Rights group denounces Thai military's 'license to kill'

By Max Constant

BANGKOK

An international human rights group is calling on Thai legal experts to reject a demand by the ruling junta that a clause be inserted in the new constitution giving the military immunity from prosecution in the use of -- what it calls -- "force in good faith".

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement Wednesday that such "blanket immunity" would allow the military to commit abuses without fear.

“Given the Thai military’s long record of human rights abuses, this would effectively be giving soldiers a license to kill,” he added.

A Nov. 11 letter from Junta leader-cum-prime minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha to the military appointed constitution drafting committee suggests the insertion of 10 points.

The tenth point in the letter -- the contents of which were only made public Wednesday -- stated that the constitution must enshrine a clause stating that “any use of force in good faith to preserve the security of the state from domestic and external threats must be exempted from civil, criminal and administrative punishments,”

In its statement, HRW notes that the military was never held accountable for the killing of civilians during political upheavals that regularly destabilized the kingdom since the 1970s -- Oct. 1973, 1976, May 1992 and April-May 2010.

In 2010, over 90 people were killed during massive anti-government demonstrations led by then-prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Several court inquests ruled that civilians were killed by military deployed to crush demonstrations, however none of these inquest led to a trial of military officers.

“The new constitution should ensure the law applies to all people equally. No one should be able to escape prosecution and accountability for rights violations,” said Adams.

On Wednesday, an analyst agreed that such a clause would be detrimental to the rule of law.

“[It] would allow impunity for future coups. I don’t agree with it,” Angkhana Neepaijitr, chair of for the Justice and Peace foundation, told Anadolu Agency.

Thai-based Justice and Peace is mostly active in the Muslim-dominated south of the country, where an insurgency against the central state is taking place.

“This expression ‘use of force in good faith’ is used a lot in the emergency decree [enacted in the south]. It allows impunity.

"If anyone -- official or non-official -- commits a crime, he must be held accountable,” she underlined.

Thailand -- which has suffered 12 successful military coups since the abolition of the absolute monarchy in 1932 -- has been ruled by a military junta since a coup overthrew the elected government May 22, 2014.