Why Is Taxin Not Arrested And

[sanmiguellight]

Many tyrant leaders have and are being tried at the Hague for crimes against humanity for mass killings and torturing whilst they were in power ..... the UN were well aware of the killings of alleged drug dealers in Thailand under Thaksins governance...... so why has he not been arrested and tried for crimes against humanity and couldnt Thailand as a nation request his arrest because of this and not the land scam or whatever it is that he has no problem running from?

Edited August 11, 2009 by sanmiguellight

[Maizefarmer]

Knowing something is one thing - proving it is another - and one thing the West likes to make sure of (or at least portray its self as liking to make sure of) is that due process is undertaken correctly - not in the way it is often carried out in Thailand.

That means a formal accusation being made, then the accusation been investigated, statements been taken, then charges been defined, then an arrest warrent been issued ect ect ect ...... er, quite unlike how one is accustomed to such matters been done in Thailand - and that means time - lot's and lot's of time - it takes years.

If its mean't to happen, it wil happen in due course - though I suspect you may well be a little hard pressed to find enough folk living in Thailand who would a) be willing to make the accusation formally and give a statement (considering the risk they would in turn face), and be able to prove it.

[oldsparrow]

There is no standard in international affairs.

I am no fan of Thaksin and was glad that he was kicked out even by a coup.

However, it came to me that international community treat Thai junta very much diffferent from the Hondurus Junta.

[steveromagnino]

Knowing something is one thing - proving it is another - and one thing the West likes to make sure of (or at least portray its self as liking to make sure of) is that due process is undertaken correctly - not in the way it is often carried out in Thailand.

That means a formal accusation being made, then the accusation been investigated, statements been taken, then charges been defined, then an arrest warrent been issued ect ect ect ...... er, quite unlike how one is accustomed to such matters been done in Thailand - and that means time - lot's and lot's of time - it takes years.

If its mean't to happen, it wil happen in due course - though I suspect you may well be a little hard pressed to find enough folk living in Thailand who would a) be willing to make the accusation formally and give a statement (considering the risk they would in turn face), and be able to prove it.

actually there are other pending charges against him for other things, which is why he won't go back; the first land thing was the only thing he has faced so far; the moment he lands again then he has problems. Corruption stuff though, not murdery stuff.

As for the Hague It isn't quite up there with slaughtering 500,000 people or stuff like that though. I think under his administration he only wiped out what like 2,700 drug dealer types of which maybe 50% were innocent, and the 70 Muslims that suffocated. It is difficult (ok, giving him the benefit of the doubt here) to know whether he personally oversaw or even knew of these deaths. Especially given that his administration was quite unique in that cabinet minutes were not kept - everything was verbal.

So not really sure if it is up there as a crimes against humanity type situation.

Edited August 11, 2009 by steveromagnino

[mc2]

This drug war had support from all levels of thai society, from the very top to all the way down.

There was very little opposition at the time, and even now there is not a great deal of interest in pursuing this (due in part to the fact that so many other people will be found to have played a part in the atrocities... not just Thaksin, and also to the widespread drug problem at the time, which lead some people to believe (wrongly) that the war was justified).

Its unlikely international action will be taken when the Thai people themselves are not pushing hard for justice or resolution.

Edited August 11, 2009 by mc2

[frodo]

Ironic how some folks continue to justify the murder of innocent people, but will continue to defend a guilty criminal on the run.

[Gary A]

Would any reasonable person believe anything the Thai government told you?

[geriatrickid]

The alleged murders that occurred during Mr. Thaksin's period of government can in no way be compared with the genocides in Rwanda or Kosovo. To even make an attempt to do so demonstrates the bias and ignorance of the person trying to make the connection. The alleged murders in Thailand were not based upon an attempt to rid the nation of a specific ethnic or religious group. There was no national policy made to run death camps or to incite barbaric murders in the street. No government official went on the airwaves to appeal to the population to go out and cut off the limbs of their neighbours as was the case in Burundi and Rwanda.

There may have very well been excesses by the Thai police. There are police excesses everyday in western countries where the wrong people are shot and killed by police officers. It can be argued that the policing systems of those western countries facilitates and allows for those excesses. However, it is understood that while this is wrong it is not the product of a national desire to hunt down certain minorities. Mr. Thaksin had a national drug enforcement policy. Unfortunately, the people tasked to carry it out had neither the skills nor the abilities to undertake it properly. The result were mistakes, errors and most likely wrongful deaths. Those police officers and military specialists were there long before Mr. Thaksin arrrived, He had to work with what he had available. Blaming Thaksin for the problems of the drug curtailment policy is a simplistic act that allows the people that were involved in wrongdoing to escape responsibility. Long after Mr. Thaksin was overthrown by the military, many of the same people that carried out the excesses Mr. Thaksin is blamed for, still occupy positions of authority in the policy and military. Successive regimes including the present have not brought these people before the courts, let alone relieved them of their duties. If you want to blame Thaksin, fine, but also hold the successive military junta and its reps responsible too because they have done SFA as well.