Thailand is again under the spotlight for the wrong reasons. It has come under the attention of the Human Rights Watch. And this is for a very good reason.

On March 20 and 21 this year in 2008 the army conducted an interrogation on a man named Imam Yapa Koseng, a Muslim religious leader. What he was put through over two days is despicable. It led to his death.

Testimony by a forensic expert on June 30 showed that Imam Yapa’s cause of death was blunt force trauma, including fractures of his ribs from the front, the side, and the back. Broken bones punctured his lungs. Bruises and wounds were found all over his body, including his eyes, forehead, and lips. He also had long abrasion marks on his back, indicating he may have been dragged on his ankles across a hard and rough surface.

I don’t care if the guy was a terrorist or suspected terrorist, this is just so despicable. The Thai army doesn’t have a good record when it comes to human rights and this has again showed this to be very true.

A judicial inquiry into Imam’s death has been blocked by army stonewalling. On June 30, 2008, Major Wicha Phuthong, commanding officer of the 39th Taskforce at the time of the killing, testified to Narathiwat Court in the post-mortem inquest that he did not know who tortured and killed Iman Yapa, or the names and ranks of the soldiers on duty at the time, or other relevant details.

He has either developed a very bad case of amnesia or couldn’t be a good leader of his men. A good leader knows everything that is happening in his platoon.

And more surprising is this; He testified that written records of those on duty were destroyed. He further stated he had the authority to grant permission for interrogation of detainees in the camp, but no one made a request to him to interrogate Imam Yapa.

This is the sort of stonewalling and cover-ups that goes on with the Thai army. For all the extra judicial killings that have apparently happened in the south of Thailand, not one soldier or officer have ever stood trial.

Now though the army could actually right a wrong. They have a large amount of evidence including Imam’s son’s testimony. He witnessed his dad’s beating at the hands of soldiers over two days. He witnessed soldiers jumping on his father, kicking and punching non stop.

He heard his father plead to his murderers to please stop; he told his son he was in so much pain.

Here is some of his testimony.

“I heard punching and kicking noises. I heard my father scream in pain. That went on for at least two hours.”

“When my father fell down, they kicked him again and again. They were laughing. My father could barely walk when they forced him to get up on his feet.”

“There were more than 10 soldiers hitting, punching, and kicking my father. I saw them hit him hard on his head. When my father fell down on the floor, some soldiers stepped on him and stomped on his chest.”

Although every soldier in the southern border provinces carries a code-of-conduct booklet produced by the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), many former detainees interviewed by Human Rights Watch said that after being arrested they were immediately tortured by interrogators – including soldiers in uniform and in plainclothes – at district-level camps. These are witnesses’ reports to HRW.

The most common forms of torture and other ill-treatment reported were ear-slapping, punching, kicking, beating with wooden and metal clubs, forced nudity, exposure to cold temperature, electric shock, strangulation, suffocation with plastic bags, and piercing the detainee’s genitalia with needles.

This is disgraceful; this is obnoxious and sickening that in this day and age where there are international rules for how prisoners should be treated. Some of these torture techniques are just unforgivable. How could any human being inflict such forms of torture on another human being?

Thankfully the HRW has called on the Thai government and army to:

Immediately ensure the safety of all detainees; to provide urgent medical care to all who sustained injuries during arrest or in detention; to allow timely access to legal counsel and family members; and to launch a full investigation into allegations of torture and ill-treatment.

I don’t know how lucky the HRW will be as the current Prime Minister and the opposition party, are fighting a childish battle over the leadership of the country. They have forgotten about more important things like, people being killed.

I do not agree with what is happening in Thailand’s south. Both sides who murder and maim people everyday need to be taken out of society at any expense. If the insurgents are caught then they need to be treated humanely, they need to be given a fare trial no matter what they might be accused of. If a court of law sentences those to death then so be it.

It is not the job of some thugs in green khakis to pass death sentences. That’s what laws are drafted and enforced. If we didn’t live by these laws we would have anarchy, more than so today.

Read about the Thai army suffocating 78 Muslim men in the south of Thailand. No-one was ever held accountable.