THAILAND
KINGDOM OF
THAILAND
Head of
government: Thaksin Shinawatra
Head of state:
King Bhumibol
Adulyadej
Death penalty:
retentionist
UN Women's
Convention: ratified with reservations
Optional Protocol to UN
Women's Convention: ratified
The government launched a
three-month anti-drugs campaign in February, during which 2,245
people were killed, according to police reports. The authorities
claimed that the vast majority of deaths were as a result of drug
traffickers killing one another, rather than killings by the
police. Four people were executed during the year, all by lethal
injection, which replaced the firing squad as a method of execution
in October. Groups such as land rights activists, people opposing
infrastructure projects, tribal people and migrant workers
continued to face abuses and were not adequately protected by the
government.
Background
The coalition government led
by Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai Rak Thai party launched a three-month anti-drugs
campaign from February to April. Police reported that 2,245 people
were killed in this context. The campaign's stated intent was
to drastically reduce trafficking in methamphetamines, which are
reportedly used by almost five per cent of the population. Other
government campaigns during the year included attempts to wipe out
organized crime, corruption, and illegal weapons.
Government critics, including
human rights defenders and non-governmental organizations (NGOs)
continued to face threats, covert surveillance, attacks, and other
forms of harassment. In May reports emerged that the government had
planned to restrict some NGOs from receiving foreign funding, but
the plan was dropped.
In October press reports
stated that the level of violence against women in the home in
Thailand was among the top 10 in the world.
Abuses during the
anti-drugs campaign
Almost 42,000 people were
placed on government "blacklists" as suspected drug
traffickers or users. Many of the 2,245 killings took place after
"blacklisted" suspects had left police stations where
they had gone either to turn themselves in or to clarify their
status. Officials claimed that the vast majority of these deaths
were the result of drug traders shooting one another, which the
authorities appeared to condone.
• In February, a husband and wife
were shot dead in Petchburi Province on their way back from the
local police station after having been summoned by police because
of their alleged involvement in drugs.
A Thai National Human Rights
Commissioner received repeated anonymous death threats after he
publicly criticized the government's conduct of the anti-drugs
campaign.
Two government-appointed
committees were designated in February to receive complaints about
abuses during the campaign, but effective investigations into the
killings were not known to have been initiated. In December, during
his annual birthday address to the nation, His Majesty the King
called on the government to initiate an investigation into the
killings of 2,245 people during the "drugs war" earlier
in the year. In response, the government stated that 200 people had
been arrested for the killings, and it also set up two committees
to investigate the murders.
Death
penalty
In October lethal injection
replaced the firing squad as the method of execution. Four
executions took place during the year, all by lethal injection. The
number of people under sentence of death had reportedly nearly
tripled between January 2001 and December 2003 to nearly 1,000. The
majority of those sentenced in recent years had been convicted of
drug offences. Sixty-eight men and women under sentence of death
had exhausted all legal appeals. A further 905 people on death row
had appeals pending at the end of the year.
Rights of rural and tribal
people
Land rights activists, rural
people opposing infrastructure projects, and tribal people
continued to come into conflict with the government about control
over their local resources. Hundreds of thousands of tribal people
reportedly continued to be denied full Thai citizenship. The
government continued to pursue court cases against 26 farmers in
Lamphun Province for trespassing, claiming they had illegally
occupied vacant land. If convicted, the farmers, who had been
arbitrarily detained in 2002, could be prisoners of
conscience.
The government also continued
to prosecute 20 leaders of the protest against the Thai-Malaysian
natural gas pipeline project in Songkla Province. Local fishing
communities opposed the offshore pipeline construction on the
grounds that it would adversely affect their livelihoods and damage
the environment. The 20, charged on six counts including disturbing
the peace, were released on bail and awaiting trial at the end of
the year. They had been arrested after a December 2002
demonstration was violently suppressed by local police. Other
anti-pipeline leaders have received anonymous threats and have been
kept under surveillance.
• Kham Pan Suksai, a farmer and
village headman, was shot dead in Chiang Dao District, Chiang Mai
Province, in February after a dispute with local forestry officials
who were attempting to fell trees in a community forest. A junior
forestry employee confessed to the murder, but was later released
without charge. No one was known to have been brought to justice
for the crime by the end of the year.
Migrant workers,
asylum-seekers and refugees
There were frequent reports
of violence and harassment against migrant workers.
• In May, six migrant workers from
Myanmar were killed in Tak Province allegedly on the orders of a
village headman; the case was still being pursued in the courts at
the end of the year.
• No one had been brought to justice
for the murders of more than 20 migrant workers from Myanmar whose
bodies were found in a river on the Thai-Myanmar border in February
2002. The case was reportedly not being actively pursued by the
government at the end of the year.
• On at least two occasions during
the year migrant workers from Myanmar protesting against the denial
of their labour rights were arrested and at least 446 were deported
to Myanmar.
• In June over 400 male and female
migrant workers at the King Body Concept Company factory in Tak
Province were arrested and deported after they protested at being
paid less than half the minimum wage and against very poor working
and living conditions.
Refugees from Myanmar
continued to arrive in significant numbers and stayed in camps with
a population of over 140,000 along the Myanmar border. Refugees
from the Shan community, who also continued to enter the country in
large numbers, were still denied access to refugee camps.
Asylum-seekers outside refugee camps continued to be at risk of
arrest and detention for prolonged periods for "illegal
immigration".
In June, 11 Myanmar
asylum-seekers were arrested during a peaceful demonstration in
front of the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok. They remained in detention
at the end of the year. In September, 15 asylum-seekers from
Myanmar were also arrested in front of the Myanmar embassy and
remained in detention at the Special Detention Centre in Bangkok at
the end of the year.
Prisoner of
conscience
Sok Yoeun, a Cambodian
refugee and prisoner of conscience in poor health, continued to be
detained and remained at risk of being extradited to
Cambodia.
AI country
visits
AI delegates visited Thailand
in June.
Thailand: Executions must
stop (AI Index: ASA 39/007/2003)
Thailand: Grave developments
– killings and other abuses (AI Index: ASA
39/008/2003)
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