Thailand developing guidelines to end torture of suspects in custody

By Pratch Rujivanarom 
The Nation

 

 

OFFICIAL GUIDELINES to prevent the torture and abuse of people in custody are being drawn up as part of a joint operation between the Thai Justice Ministry and the Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT), an international NGO.
 

 The project aims to educate and create standards to guide law enforcers and related officers to prevent and eventually end the use of inhumane practices and torture against people who have been detained.

 

A memorandum of understanding for the three-year project has been signed with the Rights and Liberties Protection Department, said APT’s programme officer for Asia Pacific Shazeera Zawawi, in an exclusive interview with The Nation.

 

The continuing use of torture and inhumane practices in Thailand is seen by international bodies as a major stain on the country’s human rights record. Suspects, especially those involved in cases related to national security or insurgency in the South, have been tortured while in official custody.

 

Zawawi said despite the continuing incidence of torture, the organisation saw that many activists and some official agencies in the country were actively working to end the inhumane practice. She sees the project as a great opportunity for her organisation and other bodies to work together to help prevent and criminalise torture.

 

“Our main focus in the first year of this project is to build trust among the related official agencies and collect information about torture in Thailand, which will allow us to understand the current circumstance on this issue,” Zawawi said.

 

“We want a friendly partnership with the authorities and to develop an understanding of the situation in Thai society. Then we can come out with guidelines for officials, to reduce the risks of torture and ill treatment, especially during the first hours of custody. That has been identified by global studies as the most common period for the captives to be tortured.”

 

The intent of the project, Zawawi said, is to help all related officers to understand the very real drawbacks of torture, and to provide them with guidelines of good practices. By avoiding the cruel treatment of suspects, the problem could be solved at its root, she said.

 

Cross Cultural Foundation (CRCF) director Pornpen Khongkachonkiet said that APT is wise to collaborate with official agencies in the project. It could be an effective way to work toward the end of torture in Thailand, he said. Conflict between activists and the authorities has made it hard for domestic human rights defenders to do their work.

 

“The organisational culture of official Thai agencies is the main reason that officials continue to torture suspects, as lower-ranking officers have to achieve quick progress to present to their commanders,” he said.

 

Torturing the suspects is seen as the quick and easy way to get answers from them, he said. 

 

“I see that working to create a good understanding with authorities and provide them with guidelines to avoid torture is a good start for reform,” said Pornpen. “But the development of official channels to report and investigate torture cases is also important in order to provide |justice for the torture victims.”

 

A CRCF report on torture and inhumane practices in the far South provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat shows that at least 54 cases of torture were reported from 2004 to 2015.

 

The report also revealed that all of the torture victims were Malay ethnic male suspects in cases related to the southern insurgency. Also, all had been tortured by officials as part of their interrogation while in custody at official sites, according to the report.

 

Shazeera Zawawi

 

Zawawi said many academic studies have concluded that torture is a counter-productive interrogation method, because people tend to answer anything the interrogators want to hear to make the torture stop. The information gained from torture is thus unreliable.

 

“Even though Hollywood may find it sexy, we can never achieve national security and stability by torturing people,” she said.

 

“Moreover, in a society that favours torturing, no one is safe from becoming the victim themselves.”

 

In the meantime, Zawawi emphasised that the close collaboration between stakeholders, including lawyers, torture victims and their families, academics and civil society organisations was equally important in understanding the realities on the ground.

 

“We hope that at the end of this project, officials in Thailand will shift away from their old ruthless interrogation style and adopt our new guidelines instead,” Zawawi said.

 

“APT will continue working with our Thai partners to ensure that our good work is not abandoned, and to further push forward the legal reform to permanently end the torture and cruel actions against detainees.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30351165

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-08-01

"...“The organisational culture of official Thai agencies is the main reason that officials continue to torture suspects, as lower-ranking officers have to achieve quick progress to present to their commanders,” he said..."

 

This is only partially correct; it is true that lower ranking officials will go to great lengths to please their boss, but the writer omits another, equally salient fact. The culture of impunity that exists among Thai security forces means that there is no downside to acting in whatever manner the officers please; if there is, for all intents and purposes, no chance of you getting into trouble for breaking the law and abusing those in your custody, then concurrently is no downside of treating them/torturing as the officers wish.

