THAILAND
KINGDOM OF THAILAND
Head of state: King Bhumibol Adulyadej
Head of government: Thaksin Shinawatra (replaced Chuan Leekpai in January)
Capital: Bangkok
Population: 60.6 million
Official language: Thai
Death penalty: retentionist
Ten people were executed by machine-gun fire and at least 72
people were sentenced to death in 2001. At the end of the year some
300 people remained under sentence of death. Poor prison conditions
and ill-treatment of prisoners and detainees, including severe
beatings, continued to be reported. By the end of the year, more
than 120,000 Karen and Karenni refugees were living in refugee
camps at the border. The government refused a request from Shan
asylum-seekers from Myanmar for the establishment of camps and
denied them access to existing camps.
Background
Following elections in January, Thaksin Shinawatra was appointed
Prime Minister and his Thai Rak Thai party formed a
coalition government. In August the Constitutional Court dismissed
charges by the National Counter Corruption Commission that Thaksin
Shinawatra had concealed personal assets. The last two National
Human Rights Commissioners were appointed in June, but at the end
of the year the Commissioners had still not been paid a salary.
Also in June the 1952 Anti-Communist Act, which gave the military
sweeping powers to arrest and detain suspected members of the
Communist Party, was repealed. No new security legislation had been
enacted to replace the Act by the end of 2001.
Death penalty
Ten people were executed, seven for drugs offences, in Bangkwang
Maximum Security Prison, Nonthaburi Province. The government
continued to assert that execution was an effective means of
deterring drug traffickers. The execution of six people on 18 April
provoked widespread public debate and condemnation from some
groups. The cabinet approved the use of lethal injection instead of
firing squads as a method of execution, although executions were
not carried out using the new method during 2001.
Torture and ill-treatment in prisons
Conditions in many prisons and police lock-ups continued to
constitute cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. For example,
death-row prisoners were kept in heavy shackles for prolonged
periods. Five inmates were reportedly beaten to death by prison
guards in April when they attempted to escape from Klong Prem
Prison north of Bangkok. Beatings of African and Burmese prisoners
by other prisoners under the supervision of guards were reported in
Lard Yao Prison in Nonthaburi Province.
Migrant workers, refugees and asylum-seekers
In January, 17 members of ethnic Karen armed opposition group
God's Army, including its twin teenaged leaders Johnny and
Luther Htoo, crossed the border from Myanmar and surrendered to the
Thai authorities. The authorities provided protection from forcible
return to all 17 members of the group.
In December the authorities closed Maneloy camp, Raatchburi
Province, where ethnic Burman dissidents and others were living
while awaiting resettlement to a third country. Since January 1999,
2,373 people had been resettled from the camp. Following its
closure Myanmar asylum-seekers, except the Shan, were obliged to
attempt to enter a camp on the border. Those not in camps risk
arrest and deportation.
More than 100,000 Shan asylum-seekers who had fled human rights
violations in Myanmar continued to be denied access to refugee
camps and were treated by the Thai authorities as migrant workers
with no legal right to seek asylum.
Asylum-seekers from other countries continued to be arrested for
''illegal entry'' and detained for long periods at
immigration detention centres.
In September and October the authorities registered almost 560,000
migrant workers from neighbouring countries. Migrant workers who
were not registered continued to face arrest and deportation.
Forcible return
- Khaing Kaung Zan, a Myanmar asylum-seeker, who had been forcibly returned to Myanmar from Thailand in December 2000, was arrested, allegedly tortured, and sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in January 2001.
- There was no information about the fate of some 50 male Karen asylum-seekers who had been arrested by the army in January 2000. It was feared that they had been forced across the border to Myanmar and killed by the Myanmar army.
- In November, 63 Karen asylum-seekers were forcibly returned by the 9th Infantry Division of the Royal Thai Army in Raatchburi Province to Htee Wah Doh, a settlement for internally displaced people in Myanmar. Later that month the Myanmar army destroyed the settlement, forcing all its residents to flee.
Prisoners of conscience
- Sok Yoeun, a Cambodian refugee and prisoner of conscience who was arrested in Thailand in 1999 for ''illegal immigration'', continued to be detained throughout the year. Court hearings of his case were ongoing, pending possible extradition to Cambodia. The Cambodian government accused him of involvement in a rocket attack on the Prime Minister's motorcade in September 1998, but there was no evidence linking him to the attack. Sok Yoeun suffered from a heart condition and tuberculosis.
- Ramlek Nilnuan, a land rights activist and prisoner of conscience, was released on bail in April. He had been arrested in July 2000 for trespassing in a national park.
Extrajudicial executions
In July, the Police Chief of Region 4 stated that police-backed ''death squads'' had killed over 300 suspected drug traffickers and that he expected some 1,000 people in total to be extrajudicially executed in his region during 2001 as a means of solving the proliferation of illegal drugs. Police shot dead many suspected drug traffickers in 2001, claiming that the suspects fired first, but lack of witnesses made it impossible to verify these claims. In October the Prime Minister gave an award to Loei Province police because 66 suspected drug traffickers had died during arrest so far in the year; police denied having extrajudicially executed them.
Impunity
- Six environmental activists were killed during the year. Among them was Jurin Rachapal, who was killed in January. He had been involved in protests against the destruction of mangrove forests by prawn farming in Phuket Province. Senators and local non-governmental organizations criticized the lack of progress in the murder investigations and insufficient government protection of potential victims.
- In September the government appointed a new committee to investigate the military crackdown against pro-democracy demonstrators in May 1992, which resulted in over 30 ''disappearances'', more than 50 deaths, and hundreds of injuries. However, by the end of the year no one had been brought to justice and there was no information about the fate of the ''disappeared''.
- Ten years after Thailand's most prominent labour leader, Tanong Pho-arn, ''disappeared'' in the aftermath of the February 1991 coup there was still no progress in tracing him or establishing who was responsible for his ''disappearance''.
AI country reports/visits
Report
- Thailand: The ''disappearance'' of labour leader Tanong Pho-arn, 19 June 1991 (AI Index: ASA 39/007/2001)
Visit
AI delegates visited Thailand in January, February and March.
