THAILAND
Kingdom of
Thailand
Head of state: Bhumibol
Adulyadej
Head of government: Chuan
Leekpai
Capital: Bangkok
Population: 60.6 million
Official language: Thai
Death penalty:
retentionist
1999 treaty
ratifications/signatures: International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights
Seventeen people were executed in
1999, the largest number since Thailand resumed executions in 1996.
More than 100 people remained on death row. Prison conditions,
particularly for Africans and non-Thai Asians, were poor and in
some cases amounted to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. New
legislation established an 11-member National Human Rights
Commission designated as a government agency attached to
Parliament. More than 14,000 asylum-seekers from Myanmar entered
Thailand; most of them were admitted to refugee camps which housed
more than 105,000 people by the end of the year.
Death penalty
Seventeen people were executed in
Bangkwang Prison by machine-gun fire. For the first time since
executions were resumed, a woman was executed; she had been
convicted of drug trafficking. The other 16 men had been convicted
of murder. Although more than 100 people were believed to be under
sentence of death, the government did not publish statistics or
names, nor did it announce when executions were scheduled to take
place. In December, to mark King Bhumibol Adulyadej's birthday,
30 death sentences were commuted to life imprisonment.
Impunity
In June the government released a
summary of a Ministry of Defence report on the military's
violent suppression of the May 1992 pro-democracy demonstrations in
Bangkok in which more than 52 people were killed and nearly 700
others injured. However, despite appeals from the victims'
families and others, the government refused to release the report
itself. The fate and whereabouts of dozens of people who went
missing during the demonstrations have never been
revealed.
Prison conditions
Prolonged shackling of prisoners
continued to be reported at Bangkwang Maximum Security Prison and
at Chonburi Central Prison. Severe overcrowding was reported
throughout the prison system — especially at Lard Yao Prison
and Bang Khen Women's Prison — and in immigration
detention centres. African and non-Thai Asian prisoners were most
at risk of ill-treatment. In July a Burmese migrant worker was
severely beaten by immigration police at Mae Sot Immigration
Detention Centre, Tak Province.
Hostage-taking at the Myanmar
embassy
In October, five heavily armed Myanmar
nationals calling themselves the Vigorous Burmese Students Warriors
forced their way into the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok and took 89
people hostage for 25 hours. The five men initially demanded the
release of all political prisoners and the restoration of democracy
in Myanmar. The hostages were released without casualties when the
Thai government acceded to their demands for a helicopter to take
them to an area reportedly held by an armed opposition group in the
Myanmar border area. The Myanmar government closed the border for
seven weeks and stated that they would not resume normal relations
with Thailand until the five men were arrested by the Thai
authorities. The Thai government subsequently issued arrest
warrants for the men; however, none had been arrested by the end of
the year.
Refugees and migrant workers from
Myanmar
The population of Myanmar nationals
living in Thailand was made up of three broad overlapping groups.
Members of the Karen and Karenni ethnic groups, who were considered
to be "displaced people" by the Thai authorities; migrant
workers from all ethnic groups — but particularly the Shan
people, some 100,000 of whom had fled human rights violations in
Myanmar — who were considered to be "illegal
immigrants" and were at risk of arrest and deportation; and
Burmese political activists, who were required to register with the
UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
During 1999, 14,000 Myanmar
asylum-seekers from the Karen and Karenni ethnic groups arrived in
Thailand, fleeing forcible relocations, forced labour and other
human rights violations. However, thousands more Karen
asylum-seekers were prevented from entering by the Thai army. The
authorities, the UNHCR, and non-governmental organizations moved
two refugee camps, which had been attacked by armed opposition
groups from Myanmar in previous years, further inside Thailand for
security reasons.
Following the hostage-taking at the
Myanmar embassy, the government announced that all young political
activists from Myanmar must register with the UNHCR and that those
recognized by the UNHCR must enter the Maneloy Safe Area,
Raatchburi Province, to await resettlement to third countries. By
November 750 people had reportedly registered with the UNHCR. Also
in November the police arrested over 20 Burmese political
activists, some of whom were recognized by UNHCR, and held them in
the Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok.
In November the immigration authorities
arrested thousands of Burmese migrant workers and deported them to
the Myanmar-Thai border. Those who had enough money to bribe Thai
officials were often allowed to remain on the Thai side of the
border. However, many others with well-founded fears of persecution
in Myanmar were returned with no opportunity to claim
asylum.
In July a member of the Thai Rangers, a
paramilitary unit of the army, raped two Shan female migrant
workers from Myanmar in Chiang Mai Province and in November the
Border Patrol Police raped a female migrant worker from Myanmar
near Mae Sot, Tak Province. No disciplinary action was known to
have taken place in either of these cases.
Legal developments
Thailand's report to the UN Human
Rights Committee on its implementation of the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights had not been submitted by
the end of the year.
In January, the Committee on the
Elimination of Discrimination against Women considered
Thailand's combined second and third periodic reports. The
Committee expressed concern at the lack of effective law
enforcement mechanisms and the lack of cases filed by women in the
courts on the basis of constitutional guarantees.
AI country reports and visits
Report
• Thailand: A human rights review
based on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(AI Index: ASA 39/001/99)
Visits
AI delegates visited the country
between January and March.
 thailand_2000.pdf |
thailand_2000.rtf |
