Thailand's scary hunt for critics of monarchy and regime

The rulers in Bangkok are becoming increasingly harsh against dissidents. The number of murdered and missing regime critics is increasing. Now a new case causes a stir.

Three dissidents recently extradited by Vietnam to Thailand have been missing for over a week. Now there are fears that they will be held in a Thai military camp. Their relatives are waiting for a sign of life. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are also deeply concerned and ask for information.

Two bodies in the Mekong

Chucheep Chivasut, Siam Theerawut and Kritsana Thapthai, exiled in Laos, were arrested by the Vietnamese authorities in January for illegal border crossings. The three men probably wanted to save themselves from the hooligans who tracked dissidents abroad. In Thailand, they are among others charged with lese majeste.

Speculation that they may not be alive is by no means groundless. On December 11 last year, three Thai dissidents, who had thought themselves safe in neighboring Laos, disappeared. Two of them were recovered dead from the Mekong two weeks later; her hands were tied and her bodies were weighted with concrete. The third, 78-year-old Surachai Danwattananusorn, who fled to Laos after the 2014 coup, lacks every trace. Already in 2016 and 2017 there were kidnappings on the streets in Laos. There is no trace of these persons.

Secret exchange of dissidents

According to the Thai Alliance for Human Rights, the three men were transferred to the kingdom last Wednesday. The government in Bangkok turns ignorant; The Vietnamese authorities are also silent. But the fate of the three missing persons could have a special background. In January, Vietnamese journalist Truong Duy Nhat, a pro-government critic, was arrested in Bangkok after asking for asylum at the UN Mission. Since March, he is sitting in a prison in Hanoi. This nourishes speculation that the Hanoi and Bangkok regimes have agreed on a secret exchange of dissidents.

In any event, the incidents cast a light on hunting that has made Thailand's military government anti-government voices and critics of the monarchy since the death of King Bhumibol in October 2016. All eight killed or missing dissidents had come into conflict with Article 112 of the Penal Code, which prohibits any criticism of the royal family (Lèse-Majesté). That Vietnam is responding to extradition requests from Thailand is not an isolated case. Cambodia, where dictatorial conditions are similar, has also exposed politically persecuted people to Thailand in the past.

Malaysia also delivers

Even Malaysia, another Asean country that has not signed the UN Refugee Convention of 1951, appears to be responding to extradition requests from the neighboring kingdom. Anyway, Kuala Lumpur delivered Praphan Pipithnamporn to Thailand on May 10th. The dissident, who fled to Malaysia at the beginning of the year following protests and was registered as a refugee at the UN refugee agency UNHCR, was arrested on April 24 at the request of the Thai authorities. Arrest and exchange coincide closely with the coronation ceremony for King Maha Vajiralongkorn in Thailand.

Sources: nzz.ch, thai examiner,scott