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PM admits rights abuses do occur
By SUMETH PANPETCH,Associated Press Writer AP - 2 hours 51 minutes ago
YALA, Thailand - Security forces have committed rights abuses against suspected insurgents in southern Thailand and anyone found to be culpable will be punished, the country's new prime minister said Saturday on his first visit to the restive region.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, however, rejected allegations by Amnesty International that security forces have engaged in systematic torture in a campaign to defeat Islamic militants in southern Thailand.
According to testimonies in a report released by the London-based human rights group on Tuesday, Thai security forces beat suspects and placed plastic bags over their heads until they nearly suffocated. Others said they were burned with candles, subjected to electric shocks and buried up to their necks in the ground.
"These things do happen but it is not government policy," Abhisit said.
"The army commander has given a clear policy on this," he said. "If anybody strays from this path, they have to account for their actions and be punished."
Abhisit, who became prime minister last month, met local government and security officials along with religious leaders during his daylong trip to the southern provinces of Yala and Pattani. He said human rights abuses only fuel insurgent propaganda.
"The Thai government will conduct its security operation in accordance with human rights principles," he said.
Militants in Thailand's Muslim-majority south have waged an insurgency for decades. They have not announced their goals but are believed to be fighting for a separate Islamic state. Muslims in Thailand _ which is 90 percent Buddhist _ say they are treated like second-class citizens.
More than 3,300 people have died since early 2004, when fighting flared after a lull of more than two decades.
Amnesty's report said it had documented the alleged torture of 34 people from March 2007 to May 2008. The group interviewed 13 torture survivors while other accounts came from witnesses and relatives of alleged victims _ four of whom died in detention.
Among the most widely publicized cases was that of Yapa Kaseng, a 56-year-old Muslim religious leader who died in March 2008 after interrogation at an army camp.
A Thai court ruling last month said military personnel beat Yapa to death. The findings said Yapa, who suffered broken ribs and a ruptured lung, was violently interrogated three times over two days and had been dragged by his ankles because he could not stand up. No one has been arrested or charged in the case.
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