loh Kwai, Ban Lam Nai, Ban Na Wong, Ban Rai Nua and Ban Kongla after news began to spread of the people accused of helping the CPT being burnt alive.

"What can villagers like us do when we are sandwiched between the government officials and the CPT? If we refused to cooperate with either side we would be in great danger.
"Taking sides with the CPT seemed to be the best way to survive in the circumstances when the police and security officers could not provide us with protection and everything was a real mess."

Mr. Fon remembers the hooligans and thieves from other areas who came to steal cattle most nights until there was not a single animal left in his village. The police feared for their own safety because they were outnumbered by these gangs. They refused to respond to calls to root out the thieves.

When people could not rely on government officials, they turned to members of the CPT united front who had settled in the area about "nine years earlier" (or in the early 1960s). These men and women promised to save them from military atrocities and maintain law and order.

Things were made worse for many villages as the lists of CPT members and hooligans prepared by the village headmen often contained the names of those with whom the headmen was in conflict. These were arrested but none were executed before 1970. Most underwent "re-education".

The mass killings reportedly began in 1970, when rangers with the Special Task Forces in Lop Buri and troops from Ingkayuth Borihan barracks were sent to crush communist insurgents.

When Mr. Fon and other villagers living near the Ban Ko Lung camp were asked how they knew those arrested later became victims of the flaming red drums, they said they could hear the roar of military trucks - used to drown out the screams of those being burnt alive - throughout the evenings after communist suspects were taken to the camp. The villagers would smell human flesh burning and see the fumes rise into the night sky.

"At the same time, some arrested villagers from Surat Thani were thrown from helicopters over the Phu Banthad mountain range," Mr. Fon alleges.

Asked if they had proof of the mass killing, Mr. Fon and other villagers said they found human skulls and bones scattered along Klong Muay, adjacent to Ban Kho Lung camp, after it was closed in late 1975.

"Many children used the skulls to play football and we were told that ash and other remains were dumped in Lamphan, a part of Thalae Luang in Phattalung."
The people of Phattalung did not know much about the Red Drum atrocities. All they knew was that soldiers were killing communists because they were at war with government troops.

He said that the figure of 3,008 people killed in Red Drum cases was compiled by a committee attached to the pro-democracy Student Federation of Thailand in 1975 who were sent to visit the area to collect information on the victims. There are no known copies of this report available now.

The villagers said they bore no grudges against those who brought so much terror into their lives. They had no desire to take revenge against police and the military.
"Let bygones be bygones, and let us patch up our differences of ideology," Mr. Fon said. "I fully understand that the troops involved in the Red Drum case had to follow orders and the villagers thought they were fighting for their survival and for a better life. No-one was really at fault as it was very common to see losses on both sides when each side claimed to fight for a better ruling system."

For the former special branch police officer, the events of 30 years ago may be seen as a case of over-reaction by the state. But for state officials then, danger lurked in every corner, especially in Kong La district, which they could not penetrate, not even when the deaths started mounting.

The Red Drum massacres ended in 1975, two years after the fall of the Thanom regime, and when Thailand established diplomatic relations with China, the officer said.
Though memories of he events of Ban Kho Lung are fading, most villagers who survived the horrors still refuse to talk about it.

Their only desire, they say, is to make merit in honour of those who perished in the red drums because "when those people were killed, they had no chance to see he monks for their last blessing".

"We want the Red Drum case to be a lesson and not forgotten by our next generation that their ancestors sacrificed their lives for today's democracy." one said.

A group of villagers has already bought a piece of land for 450,000 baht to build an information centre and monument to those killed, a plan that apparently has run into opposition from state authorities, the former special branch officer among them.
But how else to repose the ghosts of the Red Drums?

Bangkok Post special publication magazine "Oct 14, 1973 - People's Progress, 30 years on" dated 14 October 2003

[Mid]

Thanxs for the post DrB0b , I had seen reference to this earlier , not sure where but I think it was the blogworld , I do remember the reference was short on a cite , something which you have corrected .

as an aside whilst we are on the subject of Thai history , here is another article sadly worth a read :

Thai Army's atrocity at Mount Dangrek: Khmer Refugees' tragic stories
https://teakdoor.com/the-multimedia-f...ml#post1761466 (Teak Doors History Channel)

[DrB0b]

^Ah, I was looking for that history thread earlier but couldn't find it. WTF is it doing under Computers can be Fun/The Multimedia Forum

[DrB0b]

ถังแดง (tang daeng, Red Barrels). Song about the massacres.

