Thai army accepts blame for killing civilians

PATTANI: The Thai army has accepted responsibility for killing four innocent civilians in the insurgency-plagued south two months ago.

Regional army commander Lt Gen Udomchai Thammasarorat made the admission yesterday in accepting the findings of an independent investigative panel.

More than 5,000 people have been killed in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since an Islamist insurgency erupted there in 2004.

The investigation found that soldiers mistakenly shot dead four men and wounded another four on Jan 29 in Pattani province. The happened at a checkpoint set up to search for attackers who had shot a grenade into an army base earlier that day.

The army compensated the families of each slain victim with 500,000 baht (RM49,887). — AP