The Thai army and police are “disappearing” ethnic Malay Muslims in the far south in a deliberate attempt to beat an increasingly bloody separatist rebellion, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday. “The Thai security forces are using ‘disappearances’ as a way to weaken the militants and instil fear in the Malay Muslim community,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of the New York-based group. “These ‘disappearances’ appear to be a matter of policy, not simply the work of rogue elements in the security services.”
In a 69-page report, Human Rights Watch detailed 22 unresolved cases in which it said the evidence indicated strongly that security forces were responsible. The real total was likely to be far higher because many families were too scared to speak out in fear of reprisals, it added.
One typical case involved a man called Sata Labo who disappeared on Jan 9, 2004, five days after a raid on a military barracks that marked the revival of conflict in the region — an independent sultanate until annexed by Bangkok a century ago. Sata Labo called his sister from his mobile phone saying he had been stopped at a police checkpoint, where his car was searched. He was told to report to a police station, but has not been heard from again, his sister said.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in three years of unrest in ThailandÂ’s four southernmost provinces, where 80 percent of people are Muslim, ethnic Malays and do not speak Thai as a first language. Most of the disappearances occurred under Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in September, Human Rights Watch said. |