AI REPORT 1998:
THAILAND (This report covers the
period January-December 1997)
A new Constitution was adopted with
strong human rights provisions. Three Cambodian children were
killed by Thai border guards in disputed circumstances.
Thirty-seven death sentences were passed and two people were
executed. At least 6,000 refugees were forcibly repatriated to
Myanmar. Burmese asylum-seekers continued to be arrested for
''illegal immigration'' and detained in harsh
conditions.
In November Chuan Leekpai formed a new
coalition government after General Chaowalit Yongchaiyudh resigned
as Prime Minister in the midst of a serious economic crisis. In
October the Parliament adopted a new Constitution, the first of
Thailand's 16 constitutions to have been drafted with public
participation. The Constitution included provisions for the
formation of a national human rights commission and guaranteed the
rights to freedom of association, movement, religion, and speech.
The death penalty was retained, although torture and cruel, inhuman
or degrading treatment were prohibited. Criminal suspects could be
detained without a court order for only 48 hours. The Constitution
also aimed to eliminate vote-buying and other forms of corruption,
to decentralize the government, and to strengthen the democratic
process.
In February 20,000 ethnic Karen
asylum-seekers fled from Myanmar into Thailand during a Burmese
army offensive against the armed ethnic minority opposition group,
the Karen National Union (knu). This brought the number of Karen refugees
in Thai camps to over 100,000. At least 30,000 asylum-seekers from
the Shan State in Myanmar fled into Thailand from massive forcible
relocations and extrajudicial executions by the Burmese army.
Unlike the Karen and Karenni groups, the Shan were not allowed by
the authorities to establish camps on the Thai/Myanmar border
(see Myanmar
entry).
In January Burmese soldiers crossed
into Thailand and attacked two Karenni refugee camps, killing three
Karenni refugees and wounding nine others. Also in January the
Democratic Kayin Buddhist Organization (dkbo), an armed ethnic minority group allied
with the Burmese army, burned down two Karen refugee camps in Tak
Province, leaving about 7,000 refugees homeless and killing one
Thai civilian.
In January, three Cambodian children
were shot dead by Thai security forces in Sa Kaew Province after
they had been abducted by three Cambodian adults. Thai military
sources claimed that the three adults had opened fire first, but
other sources indicated that the children were shot dead when Thai
border guards opened fire on the group, who were crossing the
border into Cambodia.
In June the families of six suspected
amphetamine traffickers who were shot dead by police in November
1996 (see Amnesty
International Report 1997)
filed lawsuits against the police department and nine police
officers.
Thirty-seven death sentences were
passed during the year and 158 people were believed to be under
sentence of death. The death penalty was imposed for murder, rape
and murder, and drug-trafficking. In November Boonchot Pongprom and
Panom Thaweesuk, who had both been convicted of rape and murder in
the early 1990s, were executed by firing-squad.
More than 6,000 refugees from the
Karen, Mon, and Pa'O ethnic minority groups were forcibly sent
back to Myanmar by Thai security forces during the year. In
February and March more than 4,000 refugees who had recently fled
to Thailand were forcibly returned by the Ninth Infantry Division
of the First Army. In November the Fourth Infantry Regiment Task
Force forcibly returned 1,100 Karen refugees who had recently fled
from forced labour and relocations by the Burmese army. Troops
entered the refugee settlement, fired mortars and shots in the air,
and beat several refugees after dragging them out of their
shelters. After a group of 400 Mon refugees were returned in June,
they were subjected to forced portering and labour on army bases by
the Burmese army. All of them had fled once again to Thailand by
July. Thousands of Karen asylum-seekers were prevented by the Thai
authorities from crossing into Thailand and remained at risk of
human rights violations inside Myanmar. The un High Commissioner for Refugees continued to
be denied a permanent presence on the Thai/Myanmar border, although
officials were able to conduct monitoring visits
there.
Immigration officials and police
continued to detain asylum-seekers and refugees from Myanmar and
other countries in harsh conditions, including severe overcrowding
and inadequate access to medical care. Detained asylum-seekers were
not given an opportunity to challenge the legality of their
detention as required by international standards.
In October the police
commissioner's office, which supervises immigration activities,
admitted publicly that the Immigration Detention Centre
(idc) in Bangkok was seriously overcrowded, with
barely enough room for detainees to sit or sleep. There were also
reports of severe overcrowding and insufficient sanitation and
medical care at Mahachai Police Station, Samut Sakhon Province,
where hundreds of Burmese nationals, some of whom were refugees,
were detained for ''illegal
immigration''.
In April a group of prisoners raped
three young Lao women who had been arrested for ''illegal
immigration'' and detained at a police station in
Rayong province. The young women were kept in an
adult police lock-up with men, in violation of international
standards. Eight of the prisoners were brought to trial but the
three police officers responsible, although transferred to another
police station, were not known to have been
prosecuted.
In January and February Amnesty
International delegates visited Thailand and met government
officials and parliamentarians. In February and throughout the year
Amnesty International condemned the forcible return of
asylum-seekers to Myanmar. In May the organization published
Kingdom of Thailand: Human rights
in transition and in
September it published Kingdom of Thailand: Erosion of refugee
rights.
