The "Red Drum" or "Red Barrel" killings ( th, เผาถังแดง, ) 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)^:186 civilians who were accused of supporting communists by

Thai Thai or THAI may refer to: * Of or from Thailand, a country in Southeast Asia ** Thai people, the dominant ethnic group of Thailand ** Thai language, a Tai-Kadai language spoken mainly in and around Thailand *** Thai script *** Thai (Unicode block ...

government forces in Tambon Lam Sai, Phatthalung Province, southern Thailand, in late 1972, under the military dictatorship of

Thanom Kittikachorn Field Marshal Thanom Kittikachorn ( th, ถนอม กิตติขจร, ; 11 August 1911 – 16 June 2004) was the leader of Thailand from 1963 to 1973, during which he staged a self-coup, until public protests which exploded into viole ...

and

Praphas Charusathien Praphas Charusathien ( th, ประภาส จารุเสถียร, , ; 25 November 1912 – 18 August 1997) was a Thai military officer and politician. He was a field marshal (''chom phon'') of the Royal Thai Army and minister of inter ...

.^:186 The massacre was probably ordered by the government's

Communist Suppression Operations Command ('Conquer evil by the power of good') , logo = , logo_width = 150 , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = 200px , seal_caption = , picture = นายกรัฐมนตรี เป็น� ...

(CSOC), with

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and t ...

, 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"^:259 during the brutal 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; th, พรรคคอมมิวนิสต์แห่งประเทศไทย, ) was a communist party in Thailand active from 1942 until the 1990s. Initially known as the Communist Party ...

and supporting its

insurgency An insurgency is a violent, armed rebellion against authority waged by small, lightly armed bands who practice guerrilla warfare from primarily rural base areas. The key descriptive feature of insurgency is its asymmetric nature: small irregu ...

. 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 A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

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 was punished.^:186-187

See also

References

Further reading