REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, BANGKOK -- Police in Thailand's insurgency-hit south on Thursday said they are seeking members of the security forces over the killing of four people in a firefight in a remote village in the Muslim-majority region.
Two villagers and two students, all men, were shot dead in a March 25 operation on Ban To Chut village in Pattani province, where a group of suspected militants were thought to be holed up.
Initial police reports said the dead were all militants -- a claim yet to be formally retracted.
But rights groups say the men were unarmed and innocent, with no links to the insurgency, reviving fears over extra-judicial killings in a remote area cloaked by soldiers, police and paramilitary forces.
More than 6,300 people, the majority civilians, have died in over a decade of conflict between the Thai state and rebels seeking a level of autonomy for the provinces bordering Malaysia.
"We are fixing a date for seven members of the security forces to turn themselves in," Kriskorn Paleethunyawong, police commander of Pattani province told AFP, without giving further details of who they are.
"They will probably be charged with killing -- but whether it was done in line of duty, or not, they will have to testify later."
More than 20 people were arrested in the raid, although most have subsequently been released without charge.
A fact-finding panel is due to summarise its findings on Friday, the police commander added.
But civil society campaigners say they have little faith in such panels, which are often set up in the wake of civilian deaths.
"These investigations have never brought justice to victims... members of the security forces have never been convicted of an extra-judicial killing in Thailand's deep south despite clear evidence against them," said Pornpen Khongkachonkiet of the Cross Cultural Foundation.
Pornpen said the case damages a highly-publicised strategy by the military to pay villagers to provide their own security and inform on insurgent movements.
It may also cast doubt among locals over the true intentions of the ruling Thai junta, which is trying to reboot a stalled peace process with several rebel groups operating in the deep south.
Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist nation, annexed the region more than 100 years ago and stands accused of perpetrating severe rights abuses as well as stifling the distinctive local culture through clumsy -- and often forced -- assimilation schemes.
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