This jovial attitude of Ford’s quickly turned serious when asked about his role as prominent Romulan file clerk Thamok s'Droall for Camp Lakat during the Romulan occupation of and subsequent genocide on Cardassia, though it is known as the “Cardassian Decimation”, during the first season of Bethel Station (episode 12: Of Meek Monsters).
In the episode a freighter docks at Bethel Station so one of its passengers may receive treatment for a condition called Terothka virus aka Tuvan Syndrome, which was caused by a mining accident at a brutal labor camp near the city of Lakat during the occupation of Cardassia. As the patient is a Romulan, Lieutenant Jiaki Ghaanrar has the man arrested as a war criminal, only to find his name, Thamok s'Droall, is not listed for any crimes. Station commander Braxton Kinton (played by Billy Dee Williams) sees no option but to release s'Droall, but Jiaki is adamant as Thamok is a Romulan who was present at the Lakat Camp, which for her is reason enough. Kinton decides to investigate further and has the man held in custody. Noting a conflict of interest, Kinton orders Jiaki to remove herself from the case, but her emotional plea and a promise that she will remain professional convinces him to let her continue.
When she interrogates the Romulan she discovers that Thomak is actual Helito s'Radaik, the brutal camp commandant of the Lakat Camp during the 24 year long occupation of Cardassia by the Romulan Star Empire and the man responsible for the infamous seven massacres at Lakat (both the city and nearby camp) earning him the nickname “the Lakat Liquidator” in which the last of these massacres at least numbered 29,000 labourers dead (these massacres being part of the Cardassian Decimation).
Upon this revelation, the Romulan is to stand trial for his war crimes that is until Commander Kinton makes a discovery that Helito is in fact Thamok – at first Jiaki doesn’t believe him as she remains steadfast in her conviction to see Lakat Liquadator brought to justice that is until she finds out a Romulan state secret from a defector-turned doctor, that secret being that Helito s’Radaiak has been dead for 5 years.
Armed with this new knowledge, the Cardassian confronts “Helito” telling him that she knows he’s Thamok s’Droall. “Helito” vehemently denies this going on a rant about how he laments that he couldn’t kill more Cardassians prior to the Romulan withdrawal from Cardassia. However, when Jiaki presses him further the Romulan’s mask comes off and he breaks down sobbing uncontrollably as he remarks what a coward he is for not stopping the atrocities at Lakat. Thamok is released from custody but demands that he be put on trial and executed so that Romulus will acknowledge the Decimation and accept guilt over it. He is eventually convinced to instead be a whistleblower who sheds light on the atrocities that took place on Cardassia and ultimately becomes the Romulan ambassador to Cardassia after Romulus democratises to start the process of reconciliation and healing in later episodes. The episode is a reference to the Italian concentration camps during the “Pacification of Libya” and a reference to the ethnic cleansing of Slovenes from their homeland during the latter stages of WWII and its immediate aftermath and the erasure of the Slovenes’ language, customs, and culture in the following decades by the Fascist regime of Benito Mussolini and his successors which has continued to this day (though to a much more relaxed degree since re-democratisation). The following is an excerpt of an exchange between Thamok and Jiaki:
Jiaki: You're Thamok, aren't you?
Thamok: You believe me to be that insect? That whimpering slime? You stupid pathetic Cardassian woman, don't you know who I am? I'm your greatest fear. I'm your the night terror that keeps you up at night. I'm the Lakat Liquidator!
Jiaki: The Lakat Liquidator died five years ago! You’re Thamok s’Droall, one of the camp filing clerks!
Thomak: Oh you couldn’t be more wrong you Cardie Spoonhead! I am alive. Alive and well! It's Thomak who's dead! Thomak, who was good for nothing but cowering under his bunk and weeping like a frightened child. Who every night covered his ears because he couldn't bear to hear the screaming...for mercy or terror...from Cardassians...[breaks down into tears, sobbing uncontrollably then collects himself and sighs heavily]
Thomak: You don’t have a clue as to what it's like to be a coward...to see those horrors everyday…see the looks of terror and sorrow on the faces of men, women, and children as they beg for their lives…and just stand there and do nothing…there was even one time when a little Cardassian girl, couldn’t have been no older that six, pleaded with the guards to let her go after a failed escaped attempt…promising that she won’t be a Cardassian anymore…I saw that little girl have tears streaming down her face and heard her bellowing out the most pained cries of abject terror one could imagine as the guards took her back to the mines where her family had died and I just stood there cowering…just stood there [Thamok gazes into the distance with a thousand yard stare before coming back to reality]…Thomak is dead, he deserves to be dead.
View attachment 871962Sigourney Weaver circa 1989 (top). Music from “Of Meek Monsters” specifically the part where Thamok’s charade fell apart (bottom).