 

Until there are some real consequences for how security forces treat those in their custody, this is all lip-service only. 

 

It is well-meaning, long overdue and a GREAT idea, but if the focus isn't fully correct and complete, then the project will certainly fail.

 

 

Edited July 31, 20187 yr by Samui Bodoh
Lack of coffee

Guideline 1: Don’t torture people. 

 

Guideline 2: see guideline 1. 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

OFFICIAL GUIDELINES to prevent the torture and abuse of people in custody are being drawn up

no effect until you have a culture where people care about each other; that isn't here

"... to end"  So that means they admit they do it now. Not there is much doubt about it. And with no civilian accountability, there is no oversight of the police or military by the people

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Suspects, especially those involved in cases related to national security or insurgency in the South, have been tortured while in official custody.

But only a short while ago announcing this claim caused the arrest of 3 activists by the current govt who seemed to have little appetite to investigate their report and wanted to put them on trial.

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

By avoiding the cruel treatment of suspects, the problem could be solved at its root, she said.

And this has got to go down as the most obvious of statements.

2 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

"...“The organisational culture of official Thai agencies is the main reason that officials continue to torture suspects, as lower-ranking officers have to achieve quick progress to present to their commanders,” he said..."

 

This is only partially correct; it is true that lower ranking officials will go to great lengths to please their boss, but the writer omits another, equally salient fact. The culture of impunity that exists among Thai security forces means that there is no downside to acting in whatever manner the officers please; if there is, for all intents and purposes, no chance of you getting into trouble for breaking the law and abusing those in your custody, then concurrently is no downside of treating them/torturing as the officers wish.

 

Until there are some real consequences for how security forces treat those in their custody, this is all lip-service only. 

 

It is well-meaning, long overdue and a GREAT idea, but if the focus isn't fully correct and complete, then the project will certainly fail.

 

 

 Absolutely correct: and if you by accident kill the suspect all the cctv footage will disappear with the excuse that the cameras didn't work in the first place. Plus they plant some extra weapons on the body to make sure it was just a reaction to the thread. Of course this all goes unpunished also.

That's nice of them to try and end Torture . 

To end inhumane practices, somebody is having a laugh.

Get locked up in a police station, they give you no food, no water if you are lucky enough to have somebody visit you and they bring you food/water, then you are very lucky, no visitors you go hungry/thirsty.

1 hour ago, gk10002000 said:

"... to end"  So that means they admit they do it now. Not there is much doubt about it. And with no civilian accountability, there is no oversight of the police or military by the people

Exactly what I thought; I wonder if they realise that this whole article is basically an admission that at the moment they practice torture.

Henceforth, torture will be referred to as attitude adjustment. Done.

 

Remember that scene from the movie "The Falcon and the Snowman" where they just pummel his head with the book?

With big yellow pages and other types of paper phone books going away, you might want to be wary of anybody that goes around collecting them! 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand developing guidelines to end torture of suspects in custody

Why do you need guidelines?

Don't torture.

Doh!

10 minutes ago, Blow Up said:

Why do you need guidelines?

Don't torture.

Doh!

It's a 3 year project with a committee, so presumably there is a budget in there somewhere!

that  finger pointing can be brutal..

1 hour ago, Bob12345 said:

 Absolutely correct: and if you by accident kill the suspect all the cctv footage will disappear with the excuse that the cameras didn't work in the first place. Plus they plant some extra weapons on the body to make sure it was just a reaction to the thread. Of course this all goes unpunished also.

Yes I think I know the case you are talking about totally unaceptable. But recently there as an other case where someone did get convicted for shooting at a car at a road stop. Lets hope that that that last case will be more of an example though I did find the punishment low. 

It's a shame the post insinuates that torture is predominantly in the south, when in fact young people have been dying in army cadet camps, prisons and police stations all around thailand for some time now.

At least the people in the south have a large amount of public resources to investigate and have their case heard. The families of the former are almost completely alone, using all their own resources to seek justice. 

I don't know why they need a special law for perpetrators of torture. 

There are already laws, that say beating people, kicking people is a criminal offence. And killing people is an offence under the criminal code. It will take 20 years to establish new laws for the elite. 

To be fair, the Thai authorities haven't been set a very good example in the past.....by the US in particular.

