THAI SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: RECENT COURT RULINGS ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 000078 SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP, DRL, IO; NSC FOR PH E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/12/2019 TAGS: PHUM PGOV KPAO KJUS TH SUBJECT: THAI SOUTHERN VIOLENCE: RECENT COURT RULINGS ON DEATHS AND DISAPPEARANCES BANGKOK 00000078 001.2 OF 003 Classified By: DCM James F. Entwistle, reason 1.4 (b, d). SUMMARY AND COMMENT -------------- ¶1. (C) A Thai civilian court recently ruled that a local Muslim leader from southern Thailand suspected of being an insurgent facilitator died while in Army custody in March 2008, but the court failed to assign responsibility for the death; the case appears headed for further proceedings in a military court. Separately, a court ruled that police officials acted in self-defense in April 2004 when killing 19 young Muslim men who participated in an insurgent attack on a police station in Songkhla province, although NGOs told us many of the men appeared to have been executed. On the same day in April 2004, the military stormed the Krue Seh mosque, killing all of the insurgents who had taken refuge after killing a policeman nearby; it remains unclear whether the provincial Office of the Attorney General will bring charges in the case. Four years after the October 2004 deaths of dozens of Muslims in Tak Bai, primarily by suffocation in transport trucks, the post-mortem inquest is still ongoing. Lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit may soon be declared dead, after the five-year anniversary of his March 2004 disappearance. A court dismissed a request in another disappearance case to issue a court order compelling paramilitary troops to produce the alleged victim. ¶2. (C) Comment: Many family members of the deceased or disappeared in southern Thailand have chosen to pursue justice in the Thai courts, despite hurdles of bureaucracy, a lack of positive precedents, and chronic delays. Many experts on the south emphasize that one of the most important grievances the Thai central government must address is the pervasive sense of a lack of justice in the deep south, particularly when security officials stand accused of human rights violations. Septel will examine the prospects for a new approach in southern policy under the new Democrat-led coalition government. End Summary and Comment. IMAM YAPA -- DEATH IN ARMY CUSTODY -------------- ¶3. (C) The Narathiwat Provincial Court, concluding a post-mortem inquest, ruled on December 25 that Imam Yapa Koseng, a suspected facilitator of insurgent activity, was beaten and killed by soldiers during an interrogation at the Army's 39th Taskforce camp in Rue Soh district, Narathiwat province, from March 20 - 21, 2008. The ruling followed testimony by a doctor, the Imam's wife and son, the deputy commander of Task Force 39, and five soldiers named by eyewitnesses as responsible for Yapa's death. ¶4. (C) In a January 8 press release, Human Rights Watch (HRW) praised the court's ruling, but called on Prime Minister Abhisit to ensure the prosecution of the involved security officials. A credible NGO source who talks to both insurgents and security forces had earlier told us that he had little doubt that Yapa was deeply involved in insurgent activities, but that the torture of Yapa in front of his son and others sent the wrong signal to southern Thai Muslims concerned with the RTG approach to the southern situation. ¶5. (C) Legal specialist Paul Green of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) told us on January 8 that he was pleasantly surprised by the overall direction of the ruling, but, from a legal standpoint, he viewed it as "weak, inconsistent, and full of striking omissions." Green believed it was evident that the court viewed certain individuals as guilty, but the court did not take the required step of expressly listing the perpetrators, as required by Section 150 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Green viewed the court as seeking to avoid implicating the Army. BANGKOK 00000078 002.2 OF 003 ¶6. (C) Amnesty International (AI) researcher Benjamin Zawacki told us on January 8 that the Yapa ruling "wasn't bad, but felt incomplete," as it stopped short of identifying the perpetrators. AI intended to raise the prosecution of individuals in this case in meetings with (unspecified) Thai authorities in conjunction with the planned January 13 release of the AI report entitled, "Thailand: Torture in the Southern Counter-Insurgency." Zawacki referenced the Yapa post-mortem inquest as a positive example of court action on a human rights abuse case, but he feared prosecution might not ensue, even though one of the accused soldiers, Sub Lieutenant Sirikeht Wanichbamrung, incriminated himself with testimony that another foreign observer believed made him (Sirikeht) appear to be willingly taking the blame for Yapa's death. The case appears headed for adjudication in a military court; Yapa's family and NGO workers hope to bring the case before a civilian court instead, believing the military court will be biased in favor of the Army. ¶7. (C) Illustrating NGO concerns about the Yapa case, ICJ legal specialist Elaine Chan complained to us on December 3 that the judges handling the Yapa case had limited eyewitness Sukrinai Loamar's testimony of his own claimed torture while detained by Task Force 39 alongside Yapa. According to Chan, the judges asked Sukrinai not to be "graphic" and forbade him from using "impolite words." Chan noted that the testimony Sukrinai attempted to provide, such as abuse of his genitalia with needles, was critical in defining inhumane treatment and torture. Chan claimed