|
Thailand criticised for state of emergency: UN HRC
 Thailand's new state of emergency has been challenged by the head of the United Nations panel examining the country's human rights record.| Everyone go get a nice cup of Here We Go Again. |
The Thai Government has been in the dock in Geneva this week, forced to defend its record on detention of suspects without charge; the disappearance of activists; abuse of refugees, ethnic minorities and migrant workers; media censorship; and the state of emergency recently imposed in the mostly Muslim south. "We have a lot of problems with this state of emergency in Thailand," said Catherine Chanet, the chairwoman of the UN Human Rights Committee. "We are very worried about that."| Of course, the Thai government might be worried about 800+ of its law-abiding citizens who suddenly found themselves without their heads, or shot dead from a passing auto-rickshaw. |
The committee warned it would place Thailand under "harsher follow-up procedure" as a result of the state of emergency, and demanded the Government provide an official translation of the decree by this weekend.| Gads. The Un really really means it this time! |
A Thai Government delegation appeared before the committee on Tuesday and Wednesday to respond to 26 issues raised by the committee under the mandate of the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights, which Thailand signed in 1996. The committee requested extra information on violence in the south, where there is a low-level but deadly insurgency; the war on drugs, in which more than 2500 alleged drug users and dealers have been killed extrajudicially; and the fate of Somchai Neelapaichit, a high-profile Muslim lawyer who is missing and believed murdered after he represented four men accused of being associated with the Islamist terrorist group Jemaah Islamiah. The men were later cleared of all charges.| Whence they immediately went back on the active roster, and prolly got sent to Iraq for 'outreach.' |
Mr Somchai's wife testified in Geneva this week on her husband's disappearance. "Without justice and an end to impunity, forced disappearances risk becoming common and acceptable in our society," Mrs Angkhana Neelapaichit reportedly told the committee. "If my children and I did not feel so hopeless and had not been suffering from the psychological torment caused by [Mr Somchai's] continuing disappearance, I would not be here to call for justice." The UN committee expressed concern that the emergency law allowed detention without charge for 30 days, up from 48 hours previously. | Concern expressed, stand by for sternly worded memo. 'Cept Thailand is a infidel state, they may actually try to make Thailand pay. |
Ms Chanet was quoted in The Nation newspaper: " In this law they say there is impunity for any policeman or soldier whose behaviour is against human rights. It's a provision of the law and we said it was absolutely not in conformity." The Thai Government has defended the security decree as a necessary step to restore law and order in the three southernmost provinces, Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani. More than 800 people have died in the insurgency since it flared again in January 2004.The UN committee will release its findings on the Thailand hearing next Friday.
Posted by: Seafarious 2005-07-23 |
