Written Statement – Item 11 (f) of the provisional agenda

The State of Emergency in southern Thailand

Violence escalated in 2005 in the three southern Thai provinces Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat. Home to most of Thailand’s 4% Muslim minority, Muslims are ethnically, culturally and religiously distinct from the Thai Buddhist majority population. Religious differences, social and economic marginalization of Muslims in southern Thailand resulted in local grievances and a latent crisis in inter-ethnic relations. Thai Muslims are blaming the Thai authorities for the economic underdevelopment and the forced cultural assimilation of the south. Although Thailand had an impressive record of economic growth between 1960 and 2000, the existing regional imbalances deepened during this period. The southern provinces are among the least developed regions of Thailand according to official data on household income and gross regional product. In the last four decades the Thai government has failed to reduce the regional economic disparities between the south and the center of Thailand.

Muslim militants fought a low-key war for their right to self determination in the 1970s and 1980s. The south of Thailand was an independent Muslim sultanate until annexed 100 years ago. In the late 1990s, the Thai administration had achieved a measure of success in obtaining greater mutual understanding with people in the south through negotiations and compromise. The last three years have seen a return to increasingly confrontational means for dealing with a relatively small number of local insurgents. As a consequence, violence flared since January 2004, affecting the daily life of the whole population in southern Thailand. In reaction to the violence the Thai government has flooded the region, where 80 % of people are Muslim ethnic Malays, with 30.000 troops and police, whose presence has angered many locals and failed to make any headway to stem the unrest. As the country in January 2006 marked the second anniversary of the outbreak of unrest, the Thai authorities announced to send another 5.300 police to restive south and to install some 9.000 security cameras in key government buildings, schools and temples.

At least 1.100 people died since January 2004 in attacks by local insurgents, counter-attacks and massacres by Thai military. The collateral damage over the past two years has reached unprecedented proportions, as insurgents turn their guns more and more on non-security personnel. In recent months there have been almost daily ambushes and murders of Buddhist monks, teachers, police and soldiers. Between January and June 2005, more than 34.500 residents, mostly Buddhists, left southern Thailand. Others are adjusting to the violence by sticking to urban areas and avoiding travelling after dark. Muslim community leaders point out that it is not only Buddhists who fear they will become victims of the violence. In fact, most of those killed in the conflict are Muslims, including civilians and militants who have died at the hands of Thai security forces. According to official police records, 1.958 Muslims and 477 Buddhists were injured or killed in the three southern provinces between January 2004 and December 2005. Moreover, Muslims who are seen to co-operate with the authorities run the risk of reprisal attacks by the insurgents.

The deterioration of the security situation has had an extremely negative impact on the relations between Buddhist and Muslim civilians, suffering from fear and distrust. The crisis may develop into a religious conflict that will see Buddhists confronting Muslims as more and more religious sites, temples and monks come under attack. At least 31 religious sites or representatives have been targeted by violence until November 2005. In January 2006 Muslim leaders in southern Thailand prayed for peace and expressed their hope that the government would deal with the crisis more cautiously.

Leaders of the civilian population are criticizing a lack of protection by the Thai authorities. The government of Thailand has a responsibility to ensure the protection of every citizen living under its jurisdiction. So far the Thai authorities have failed to ensure that protection in the southern provinces. In order to crush the insurgency by military means they have ordered a massive crackdown in the area which has incited a cycle of violence.

The Emergency Decree failed to secure the protection of the civilian population

On 19 July 2005 Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has imposed emergency rule on the country’s south, as violence in the area showed no sign of abating. The „Executive Decree on Public Administration in Emergency Situations” imposed on the south in summer 2005 and renewed on 19 October 2005 was presented by Prime Minister Thaksin as an alternative to martial law, ensuring the fundamental freedom of the civilian population while allowing the security forces to effectively crush the insurgency. The new measures allow the Prime Minister to order the detention of suspects for up to 30 days, censor newspapers and tap phones. The Thai government has subverted the parliamentary democracy both through the imposition of the emergency regulations as a Decree and through exclusion of the parliament from any future process for the declaration of emergency. Many politicians and human rights organisations in Thailand expressed massive doubts about the new security laws. Even the government-appointed „National Reconciliation Commission”, chaired by former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun, criticized the Decree as a „licence to kill” and complained about media censorship, detentions without trial and immunity for law enforcement officials. After the parliamentary opposition pushed for an extraordinary session to debate the Decree Taksin’s Thai Rak Thai party’s large majority ensured that both houses of parliament ratified the Decree.

Most criticized has been Section 17 of the Decree, granting security officials immunity from criminal and civil prosecution. This provision has been requested by the military after commissions started to investigate the role of the military in massacres against civilians in April and October 2004. Furthermore Section 16 of the Decree suspends jurisdiction of the administrative courts to investigate human rights violations by police and military, leaving the civilian population with no legal means to prosecute human rights violations by state officials.

We are extremely concerned about the provision that suspects should not necessarily to be detained in police stations, prisons or detention centers. Undisclosed or secret detention places are raising the suspicion that detainees may be mistreated. Furthermore the lack of appropriate judicial authorization of searches, arrest and detentions has raised strongest criticism.

Thai human rights organisations and local community leaders have registered dozens of extrajudicial killings and disappearances since the Decree took effect on July 19. In most cases they are too afraid of the reaction of the security officials to complain about the abuses.

Despite official denials blacklisting of Muslim civilians as supposed sympathisers of the insurgents is common practice in southern Thailand. The blacklisting is eroding the trust between civilians and the security personnel, facilitating arbitrary detentions and abuses of people in custody. Muslim community leaders reported that Thai soldiers were knocking at the doors of listed suspected sympathisers of Muslim insurgents and threatening them with massive consequences. The villagers are often forced to attend reeducation camps known as „peace-building courses” at army bases in the southern provinces. Under the Emergency Decree anyone who defies a summons to attend reeducation is liable to imprisonment for two years or a fine.

National Reconciliation Commission calls for an official apology

In February 2005 the Thai government established the 50-member „National Reconciliation Commission” (NRC) to search for a peaceful solution of the conflict. Local members of the five Subcommissions, which have been named, have conducted field research to issue a report to the government with recommendations to promote peace and justice. But there is little hope that Prime Minister Thaksin will adopt the recommendations. „People down south hold the government responsible for significant mismanagement and a lack of sincerity”, declared NRC-chairman, former Prime Minister Anand Panyarachun. Anand has called on the government to admit its responsibility and to apologize for past abuses. But the Thai government ignored his appeal.

Violence in southern Thailand will increase unless blacklisting of civilians, arbitrary detentions, torture, disappearances and the excessive use of intimidation and force by security-personnel will end. The Thai government needs to apologize for past abuses, to address the root causes of the conflict and to launch political and economic reforms in order to promote development in southern Thailand and the cultural identity of the Muslim minority.

Society for Threatened Peoples calls on the Commission to urge the Government of Thailand to:

• repeal the Emergency Decree of July 2005,

• end „blacklisting” of the civilian population,

• ensure that no detainees will be hold in unofficial detention centers, that every detainee has immediate access to legal counsel,

• independently investigate all abuses of insurgents and security personnel and to end impunity for state officials,

• encourage the National Reconciliation Commission in its mission to promote peace and justice.