elef Posted March 6, 2007 Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 But Whitewater may come back and then it looks black... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted March 6, 2007 Author Report Share Posted March 6, 2007 Rights groups welcome new probe 5 March 2007 (dpa) Human rights advocates on Monday welcomed reports that the current Thai government has launched a new inquiry into thousands of extra-judicial killings under the previous administration of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra. Current Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on February 23 instructed the Justice Ministry to set up a "special committee to prosecute violations of human rights and extra-judicial killings" between 2001 and 2006, when Thaksin was prime minister. Thaksin was ousted by a military coup on September 19 last year on charges of corruption and dividing the nation. "It's good news," said Khraisak Choonhavan, a former senator who has been at the forefront of efforts to bring Thaksin to court for allowing thousands of extra judicial killings during his "war on drugs" between 2003 to 2004. "I think the prime minister is now feeling more confident to do this because there is a new chief of police," said Kraisak. "Without police collaboration in these investigations nothing will be accomplished since thousands of police were involved in the killings." Both the United Nations and the US government lodged complaints against the Thai government about the alleged mass executions of suspected drug dealers. Estimates of the number of people killed during the anti-drug campaign have ranged between 2,500 to 7,000. Human rights groups have also lodged complaints about slayings in the deep South, Thailand's three southernmost provinces Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala, where two government crackdowns on alleged Muslim militants in 2004 were deemed excessive and an unknown number of people went missing. Investigations into these past violations were allegedly stalled under Thailand's previous National police chief, Kowit Wattana. Kowit was sacked last month and replaced by Police General Seripisut Temiyavej as acting police chief. Kraisak and other human rights advocates are urging the new government to swiftly ratify the International Criminal Court treaty of 2000, which classifies human rights violations as a crime and would facilitate prosecution of such abuses in Thailand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.