The **Civil Rights Movement in Thailand** was a small [civil rights
movement](Civil_Rights_Movements "wikilink") which occurred in
[Thailand](Thailand "wikilink") from
[1975](Revolutions_of_1967_-_1975 "wikilink") to
[1976](Timeline_of_Libertarian_Socialism_in_Southeast_Asia "wikilink")
as the countries [Muslim](Islam "wikilink") minority demanded equality
with the [Buddhist](Buddhism "wikilink") majority.

## Background

Thailand had experienced a large amount of racial tension between the
Buddhist majority and the Muslim minority which mainly lived in the
south. In late 1975 six young Muslims were traveling in a car through
Pattani when they were stopped by soldiers. They were arrested,
apparently for further questioning, but in fact were taken to a bridge,
stabbed, and their bodies were thrown into the river. A fifteen year-old
boy survived and swam ashore. The boy told other Muslims what had
happened.

Residents of the boy’s village were incensed and filed a petition
against the government. In this petition they recounted the story that
the boy had told. They also claimed that government officials had bribed
doctors at the hospital where the boy was taken for treatment to poison
him in order to silence him. The villagers went on to state in the
petition that if the government failed to acknowledge the incident they
would protest.

## Events

When the government failed to respond, students from Thammasat,
Chulalongkorn, Ramkhamhaeng, Mahidon, and Chiang Mai universities
organized a protest with a list of five demands.

1.  Murder suspects investigated and prosecuted if found guilty
2.  Families of the victims to be compensated
3.  Soldiers removed from the three southern provinces of Thailand
4.  Facts of the killings to be released to the public.
5.  The prime minister to meet the protesters and ensure their demands
    were met.

Protesters and activists threatened to be violence, and on the 13th of
December and explosive was thrown into a crowd of protesters, killing
between 11 and 25 people. The leader of the protests ran onto a stage
after the explosion and pleaded with people not to leave before being
shot to death. It is unknown if soldiers or Buddhist extremists
organised the attacks. Of course, this led to the paradox of repression,
and more protests came, lasting 47 days of continuous protests.

## Results

By the 27th of January, the government agreed to all the demands of the
protesters.

## References

[Global Nonviolent Action
Database](Global_Nonviolent_Action_Database "wikilink") - [Thai Muslims
campaign for civil
rights, 1975](https://nvdatabase.swarthmore.edu/content/thai-muslims-campaign-civil-rights-1975)