Little compensation for torture victims in Thailand's deep South

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Little compensation for torture victims, forum told
Pravit Rojanaphruk
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Only five of the 400 people who claimed to have been tortured by security officials in the deep South have been given financial compensation so far, Pornpen Kongkachornkiat, director of Cross Cultural Foundation, said.

The current situation, she said, is that the authorities are denying the very existence of torture in the deep South, despite records suggesting quite the opposite. Plus, compensation was very limited.

She was speaking at a symposium to mark the International Day for Victims of Torture held by the Cross Cultural Founda-tion, Ammesty International Thailand and the Law Reform Commission of Thailand in Bangkok yesterday.

Ancha Heemmina, a representative of Duay Jai Group that helps torture victims in the South, said the biggest difficulty is providing solid medical evidence because physical marks usually disappear by the time the victims are released.

Also, compensation is limited to just financial aid even though many victims develop psychological problems. "Some [Thai-Malay] victims have had to flee to Malaysia for safety," she said, while officials accused of torture continued working with impunity.

Human rights lawyer Pree-chaya Lertwisetpanya said the situation was made worse by the martial law and the emergency decree applied in the region, which meant victims could only be represented by a military prosecutor and once a ruling was made in a military court, the victims could not appeal.

Keynote speaker, human rights law expert Prof Vitit Muntrabhorn of Chulalongkorn University, said the definition for torture in Thailand was narrow and limited. He cited four forms of torture - forced confession, extrajudicial punishment, physical and verbal threats, and discrimination.

"Cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment should also be regarded as torture, be it at home or outside," Vitit said, adding that Thailand had yet to have an official definition of what constitutes torture. He said even refugees such as the Rohingya face a form of torture under detention in Thailand.


-- The Nation 2013-06-27

[TackyToo]

Where is Yinglucks human rights blah blah heard now?

[seajae]

bullets are a lot cheaper........

[brfsa2]

bullets are a lot cheaper........

so let's a bullet on your head then.