The EU plans to test an AI lie detector at border points

By Dani Deahl on 31st October 2018.

Illustration by James Bareham / The Verge

Trials for AI lie detection at border patrol checkpoints are set to begin soon in the EU. The program, called iBorderCtrl, will run for six months at four border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia and Greece with countries outside the European Union, as reported by Gizmodo.

iBorderCtrl is an EU-funded project that uses AI to facilitate faster border crossings for travellers. The system has users fill out an online application and upload some documents, like their passport, before a virtual border guard takes over to ask questions. According to New Scientist, some of these questions include “What’s in your suitcase?” and “If you open the suitcase and show me what is inside, will it confirm that your answers were true?” Travellers will answer while facing a webcam and the system will analyze and rate dozens of micro-gestures.

If iBorderCtrl determines the traveller is telling the truth, then they receive a QR code that will let them pass the border. If there is suspicion the traveller is lying, they’ll have biometric information was taken — including fingerprinting, palm vein reading, and face matching — before being passed to a human agent who will review their information and make an assessment.

The program is still considered highly experimental, and in its current state, will not prevent anyone from crossing over a border. Early testing of a previous iteration only had a 76 per cent success rate, but a member of the iBorderCtrl team told New Scientist that they are “quite confident” that can be raised to 85 per cent.

Even if that goal is reached, it leaves a large amount of room for error. But that’s not entirely surprising as studies have shown that many facial recognition algorithms have significant error rate issues and bias. These systems have also raised flags with civil liberties groups like the ACLU’s Border Litigation Project, who worry they might lead to more widespread surveillance.

- The Verge

- https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/31/18049906/eu-artificial-intelligence-ai-lie-detector-border-points-immigration

© 2020 Vox Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Thai policeman arrested as key suspect in human trafficking of Rohingya

Published on December 31, 2019, by Greeley Pulitze

Police have arrested a man who they believe has trafficked at least 200 Rohingya refugees into Thailand on their way to Malaysia.

56-year-old Charin Chuenchom was arrested over the weekend at a house in Ratchaburi, east of Bangkok. Chanin consequently confessed and was handed over to authorities for prosecution

The Rohingya are a stateless, mainly Muslim ethnic group living in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. They are not permitted to hold Burmese citizenship and have faced historical persecution culminating in the August 2017 attacks on them by the Burmese army (Tatmadaw). There were an estimated 1 million Rohingya in Myanmar before the 2016–17 crisis in which many fled, many by sea and others as refugees crossing the northern border into Bangladesh.

Thailand does not recognise Rohingya as refugees and in the past has arrested, detained and deported them back to Myanmar.

In 2013 the UN described the Rohingya as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, comparing their conditions to apartheid and accusing the Tatmadaw of “genocide”.

Police believe Chanin was a key player in a human trafficking gang, including a former railway policeman, illegally moving Rohingya people out of Myanmar through Thailand to Malaysia. The Bangkok Post reports that they charged each migrant 12,000 baht for ‘safe’ passage to Malaysia.

“We believe the gang have smuggled Rohingya people into Thailand more than 20 times, with 10-15 people each time, and collected more than 4 million baht,” police told Bangkok Post.

Authorities arrested 14 Rohingya migrants and two Thai smugglers on a train in Nakhon Si Thammarat in January last year. They suspect Chanin used stolen identities to buy their train tickets. He’s been charged with smuggling migrants and human trafficking.

The train was headed for the Thai-Malaysian border. The migrants were extremely hungry as they had no food and only a little drinking water.

SOURCE: Chiang Rai Times | Bangkok Post

- The Thaiger
- https://thethaiger.com/hot-news/crime/thai-policeman-arrested-as-key-suspect-in-human-trafficking-of-rohingya

Police believe attack on Padang Besar border post retaliatory - IGP

Bernama; Published on October 31, 2019

The police believe the attack against the General Operations Force (GOF) guard post in Perlis, on Monday, was due to revenge, as cross-border criminals now found it difficult to smuggle goods out of the country.

Inspector-General of Police Abdul Hamid Bador said, however, the GOF personnel at the border were unfazed by such acts of intimidation.

“We will not tolerate them (smugglers) and I believe they will use firearms after this because it is difficult to smuggle.

"They did not shoot at people but shot the GOF guard post as a warning, as they were not allowed to smuggle," he said during a press conference in Bukit Aman.

