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Human Rights Watch has branded ousted Thai prime minister “a human rights abuser of the worst kind”

This article is the complete coverage of Thaksin’s human rights violation. The data here are gathered based on 3 main allegations against Thaksin during his time as Thai prime minister.

• Thaksin presided over extrajudicial killings during the notorious “war on drugs”. HRW says 2,500 people were killed during one three-month period at the start of 2003.
• Thaksin told the Thai military to employ any means to suppress an insurgency in the south of Thailand.
• Thaksin Suppressed the Thai media.

Source: BBC

Thaksin’s Wars on Drugs Killed Over 2 Thousands

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Selective justice for drug-war killers - Lots of people were killed thanks to government policies at the time [like the victim shown above, yet no one has been prosecuted. The anti-drugs war has quickly become another yawning hole in the country’s modern history.

The majority of who got killed was innocent people not drug traffickers.

In 2003 Thaksin gave the green light to the police and other authorities to show no mercy in cracking down on the narcotics trade in the country, in particular the networks supplying methamphetamines. In its letter, Human Rights Watch recalled lines Thaksin had delivered to justify the blood-bath. ‘’Because drug traders are ruthless to our children, so being ruthless back to them is not a bad thing,’’ Thaksin had said. ‘’It may be necessary to have casualties…If there are deaths among traders, it’s normal,’’

The consequences of those words became disturbingly clear early on in the anti-drug drive. During the first three months of that ‘war,’ which began in February that year, over 2,275 people were killed. Other deaths followed as the campaign was extended till the end of 2003.

Among those who lost a relative was Malai Khamjarsai. Her sister and brother-in-law were shot to death on the evening of May 19, 2003, at a security checkpoint near the city of Mae Sot, close to the Thai-Burma border. ‘’Both of them were innocent; they were clean; they only earned money through their transport business,’’ the 40-year-old Malai told IPS this week. ‘’The police and the government did little to investigate at that time.’’

The deaths also resulted in Malai having to care for the two children orphaned due to the deaths of her sister Umpaipan Roopongpraserd, who was 33 years at the time, and her husband, Pongtep who was 44. ‘’They are both boys, 12 and 16 years,’’ she says. ‘’We are still wanting to know why their mother and father were killed.’’

One person who may help is Kanit Na Nakorn, a respected former Thai attorney general, who has been appointed by the post-coup military government to head a committee tasked with uncovering the grisly details related to the ‘war on drugs.’ The delay in such an official inquiry over four years after the murder spree is due to the cold response by the Thaksin administration to stall any investigations into the thousands of extra-judicial killings.

‘’These murders were committed by the police; the policemen were the killers. Yet the government of Thaksin did not bother to conduct any inquiries,’’ Somchai Homlaor, a human rights lawyer, told IPS. ‘’Even complaints by the National Human Rights Commission were ignored. The commissioners submitted many reports on the ‘war on drugs’ to the Thaksin government and also to the United Nations.’’

What troubles Sunai Phasuk, the Thai researcher for HRW, is the line of argument Thaksin and his supporters are presently using to deflect the charges about his role during the bloody crackdown. ‘’Thaksin is asking for fair treatment and that he be considered innocent until proved guilty,’’ says Sunai. ‘’But when he was in power, he never gave his victims a similar chance to prove themselves in court. He ordered them to be killed.’’

The inquiry headed by the former Thai attorney general will help to shed light on another reality, too, Sunai explained during an interview. ‘’There is a need to change the perception in England about who the majority of those killed were. The majority was innocent people, not drug traffickers.’’

Source: RIGHTS-THAILAND:Thaksin May Yet Pay for Bloody ‘War-on-Drugs’ (IPS News)

And what Thaksin had to say?

When UN commission would dispatch a special envoy to gather information about the government’s policies on extrajudicial and drug-related killings.

“The United Nations is not my father. I am not worried about any UN visit to Thailand on this issue. A UN envoy can come any time to make observations,” Thaksin said.

Reference: The Nation (Asian Tribune)

More readings:

• Selective Justice for drug-war killers
• Drug-Related Killings : Verify the toll, say diplomats (Asian Tribune)
  
• War on drugs returns to bite Thaksin (BangkokPost)
• Not enough grave -The War on Drugs, HIV/AIDS, and Violations of Human Rights (HRW)

Thaksin’s and Human Rights Violation in the Southern Provinces

Takbai Massacre

For me, Thaksin is best remembered for the massacre in Takbai, where 84 Muslim protesters died in police custody, and many more deaths are unaccounted for. Some of those dead are my Southern Thai relatives. The stories of how they met their deaths are so horrific to narrate here. - Asmawi Mohamad

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, speaking before the announcement of the extra 78 deaths, said the protesters were weak because of fasting during Ramadan. “The protesters had several motives, but the main reason was separatism,” Thaksin said, “I cannot allow the separatists to exist on our land.” told reporters. He said the detainees were piled on top of each other in the back of the trucks.

