PRESS RELEASE
AHRC-PL-056-2006

THAILAND: Pursuing policy of killings while promoting deputy PM for UN top job "immoral and dishonest", AHRC says

(Hong Kong, July 20, 2006) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on Thursday called for the Thai government to pay attention to criticisms by a senior UN official on extrajudicial killings or risk international censure and rejection of its candidate for the post of UN secretary general.

The Hong Kong-based regional rights group said that the government was obliged to respond to scathing remarks by the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings Philip Alston that its emergency decree for the southern provinces "makes it possible for soldiers and police officers to get away with murder" and "makes impunity look like the official policy".

The AHRC said that the Thai government's candidate for UN secretary general, who is at present a deputy prime minister "should be rejected by all countries with a genuine concern for human rights" if the government failed to act on Alston's demand that the decree be amended to comply with human rights law, and his request to visit Thailand be met.

"It is offensive to think that the Thai government is wasting its national budget promoting a man for the top UN job who has held a senior position throughout a time that it has consistently flouted international law and snubbed the best efforts of UN officials to improve human rights in its country," Basil Fernando, executive director of the AHRC, said.

"It is an affront to the international community that such a person would even be put forward for the position," Fernando said.

"It is immoral and dishonest to be pursuing a policy of extrajudicial killing while keeping UN human rights experts away with the one hand and meanwhile be pushing a deputy prime minister to take over the UN with the other," he said.

The Thai deputy prime minister, Surakiat Sathirathai, has been seeking to take the job of secretary general since 2004, with the backing of the prime minister and his government.

The current secretary general, Kofi Annan, is due to step down in December.

The AHRC also said that Thailand should not be considered for a position on the new UN Human Rights Council until it learns to cooperate with human rights officials seeking to get access to the country.

On July 6 it described as "absurd" the notion that Thailand should have a seat on the council after the government failed to even react to an alleged attempt to abduct a National Human Rights Commissioner of Thailand.

In May it said that Thailand should issue standing invitations to UN human rights experts if it wanted to join the council.

"Professor Alston has been asking to visit Thailand since the mass killing in Narathiwat of November 2004, but the authorities have treated him and the UN with contempt," Fernando said.

"Yet somehow they pretend to be entitled to participate in the Human Rights Council and even have a deputy prime minister take over the reigns of the UN," he added.

"They can't have it both ways: either the Thai government plays by the rules and cooperates or it should be rejected by the international community," Fernando concluded.

The AHRC called for strong public debate and action on the latest UN intervention, especially by the National Human Rights Commission and Lawyers Council of Thailand.

The criticisms of the government policy from the UN official come at a time that the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) under the justice ministry has been harshly condemned for failing to investigate killings of human rights defenders and community leaders in Thailand.

On Thursday family members of victims and human rights defenders submitted further complaints to the DSI at its failure to conduct proper inquiries.

The AHRC is hosting a petition calling for the dismissal of the department's director, who is a senior police officer: http://thailand.ahrchk.net/dsi_petition.

It has also set up another online petition calling for the government of the Philippines to stop the relentless extrajudicial killings there: http://www.pinoyhr.net.

The full text of the special rapporteur's statement on Thailand follows.


UN EXPERT ON EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS CALLS ON THAILAND TO REPEAL EMERGENCY REGULATIONS THAT VIOLATE HUMAN RIGHTS LAW

18 July 2006

The Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions of the United Nations Human Rights Council issued the following statement today:

Philip Alston, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, today called on the Government of Thailand to repeal those provisions of the emergency regulations being applied in southern Thailand that violate international human rights law. "If the Government decides to renew the state of emergency today, it should nevertheless repeal those parts that violate human rights law," Alston said. The state of emergency was declared one year ago, in July 2005, and will lapse unless extended on 19 July 2006.

Thailand's Emergency Decree provides that soldiers and police officers may not be prosecuted or disciplined even for otherwise illegal killings so long as they are acting reasonably and in good faith. Under human rights law the use of lethal force is prohibited unless strictly necessary to protect life, regardless of an officer's good faith or reasonableness. "The emergency decree makes it possible for soldiers and police officers to get away with murder," said Alston. "Thailand must abide by its commitment to follow human rights law."

In 1996 Thailand acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), making a legally binding commitment to only adopt measures that are consistent with its provisions. The Covenant permits some exceptions during states of emergency, but it includes a specific provision that bars any measures cutting back on the legal safeguards surrounding the right to life.

"The Government has failed to act on previous calls to bring its emergency regulations into compliance with human rights law," Alston said. The current state of emergency was first declared in July 2005. Later that month the Human Rights Committee observed that the Emergency Decree was inconsistent with human rights law, but the Government nonetheless proceeded to extend the state of emergency in October 2005. Alston then raised this issue in a letter to the Government sent on 15 November 2005, but he received no response, and the state of emergency was further extended in January and April 2006. The state of emergency will come to an end on Wednesday, 19 July 2006, unless the Government extends it once again.

"Impunity for violence committed by the security forces has been an ongoing problem in Thailand, but the emergency decree has gone even further and makes impunity look like the official policy," said Alston. "As Thailand moves to October elections it is time to abandon impunity and make justice the new norm."

Alston and his predecessors as Special Rapporteur have corresponded with the Government of Thailand about problems of impunity for a number of years. During the crackdowns on drug trafficking in 2003 and 2004, his predecessor raised with the Government allegations that a large number of extrajudicial executions had been committed by security forces. While cases against members of the security forces were later brought, virtually all have since been dismissed. Alston has also corresponded with the Government about the incidents at Krue Se on 28 April 2004 and at Tak Bai on 25 October 2004 in which large numbers of people were killed by security forces or died in their custody. But while the Government established commissions of inquiry to investigate the incidents at Krue Se and Tak Bai, no member of the police or military has ever been prosecuted.

"Accountability requires the Government to act on its stated commitment to human rights," said Alston. "The Government should repeal all emergency regulations that violate human rights law and begin moving to bring human rights abusers to justice." Alston has also indicated to the Government that his request to visit Thailand remains operative and that he would very much welcome the opportunity to see the situation first hand.

# # #

About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.