State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2016 - Thailand

Events of 2015

Since the military seized power from the democratically elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in May 2014, Thailand has been under the rule of General Prayut Chan-o-cha, the head of the country's armed forces. Amid crackdowns on independent media and the widespread repression of NGOs, the regime has attempted to validate its authority by appealing to a nationalist sense of 'Thainess' heavily associated with the central Thai ethnic identity and the royal lineage – a narrow interpretation that effectively excludes many minority communities, such as Thai-Lao Isan in the north-east and the Malay/ Melayu-Muslim of the south, as well as dozens of indigenous peoples.

The regime's control over Thailand's civil and political life showed little sign of relaxing during 2015. A draft Constitution completed by the government's own constitutional drafting committee was rejected in September by the military-appointed National Reform Council – a development that was widely interpreted as a stratagem to further extend military rule. While all Thai citizens have been stripped of many fundamental democratic rights, the regime's policies have varying implications for the country's minorities and indigenous people.

Against this authoritarian backdrop, there have also been increasingly vocal calls from certain groups to make Buddhism the state religion in the next Constitution. While the connection between Buddhism and the Thai state has always been strong, with previous Constitutions stipulating the state's duty to support Buddhism, until now it has never been formally designated the country's official religion. However, while the new constitutional draft released in January 2016 fell short of designating Buddhism as the country's official religion, the emphasis in the 2007 Constitution on the state promoting understanding between Buddhism and other religions has shifted to the duty of the state to protect Buddhism from any threats – a significant change in language that could provide extremist Buddhist groups with greater leverage if approved.

Peace talks in the country's marginalized south, where the majority of the population belong to the ethnic Malay Muslim minority, were reignited this year after stalling with the Yingluck government in 2013 – a welcome development in the possible resolution of a decades-long conflict between the Thai state and ethnic Malay separatists in the region. Representatives of the military regime and Malay Muslim parties, now represented by the newly formed umbrella organization MARA Patani, met in Kuala Lumpur multiple times throughout the year. While the establishment of the MARA Patani umbrella group is significant, as it represents the first time diverse groups have come together under one banner for negotiation, the talks have not yet passed the 'confidence building' stage, according to a statement issued by the group.

National policies have played an important role in deepening tensions in the south. Besides political marginalization and underdevelopment, the government has also exacerbated the conflict through decades of repressive policies that have aggressively promoted a narrow 'Thai' identity at the expense of local communities, with Malay Muslim residents experiencing discrimination in areas such as language and religious education. These and other policies have helped contribute to the emergence of the region's violent separatist insurgency. Attacks continued throughout the year, though significantly reduced from previous years: from October 2014 to March 2015, according to the Internal Security Operations Command, the number of incidents reduced by more than 62 per cent and casualties by 46 per cent compared to the same period a year before. These included three consecutive days of bombings in Yala in May and the killing of a monk in Patani province in July in an IED (improvised explosive device) attack by suspected separatists targeting his convoy.

The military was implicated in further abuses during the year, including physical ill-treatment of suspected southern insurgents, with the local NGO Muslim Attorney Centre reporting 33 cases of torture allegations in 2015. Activists were also harassed, including 17 ethnic Malay Muslim students arrested arbitrarily in Narathiwat in April. Human rights violations by state security have been enabled by widespread impunity for perpetrators, with authorities regularly failing to prosecute soldiers implicated in incidents of harassment, torture or extra-judicial killings.

Meanwhile, in the north and north-east of Thailand, the military regime's plan to reduce supposed forest encroachment, also known as the 'return forest policy' of 2014, continued to have disastrous effects for minorities and indigenous peoples in the region. Minority Lao Isan farmers, such as the nine villagers convicted in Sakorn Nakorn in October for illegal trespass, have been driven off land they have accessed for decades; three of them were sentenced to between two and a half and three years' imprisonment. Prison sentences of between one and five years were also issued to 20 indigenous Pakayaw Karen for illegal logging in Mae Hong Song, despite the fact they were using wood to construct their traditional homes.

The sentencing and selective prosecution show an inconsistency in laws regarding land use and their implementation, particularly around indigenous communities. For example, reports emerged in June that the Department of National Parks (DNP) was pushing for a new national park law to allow tourism businesses to establish themselves in national parks, despite them being prohibited by current legislation – a development that could further undermine indigenous access. Yet in the same month, the National Reform Council approved a draft law on community land deeds that would permit forest dwellers who occupied areas before the creation of protected forests to remain in exchange for undertaking conservation responsibilities. Inconsistencies such as these leave communities in a legal vacuum.

Minorities and indigenous peoples living in conservation areas have frequently found themselves in conflict with the state's park rangers, who have been implicated in a range of human rights abuses, including the murder of local activists. Judicial investigations into these incidents are frequently inadequate. For instance, following the disappearance of Karen human rights defender Porlajee 'Billy' Rakchongcharoen in May 2014, after he was arrested by park officials on the pretext of illegally carrying wild honey – a traditional source of food within the community prohibited under Thai conservation law – police laid charges against the then-head of Kaeng Krachan national park, Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, in January. However, preliminary investigations were still ongoing at the end of the year, with no convictions yet filed. In another case brought against Chaiwat by Billy's wife, the Supreme Court in September upheld two previous lower court rulings dismissing the case against Chaiwat for the illegal detention of Billy. In October, an appeals court again cleared Chaiwat of a murder of another Karen human rights defender – Tatkamol Ob-om – that took place in 2011. Also in October, the 104-year-old grandfather of Billy filed a case against Chaiwat for his role in burning their Karen village to the ground in 2011, giving the community hope that justice might be served in at least one of these cases.

Individual officials in the Thai authorities continued to be implicated as key players trafficking minority Muslim Rohingya from Burma and Bangladesh en route to destinations such as Indonesia and Malaysia. In May, mass graves were found in Songkhla province, containing what appeared to be the bodies of more than 30 Rohingya who had died while being held in trafficking camps. In the aftermath dozens were charged with involvement in trafficking, including a senior military general, officers and local politicians. Major General Paween Pongsirin was assigned to investigate the case, but after uncovering a network that implicated even more senior officials, he feared for his life and fled to Australia, seeking asylum in December. He has expressed concerns about the likelihood of the rulings being compromised by pressure from powerful military officials and politicians.