Abdul Hamid said to improve enforcement at the border, the GOF should be supplied with a new Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) to replace the current one which was 42 years old.

"I have informed the Home Ministry for the police to be supplied with a new APC so that they can safely patrol the country's border," he said.

Abdul Hamid said the GOF and members of the Special Branch had already consulted with Thai authorities to conduct an investigation and identify the suspects.

"Thai authorities have also assured that they would tighten security at the border areas," he said.

On Monday, the GOF guard post in Padang Besar was attacked with firecrackers at about 11.20 am and 12.40 pm, causing one of the windows to break.

- Bernama

- Mkini

- https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/498003

MACC exposes 'blatant' smuggling at Thai-M’sian border, police say probe underway

Annabelle Lee & Hariz Mohd; Published: 18 Oct 2019

• Updated with Bukit Aman’s response that officers implicated in the videos have been identified and taken action upon

Courtesy: worldofbuzz.com

The MACC unveiled a series of videos today which depicted smuggling activities happening across the Thai-Malaysian border in Padang Besar, Perlis.

The clips, which the anti-corruption agency said were handed to them recently, dated from 2017 to May this year.

They showed how enforcement officers would stand around or be occupied on their mobile phones as smugglers carried sacks of goods across the border in plain sight.

It also showed officers being approached by smugglers before they commenced smuggling activities.

In an immediate response, IGP Abdul Hamid Bador told Malaysiakini that Bukit Aman has since identified and taken action on the border security officers implicated in the clips. 

According to MACC’s analysis, smuggling was most rampant between 6am and 9am when enforcement officers changed shifts.

Among the things it believed was being brought illegally across the border were ketum leaves, petrol, fertiliser, flour, cooking oil and sundry items which were cheaper in Malaysia than in Thailand.

Addressing the press conference after playing the clips, MACC chief Latheefa Koya said that the videos showed “blatant” smuggling at the border and did not discount the possibility of more serious transborder crimes like human and drug trafficking.

The agency has since informed the police about its discovery.

“We have handed all video clips to the police. We will work with the IGP (Abdul Hamid) to take the necessary action.

“[...] (And) once we get the details from the police, we will take the necessary action (that is) within our jurisdiction.

“Of course, the police on their side will have to take the necessary action to step up and tighten the borders, which would include rotations, changing and everything else that we need to do,” she said.

“We believe the data we received also involves the Immigration Department, Customs Department and the National Security Council (MKN),” Latheefa added.

Police probe underway

When contacted, Abdul Hamid said that the police had initiated a probe into the clips since receiving them late last month, and was working closely with the MACC and MKN on the matter.

He added that the improvements had been made to the police’s standard operating procedures (SOPs) for those stationed at national borders and entry points.

Smugglers have also been arrested.

"Since the past four to five months, General Operations Force (PGA) officers at the borders had recorded many successes in crippling smuggling syndicates that were responsible in trafficking all sorts of contrabands, illicit cigarettes, drugs, exotic animals, firearms, immigrants.

"They also arrested smugglers who tried to give them money (in exchange for allowing their activities).

"Their (officers’) awareness to carry out their duties with full integrity had been showing more and more. (And) with the latest standing orders on their duty SOPs, I am confident that cases of leakages at our borders can be decreased drastically,” he said.

- Mkini

- https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/496400

UK truck deaths: How Vietnam is still a hotbed of people traffickers

Three years after Al Jazeera uncovered Vietnamese human trafficking practices to the UK, the business is still going strong.

by David Harrison on 28 Oct 2019.

UK police have charged the truck's 25-year-old driver with 39 counts of manslaughter [Hannah McKey/Reuters]

It was a terrifying way to die. The grim discovery of 39 people found frozen to death inside a container at the back of a truck in southern England earlier this month is a stark reminder of the risks people will take in search of a better life.

Police initially believed all the dead were Chinese citizens but more than 20 Vietnamese families, almost all from the same region, have since expressed fears that their loved ones were among the victims. Some say almost all of the 39 victims were Vietnamese.

British police have charged the truck's 25-year-old driver with 39 counts of manslaughter.

The regular and highly dangerous smuggling of people from Vietnam to the United Kingdom was revealed in a 2016 Al Jazeera documentary.

Britain's Modern Slave Trade revealed that Nghe An province - where families held a vigil for the truck victims last week - is a hotbed of people traffickers.

In one of Vietnam's poorest regions, criminal gangs often exploit young people who are desperate to go to Western Europe and send money back to their families.

