South Thailand - disappearances, suffocations and other murders.

There is a bloody war going on in the south of Thailand; one that has raged for sixteen years. But it hardly ever gets reported in Thailand.

Yet, when armies are left to conduct a war with a small minority in the corner of a country (see what occurred in Northern Ireland in the past), all sorts of human rights abuses occur.  That is what is happening in the south of Thailand.

Disappearances:

So far, ninety three people have disappeared in Thailand’s three southern provinces – Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat – during the insurgency, according to the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHRA) report, published last week. The Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP) claims there have also been fifty cases of torture this year alone while prisoners were in custody.  And an AFP report on 19th March 2008 says that 3000 people have been killed in the South since 2004, while a further report says there have 563 violent incidents, 302 deaths and 517 injuries this year up to October 25th.  Stories of disappearances appear regularly in the Thai press. Each time, the government promises an investigation.  But next to nothing happens.  The families despair that anyone will investigate the disappearances of their loved ones.

A provincial court in Yala was due to decide on a crucial case for disappearance victims in Thailand last Thursday. It concerns the disappearance of Mayateh Maranoh who has not been seen since he was taken away by a paramilitary group in 2007.  It is the first time such a case has gone to court. 

After some days of searching, his wife, Suma-idoh, learned that the unit of local recruits that evening held him at a nearby school. The police did nothing to investigate. In the end, Suma-idoh lodged a complaint herself, on August 20 2008, at the provincial court under the Criminal Procedure Code. But the case is difficult: Suma-idoh is taking a big chance in presenting it to the court.  There is no evidence, no forensic samples, and no body.  She filed a missing person’s report but there was no official investigation.  With no hard evidence, the judges will have to rely merely on the conflicting accounts of six witnesses – the wife, the son, a local governor and three paramilitary officials. (Note:  This case was fully described by Pattarin P Lee in the Bangkok Post, November 23rd.  My summary is exceedingly brief!)

Discrimination:

The poor treatment of Muslim people has always been a source of conflict in these provinces.  It has been occurred mainly in the Pattani region, in the three southernmost provinces but the violence has often spilled over to other provinces. It has gone on for decades, but the campaign escalated in 2004.  Thaksin then mobilized counter-insurgency forces and declared martial law, allowing 7 days detention of suspects without charge, with a further 30 days added in 2005. The government could also censor the media. But the insurgency has increased: many schools have been burnt and hospitals attacked.

There have been no real moves for a settlement. A National Reconciliation Commission in 2006 was brushed aside by Thaksin and his government brutally enforced the state of emergency. Local human rights workers complained over the scale of the killings and the lack of  any independent news reports. In March 2004, the Deputy Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh finally admitted to parliament the people’s complaints about the 'disappearances'. In August 2005, Thaksin Shinawatra appointed a committee to investigate them. It catalogued 23 cases between 2002 and 2006.

Killings:

Then, on 12 March 2004, a Muslim lawyer, Somchai Neelaphaijit, was dragged out of his car in broad daylight, in a Bangkok street and was never seen again.  Two days earlier he had made a complaint to authorities that his young Muslim clients were being tortured in police detention.  A month later, five policemen were arrested in over his disappearance. T hen, on 12 January 2006, one of the arrested policemen was found guilty of "forceful restraint of Somchai… against his will" and "committing robbery".  Thaksin publicly stated on 13 January 2006 that the government officials were involved in the abduction and killing. And on October 31, 2006, General Sonthi Booyaratglin (at the time the head of the Thai Junta governing the country) said the mastermind of this killing was a close aide of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra.  Yet no action was taken to investigate this.

Somchai’s wife (Angkhana), said these enforced disappearances could be greater than the official ninetythree, because relatives were afraid to report them.  The Bangkok Post (November 23 2008) said that Thailand's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) recently discovered graves with more than 300 unidentified bodies in southern Pattani Province, possibly forced disappearance victims.  No one yet knows, and the police are being obstructive.

Suffocations:

Another major case is the Tak Bai incident.  Eightyfive Muslims were killed on October 25, 2004.   That day, six Tak Bai men had been arrested.  So local people demonstrated, and tried to storm the police station. Hundreds of young men were then arrested. Their shirts were taken off, their hands tied, and they were made to lie face down on the ground. Soldiers were filmed kicking and beating them. They were then thrown into trucks to go to Pattani, stacked five or six deep in the trucks. By the time the trucks reached Pattani, five hours later, 78 of them had suffocated.

There was widespread protest across Thailand at the time.  But Thaksin Shinawatra  defended the army's actions. He said the men died "because they were already weak from fasting during the month of Ramadan."  Since then, no one has ever been brought to justice for these offences.

The relatives filed civil charges for compensation. Some money was paid out on 26 October 2007 and the prosecutor decided to drop criminal charges against the demonstrators. 

I have read the details of the investigation that was carried out into these deaths.  While the report says that the young men were not deliberately killed or suffocated, yet it accuses the three senior officials concerned of dereliction of duty since they walked away without checking what exactly their men were doing.  Also, it points, that the soldiers did nothing to prevent further suffocation (of the prisoners still on their way to the Pattani camp) when they discovered the first batch of prisoners had died in this way.  In spite of the report and the existence of videos showing what occurred on the day (I have watched some of these), no one has been charged in spite of the blatant beatings which occurred at the time.

Disappearances and killings:

These kinds of abuses occur not just in Thailand.  What is worrying is that they often happen to minorities where there is an overall conflict going (as in Sri Lanka?) and where the majority population have lost any interest in how the authorities are tackling the conflict.  I do not pretend to understand the ins and outs of the conflict that rages in the south of Thailand. 

But I do recognise serious human rights abuses when I hear about them!

 

Post Script:  I wrote this initially last week since i knew the Case over Maranoh was to be decided on November 28th, but there has no news about the judgement so I think it was postphoned.