AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT
1996 (This document covers the period
from 1.1.95 to 31.12.95)
THAILAND
At least four death sentences were
imposed during the year, although there were no reports of any
executions. Prisoners and asylum-seekers were reportedly held in
conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Hundreds of Burmese asylum-seekers were arrested for
''illegal immigration'' and arbitrarily
detained.
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai called
elections for July, following the withdrawal of one political party
from his five-party coalition government. Banharn Silpa-archa,
leader of the Chart Thai Party, became Prime Minister when he
formed a new seven-party coalition government following the
elections.
In January several amendments to the
1991 Constitution were approved by parliament, including lowering
the voting age to 18 and reducing the size of the non-elected
Senate. Despite the commitment made by the 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 May a senior police official
publicly stated that a shoot-to-kill policy against dangerous
criminals was one way to reduce serious crime.
Draft legislation to impose the death
penalty for illegal trade in weapons and their use in crime was
rejected by a government committee in April (see Amnesty
International Report 1995). In September the Corrections
Department, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Justice Ministry
debated whether to impose the death penalty for amphetamine
manufacture and trafficking. In October the Public Health Minister
announced the imposition of the death penalty for amphetamine
traffickers in possession of more than 100 grams.
The whereabouts of 39 people who went
missing during the security forces' violent crack-down on
pro-democracy demonstrations in May 1992 (see Amnesty International
Reports 1993 to 1995) had still not been established by the end of
1995; they may have been victims of extrajudicial executions. In
May the Civil Court dismissed for the second time a suit filed by
the relatives of the 39 missing people who were seeking
compensation from military officials involved in the crack-down.
The Court ruled that the officials were protected under an amnesty
decree issued in May 1992.
Prominent social critic and Buddhist
scholar Sulak Sivaraksa was acquitted of lese-majesty charges in
April (see Amnesty International Reports 1994 and 1995). Kamron
Pongsanan, a truck driver, was arrested in August under the
commodity control provisions of the 1952 Anti-Communist Act when he
attempted to transport an oil shipment to Uttaradit, once
considered a communist-infiltrated zone. He was released on bail in
September after protests by human rights groups, who called for the
repeal of the law on the grounds that communist insurgency was no
longer a threat to public security.
At least four death sentences were
imposed during 1995, one for murder, one for rape and murder and
two for heroin-trafficking. Some 100 people were believed to be
under sentence of death at the end of the year. In September a
Ministry of Interior official stated that one of these prisoners
would be executed in October in order to deter others from
committing crimes. However, the execution did not take place, and
there were no other reports of executions during the
year.
There were continuing reports of
prisoners being held in conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment. These included the use of heavy leg-chains for
prolonged periods. In August the government informed Amnesty
International that prison conditions for foreign nationals
conformed to the un Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of
Prisoners.
Immigration officials and police
continued to detain asylum-seekers and refugees from Myanmar and
other countries in harsh conditions, including severe overcrowding
and poor medical care. Detained asylum-seekers were not given an
opportunity to challenge the legality of their detention, as
required by international standards. Asylum-seekers convicted of
''illegal immigration'' had to pay a fine or serve
a prison sentence at the Immigration Detention Centre
(idc) in Bangkok. Burmese asylum-seekers in
Bangkok were arrested in increased numbers during 1995. They were
often not tried or charged, but were held in the idc and then forcibly taken to areas near the
Thai-Myanmar border. Many returned to Bangkok, only to be
rearrested. Burmese asylum-seekers continued to be held by the Thai
authorities in the designated Maneeloy Safe Area in Raatchaburi
province, where they were subjected to severe overcrowding. Two
Burmese asylum-seekers were among dozens who agreed to go to the
Safe Area but were still held at the Special Detention Centre in
Bangkok by the end of the year. They had been arrested in December
1993 for ''illegal immigration'' while attending a
seminar on non-violent action for change in Bangkok. At least 25
Burmese asylum-seekers were arrested in November in a government
crack-down on peaceful protests by Burmese before a regional
intergovernmental meeting. By the end of the year, 23 had been
released.
At least 10,000 Karen people from
Myanmar fled to Thailand after the Myanmar armed forces and the
Democratic Kayin Buddhist Organization (dkbo), a breakaway Karen faction, launched an
offensive against the armed insurgent group, the Karen National
Union (knu), in eastern Myanmar. From February
onwards, the dkbo
attacked Karen camps inside the Thai
border, killing at least four Thai civilians (see Myanmar
entry).
In June Amnesty International asked
the Thai authorities to transfer a severely handicapped Mon
asylum-seeker from Myanmar to the Maneeloy Safe Area; he was
subsequently moved from the idc in Bangkok in July. In September Amnesty
International appealed to the authorities not to execute a
convicted criminal after reports indicated that officials were
planning to execute him as a deterrent. In October Amnesty
International urged the authorities to investigate reports of
prolonged shackling of convicted prisoners, and in December the
organization called on the government to release Burmese
asylum-seekers arrested that month.
