FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
AS-255-2006
October 18, 2006
A Statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission
THAILAND: Military junta won’t bring justice to south
In the days after the September 19 coup in Thailand there was some expectation that bloodshed in the south may lessen. Like a lot of other things, this has not happened. Reports of bombings and shooting continue, and the scale of incidents has perhaps escalated. Among those killed was a village headman who had lodged complaints over the brutality of security officers who raided his village in September.
The new military junta has reassured the public that solving the conflict is a top priority. Its prime minister is visiting Malaysia to discuss the persistent attacks near the border, while the head of the junta, army commander in chief General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, has revived some earlier joint agencies for the southern provinces.
The warring in the south was greatly inflamed by the government of Thaksin Shinawatra. The use of emergency regulations; alleged abduction, torture and killing of local residents by security forces; slaughters in April and November 2004 and wanton mismanagement of government agencies and personnel in the region all exacerbated it. The cynical use of political appointees to investigate cases that should have been handled by judicial agencies guaranteed impunity to army officers and police responsible for deaths in custody, mass killings and other gross abuses. The malicious pursuit of innocent persons by the public prosecutor in their stead, which continues to this day, has damaged confidence among local people in the impartiality of the courts.
In 2005 the government established the National Reconciliation Commission ostensibly to come up with solutions to the conflict, and in fact as a means to deflect growing public criticism of its policies. The commission did its work thoroughly and in May 2006 submitted a 132-page report. It clearly explained that the problems in the south were essentially the same as those facing rural communities throughout the country, heightened due to tensions produced by the overwhelming presence of security forces in response to the separatist agenda of a small number of persons. Among the primary causes of the conflict, the commission identified unconstrained abuses of administrative power and violent measures by state authorities, together with injustices arising from the existing judicial process and administrative system. Its recommendations included that the judicial system in the south should be reconfigured through coherent administration, improved efficiency, greater monitoring and changed attitudes.
The government and security establishments mouthed appreciation about the report, but did nothing to implement it. A deputy prime minister was assigned the task of looking at ways to realise its recommendations, which came to nought. General Sonthi, who at that time was directly responsible for the region, also expressed support for the findings but apparently did not attempt to put them in to practice. It seems unlikely that his new military administration will do any more.
Military-led governments have a habit of worsening, not solving, internal conflicts. Soldiers respond to conflict in the manner that they have been trained. This is contrary to notions of justice and fair trial. Thomas Hobbes, in his classic treatise on the state, Leviathan, rightly observes that, “All men that are ambitious of military command are inclined to continue the causes of war and to stir up trouble and sedition”. Irrespective of whether or not the national leadership is interested to obtain peace, many persons in the army, police and other agencies will be keen to have more violence. And as the junta has severely curtailed all civil and political rights in Thailand, state security personnel will have freer hands to do as they please and be subject to less scrutiny and criticism from outside parties than before.
The September 19 coup has set back the development of the judiciary in Thailand by years. At present, not only does the south subsist under emergency regulations, which the regime has not sought to lift, but the entire country has been kept under martial law for nearly one month. The 1997 Constitution and Constitutional Court have been abolished. The superior courts have been subjected to blatant interference and forced back into a role of subservience to the executive. The fundamental rights of all persons in Thailand have been greatly violated.
Under these circumstances, it is nonsense for the military-run administration to talk about solving the conflict in the south. The southern bloodshed is intrinsically linked to justice issues. With the entire justice system compromised and the military’s position strengthened by the coup, security forces across Thailand, and certainly those in the south, will feel fewer obligations to mend their ways or submit to the orders of civilian agencies.
Above all, the new military regime in Thailand will not stop the fighting in the southern provinces because it is acting in its own interests, not those of the public. It lacks sincerity and credibility. Rather than being something best ended, the conflict in the south may at a later time better serve as another convenient pretext to retain various powers after the junta’s supposed expiry date. In the meantime, overtures towards peace make a nice sound in contrast to the noises from its aggressive and uncompromising predecessor and aid in the regime’s efforts to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of the world through attempts to justify the unjustifiable events of September 19. So its mouthing on about the south is set to continue.
The Asian Human Rights Commission calls for concerned persons in Thailand to examine and question the motives of the new military-led government in promoting peace in the south, and assess its implications in view of conditions in the country as a whole. Many questions that need to be asked at this time have not yet been asked. Many more persons, particularly from the concerned region and professional groups, need to be querying the prospects for justice at a time that Thailand is under military rule and martial law, its judiciary is hobbled, and its people are bereft of a constitution and the means to protect their fundamental rights.
The Asian Human Rights Commission also calls for serious re-examination and discussion of the National Reconciliation Commission’s report. This is the best guide we have so far for what needs to be done by the government of Thailand to address the conflict in the south. Until its advices are made meaningful, the violence will persist. And a prerequisite to proper implementation of the commission’s findings is the ending of military rule in Thailand, as well as the writing of a constitution by an assembly of persons answerable to the public, not to the army. There is no other way to justice in the south, and without justice there will be no peace.