The deaths occurred when the detainees, who were stripped semi-naked after their arrest, were being taken by truck to barracks in Pattani, a journey that took five hours. ‘Deliberate massacre’

“It is a deliberate massacre. They rounded protesters up and crammed them into closed trucks. They died from lack of air,” said Ahmad Somboon Bualuang, a Muslim scholar at Prince of Songkhla University in Pattani. “We have never seen this sort of torture in Thai history before. “It is just like gassing them.”

Abdul Rahman Abdul Samed, a top Muslim official in Narathiwat, told AFP he feared the incident could spark a violent reaction. His deputy condemned the government’s comments about the effect of fasting for Ramazan. “They are youths, they should not have any problem,” said Abdul Rosa Aree. “I think the government is too fast to conclude what caused the deaths.”

PM admits ‘mistakes’
Two days later, perhaps awed by the worldwide uproar at the killings, Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra expressed regrets over the deaths of 78 Muslim detainees, “who suffocated or were crushed while crammed into army trucks after a riot, but he insisted his security forces acted appropriately to quell the rioting.”

Hundreds of grieving relatives flocked to a military camp to claim the bodies, and outraged Islamic leaders warned the deaths could worsen sectarian violence in the Muslim-dominated south of predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

Prime minister Thaksin acknowledged there were some mistakes,” and that authorities lacked enough trucks to properly transport the nearly 1,300 detainees in southern Narathiwat province. “We are sorry for that, sorry they met an untimely death,” Thaksin told the Senate, which had demanded an explanation for the deaths.

Thaksin vowed an official investigation but insisted the military had used “the soft approach,” and that soldiers “did not fire a single round into the crowd.”

Worldwide Condemnation
Governments and human rights groups in Asia expressed outrage on the Muslim detainees in Thailand and warned of more violence unless justice is done.

Neighbouring countries urged Bangkok to prevent an escalation of the crisis, which was likened by a Malaysian religious party to a “holocaust” for Thailand’s Muslim minority.

But Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra shed few tears over the incident. Despite an expression of regret to parliament, Mr Thaksin was defiant in the faces of criticism of his attitude to human rights.

Source: World Muslim Congress

Thaksin’s Memorable Quotes to Violence in Southern Provinces

“Please don’t intervene. Please leave us alone. It is my job and we can cope with this matter. We are trying to explain this to foreigners. But if they do not understand or ignore our explanation, I don’t care because we are not begging them for food.” — [1 May, 2004], in a radio address concerning crackdowns on Islamic militants.

“Terrorists in the south are nothing but petty thieves”

“There are some who died because they were fasting, and they were crammed in tight.” — explaining the massacre in 2004 of 84 muslims crammed into military trucks

Source: WikiQuote

More Readings about Takbai and violence in Southern Thailand

• Tak Bai and Krue Se Report (Official report by a government-appointed investigative team)
• Takbai legacy lingers in Thai south (BBC)
• Takbai kin sue Thai government (BBC)
• Tak Bai 4th anniversary (Patani News)
• Peace Remains Elusive In Southern Thailand (Patani News)

Disappearance of Somchai Neelapaijit

On March 12, 2004, five policemen in Bangkok allegedly abducted Somchai Neelapaijit, who was chairman of Thailand’s Muslim Lawyers Association and vice-chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the Law Society of Thailand. Somchai had taken a high-profile role in defending individuals arrested for alleged participation in violence in Thailand’s four southern, predominantly Muslim border provinces.

Chronology of Somchai Neelapaijit’s movements on March 12

9 am: Somchai left his law firm with his colleague Phathomphong Likit in his car and took the expressway. Shortly afterwards, Somchai’s client called. Somchai said he would reach the meeting place at about 10 a.m. He exited the expressway and headed towards Silom Road where he was unable to find a parking space; he drove to the South Bangkok Civil Court to park his car. He instructed Phathomphong to deliver documents to Samart Maluleem at the Bangkok City Council and then left Phathomphong. He asked Phathomphong to meet him at the Central Bankruptcy Court at 1 p.m.

11:45 am: Phathomphong arrived at the Central Bankruptcy Court for the meeting with Somchai.

1:20 pm: Somchai arrived at the Central Bankruptcy Court.

2 pm: Somchai called a trainee in his office for an update on an assignment. He left the court in a taxi with Phathomphong for the South Bangkok Civil Court to pick up his car. After arriving at the court shortly afterwards, the two left and stopped at a gas station nearby to conduct a routine check on the car. Somchai bought some snacks from the station convenience store.

