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Amnesty alleges four tortured to death in Thailand
Associated Press - January 13, 2009
Ambika Ahuja, Bangkok – Amnesty International accused Thailand's security forces Tuesday of engaging in systematic torture that killed at least four people as part of a campaign to defeat Islamic insurgents in the country's southernmost provinces.
Survivors told the human rights group that the most common torture techniques included beatings and having plastic bags placed over their heads until they nearly suffocated, according to a new report released by the London-based group. Others said they were burned with candles, subjected to electric shocks and buried up to their necks in the ground.
The group called on Thai authorities to end the alleged abuse immediately and prosecute officials who engaged in torture.
"The insurgents in southern Thailand have engaged in brutal acts, but nothing justifies the security forces' reliance on torture," said Donna Guest, deputy director of Amnesty's Asia-Pacific program. "Torture is absolutely illegal and, as the situation in southern Thailand proves, alienates the local population."
Islamic militants in the deep south – the overwhelmingly Buddhist country's only Muslim-majority area – have waged a decades-long insurgency.
The insurgents have not announced their goals, but they are believed to be fighting for a separate Islamic state. Muslims in Thailand – which is 90 percent Buddhist – say they are treated like second-class citizens.
More than 3,300 people have died since early 2004, when fighting flared after a lull of more than two decades.
Amnesty's report said it had documented the alleged torture of 34 people between March 2007 to May 2008. The group directly interviewed 13 torture survivors while the rest of the accounts came from several witnesses and relatives of victims, four of whom died in detention from their treatment.
While acknowledging isolated cases of abuse, Lt. General Pichet Visaijorn, the army's regional commander, said the torture of detainees was not tolerated and the military would not protect soldiers who violated detainees' human rights.
"We have a very clear policy that the use of torture is not acceptable and has never been," Pichet said. "The military operation in the south is done in line with a human rights standard that is accepted internationally."
Among the most widely publicized cases was Yapa Kaseng, a 56-year-old Muslim religious leader, who died in March 2008 after interrogation at an army camp.
A Thai court ruling last month said military personnel were responsible for causing Yapa's fatal injuries by beating. The findings said Yapa, who sustained broken ribs and a ruptured lung, was roughly interrogated three times over two days and was dragged by his ankles because he could not stand up. While welcoming the ruling, which opens the way for legal action, Amnesty researcher Benjamin Zawacki said steps need to be taken to prosecute officials who engage in the practice.
The rights group said the prevalence of abuses decreased slightly after Yapa's case was reported but that it remains frequent and widespread and "cannot be dismissed as the work of a few errant subordinates in isolated instances."
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