Bangkok - New York-based Human Rights Watch on Thursday
appealed to newly appointed Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to
show 'political courage' in ensuring the prosecution of soldiers
found guilty of torturing an imam to death in southern Thailand.
On December 25, 2008, the Narathiwat provincial court ruled that
Imam Yapa Kaseng, 56, had been tortured to death by Thai soldiers
while being interrogated on March 20-21.
'The court gave a brave and unprecedented verdict in the inquest,
putting the finger on torture and other abuses committed by Thai
security forces,' said Brad Adams, Asian director for Human Rights
Watch.
Adams noted that Abhisit had pledged on December 30 to uphold
justice in Thailand's troubled deep-South, where more than 3,500
people have died in a separatist struggle over the past four years.
'Now it is Prime Minister Abhisit's turn to show political courage
and ensure the prosecution of the soldiers and officers who ordered
and carried out the killing,' said Adams in a statement made
available in Bangkok.
He noted that the court's ruling had corroborated the findings of
Human Rights Watch's own investigations in the deep South -
comprising Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala provinces - of the widespread
use of torture.
The majority-Muslin region has been under Emergency Decree since
late 2004, allowing security authorities to arrest and detain
suspected separatists without filing charges.
Human Rights Watch called on the new government to end the
Emergency Decree.
'As a priority, the new government needs to overhaul the
counterinsurgency strategy that encourages abuses, impose effective
civilian control over the army, and provide efficient redress for
victims of abuses,' said Adams. 'By relying on repressive measures
and restrictions on fundamental human rights, Thai authorities have
created a fertile ground for the insurgency to expand.'
Abhisit, the leader of the former opposition Democrat party, has
come to power by welding together a coalition government of small
parties and a splinter faction of the previous People Power Party,
that led the last government.
Army Commander-in-Chief General Anupong Paojinda reportedly played
a role in pressuring politicians to join the Democrat-led coalition,
although he has denied involvement.
Thailand's long simmering separatist movement in the deep-South
took a bloodier turn for the worse in January 2004, when Muslim
militants raided an army arms depot and stole 300 weapons.
Then under the premiership of Thaksin Shinawatra, the army
launched several reprisals on the rebels that left scores dead and
inflamed the local population against Bangkok.
More than 8,000 cases of violence in the area have claimed more
than 3,500 lives in the region since then due to clashes, bombings,
assassinations and beheadings.
The three provinces comprised the independent Islamic sultanate of
Pattani more than 200 years ago before it fell under Bangkok's rule.
More than 80 per cent of the three provinces' 2 million people are
Muslim, making the region an anomaly in predominantly Buddhist
Thailand.
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