Summary
On 26 March 1998, around 100 armed
officials of the Royal Thai Forestry Department together
with the police and other employees of the Department
entered Pang Daeng village, a predominantly hilltribe
community in Chiang Mai Province in Northern Thailand,
and arrested all the male villagers, including 50 adults
and 6 children. This mass arrest was conducted without
warrants. And this came about in the midst of an ongoing
and heated public debate about forest conservation and
the land rights of indigenous peoples. Those arrested
were subsequently charged with encroachment on and
destruction of reserved forest land. The arrested have
denied any involvement in the illegal logging in question
To date, only ten of the arrested had been able to pay
the 150,000 bail (or approximately US $3,750) and so were
released. The remaining (40 adults) are still detained in
jail and the 6 children in a juvenile detention center in
the city of Chiang Mai. No trial date has yet been set.
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| Action Requested Many of the arrested are pillars of
livelihood in the already not well-off families. Many
families are now in severe food shortage, and there has
been no assistance from the state. Moreover, there have
been further reports of harassment and intimidation of
villagers by forestry officials. Many villagers have
started sleeping in groups or in the forest itself.
Please write polite letter to the government of Thailand
requesting:
1. The immediate and unconditional release of Pang Daeng
villagers who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained
unless charge them with a recognizably criminal offense;
2. An impartial investigation into the allegations and
arrests of Pang Daeng villagers
with results made public and those responsible for the
arbitrary arrests brought to
justice;
3. Reasonable compensation to the victims of unlawful
arrest and detention; and
4. A speedy, fair and public trial, and in the meantime
reasonable bail conditions, for those charged;
| Send letters and faxes to: |
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| His Excellency Mr. Chuan Leekpai, Prime
Minister, Government House, Bhitsanulok Road,
Bangkok 10300, THAILAND |
Fax: (66-2) 281 4358 or 280 1443 |
| c.c. Copy to: |
|
| 1. General Sanan Kachornprasat, Minister of
the Interior, Office of the Secretary to the
Minister, Assadung Road, Bangkok 10200, THAILAND |
Fax: (66-2) 226 4371 |
| 2. Diplomatic representatives Thailand
accredited to your country. |
|
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Sample
Letter
We are shocked to hear the
indiscriminate arrest without warrants of all the
fifty-six male members of the Pang Daeng village
in Chiang Mai Province on 26 March 1998 by a
hundred armed officials of the Royal Thai
Forestry Department together with the police and
employees of the Department. The fact that the
arrested are dominantly non-Thai ethnic hilltribe
peoples and with children and non-permanent
residents included, raises doubt as to whether
the mass arrest was racially or ethnically
motivated in the midst of the heated public
debate over the issues of conservation and land
rights in reserved forest areas.
Given the non-violent nature of the allegations
that Pang Daeng villagers have encroached on and
destroyed forest land in the reserved Chiang Dao
Forest, the manner of the arrest, the relatively
high bail payment of 150,000 Baht per person, and
the continued detention of adult and children
villagers alike in the city of Chiang Mai
seemingly contravene the spirit of human rights
protection as according to international
standards and relevant provisions in the Thai
Constitution. We sincerely urge your government
to take all necessary measures to respect and
protect the rights and dignity of all individuals
in Thailand. We hereby request for:
- The immediate and unconditional release
of Pang Daeng villagers who have been
arbitrarily arrested and detained unless
charge them with an recognizably criminal
offense;
- An impartial investigation into the
allegations and arrests of Pang Daeng
villagers with results made public and
those responsible for the arbitrary
arrests brought to
justice;
- Reasonable compensation to the victims of
unlawful arrest and detention; and
- A speedy, fair and public trial, and in
the meantime reasonable bail conditions,
for
those charged;
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Background
The community of Pang Daeng is located in
Chiang Dao Forest of Chiang Dao District in Chiang Mai
Province. The community was initially settled by lowland
Thais in 1947. During the years 1947 and 1982, commercial
logging was carried out and small numbers of hilltribe
peoples were hired fro the work. From 1983 to 1994,
hilltribe (or indigenous) peoples of the Akha, and ethnic
Palong, Lisu, and Lahu migrated to the area in search of
work as hired labourers. The Pang Daeng community is by
now a predominantly hilltribe community with 6 indigenous
groups in it. Since 1995, the Pang Daeng community has
been developed into a tourist spot.
On 12 March 1998, a local organization, the Chiang Dao
Forest Conservation Group, complained to the district
head of Chiang Dao that the Pang Daeng villagers have
been encroaching on and destroying the area which is a
reserved forest land. Lawyers from the coordinating
Council of Human Rights Orginizations of Thailand
confirmed that the area in question is not a reserved
forest land, but rather a land reform area. And hilltribe
peoples are blamed for destroying the forests through
shifting (slash and burn) agriculture. The Chiang Dao
Forest was in fact announced a National Reservation
Forest Area in 1973. But in 1982, parts of it which
included the Chiang Dao District fell under a land reform
scheme under the Land Development for Agriculture Bureau
(Ministry Law No. 988 in accordance with 1964 Royal Act).
Though the area in question is not reserved forest land
as what complainants of the Pang Daeng community have
claimed, the 1997 April resolutions which deal with land
rights and conservation issues have been the center of
public debate.
On 26 March 1998: Newin Childchop, a Member of Parliament
and Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives, who
was assigned the responsibility of investigating the
causes of forest fires in northern Thailand, investigated
the condition of the land in Chiang Dao Forest. According
to a local newspaper, he charged that the April 1997
resolutions had encouraged hilltribe peoples to clear,
cut and burn forest. On the same day at around 4:00 to 5:00
p.m., the mass arrest and detention of the 56 villagers
was carried out without warrants. The detention, which
has been reviewed every twelve days since the day of
arrest, has apparently exceeded the limit of the 84 days
of detention set for similar situation under Thai law.
Human rights violations in the earnest and detention of
the villagers
The government of Thailand has acceded to the
International Covenant ton Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR)
and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), and
thus has obligation to ensure that all individuals within
its territory are guaranteed the rights set out in them:
The indiscriminate arrest and
detention of all the male villagers, which
include 17
non-permanent residents, 4 over the age of f63
and 2 under the age of 15, contravene Article 9
of the ICCPR and Article 237 of the Thai
Constitution
which forbid arbitrary arrests and detentions.
The same Article 9 of the ICCPR and Article 246
of the Thai Constitution further set out the
right to compensations for unlawfully detained
individuals.
The right to be properly and
promptly informed of the charge or the reasons of
arrest as provided for in Article 9 of the ICCPR
and Article 237 of the Thai
Constitution has not been upheld.
The continued detention of the
villagers and the "unreasonably high"
bail
payment set for villagers in an alleged offense
of non-violent nature go against
Article 239 of the Thai Constitution.
The arrest and detention of the
children apparently contravenes the spirit of
Article 37 of the CRC.
The mass arrest of dominantly
hilltribe people (with only 4 arrested are ethnic
Thai) in the midst of the heated debate of land
rights of indigenous peoples suggest that the
arrests by claiming that the villagers were
"immigrants from
Shan State in Burma". The spirit of no
discrimination on the basis of race of ethnicity
as enshrined in Article 26 of the ICCPR has not
been honoured in the
Thai Constitution as the equality and anti-discrimination
provisions (Article 30) apply only to Thai
citizens.
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