Lyrics:

ปัง ปัง โวยวาย เสียงเจ้านายรบกวน ค่ำมืดลมหวน เสียงมันชวนครางครัน
กระโดดลงใต้ถุนหลบกระสุนนาย กลิ่นความตายโชยมา

เขาว่าพัทลุงสบาย ฉันว่าอันตรายแท้เชียว
จะไปทางไหนให้หวาดเสียว มันโกรธเรานิดเดียวเราก็ตาย

จับไปลงถัง ราดน้ำมันแล้วจุดไฟ ข้อหาคอมมิวนิสต์ มันคิดไป
จับพี่น้องเราใส่เตา แล้วเผาไฟ แล้วมันก็ป้ายสีแดง

บ้างเมียก็เสียผัว ถูกตัดหัวเสียบประจาน
มันขี้หกลูกหลาน ว่าสันดานเป็นคอมฯ

แท้จริงมันคือ เจ้านาย หัวหน้าตัวร้ายไอ้สอพลอ
มึงต้องออกไปไอ้หัวหมอ ไอ้พวกหัวดอ ต้องออกไป

ชีวิตคนไทย มันขาย เป็นทาสรับใช้ไอ้กัน พรากลูกเมียเขาเพื่อเอาเงิน
แร่ไทยมันขนกัน สุดประเมิน แล้วยังสรรเสริญเยินยอ

[Mid]

^Ah, I was looking for that history thread earlier but couldn't find it. WTF is it doing under Computers can be Fun/The Multimedia Forum

Just one of TD's mysteries ..................

Do you think there is enough copy for a dedicated sub forum , I also took some time to find that history thread and the info in it unfortunately is some what out of sight .

[DrB0b]

Lecture from the Australian University on the Phattalung Massacres and the impunity granted to the killers by the state. MP3 format

Getting away with Murder: State violence and Impunity in Phattalung.

[Butterfly]

terrible,

reminds me of the War on Drugs lead by Thaksin and friends, and the war in the South started by the Thaksin regime, persecution without due process, just done for propaganda

thank god at least the Democrats never started such things, that's why they are and should be the only choice for the future of Thailand democracy

Thanks drB for reminding us how horrible some Thai leaders can be, murdering sociopaths

[Mid]

thank god at least the Democrats never started such things, that's why they are and should be the only choice for the future of Thailand democracy

Rohingya boat voyagers were set adrift in an engineless boat on the high seas by the Thai Navy, according to a member of a boatload of ninety-one Rohingya males that drifted ashore on remote islands in Indian territory.

Thailand towed Rohingyas out to sea again, report voyagers

Abhisits watch .

[Gerbil]

Taking an objective view, why has there no evidence been found that this actually took place?

according to a former special branch police officer.

But the officer emphasized he never witnessed any of the red drum executions.

The mass killings reportedly began in 1970

When Mr. Fon and other villagers living near the Ban Ko Lung camp were asked how they knew those arrested later became victims of the flaming red drums, they said they could hear the roar of military trucks

The people of Phattalung did not know much about the Red Drum atrocities

He said that the figure of 3,008 people killed in Red Drum cases was compiled by a committee attached to the pro-democracy Student Federation of Thailand in 1975 who were sent to visit the area to collect information on the victims. There are no known copies of this report available now.

I'm not suggesting it didnt, but surely it wouldnt be that hard to produce a list of alleged victims of this (surely there are surviving family members)?

[Butterfly]

Rohingya boat voyagers were set adrift in an engineless boat on the high seas by the Thai Navy, according to a member of a boatload of ninety-one Rohingya males that drifted ashore on remote islands in Indian territory.

Thailand towed Rohingyas out to sea again, report voyagers

yes, the PM didn't order that. Thank god. And it wasn't a government organized campaign either.

The Thai military has some nasty fuckers on board, it's a shame they are not referred to the Hague over this.

[Mid]

yes, the PM didn't order that. Thank god.

happened on his watch and he denied it initially .

Abhisit gets no free pass .

[DrB0b]

Taking an objective view, why has there no evidence been found that this actually took place?

There has, there was a government enquiry in the 70's. The government admitted it happened, that's covered in the mp3 I posted. It's also covered in several hundred Thai newspaper articles from the time of the enquiry. Objectively there's absolutely no doubt it happened. Apart from the enormous amount of evidence proving it happened there's the pretty glaring fact that the government and the military admitted it happened. The only dispute is in the numbers killed, the Thai government said they only cooked 80 people alive, the Thai Students Federation (later famous for getting massacred in their turn in 1976) claimed almost 4,000. Later investigations claimed that the number was definitely closer to 4,000 than to 80.

I'm not suggesting it didnt, but surely it wouldnt be that hard to produce a list of alleged victims of this (surely there are surviving family members)?

There are many. Again, check the Thai newspapers, the planned memorial mentioned in my OP was finally built about 5 years ago, many family members turned up for that.

Your questions are good questions and are one of the reasons I started this thread. These incidents are famous in Thailand, both for what happened and for how the military and the government reacted, although it's rarely discussed these days. It is, however, almost unknown to non-Thais as, for some reason, it's almost entirely ignored by non-Thai historians.

[killerbees]

Thanks for starting this thread. I've seen the 'Red Drum' incidents mentioned a few times in general Thai historical works- the white-covered Pasuk and Baker one, if I recall correctly- but haven't happened across anything this specific. And from what I read previously, I thought it was a singular 'incident.' I didn't realize it was a protracted campaign.