The "Red Drum" or "Red Barrel" killings (, ) refers to the

mass killing Mass killing is a concept which has been proposed by genocide scholars who wish to define incidents of non-combat killing which are perpetrated by a government or a state. A mass killing is commonly defined as the killing of group members without ...

of more than 200 (informal accounts speak of up to 3,000) civilians who were accused of supporting communists by Thai government forces in Tambon Lam Sai,

Phatthalung Province Phatthalung (, ) is one of the southern Provinces of Thailand, provinces (''changwat'') of Thailand. Neighboring provinces are (from north clockwise) Nakhon Si Thammarat province, Nakhon Si Thammarat, Songkhla province, Songkhla, Satun province, ...

, southern Thailand, in late 1972, under the military dictatorship of

Thanom Kittikachorn Thanom Kittikachorn (, , ; 11 August 1911 – 16 June 2004) was Prime Minister of Thailand from 1963 to 1973, military officer, who supported and initiated military coups and became Thailand's defence minister. He rose to power when he staged a ...

and

Praphas Charusathien Praphas Charusathien (, , ; 25 November 1912 – 18 August 1997) was a Thai military officer and politician. He was a Field Marshal (Thailand), field marshal of the Royal Thai Army and minister of interior in the governments of military rulers Sa ...

. The massacre was probably ordered by the government's Communist Suppression Operations Command (CSOC), with

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

police The police are Law enforcement organization, a constituted body of Law enforcement officer, people empowered by a State (polity), state with the aim of Law enforcement, enforcing the law and protecting the Public order policing, public order ...

, and volunteer defence forces being implicated in it. It was only one example "of a pattern of widespread abuse of power by the army and enforcement agencies" during the anti-communist operations of 1971–73 that took an official death toll of 3,008 civilians throughout the country (while unofficial estimates are between 1,000 and 3,000 in Phatthalung Province alone). Those killed were accused of working with the illegal

Communist Party of Thailand The Communist Party of Thailand ( Abrv: CPT; , ) was a communist party in Thailand active from 1942 until the 1990s. The CPT was founded officially on 1 December 1942, although communist activism in the country began as early as 1927. In the 1 ...

and supporting its

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare against a larger authority. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric warfare, asymmetric nature: small irregular forces ...

. Until that point, communist suspects arrested by soldiers were normally shot by the roadside. The "red oil drum" technique was later introduced to eliminate any possible evidence. Suspects were clubbed to a point of semi-consciousness before being dumped in gasoline-filled, used oil drums and burnt alive. The 200-litre red

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

had an iron grille divider; there was a fire below, and the suspect above. Even after the end of military rule in the wake of the October 1973 Thai popular uprising, the killings were never seriously investigated and none of the perpetrators were punished.

See also

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