December 17, 2005
BANGKOK (AFP) - Thailand should stop using blacklists to track down suspected militants and their supporters in restive Muslim provinces, Human Rights Watch said Saturday, saying the lists were flawed and could lead to abuses.
"The use of blacklists is eroding trust between Muslim villagers and the government because they are being used arbitrarily and without due process of law," HRW's Asia director Brad Adams said in a statement.
"Muslim villagers are living in fear that they will be told by district officials and security forces to surrender to authorities or face arrest -- or worse."
The government uses the blacklists to target suspected militants, their sympathizers, as well as a loosely defined group of people considered at "high risk" of supporting the insurgency that has left more than 1,000 dead over the last two years, HRW said.
Officials say they conduct intelligence to create the lists, which authorities use to pressure Muslim villagers to turn themselves in to authorities.
The villagers are often then forced to attend reeducation camps known as "peace-building courses" at army bases in the three southern provinces along the Malaysian border.
Government officials have said that complaints about the blacklists are militant propaganda.
But the scheme took several embarrassing twists last week, after Interior Minister Kongsak Vantana presided over one of the camps on December 10, only to meet loud complaints from Muslims that they were innocent and had been tricked into attending.
After officials double checked the list, only 46 of the 137 people at the camp were supposed to be there, according to Thai media.
Days later, opposition Democrat lawmaker Jecharming Tochtayong accused the government of luring Muslims to the camps with a false offer of a free trip to Bangkok.
Human Rights Watch warned that under an emergency decree enacted in July, authorities have broad powers to punish anyone who defies a summons, which could lead to abuses because blacklisted people have not been charged with crimes and have no legal recourse.