Our undercover operatives in Vietnam, posing as a young couple who wanted to work in the UK, met a people-trafficker in Vinh City. She calmly assured them that she could arrange for the pair to go to England for $32,000. 

The people-trafficker in Vinh City told our undercover reporters that her contacts would arrange for the couple to fly from Hanoi to Russia where they would pretend to be foreign students or join a tour group.

From Russia, they would then be driven to Europe and on to the UK.

"I will arrange for you to get to Russia, then take a car to Poland, Germany and then France. Once in France, I will pick you up to go to England. I assure you, it's really safe," the trafficker said.

She calmly assured them that the journey would be easy and the whole process could take just a few weeks.

But the reality is that the weeks-long journey is fraught with danger. Physical and sexual abuse is common. Some make it safely to England, find jobs and are able to send money home. But many others are forced into modern-day slavery when they reach the UK.

The people-trafficker said she had a contact there who could offer our female undercover reporter a job in a nail salon.

The investigation revealed many Vietnamese women smuggled into the UK manage to find work in nail salons but some are made to work long hours for little or no pay - and are forced into prostitution in the evening.

As part of our investigation, another undercover Vietnamese reporter started working for no pay in a nail salon in Romford, eastern London.

Doused in petrol

Another worker at the nail salon told her she was smuggled into England in a truck.

She said that the truck "passengers" were doused in petrol to confuse the sniffer dogs at Channel ports, and they were told to wear adult-sized nappies as there was no break during the journey.

The investigation also revealed that many nail bars were run by criminal gangs who also operated cannabis farms generating millions of pounds a year. Vietnamese men were often put to work at these cannabis farms, unaware of the horrendous conditions they would be facing.

Our reporter expressed an interest in working at a cannabis farm and was put in touch with a Vietnamese teenager who was just 17, and looked after a "farm" in Ilford, eastern London.

Eventually, the reporter persuaded the cannabis "gardener" to show her his place of work. The "farm" was, in fact, an ordinary-looking suburban terraced house. Inside, almost every square inch was covered with cannabis plants.

The young "gardener" explained how cables are cut so criminals can steal the huge amount of electricity required to grow the plants.

He also explained how he was unable to leave the house, spoke no English, had his passport confiscated, slept on a mattress under the stairs and was brought food late at night by a member of the gang. He said he suffered from loneliness and depression.

"Staying in the house all the time is like being in prison," he said.

His dream was that one day he would make enough money to leave the cannabis "farm" and send money home to his family but he admitted the money he had been promised had not materialised.

The 39 deaths in the truck provide chilling evidence that the trafficking of people from Vietnam and other Asian countries continues.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: David Harrison is a multi-award-winning British journalist based in London.

- AL JAZEERA NEWS

-https://www.aljazeera.com/blogs/europe/2019/10/uk-lorry-deaths-vietnam-hotbed-people-traffickers-191028074312098.html

Filipinos and the Malay world

Many of you may find it strange that I include this article, an opinionated editorial. Fear not. This article really describes the ethnic 'Malays', the Malay Archipelago and who are really the Malays in the greater archipelago especially that group of islands called the Philippines. This essay or article calls for the ethnic Filipinos to be understood (as being ethnic Malays) despite the differences of their locality, religion and colonialism. Hence, the Malaysian writer offered his findings on the status of Filipinos as was noted and documented in the 17th Century by a Filipino lawyer.

Without further explanation here's the opinion piece put up in the New Straits Times (NST):

Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad at a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument of Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal, during an official visit to the Philippines in March. Rizal’s discovery of a book in London in 1888 reconnected Malays in the Philippines to the Malay world. EPA PIC

Filipinos and the Malay world

By Datuk Dr A Murad Merican, September 12, 2019

THE discovery of a book in London in 1888 by Jose Rizal reconnected the Malays in the Philippines to the Malay world. It was titled, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas (Historical Events of the Philippine Islands), written by Antonio de Morga, a lawyer and official in the Philippines in the 17th century, and published in Mexico in 1609.

In the book, de Morga gave an idea of the connection between the people of Luzon and nearby islands to the rest of the Malay Archipelago. Based on the book, Rizal and his contemporaries then presented to their countrymen a clearer picture of how Malay the Filipinos were beyond the mere and trivial European categorisation of Filipinos as Malay.