3:30 pm: The two arrived at the law firm.

6 pm: Somchai and Phathomphong arrived at the Chalina Hotel in the Ramkhamhaeng area near the Hua Mark National Stadium to meet a fellow lawyer, Kitja Ali-isha.

8:30 pm: Somchai decided to leave the hotel after the client did not show up and after he was unable to reach him on the telephone. Somchai told Phathomphong that he was leaving for his brother’s house and that was the last time anybody saw him. Somchai left Phathomphong at the hotel to wait for Kitja, who showed up at 9:30 p.m.

On January 12, the Central Criminal Court in Bangkok found Police Major Ngern Tongsuk guilty of physically assaulting Somchai and sentenced him to three years imprisonment. The other four accused police officers were acquitted due to insufficient evidence. In his concluding remarks, the judge criticized deficiencies in police investigation and legal work.

“The investigation failed to explain what happened to Somchai after the assault and who was responsible,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “It’s clear that there has been a cover-up by senior police officials that must be independently investigated.”

On January 13, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra publicly stated for the first time that government officials were involved in Somchai’s abduction and killing.

“The Department of Special Investigation is working on this case and murder charges are being considered. I know Somchai is dead, circumstantial evidence indicated that… and there were more than four government officials implicated by the investigation,” the Thai prime minister said. “Witnesses and evidence are still being collected, but that is not easy because this case involves government officials. I think the Department of Special Investigation will conclude the investigation by the end of February.”

Somchai’s wife, Angkhana Neelapaijit, told Human Rights Watch that Prime Minister Thaksin had informed her that her husband was taken to Ratchaburi province. It is unclear how Thaksin learned of this information, but neither he nor senior police officials were subpoenaed by the Department of Special Investigations to explain it. This department is the only agency in Thailand not under the direct control of the police with the authority to investigate and commence prosecutions in criminal cases. Angkhana said she now has very little confidence that the Department of Special Investigations would be able to answer very basic questions, such as “who ordered the abduction and killing?” and “who obstructed justice?”

“The prime minister’s crucial admission that government officials were involved in Somchai’s murder has led to no visible progress in the investigation,” said Adams. “It appears that the authorities have instead focused their energies on deflecting criticism and concealing the truth.”

Source: Thailand: Government Covers Up Role in ‘Disappearance’

Consequences of “Disappearances”

Despite many reported “disappearances” related to the Thai government’s counterinsurgency operations in its southern, largely Muslim border provinces, Somchai’s case is the only case that has led to a prosecution or has received significant public attention, Human Rights Watch said.

Many in Thailand’s Muslim community have complained that the failure to solve Somchai’s case or other cases of “disappearances” has left them with the perception that justice for them is likewise disappearing. Resentment against human rights abuses by authorities in the south is among the factors fueling an increasingly brutal insurgency, in which militants have carried out a string of bombings, the beheading of Buddhist monks, attacks on teachers and civil servants, and arson of schools over the past two years.

Source: Thailand: Government Covers Up Role in ‘Disappearance’

More readings:

• Thailand: Government Covers Up Role in ‘Disappearance’ (HRW)
• Thailand: Lawyer’s Disappearance Darkens Rights Climate (HRW)
• “It Was Like Suddenly My Son No Longer Existed” Enforced Disappearances in Thailand’s Southern Border Provinces (HRW)

Letters to Thaksin Shinnawatra

In this open letter, Amnesty International welcomes the establishment of a commission to investigate events of 25 October 2004 that led to the deaths of at least 87 protestors in Tak Bai, Narathiwat Province. The organisation urges that internationally established principles for the independent, impartial, competent and effective investigation of alleged human rights violations are used and the victims of alleged violations are guaranteed access to judicial remedies. The letter also renews calls for independent investigations into the significantly high number of killings during the “war on drugs” in 2003, and into deaths that resulted from security forces’ suppression of suspected insurgents in 2004.

Source: Amnesty International

Thaksin is human rights abuser of the worst kind : HRW

We write to urge your government to immediately launch an independent and impartial criminal investigation of Thai security forces implicated in the deaths of at least 85 people in Narathiwat province this week. Security forces shot and killed seven protesters and at least 78 protesters were suffocated or crushed to death as they were being transferred to detention facilities. Some 1,200 people are still held by military authorities, without access to legal representation and with questionable medical attention. This incident marks a major escalation of the violence in predominantly Muslim southern Thailand, where more than 400 people have already been killed since the beginning of the year.

