Isoc defends decision to take legal action against activists
The Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) Region 4 Forward Command yesterday explained the reasons behind its decision to take action against three non-governmental organisation activists over a report that accuses the authorities of torturing insur
The move followed a statement issued on Thursday by LEMPAR (Lembaga Patani Raya untuk kedamaian dan pembangunan) and Human Rights Watch in which they called for the government to provide justice and respect the principle of human rights as well as drop the lawsuits against the three activists.
The forward command spokesman Colonel Pramote Phrom-in told a press conference yesterday that Anchana Heemmina, head of the Hearty Support Group – which comprises families of people detained and prosecuted on national security charges in the deep South – had requested a probe be launched into the torture allegations.
Pramote said Anchana made the request on January 8 to General Aksara Kerdphol, the Thai team leader in peace negotiations in the restive region, and Fourth Army Region chief Lt-General Wiwat Pathompak.
On February 10, he said the group, together with the Cross Cultural Foundation and the Patani Human Rights Organisation Network, launched a report about alleged torture and inhumane treatment of people in the deep South in 2014 and 2015 at Prince of Songkhla University’s Pattani campus. The report was widely published via the media.
“The Fourth Army Region chief had instructed related agencies to probe the allegations with transparency to punish the wrongdoers and to improve operations to boost acceptance among general public,” he said.
He added that the groups also asked the National Human Right Commission to help with the probe.
Out of the 54 cases cited in the report, the fact-finding committee could only identify 18 individuals and they didn’t find any credible evidence suggesting they had been tortured, he said.
Anchana was invited to join the authority’s meeting on February 14 while the agency asked for information about the persons cited in the report several times but didn’t get co-operation, he said.
Pramote said the authorities regarded the lack of co-operations as an intention to conceal information and use the alleged victims as a tool to produce the report, with there being desire from their side to see a fact-finding probe set up to facilitate remedial measures and a solution.
The publishing of the report through the media without proper fact-checking could lead to a misunderstanding in society that affects operative officers’ and the Isoc Region 4 Front Command’s reputations, he added.
Therefore the agency believes it is necessary to rely on the law and the course of justice to determine the facts in court, he added.
He said he was confident that if there were authentic evidence, the producers of the report would reveal it in court.
“But if they weren’t true or fabricated, the report producers deserve legal punishments as they would be deemed the violators of the rights and integrity of state officers and agencies that sacrificed to reduce conditions for violence in the region,” he said.