that Sukrinai most likely received the same or similar treatment as Yapa. (Note: The DCM in July 2008 wrote to the Ministry of Defense's Judge Advocate General to inquire about Yapa's death; we provided a courtesy copy of the letter to Army Commander Anupong Paojinda. We have yet to receive a reply, despite repeated inquiries. End Note.) SUSPICIOUS POLICE SHOOTINGS LABELED "SELF DEFENSE" -------------- -------------- ¶8. (C) The Songkhla Provincial Court ruled in October 2008 that police officials acted in self-defense April 28, 2004 when they killed 19 young men, all members of the Sabayoi District soccer team, after they participated in one of a series of ten coordinated insurgent pre-dawn attacks on security force posts across the south on the same day as the Krue Sae mosque incident (below). The ruling disappointed the human rights community and legal advocacy groups, who noted that eyewitness testimony indicated none of the men were armed with guns (but did have lesser weapons, such as machetes). A doctor who conducted the autopsies recorded fatal wounds to the heads and chest areas, with six men shot from behind execution-style; one body contained 15 bullet wounds. KRUE SAE MOSQUE: NO ACTIVITY BY OAG -------------- ¶9. (C) The November 2006 post-mortem inquest into the deaths of 28 people killed by Army troops at the Krue Sae Mosque in 2004, after insurgents who had killed a policeman outside took refuge in the mosque, identified three Army officials as responsible for the deaths due to an excessive use of force. (The majority of the victims at Krue Sae were shot in the head or back.) The court's determination was then passed to the Pattani province Office of the Attorney General, where it remains, waiting for an OAG decision about potential criminal charges against the named individuals. Family members of the deceased sent a complaint letter to the Lawyer's Council of Thailand in November 2008 to urge legal action based on the findings of the already two-year old ruling from the post-mortem inquest. According to Paul Green of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ),an OAG recommendation to press criminal charges against members of BANGKOK 00000078 003.2 OF 003 the Royal Thai Army remains unlikely, and the case appeared to be "permanently stuck" within the OAG. TAK BAI -- DRAGS ON -------------- ¶10. (C) The post-mortem inquest into the deaths of 78 detainees at the southern Thai border town of Tak Bai in October 2004 remained in process by the Songkhla Provincial Court, awaiting further witness testimony. (Note: The venue for this case had changed from Narathiwat province to Songkhla because of the high level of controversy surrounding the case.) HRW's Sunai Phasuk told us on January 6 that the police chief of Tak Bai is known to track the whereabouts of all the victims' family members, several of whom were subsequently killed in murky circumstances. Sunai raised the case of Yaena Solaemae, a well-known activist for family members of those killed at Tak Bai. Unidentified gunmen in Narathiwat killed Yaena's husband Ma-usoh Malong in October 2007; Sunai claimed others on the side of the Tak Bai victims did not feel they could safely press for full accountability for the deaths. (Note: The relatives of the victims in March 2007 accepted a total of 42 million Baht -- $1.3 million -- in compensation for the deaths; the families dropped their civil suit in this matter but remained intent on pursuing a criminal case. End Note.) LAWYER SOMCHAI -- FIVE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY APPROACHING -------------- -------------- ¶11. (C) March 12 will mark the five-year anniversary of the 2004 disappearance of Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, who assisted southern Muslims claiming abuse by the authorities. By Thai law, this passage of time allows a civil court to declare Somchai dead. There has been no action against police officials in connection with Somchai's disappearance since the 2006 conviction of police Major Ngern Thongsuk on charges of coercion and robbery. (Ngern vanished after a September 2007 landslide; it is unclear whether Ngern is dead or used the landslide to disappear.) ICJ has been trying to help Somchai's wife, Angkhana Neelaphaijit, build a murder case for adjudication in a civil court, based on a public statement by then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra that Somchai was dead and eye-witness accounts of Somchai being forced into a car in central Bangkok. MAYATEH MARANOH -- DISAPPEARANCE -------------- ¶12. (C) The Yala provincial court on December 16 dismissed an unlawful detention case pursued by Subaidoh Maranoh in connection with the June 2007 disappearance of her husband, Mayateh Maranoh. Mayateh's family last saw him in the custody of troops from "Paramilitary Unit 41." (Note: Various paramilitary forces in the South operate with varying forms of ties to the civilian and Army authorities. End Note.) According to NGO reports, paramilitary officials claimed they had invited Mayateh to voluntarily visit Paramilitary Unit 41's base to provide intelligence information about insurgent activity, and he left the base unharmed. Mayateh's family claimed he left home involuntarily, accompanied by 20 soldiers, and he subsequently disappeared. The court ruled there was no evidence contrary to the paramilitary officers' claim that Mayateh left the base unharmed and dismissed the family's request for a court order compelling the paramilitary officers to release Mayateh. NGO workers following the case told us some court procedures appeared flawed, and the paramilitary officers failed to produce documentation it should have had on Mayateh's entry into and exit from the base. JOHN