Source: Human Rights Watch

Thaksin and Thai Media

Thaksin and his army vs Sondhi

In recent months, Sondhi and his associates have become the targets of a series of legal actions by the prime minister after Sondhi became one of Thaksin’s most outspoken and high profile critics. On September 15, the Mass Communication Organization of Thailand (MCOT), which is supervised by the Prime Minister’s Office, cancelled Muangthai Rai Sapda (Thailand Weekly), a live news-talk program hosted by Sondhi on TV Channel 9. MCOT claimed the show improperly cited the king and the monarchy on several occasions in the previous month.

Thaksin then appointed a lawyer to file a string of civil defamation suits against Sondhi and his associates from Manager Media Group. The two billion baht (U.S.$50 million) charges sought in these civil suits represent the largest damages ever pursued by any politician or government official in Thailand.

On November 3, a grenade was tossed into the courtyard of Sondhi’s headquarters. On December 2, a group of unidentified men threw bags of feces into the Bangkok office of Manager Media Group. No one has been arrested.

Sondhi defied the attacks and legal actions by moving his popular show to public venues, such as Lampini Park in Bangkok, every Friday. The show’s content has also been made available nationwide on the satellite-based News1 Channel, on the Phujadkarn website, and on VCDs. Every Friday thousands of people attended Sondhi’s shows or followed the live broadcast from all over the country.

On November 15, in an apparent attempt to curb the growing popularity of Sondhi’s show, Public Relations Department (PRD) director-general Dusadee Sinchirmsiri ordered officials to tell cable TV operators to stop the broadcast of Sondhi’s show on the grounds that it had been running without permission from the department. At the same time, Wichit Plungsrisakul, chairman of the ruling Thai Rak Thai Party’s legal committee, called on the Information and Communication Technology Ministry to take legal action against the Phujadkarn website for allegedly involving the monarchy in political affairs.

On November 24, Thaksin also filed a criminal suit against Sondhi for defamation. Meanwhile, the Civil Court agreed to issue a gag order against Sondhi, ordering him to refrain from making further criticisms of Thaksin pending the resolution of the defamation cases. That day, Yasothon Provincial Court rejected a police request for arrest warrants against Sondhi and Sarocha on lese majeste charges, making a courageous decision that the references made during Sondhi’s talk show did not defame the king or the royal family.

Human Rights Watch also expressed concern that the army, which has largely withdrawn from public involvement in Thai politics since the return to civilian rule in 1992, has also been active in attacking Sondhi. On November 16, a letter signed by Major General Pruen Suwannathat, commander of the First Infantry Division of the Royal Guard and Prime Minister Thaksin’s classmate in a pre-cadet college, was delivered to Sondhi, telling him to stop involving the monarchy in his personal quarrel with the prime minister. Two days later, supreme commander General Ruengroj Mahasaranond sternly warned that the armed forces would take action if Sondhi did not stop involving the monarchy in his criticism of Prime Minister Thaksin.

Since coming to power in 2001, Thaksin has used a potent combination of state and corporate powers to put political and financial pressure on the media in order to limit negative reporting from outlets he does not control. Since 2001, the government has restricted media freedom by withholding or threatening to withhold advertising contracts, operating licenses, and work permits from media outlets, and by filing, or having surrogates file, large defamation cases against prominent activists and independent journalists and media organizations.

Source: Thailand: P.M. Suits Dropped, But Media Still Under Threat

CAT blocked ASTV and Thai court said to stop blocking!

CAT Telecom blocked the satellite signal of ASTV featuring the talk show after being told by the Public Relations Department that the broadcast by ThaiDay Dotcom, a company under Mr Sondhi’s Manager Media Group, had violated the radio and television broadcasting law.

However, the court, led by senior judge Prawit Boonthiam, argued that CAT Telecom and the department could not suspend the satellite and internet broadcasting signals of ThaiDay Dotcom because it had failed to file a charge against the firm for violating the law.

The court said the department may be at risk of violating the law itself in its recent order asking CAT Telecom to cut the ASTV signal of ThaiDay Dotcom. The signal suspension affected freedom of expression, the court stated.

Source: Court instructs CAT Telecom to stop blocking ASTV signal

So what pro-Thaksin had to say?

Thaksin’s lawyer, Noppadol Pattama, told BBC Sport that the allegations were completely unfounded. “The civil and human rights charges against him have never been proven,” said Noppadol. “My client deserves to be treated as an innocent man, until proven guilty. “So far there hasn’t been any solid evidence against him.”

Source: TrueThaksin – BBC News

Further Readings

• The Fall of Thaksin (Sovereignmyth)
• HRW concerned about Thaksin’s ownership in Premier League Team, Manchester City
• Thaksin Dictionary
• Thaksin Shinawatra – WikiQuote

Related posts:

1. Thaksin, Nightmare at Manchester City