FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
PRESS RELEASE
AHRC-PL-014-2007

THAILAND: AHRC "deplores" further extension of emergency rule

(Hong Kong, April 10, 2007) The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) on Tuesday deplored the announcement that the emergency regulations in force across Thailand's southernmost provinces are to be extended by a further three months. 

According to local news reports, a decision has already been made that the decree would be extended from April 19.

"We utterly deplore the continued use of this draconian law, which permits soldiers and police to abduct, detain, torture and kill with impunity," Basil Fernando, executive director of the Hong Kong-based regional rights group, said.

"The decree is not a solution to the violence in the south, but a direct cause of the growing and worsening conflict there," Fernando said.

"We challenge the government of Thailand to justify its continued use on any grounds other than that it wants to cause more bloodshed upon which to expand the military's resumed control of key institutions, including policing and investigating agencies," he said.

The Emergency Decree was enacted in July 2005 and must be renewed every three months.

It was initiated by the government of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, but has been renewed twice by the military regime that took power by force last September 19.

"All the talk by the current interim prime minister and others about restoring the rule of law and making a clean break from the Thaksin regime are exposed as bluff and fraud in the face of the continued use of these regulations," Fernando said.

"The emergency decree is in every respect morally and legally offensive," he insisted.

"It is an anachronism, a barbarism, and something that no civilised government would enforce," Fernando added.

"We again call upon the government of Thailand not to extend but to retract it," he concluded.

The AHRC in March set up a new webpage to call for an end to the decree.

The webpage, at http://thailand.ahrchk.net/edecree/, tracks the number of days that it has been in effect and number of times that it has been renewed. This will be the ninth renewal.

The page contains a copy of the decree, comments on the law by the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial killings and links to documentation on cases of forced disappearance, torture, extrajudicial killing and impunity in the south.

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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.