Suchinda Kraprayoon, a prime minister of Thailand who seized power in a military coup, then violently cracked down on pro-democracy protests in 1992, events that came to be known as Black May, died on June 10 in Bangkok. He was 91.
His death, in a hospital, was reported by the Thai News Agency.
Mr. Suchinda’s brief tenure as prime minister, from which he resigned in humiliation after just 48 days, was a pivot point in modern Thai history. His leadership was considered such a disaster that it quelled the military’s appetite to overtly interfere in government for more than a decade, an unusual interlude in a nation long dominated by the armed forces.
A charismatic Army general who became a short-fused politician, Mr. Suchinda was the nation’s supreme military commander in February 1991, when he helped engineer a bloodless coup against a civilian government, some of whose ministers were notorious for corruption.
It was the 17th military coup or attempted coup in Thailand in six decades.
After the coup, Mr. Suchinda publicly promised that he would not take the job of prime minister, yet he did just that in April 1992, after being nominated by a pro-military coalition in the legislature. Opponents called his appointment “Suchinda’s second coup.”
Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Bangkok beginning on May 17. Troops loyal to the government sprayed the unarmed crowd with automatic rifle fire. The lobby of the Royal Hotel in the city’s historic center became a makeshift surgical ward, where at least 10 people were reported to have died on one given night.
Young protesters rampaged in the streets, setting fires to government offices and demanding that Mr. Suchinda resign. Instead, he issued an emergency declaration suspending civil rights, including press freedom. The Bangkok Post, an English language daily, left large white spaces where articles on the protests would have run.
The demonstrations brought out deep resentments over decades of rule by Army strongmen. The young militants and opposition politicians were joined in the streets by members of the previously largely silent middle and upper classes, who helped protest organizers communicate using a then-novel technology: cellphones.
After four violent days, the worst political disturbance in Thailand’s contemporary history, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, a unifying figure to Thais, summoned Mr. Suchinda and the leader of the democracy movement, Chamlong Srimuang, to his palace. He pressed them on live television to end the conflict.
Mr. Suchinda agreed to a constitutional amendment requiring the prime minister to be an elected member of Parliament, which had been the chief demand of the protesters. The king granted amnesty for government officials’ acts during the protests.
On May 24, Mr. Suchinda resigned, declaring in a speech that he was “deeply sorry about the unrest and violence between government officers and the people, which led to many lost lives and physical damage.”
Officially, the government acknowledged that 52 people were killed. But independent humanitarian groups estimated that hundreds were missing. The interior minister, a military chief, sneered at that number: “Line up the corpses, and prove it,” he said.
Suchinda Kraprayoon was born on Aug. 6, 1933, in Nakhon Pathom, about 35 miles west of Bangkok. He was the youngest of three children of Juang and Sompong Kraprayoon.
He pursued studies in medicine before switching to the national military academy, Chulachomklao. His graduating class went on to dominate the armed services. Mr. Suchinda’s wife, Khunying Wannee (Noonpakdee) Kraprayoon, was the sister of an army general.
As a young officer, Mr. Suchinda trained in the United States at Fort Sill, Okla., and Fort Leavenworth, Kan., becoming fluent in English. He served as a military attaché at the Thai Embassy in Washington in 1971.
In 1990, he became commander in chief of the Royal Thai Army and, the next year, commander in chief of all branches of Thailand’s armed forces.
Information about survivors was not immediately available.
After his ouster from government, Mr. Suchinda entered the private sector.
For 14 years, Thailand enjoyed democratic governments, until 2006 when another military junta seized power in a bloodless coup.
Trip Gabriel is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk.
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