My God! This just goes to prove what an intrinsically primitive 'culture' this is. Look at this statement:

 

'The project aims to educate and create standards to guide law enforcers and related officers to prevent and eventually end the use of inhumane practices and torture against people who have been detained.'

 

The implications of this are so outrageous, so damning of Thailand. They actually need to be 'educated' and taught that torture is wrong?! What a moral indictment of Thailand. For God's sake: doesn't every 10-year-old know that? And note that this 'education' only has as its goal the eventual ending of 'inhumane practices and torture' of detained people - not the IMMEDIATE criminalisation and punishment of it. 

 

Sometimes I despair of this country. Talk about being mediaeval and barbaric.

 

But what do we expect from a regime that starts seeing dollar signs from 'catastrophe tourism' when helpless youths are trapped in a cave and could die at any time. If money, money, money is the god of a society - torturing people is a doddle. No sweat. No problem.

 

Mai ben rai.

 

Now - where's my lovely hi-so medieaval Thai silk uniform - and my 17th-century torture devices. Must maintain Thai-niyom at all costs ...

 

 

 

Edited August 1, 20187 yr by Eligius

The report also revealed that all of the torture victims were Malay ethnic male suspects in cases related to the southern insurgency. Also, all had been tortured by officials as part of their interrogation while in custody at official sites, according to the report.

 

Glad to see that no Thais are involved! Or farang this time!

 

The fact that Thailand is only discussing this now, and not 30  or 50 years ago, says it all. As much as people want to label Thailand as beyond a developing nation, and not a third world nation, it remains so, on many levels. Just the other day I took the train from Bangkok, and there you get a real picture of the place, not on Sukhumvit. The slums, the mountains of plastic and uncollected, unprocessed garbage, within meters of the slum homes. 

 

This is simply more lip service. Thailand is trying to improve it's world rankings. The guards, the army, the police, and the officials currently in power all have near absolute impunity. They all know that, so there is virtually nothing in the way of a deterrent. 

 

This can be accomplished far more effectively with action. Words are terribly unimpressive. Tiny P. is all about words. All words and no action makes him a very dull boy indeed. Not to mention a complete and utter incompetent.

But we get way more confessions through torture 

Sorry to all the dogooders out there but what do you think about a muslim terrorists that goes around beheading people and then pleads "innocent".???? I have no problem with torture and water boarding to get this animal to talk.

5 minutes ago, taipan1949 said:

Sorry to all the dogooders out there but what do you think about a muslim terrorists that goes around beheading people and then pleads "innocent".???? I have no problem with torture and water boarding to get this animal to talk.

I have to agree.

5 hours ago, spidermike007 said:

The fact that Thailand is only discussing this now, and not 30  or 50 years ago, says it all. As much as people want to label Thailand as beyond a developing nation, and not a third world nation, it remains so, on many levels. Just the other day I took the train from Bangkok, and there you get a real picture of the place, not on Sukhumvit. The slums, the mountains of plastic and uncollected, unprocessed garbage, within meters of the slum homes. 

 

This is simply more lip service. Thailand is trying to improve it's world rankings. The guards, the army, the police, and the officials currently in power all have near absolute impunity. They all know that, so there is virtually nothing in the way of a deterrent. 

 

This can be accomplished far more effectively with action. Words are terribly unimpressive. Tiny P. is all about words. All words and no action makes him a very dull boy indeed. Not to mention a complete and utter incompetent.

Were you as vocal in your condemnation of the US who had a black site here in Thailand routinely torturing people? How can anyone condem the Thais when they've been led to believe waterboarding was legal?

6 hours ago, grollies said:

To be fair, the Thai authorities haven't been set a very good example in the past.....by the US in particular.

you listening Dick Cheney!

27 minutes ago, grollies said:

I have to agree.

Plus 1.

Just remember red +

                         black --

and a bit of water helps.

Edited August 1, 20187 yr by overherebc

8 minutes ago, overherebc said:

Plus 1.

Just remember red +

                         black --

and a bit of water helps.

And don't forget testicles. 

Inhumane and torture, interesting, but the keeping of prisoners in the style that Thailand does can be considered inhumane and to some is a form of torture, so where to start.

not for one moment am I suggesting that they be locked up in the lap of luxury so I ask again where to start ?