(Hong Kong, March 1, 2007) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on Thursday launched a new webpage calling for an end to the emergency regulations in force across the country’s southernmost provinces.
“The emergency decree over the southern provinces permits soldiers and police to abduct, detain, torture and kill with impunity,” Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based regional rights group, said in marking the launch of the page.
“This law is patently illegal by international standards, and we demand that the government of Thailand retract it,” Fernando said.
The Emergency Decree was enacted in July 2005 and must be renewed every three months.
It was initiated by the government of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, but has been renewed twice by the military regime that took power by force last September 19.
The new webpage, at http://thailand.ahrchk.net/edecree/, tracks the number of days that it has been in effect and number of times that it has been renewed, which so far number eight in total.
The decree is due for renewal next on April 17.
The webpage also contains a copy of the decree, comments on the law by the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings and related contents by the AHRC.
The UN rights expert has referred to the decree as making “it possible for soldiers and police officers to get away with murder”.
The site also contains the final report of the National Reconciliation Commission on possible solutions to violence in the south, which included extensive recommendations on institutional and judicial reforms.
“To our knowledge the government has done nothing about any of the commission’s proposals,” Fernando said.
“The fact that the commission strongly emphasised that the conflict is as much about systemic injustice as cultural or regional differences is significant, yet its work has been ignored by the government,” he said.
“What is the point of convening a commission if its findings are never implemented?” Fernando added.
In addition to the emergency decree, martial law remains in effect in over half of Thailand.
The military junta is also reactivating a cold war internal security operations command and notorious village militia units to counter ambiguously-described “threats” to the nation.
The AHRC has consistently opposed the September 19 coup.
One month after the takeover it released a 27-page dossier of statements condemning it as a fraud and a disaster for human rights and the rule of law both in Thailand and the region.
The dossier is available online: http://thailand.ahrchk.net/docs/AHRC_Thailand_Coup_2006.pdf.
In November it launched a webpage listing “fictions vs. facts” about the coup, at http://thailand.ahrchk.net/fiction-fact.
