Asian Human Rights Commission on extrajudicial executions in Thailand

In a statement issued today, the Asian Human Rights Commission addressed the problem of extrajudicial executions in Thailand:

The military government has persistently directed public attention towards the excesses of the previous administration while playing down or entirely ignoring its shared responsibility for human rights abuses of recent years. The interim prime minister has apologised for the killing of some 84 people in Narathiwat Province in 2004 but has not acknowledged the liability of the army for these deaths, least of all the 78 who died in its custody. He has ordered the security forces to cease using “blacklists” to hunt for suspects but has not yet explained anything about how they were made, who used them, which abuses occurred as a result of them and what investigations of wrongdoing will follow due to the use of the lists. Nor has his government yet lifted the emergency decree over the southern provinces, which a U.N. expert in July said “makes it possible for soldiers and police officers to get away with murder.” Martial law remains in effect across half of the rest of the country nearly three months since the military took power.

The statement by the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions is available here. The Special Rapporteur has also engaged in correspondence with the Government in relation to the events in Narathiwat Province.