EDITORIAL
More shameful conduct in the deep South
The Nation

It's hard to imagine what justification the military could offer for sampling the DNA of an infant in Pattani

BANGKOK: -- Rights groups and civic organisations are understandably up in arms following the publication in the media of photos showing an Army officer taking a DNA sample from a five-month-old baby in Pattani. The child's father stands accused of being among the separatist militants behind a March 2012 bombing in Hat Yai.

It is not yet clear why the authorities felt compelled to gather a fluid sample from the boy's mouth (while his mother held him), but the government does seem to have overstepped the bounds of decency. Its conduct also violates the 1989 UN Convention on Child Rights.

The officials claimed to have obtained the permission of the mother, and the photo would seem to back that up, but someone other than the mother signed the document acceding to the DNA swab.

Quite beyond the matter of trampling on the rights of a child, this episode becomes another added to the volumes of injustices emerging in the ongoing harassment of southern citizens by the military.

There is a shocking culture of impunity in the three southernmost provinces, where more than 6,500 people have been killed since January 2004. Most of those killed have been Muslims who supported the very plausible claim to a cultural identity quite separate from that of the rest of the Thai populace.

This Malay-speaking region came under Bangkok's direct rule only at the turn of the last century. Assimilation was grudgingly accepted by most residents and kept the provinces peaceful until the early 1960s, when complaints that the southerners were being robbed of their religious identity exploded into an armed insurrection.

Thai authorities have long relied on DNA sampling in the South to try and determine who is involved in the insurrection, but there has never been agreement on when it is permissible.

Local people working for civil society organisations - particularly those critical of government behaviour - have been compelled to give DNA samples, in some cases more than once in a single year. This is despite the fact that DNA is a constant, which prompts disturbing questions. Does every security unit have its own DNA databank, or are samples being carelessly lost - or it this another form of harassment, plain and simple? Private residences are routinely searched without a court warrant, and not necessarily in hot pursuit of armed suspects.

This is no way to "win the hearts and minds" of citizens in the midst of a war against separatist insurgents. Nor is such conduct gaining the Thai government any friends overseas. The country is already seen as a police state where corruption, sham justice and authoritarianism are the norm.

Quite apart from routine harassment, the spectre of torture hangs over the deep South like a choking smog. Rights organisations both foreign and domestic have documented case after case, as well as abductions and target killings, in the battered region.

In one memorable and telling case, a young man filed suit against Pol Gen Chakthip Chajinda, claiming he had inflicted torture on him in 2004. Now national police chief, Chakthip was at the time active in the South, sent there by the Thaksin administration following the embarrassing January 2004 arms heist in Narathiwat.

When Chakthip counter-sued, his accuser decided that the justice system was unlikely to take his side, so he fled to the forests and joined the separatist insurgents.

Forensic science is a boon to law enforcement - but only if the enforcers don't twist it to serve their preconceived notions. As long as we lack specific regulations to govern DNA sampling, the practice should be abandoned. Only when the public knows where it stands does faith in authority have a chance to grow.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/opinion/More-shameful-conduct-in-the-deep-South-30273782.html


-- The Nation 2015-11-27

" have overstepped the bounds of decency "

Decency? da hell with decency if it can save many lives, are those same groups are also up in arms

when innocent people get slathered on a daily basis? no? I didn't think so...

I take it the rights groups and civic organisations are Islamic ones that say nothing when innocent people have been murdered

"It's hard to imagine what justification the military could offer for sampling the DNA of an infant in Pattani"

No, it's easy to imagine.

The sample is to help connect the evidence dots, it's not and could not be for evidence itself.

The rights of the child? Well, yes, it was the child's smear of saliva that was stolen. I think bigger thefts have occurred and I am positive that the child will not miss those few dead cells.

Whilst not entirely condoning this (it was a mouth swab which is fairly minor in my mind), do those self-same "rights" groups that are complaining have a solution to the bigger problem?

Taking DNS samples from babies or multiple samples from one person is certainly not the way leading to peace in the far south. Should be slowely understood after ten years of struggle following the incidents of Tak Bai and Krue Se.

" have overstepped the bounds of decency "

Decency? da hell with decency if it can save many lives, are those same groups are also up in arms

when innocent people get slathered on a daily basis? no? I didn't think so...

And how, exactly, is taking a child's DNA going to save lives?

The man has been on the wanted list sins 2012. + This is a 5 month old child. = The mother of the child has harbored a wanted criminal which in it self is a crime in most countries... So if they can prove that the wanted man is the father then they should arrest the mother and (probably) the rest of her family and send the child to an orphanage.

I'm for law and order, human rights and so on, BUT you can't hide behind one law when you just broke another.

One Racist post removed

If he was not guilty what was the real harm. A Q Tip in the babies mouth. The muslims are testest ting the Thai government at every point. The government is more worried about red shirts than the muslims. Shameful conduct is more muslim bull shit!

Yes, how shameful to take an infants DNA.

Meanwhile in other news, terrorists murdered more innocent buddhist teachers and rubber tappers in cold blood and burned their freshly slain corpses on the street where they fell. Neither The Nation or Bangkok Post saw fit to cover any of these stories other than a small article for a single day. The local Muslim population did not say a single word to condemn the attacks.

Now remind me, which one is shameful ?. These people make me sick.

"It's hard to imagine what justification the military could offer for sampling the DNA of an infant in Pattani"

No, it's easy to imagine.

The sample is to help connect the evidence dots, it's not and could not be for evidence itself.

The rights of the child? Well, yes, it was the child's smear of saliva that was stolen. I think bigger thefts have occurred and I am positive that the child will not miss those few dead cells.

Grow up. In 20 years, everyone's DNA will be in a database whether they gave permission or not.

A post containing an inflammatory meme image has been removed, continue to post using images of this nature may be rewarded with a posting holiday.

"It's hard to imagine what justification the military could offer for sampling the DNA of an infant in Pattani"

No, it's easy to imagine.

The sample is to help connect the evidence dots, it's not and could not be for evidence itself.

The rights of the child? Well, yes, it was the child's smear of saliva that was stolen. I think bigger thefts have occurred and I am positive that the child will not miss those few dead cells.

Grow up. In 20 years, everyone's DNA will be in a database whether they gave permission or not.

And in 20.1 years that information will be grossly misused. Luckily databases are hackable.

One Racist post removed

" have overstepped the bounds of decency "

Decency? da hell with decency if it can save many lives, are those same groups are also up in arms

when innocent people get slathered on a daily basis? no? I didn't think so...

You are missing the point: The military collected evidence without proper permission. It violated the rights of the minor in doing that. Maybe you are ok with a government forcefully taking your child's DNA, but I am not.