Home > News and Reports > Thailand. In: Amnesty International Report 1995 (POL 10/01/95)
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL REPORT 1995 (this report covers the
period 1.1.94-31.12.94)
THAILAND
At least five death sentences
were imposed during the year, although there were no reports of any
executions. Prisoners were reportedly held in conditions amounting
to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. Refugees and
asylum-seekers from Myanmar and other countries were also held in
such conditions, and hundreds were returned to their countries of
origin, where they were at risk of human rights
violations.
The five-party coalition
government led by Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, which came to power
following elections in September 1992, continued to govern the
country. Discussion continued in both houses of Parliament over
redrafting the 1991 Constitution promulgated by the National
Security and Peacekeeping Council (the military government of the
time), but no progress was made on substantive reform. Despite the
commitment made by the Thai Government to the un World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna
in June 1993 that Thailand would accede to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, by the end of the year it
had not done so.
In July a group of
non-governmental organizations arranged a conference to discuss
human rights in southeast Asia to coincide with a meeting of the
Association of South East Asian Nations (asean). Three overseas delegates who arrived to
take part in the conference were deported, on the grounds that they
had not requested work permits 30 days in advance. Such a
requirement had not been imposed before, and official condemnation
of the conference by the Thai authorities suggested that the
freedom of human rights groups to organize international meetings
in Thailand might in future be subjected to similar arbitrary
restrictions.
The whereabouts of 39 people
who vanished during the security forces' violent crack-down on
pro-democracy demonstrations in May 1992 (see Amnesty International
Reports 1993 and 1994) had still not been established by the end of
1994; they may have been victims of extrajudicial executions. The
government did not reveal the full results of a Defence Ministry
investigation into the military's role in May 1992, although
the report had been submitted to the government in July 1992. In
May 1994 the Interior Ministry instructed provincial governors to
work with the Office of the Supreme AttorneyGeneral and the courts
to make official declarations on those still missing in order to
allow compensation to be paid to relatives. The families of the
missing are entitled to compensation payments of 200,000 Thai baht,
approximately us$8,000, each. Under the law, an official
declaration can be made after a person has been missing for two
years, but a court order is required and these are made on a case
by case basis. The first of these cases was raised by the Office of
the Supreme Attorney-General in June. According to the government,
30 families of the missing had received compensation as of July. A
lawsuit demanding compensation from the leaders of the military
government of 1992, filed by relatives of victims of the May 1992
crack-down, was dismissed by the Civil Court in June. The court
based its decision on the amnesty granted by the government to
those involved in the crack-down.
The trial on charges of
lese-majesty of prominent social critic and Buddhist scholar Sulak
Sivaraksa continued intermittently during 1994 (see Amnesty
International Report 1994). If convicted and sent to prison, he
would be considered a prisoner of conscience.
At least five death sentences
were imposed during 1994, four for heroin-related offences and one
for murder. Over 100 prisoners were believed to be under sentence
of death at the end of the year. There were no reports of any
executions. The King of Thailand granted amnesties in April to more
than 10 prisoners facing the death penalty. In July the Interior
Ministry called for more information from the Police Department on
a draft bill which would impose mandatory execution for major
crimes committed with war weapons. No further information on the
status of this bill was available at the end of the
year.
There were continuing reports
of criminal prisoners being held in conditions amounting to cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment. These included the use of heavy leg
chains for extended periods, poor medical care and ill-treatment.
In February the Police Director-General rejected news reports that
foreigners had been summarily executed in Thailand, but admitted
that some detainees had died in police custody. He said that most
of them had committed suicide. The Police Director-General admitted
that it was possible that some suspects had been physically abused,
but said that this was an investigation method that police all over
the world had used.
Immigration officials and
police continued to detain asylum-seekers and refugees from Myanmar
and other countries in harsh conditions, sometimes amounting to
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. After the authorities
announced a crack-down on illegal immigration in 1993, thousands of
asylum-seekers and refugees were arrested and charged with illegal
immigration. Even asylum-seekers who were registered with
the un
High Commissioner for
Refugees (unhcr) were arrested, detained and, in some
cases, forcibly returned to their country of origin. Asylum-seekers
convicted of illegal immigration have to pay a fine or serve a
prison term at the Immigration Detention Centre (idc) in Bangkok. Former detainees complained of
chronic overcrowding, lack of food and ill-treatment, including
beatings by officials, at the idc. Refugees and asylum-seekers were detained
even after they had served their sentences, because they did not
have the money to pay for their own deportation.
Throughout the year, refugees
and asylum-seekers were sent back to countries where they were at
risk of human rights violations. Hundreds of refugees from Cambodia
were deported to an area of Cambodia controlled by the armed
opposition group, the Partie of Democratic Kampuchea (Khmer Rouge).
The unhcr strongly condemned the forcible return of
the Cambodian refugees. Hundreds of refugees from the Shan State in
Myanmar, fleeing from forced portering and other human rights
violations committed by the Burmese army, were forced back across
the border to Myanmar by the Thai authorities.
Refugees and asylum-seekers
from Myanmar who were convicted of illegal immigration were sent to
Halockhanie (Halakhanee) refugee camp. The camp, to which thousands
of refugees were moved by the Thai authorities in April, straddles
the border with Myanmar. In July Burmese armed forces attacked the
camp, burned 60 houses and took 16 people prisoner (see
Myanmar entry). Refugees fled back across
the border to Thailand, but were forced to return to Myanmar in
September by the Thai authorities. Deportations continued to
Halockhanie throughout 1994, where refugees were at risk from
further attack by the Burmese military forces.
Four Malaysian nationals,
including a six-month-old baby, all members of the Islamic sect Al
Arqam, were arrested in September and handed over to the Malaysian
authorities. The four were taken to Malaysia, where they were held
in incommunicado detention until their release at the end of
October. Malaysia outlawed the Al Arqam sect in August, and its
followers risk up to five years' imprisonment (see
Malaysia entry). The Thai authorities said
that the Malaysian authorities had declared the passports of the
four invalid, and that the four were therefore living in Thailand
without valid documents.
In May Amnesty International
called upon the Thai authorities to stop immediately the forcible
return of Burmese refugees to Shan State, Myanmar. In September
Amnesty International published a report, Thailand: Burmese and
other asylum-seekers at risk, detailing the organization's
concerns about the treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers.
Amnesty International urged Thailand to accede to the 1951
Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, and to its 1967
Protocol, and to ensure better protection for refugees in the
country. An Amnesty International delegation met the Thai Prime
Minister in September and discussed Thailand's treatment of
refugees and asylum-seekers. A military spokesman later stated that
the forcible return of refugees to Myanmar complied with the
government's policy of expelling those who had entered the
country illegally.
