In recent months, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has heard of more and more cases of torture by state officials in Thailand. The majority of these cases are from the south and northeast. The fact that the two regions are at the opposite ends of the country and yet the practices bear many resemblances indicates that state policies encouraging violence and abuse from the centre are the main cause of widespread torture.
On 11 April 2007 Sukri Ar-dam, a 23-year-old teacher, was arrested at a police checkpoint in Pattani province under special powers to deal with the ongoing conflict in the south. He was held at the Inkayuthiborharnin army camp for more than seven days without charge. Sukri was accused of being involved in the beheading of a villager in Napradoo subdistrict on 8 February 2007. When he denied this–according to his alibi, he was teaching at the local Islamic school–the soldiers allegedly tortured him to force a confession. On April 26, a member of the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand and his team went to visit the camp. Sukri testified that he was tortured while in custody by persons who were not in uniform. He was taken to an inquiry room on April 11, where he was kicked, assaulted and strangled by a well-built man. He was then transferred to another inquiry room, where seven to eight men took turns to torture him. He was kicked in all parts of his body, and the perpetrators flicked his genitalia. Sukri was also forced to take off his underwear and put it on his head. The torture lasted for about two to three hours, until he was unconscious. The fact-finding team also observed scars and severe injuries on his knees, back and mouth. On May 1 the police applied to the court to extend his detention under the emergency regulations.
Similarly, Muhamud Arming Usoh was taken by soldiers from near his home on 30 October 2006 as he returned from work at a rubber plantation. In an unidentified army camp, the soldiers allegedly kicked him and hit him in the face and over the head with a steel bar; burnt cigarettes onto his neck, chest, ear and genitals; and smashed beer bottles across his knees. He was then allegedly chained to a dog for the night, before being taken to a bigger camp the next day. After the week was up, he was handed to the police and charged with murder and firearms offences.
Meanwhile, the AHRC has to date documented more than 24 cases of torture, disappearance and extrajudicial killing in Kalasin province, north eastern Thailand, in the aftermath of the 2003 “war on drugs” in which over 2500 persons were killed. There the police are the alleged perpetrators, but their patterns of torture are similar to those of the security forces in the south. And like those in the south, no alleged perpetrator is yet to be charged with any offence. In fact, they are all still serving at their posts, and have in some cases been promoted.
Torture happens everywhere in Thailand, not only in the south or other areas of intense conflict. It is routinely used in ordinary criminal cases, such as those in Kalasin. The type of torture inflicted is often extreme: electrocution and abuse of the genitals are frequently reported. The pattern of very harsh torture suggests a mentality among police and state security officers that extremely cruel and barbaric treatment of persons in their custody is completely acceptable.
Torture perpetrators have little fear of repercussions. Not only are there no clear policy guidelines to eliminate torture; on the contrary, it is tacitly–and sometimes openly–approved as a part of investigation. Nor is there any law under which torture perpetrators can be punished, or avenue for complaints, despite years of promises by the authorities in Thailand that they would pave the way for such measures. Neither has Thailand yet ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, again despite many written and oral assurances that it would do so imminently.
Throughout Thailand, torture is used systematically to curtail civil liberties, and thus further inhibits restoration of political stability in the country at a time of great confusion and difficulty. Although the current regime has paid lip-service to police reforms, such promises are hollow without open and serious recognition of the scale of torture in and around police stations and army camps, and a programme of meaningful institutional reform to address its causes and consequences.
