Tag Archives: Thailand
15 December 2014
In the wake of a 500 page summary report that was released by the US Senate on 9 December 2014, five countries have been identified as being home to secret CIA-controlled prisons namely: Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Thailand and Afghanistan. According to the Washington Post, Afghanistan alone housed no fewer than four such facilities. (more…)
Source: The Washington Post | Decoding the secret black sites on the Senate’s report on the CIA interrogation program
Source: Huffington Post | More Than A Quarter Of The World's Countries Helped The CIA Run Its Torture Program
Source: Foreign Policy | Poland Finally Comes Clean About Housing a Secret CIA Dungeon
27 January 2014
The Washington Post has provided a detailed account of the use by the United States of a secret prison near Warsaw that was used in 2003 to interrogate accused September 11 conspirators.
The report describes how the interrogation initially took place in Thailand, and that the Polish location was chosen when a better facility was needed. The CIA paid nearly 300,000 US dollars for improvement of the facility. US interrogators used in the Polish prison ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ that were formulated at the CIA and approved by Justice Department lawyers. These included slapping, sleep deprivation and waterboarding. Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the self-declared mastermind of the attacks, was reportedly waterboarded 183 times in the Polish facility.
Source: The Washington Post | The hidden history of the CIA’s prison in Poland
7 January 2014
A Reuters investigation revealed that Thai naval security forces were involved in the smuggling of Rohingya Muslims who fled Myanmar (also known as Burma) in growing numbers over the last year following outbreaks of religious violence in Myanmar. A smuggling network, centred on the west coast of southern Thailand, transported thousands of Rohingya mainly into neighbouring Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country the Rohingya view as a haven from persecution. In addition to the Royal Thai Navy, the coastal seas are patrolled by the Thai Marine Police and by militias under the control of military commanders. (more…)
Source: Reuters | Special Report: Thailand secretly supplies Myanmar refugees to trafficking rings
Source: Reuters | U.N., U.S. call for investigations into Thai trafficking of Rohingya
Source: Reuters | UPDATE 1-Thai navy denies allegation of Rohingya Muslim smuggling
Source: UN News Centre | UN human rights office concerned about Thai Navy defamation case against reporters
11 November 2013
In its judgment of 11 November on the Request for Interpretation of the Judgment of 15 June 1962 in the Case concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand), the International Court of Justice, apart from deciding that Cambodia had sovereignty over the whole territory of the promontory of Preah Vihear, noted that the Temple of Preah Vihear is a site of religious and cultural significance for the peoples of the region and is now listed by UNESCO as a world heritage site. It recalled that under Article 6 of the World Heritage Convention, to which both states are parties, ‘Cambodia and Thailand must co-operate between themselves and with the international community in the protection of the site as a world heritage. In addition, each State is under an obligation not to “take any deliberate measures which might damage directly or indirectly” such heritage’.
Source: ICJ | Request for Interpretation of the Judgment of 15 June 1962 in the Case Concerning the Temple of Preah Vihear (Cambodia v. Thailand) | Judgment | 11 November 2013
7 March 2013
At the Conference of the Parties of the of the Convention on the Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), eight states (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand and China) were identified as key to the trade in ivory and were threatened with trade sanctions if they do not address failures in protection against poaching, and failures in seizing illegal ivory trade.
Six of these states are states which most ivory passes through (Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Malaysia, Philippines and Vietnam), the other two are the states were most ivory is bought (China and Thailand).
The news of threat of trade sanctions coincides with the publication of a report that details the increase in levels of poaching. The report concludes that illicit ivory trade activity and the weight of ivory behind this trade has more than doubled since 2007, and is over three times greater than it was in 1998.
Source: The Guardian | Two-thirds of forest elephants killed by ivory poachers in past decade
Source: UNEP, CITES, IUCN, TRAFFIC | Elephants in the Dust - The African Elephant Crisis | A Rapid Response Assessment
Source: The Miami Herald | Ivory trade nations face threat of sanctions