Losing Ground: Human Rights Defenders and Counterterrorism in Thailand

• In one infamous case, after a large protest outside a police station at Tak Bai, Narathiwat, in October 2004, security forces could not identify the protest leaders and arrested more than 1300 protestors under martial law provisions. Without enough trucks to transport the protestors, they stacked detainees on top of each other (six deep) for the long trip to a detention center. 78 died along the way.
• In Yala province, after an attack by insurgents on a police station in November 2005, police used the decree to arrest the customers of the tea shop next door, a man driving by with his children, and others with no apparent connection to the attack.
• Since the passage of the emergency decree, many others have been called in and held as witnesses, a category that deprives them of even the modest protections they would have as suspects.

Disappearances: Recently, the government reportedly paid compensation to at least 21 families of victims allegedly “disappeared” by government forces, yet there has been no official effort to determine the fates of the missing men, let alone prosecute those responsible. Furthermore, according to a number of sources cited in the report, this figure may represent the tip of an iceberg that has yet to be fully examined.

The complete report can be read here.