A television station in Thailand has broadcast images of a group of soldiers in the north assaulting a teenager. In the 11 August 2007 footage shown by MCOT, a soldier at a checkpoint in Lamphun Province, south of Chiang Mai, knocks 17-year-old school student Ronachai Chantra off his motorcycle. Thereafter around ten of the troops stand around and kick him in the head repeatedly as he kneels on the ground next to his fallen bike. Afterwards, he is seen wheeling it away, with a swollen and bloodied face; he is stopped and questioned by police before being taken to the local station to record details of the incident. The video can be viewed online at: http://tna.mcot.net/i-content.php?clip_id=qqScpqY=&size=256k
According to an MCOT Chiang Mai radio broadcast of August 15, Lieutenant General Chirdej Kojarat, commander of the Third Army Area, said that an investigation had already been conducted and the soldiers had been warned and told to apologise to the victim. He said that the soldiers, from the 7th Infantry Division, had mistakenly thought that the teenager had thrown a bottle as he went past. He also apologised on their behalf and called on the troops to show more patience in dealing with the public.
Such incidents are likely to be common at this time, as soldiers remain on the streets throughout the country: martial law is still in effect in more than half of the provinces and the army commander has indicated that it will stay that way throughout the August 19 referendum on the new draft constitution. Troops have meanwhile been mobilised to ensure that as many people get out and vote in favour of the military-backed charter as possible, while at the same time preventing opponents from being heard. This particular assault has become known only because a camera crew happened to be nearby at the time. In its absence, the boy would have been lucky to get home with only scars and bruises; he would have been hard pressed even to get a complaint heard, let alone investigated. As it stands, the evidence is on camera and cannot be denied or justified.
However, the reaction of Lt-Gen. Chirdej is both typical and a cause for concern, not only for the victim in this case but for everyone in Thailand, because it speaks to the pattern of thinking that holds sway in the military and police hierarchies there. In making clear that the soldiers have been “warned” and told to apologise, he is implying that they should be excused from criminal responsibility. Now they know they have done wrong and admitted it to the boy, given that they were doing their duty for the nation, why should they suffer more? It’s just some kid who got kicked in the head a few times; does it really matter?
Although this incident was relatively minor, this is the sort of reasoning that has followed all of the worst atrocities throughout the modern history of Thailand, from the massacres and systematic killings of the 1970s to those in the south of the recent years. Good persons who are working in the interests of the nation–as defined by its ruling military and political elite–should be excused if they do wrong. The criminal law should not apply to them. And the higher they are, the less it should apply. The case of General Pallop Pinmanee is indicative. By law he should be under criminal investigation over the killings of 28 men in 2004, as a judicial inquest last year found him and two other officers liable for their deaths, but he is instead today holding a senior post in a powerful internal security agency.
This attack is important because its needless brutality can neither be denied nor excused. Apart from being taken to the police station, the victim has also reportedly given a testimony to the public prosecutor in Lamphun. The Asian Human Rights Commission thus urges that both the police and the prosecutor do their jobs according to the provisions of the penal and criminal procedure codes of Thailand and set an unequivocal example by seeing that the responsible army personnel are fully investigated and brought before a court of law. The military must not be allowed to influence or deter them. The justice ministry should also investigate the incident and ascertain as to whether or not the victim deserves witness protection, in order to prevent the perpetrators or others threatening or coercing him against testifying in court.
At this time that the interim government of Thailand is claiming to take an interest at last in the extrajudicial killings, disappearances and other abuses committed by the police force under the former government, it would be an enormous hypocrisy if soldiers caught on film kicking the bowed head of a teenager as if it were a football end up being excused from prosecution by virtue of their having apologised. The incident offers a clear opportunity to the armed forces to send a message that their personnel too are not above the law.
