FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
AHRC-PL-111-2006

THAILAND: No human rights improvement in 2006, AHRC says

(Hong Kong, December 8, 2006) Human rights conditions in Thailand did not improve during 2006 and prospects for the rule of law there were set back by many years with the military coup, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) said on Friday.

Marking International Human Rights Day, December 10, the Hong Kong-based regional rights group said that attempts by the new army-led government to show that it was acting in the public good when it took power on September 19 had failed.

"The military regime insisted that it had taken over to avert a national crisis, but in the following months it has failed to produce any evidence to show that widespread violence was imminent, as it had said in order to justify its actions," the AHRC said in a statement.?

"The army is now working hard to build a fictional constitutional order, re-securing power for the military elite while trying to give the opposite impression," it said.

"And although it has expressed commitment to the rule of law, its actions are all demonstrations of the opposite," the group added.

The AHRC accused the interim government of emphasising the many human rights abuses of the former administration but playing down the complicity of the army and other state agencies in these.

"The interim prime minister has apologised for the killing of some 84 persons in Narathiwat in 2004, but not acknowledged the liability of the army in the deaths, least of all the 78 who died in its custody," the AHRC said.

"He has ordered security forces to cease using 'blacklists' to hunt for suspects, but not yet explained anything about how they were made, who used them, which abuses occurred as a result of them and what investigations of wrongdoing due to the use of lists will follow," it said.

The AHRC also listed the continued application of emergency regulations in the southern provinces, martial law across about half of the country, continued killings and forced disappearances, and the persistent failure of the authorities to solve killings and disappearances, including the abduction of lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit over two years ago, as some other areas of concern.

"There are also as yet no laws to prohibit torture and forced disappearance, or an effective witness protection scheme: even a National Human Rights Commissioner who was seriously threatened obtained no protection from the state, nor did his case arouse any official concern," it said.

The group intends to release a detailed report on human rights in Thailand during 2006 in the new year.

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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.