Battle against human trafficking far from over 

A Thai Army general, high-ranking police officers and local administrators have been found guilty by the Criminal Court in a high-profile human trafficking case that captured the attention of the world’s community for many reasons.
Among the convicted were Lt-General Manas Kongpan, who headed the Internal Security Operations Command for the entire South before his arrest, and Pajjuban Aungkachotephan, a prominent local politician and administrator. 
Needless to say, the conviction of a senior Army officer is extremely rare in Thailand’s political culture. Abuses and irregularities have been associated with the armed forces as an institution but the top brass tends to slip through the cracks, leaving the lower ranking guys to take the fall. 
But this past Wednesday, the court, in a 500-page verdict on 102 defendants, convicted Manas of being part of a transnational crime organisation behind the trafficking of migrants, most of whom were ethnic Rohingya from western Myanmar where they are officially classified as stateless people.
The case caught the world’s attention for many reasons. Besides the fact that top ranking police and Army officials were arrested, there was the finding of mass graves along the southern border. There was also the discovery of a holding camp where Rohingya were kept until they were “bought and sold” by agents and traffickers down the line. 
Some of these jungle camps were just metres away from government’s security outposts, thus, raising the question as to extent and depth of the Thai officials’ involvement. 
The court summarised witness accounts depicting the responsibilities of suspects who ran the Rohingya detention camp in the Khao Kaew hills of Sadao district, from where the Rohingya were smuggled to Malaysia. The verdict also dwelled on witness accounts about the violence used by traffickers in charge of food and water supplies. 
It’s nothing less than modern-day slavery and these practices and transactions must be condemned in the strongest terms. There is no place for slavery in this day and age. 
Convicting Manas, a top military officer, is a step in the right direction. But many people suspect that there is more than meets the eye, like just about everything else in Thailand.
The former lead investigator of this case, Pol Maj-General Paween Pongsirin, must have come across some information that he believes could cost him his life – and the culprits may be not members of the crime syndicate but men in his rank and file. 
Paween fled to Australia, where he has been granted political asylum. He is said to be seeking citizenship of the country. In other words, there is no plan to return to Thailand, even after this high-profile conviction. 
Scores of people may have been convicted, but let’s not forget that the entire network of crime syndicates behind this horrendous crime is still in place. There is too much money to be made – like drugs coming out of Myanmar’s sector of the Golden Triangle, where opium warlords and allies of governments flood the entire region with methamphetamine and heroin. 
Arresting hundreds of criminals is only a drop in the bucket unless countries in the region work together to get to the bottom of the problem. Convicting these people in a court is like clapping with one hand. No meaningful progress can be made unless countries such as Malaysia and Myanmar do their part to address the question of supply and demand of workers, or in this case, slave labourers.
There is nothing wrong with hiring foreign workers as long as it goes through proper channels and processes, instead of crime syndicates. 
But in Myanmar, also known as Burma, the problem is deep-rooted in politics. It is here where the Rohingya originated and where their citizenships were revoked nearly four decades ago. 
A few years ago when a new sense of political freedom was hovering over Burma, national politicians and Buddhist monks teamed up and vented their anger at the Rohingya and the country’s other Muslims, persecuting them in a very systematic fashion. Even pro-democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi, went on the joy ride because the popular hatred against the Rohingya and Burmese Muslims were so deep-seated.