FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
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Junta is not as impartial as it claims, Thai lawyers group says

Junta is not as impartial as it claims, Thai lawyers group says

THE military junta is not impartial as it claims to be and the exercise of power and orders by the National Council for Peace and Order over the past year widely undermined the rule of law and human rights, the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights group said in

“Although the NCPO attempted to present itself as an impartial actor who would resolve the country’s problems, including addressing conflict and creating reconciliation, the Army is not impartial. The Army is one of the parties of the conflict in Thai society and in the year since the coup, the people have had their liberty restricted in various ways,” said the group, which had been due to discuss the report at the Foreign Correspondents Club before the event was banned on Thursday.
“The majority of those who have been prosecuted have been citizens whose ideas are not in line with the Army or the NCPO,” the group said.
The 18-page report cited many legal and rights problems that stem from military rule. “The exercise of illegitimate authority, an absence of checks and balances, a lack of respect for the principles of the rule of law and international human rights law, and the violation of the basic rights and liberties of the people were manifest during the first year of rule by the NCPO.”
The group noted that 77 laws have been promulgated by the junta-appointed National Legislative Assembly without “the consent and participation” of the people. The junta had intervened in or shut down at least 71 seminars or public activities, and more than 1,000 households had been affected by its Forestry Master Plan.
The group said the summoning of at least 751 people since the coup constituted a violation of their rights.
“The summoning of individuals to report when the individuals do not know the reason they have been summoned, and perhaps not knowing where they have been taken for detention and are unable to contact people outside, plus stipulations that not reporting oneself is a crime and release carries conditions with it, are violations in themselves,” the group said in the report. This contravened the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
NCPO order No.7/2014, which prohibits a political assembly of more than four people, was at times used in combination when forcing those arrested to accept the condition of not carrying out further political activity before being released, the group said.
The lawyers said the use of absolute power under Article 44 of the provisional charter contravened the principles of separation of power and granted the junta leader, General Prayut Chan-o-cha, power without accountability and no guarantee of rights and liberty for those prosecuted under this special power.
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