Writing to Suwat Liptapanlop, the Minister of Justice of Thailand on June 22, the Asian Human Rights Commission observed, “The question may well be asked as to why Thai police enjoy electrocuting testicles?” The remark was made after the May 24 gruesome torture of Urai Srineh, allegedly at the Chonburi provincial police station. Urai was electrocuted on his testicles for hours before being released. Doctors have said that he may suffer lasting damage. If he loses his ability to reproduce, the perpetrators could be charged with grievous bodily harm, and be sent to jail for up to ten years. However, none have yet been investigated or even identified. When Urai was in hospital a deal was struck and money paid to close the matter.
Urai’s treatment is reminiscent of earlier genital torture cases in Thailand. These include the assault on Ekkawat Srimanta by officers attached to two police stations in Ayutthaya province during November 2004. Ekkawat was rushed to hospital by relatives with severe burns all over his testicles, penis and groin. His suffering was widely reported and excited public disgust. Similarly, in September 2004 officers of the Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya station allegedly electrocuted Anek Yingnuek by attaching live wires to a fork stuck in a bag of ice resting on his groin. Like other poor people in Thailand, Anek had anticipated that he would be beaten up during police interrogation, but had not imagined such sadistic methods. “It was really torture,” he said with disbelief later. Unfortunately for Anek, he was kept in detention under a system that allows the Thai police to hold an arrestee for up to 86 days before charges are laid, during which time evidence of his maltreatment was lost.
Each of these cases shares a number of features that speak to wider issues in addressing torture in Thailand.
Torture is routinely used in ordinary criminal cases. While it comes as little surprise to people in Thailand to hear that terrorist suspects are brutalised by their interrogators, it is more disconcerting to know that ordinary criminal suspects are given the same types of treatment. Urai was accused of murder; Ekkawat, to robbery. Both were innocent men. Anek had admitted to robbery, but the police wanted to push up the charge and tortured him to implicate three friends, thereby securing a gang robbery charge.
The type of torture inflicted is often extreme. The police officers involved must derive some enjoyment from what they do, as lesser abuse would be sufficient to force a confession. In fact, the reputation of the Thai police for barbarity alone is enough for many persons in custody to say whatever the police want to hear. The pattern of very harsh torture in Thai police stations suggests a mentality among officers that extremely cruel and barbaric treatment of persons in custody is completely acceptable.
Torture perpetrators have little fear of repercussions. Not only is the use of torture treated as normal among low-ranked officers, it is also tacitly or openly condoned by their superiors. Under such circumstances, it is bound to be widespread. The perpetrators rarely bother to conceal their crimes or hide their identities. At worst, they may face internal disciplinary proceedings; none are known to have been charged or been prosecuted for the offence. As it stands at present, there is no discrete law under which torture perpetrators can be punished, nor any avenue for complaints. Thailand has not yet ratified the U.N. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
The reputation of the police in Thailand is now at an all-time low. The silence that has long existed around their brutal and corrupt methods is being broken. As more and more reports of heinous torture in police stations are being discussed publicly, repugnance grows. As the practices of police in setting up uncounted numbers of extrajudicial killings are exposed, the reaction is getting stronger. As the extent of corruption that pervades the entire police force is laid bare, people are demanding action. Even some senior police officers admit in private that things are going badly wrong.
The previously unquestioned power of the Thai police is daily facing greater challenges. Some parts of the police force can be expected to take strong steps to defend their authority and enjoyment of illegal practices. In the case of prominent human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, who had publicly implicated police in the torture of his clients, this meant forced disappearance. Most recently, police linked to the reported extrajudicial killing of a suspect in Nonthaburi province have sued prominent forensic pathologist Dr Porntip Rojanasunan after she questioned their conclusion that the death was a suicide. She earlier won a litigation case brought by other police after suggesting that a man who died in custody had been a victim of torture: including by having a burning plastic bottle applied to his testicles.
These reactions are symptomatic of a growing struggle for the power over criminal investigation and justice in Thailand. The question that people in Thailand are now asking is whether this power belongs to the police or the public–on whose behalf it should exercised through open and accountable civilian-run institutions, including the courts, branches of the bureaucracy, and independent agencies. As the questioning becomes louder, new ideas for change are being shaped and directed, and the historical dominance of the police is becoming increasingly untenable.
On this International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, June 26, 2005, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) lauds those individuals and groups in all parts of society in Thailand who are working to end the practice of torture in their country. As Thailand goes before the U.N. Human Rights Committee this July, an historic opportunity exists to obtain much international credibility by ratifying the Convention against Torture. This can be done without delay, as the Constitution of Thailand already prohibits torture in principle, and the changing of laws and other arrangements to accommodate the Convention can be done later. The AHRC urges all concerned parties to direct their energies towards this important goal, in order that the people of Thailand may at last have the hope of being able to live free from fear of torture.