The recently concluded two-day deliberations of the 6th International Conference on Culture and History, themed the “Colonial Period in the Malay Archipelago: Civilisational Issues”, was jointly organised by the Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC-IIUM) and the Malaysian Historical Society. It saw two papers (out of 15) resonating on the struggle of the Filipinos to be accepted as part of the Malay world.

Both papers made a plea to be part of the historical space called “Dunia Melayu” (or the Malay world) to cite Ian Christopher B. Alfonso, of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines. His paper was titled “Manila 50 Years After Magellan”.

Another paper, “Spanish Colonialism and the Emergence of the Hispanised Malay in the Philippines” was delivered by Dr Fernando A. Santiago Jr. of the Philippine Historical Association and De La Salle University. At one point during his presentation, Santiago declared, “I, Fernando A. Santiago Jr., am a Malay”.

Santiago spoke on the Malayness of the Filipinos and the “Hispanised Malay”, delving on the Filipino seeking an identity, like the Ilustrados or educated Filipinos, enlightened by liberalism in the 19th century.

While searching for their roots, they discovered their historical and racial ties with the rest of the region and began to consider themselves as belonging to the Malay race. The issue of their detached weltanschauung (world view) was raised as a result of Hispanisation and Christianisation, the legacies of the Spanish colonial order and further American colonisation complicate the matrix of Filipino identity.

Santiago reminded that until the 16th century, people from the Philippines were actively involved in the Malay world. The arrival of the Spaniards and later the Americans altered the “predictable course of its history”, and detached the people of the Philippine islands from the rest of the Malay Archipelago.

Manila was part of the Malay Archipelago. The capital of the Philippines since 1571, or 50 years after the episode of the Magellan-Elcano expedition, and we would add, the circumnavigation of Panglima Awang@Enrique de Malacca, Manila had close connections with Brunei, then a vast kingdom in Borneo.

The Spaniards recorded how connected the Manila royalty was with the royalty of the Brunei Sultanate, as well as the continuous sending of Muslim preachers to Manila by the sultanate of Aceh and the Ottoman Empire.

According to Alfonso in his Manila paper, the Spaniards colonised that part of the Malay Archipelago and introduced a completely new order to its inhabitants that were European and Christian and “even taking an extra leap to shut down Borneo, Melaka and Aceh from influencing the natives”.

This Spanish Dunia Melayu was called the Philippines, where its inhabitants were held as hostages, virtually cut off from the Malay world. Although the Spaniards had accidentally reached the Philippines in 1521 on their way to the Moluccas, it was only in 1565 when they began claiming islands in the Malay world, beginning with what was then known to the Spanish world — the unIslamised Visayas.

Alfonso’s account informs us of the Spaniard's progress when they were attempting to reach China and Japan. They learned of the farthest recorded Islamised place in the Malay Archipelago. That place is Luzon. The term “Moro”, then derogatory, was first ascribed by the Spaniards in Asia to the people of Luzon island.

After securing the island, the Spaniards moved southwards, to Brunei, Mindanao and Maluku. Mindanao was annexed to the Spanish world, only to be welcomed with formidable opposition by Sultan Kudarat of Cotabato and the generations of Muslims there until the end of Spanish rule. Maluku was abandoned by the Spaniards in 1663 to be conquered by the Dutch.

After the Spanish conquest of Manila in 1571, Luzon disappeared from the discourse of Islam in the Malay archipelago.

Alfonso took a swipe at Malaysian and Indonesian historians for neglecting “what happened to the Spanish Dunia Melayu or the Philippines from 1521 to 1571”.

Only a handful was written or mentioned, “or even not at all, by Indonesian and Malaysian historians about the politics and history of what we call the Philippines at that time. The Filipinos as Malays do not seem to be in the consciousness of the Malays in the rest of the Archipelago”.

Indeed, it was Malays in the Philippines who were the earliest to resist and be liberated from the Europeans, not the Japanese who marked their superiority when they defeated the Russians in 1905. They could have inspired the Japanese instead.

The bravery of Lapulapu, who defeated the Spaniards in the Visayan island of Mactan, resulting in the death of Magellan in 1521 earlier, inspired a consciousness to the nation.

The declaration of independence of the Philippines on June 12, 1898, evoked the memory of the victory of Mactan as if taking pride that the Spanish colony in the Malay Archipelago, named the Philippines, learned to be free and introduced in Asia the then wave of nationalism.

The death of Magellan was a reminder to the Filipinos that their war against Spain and the United States was also a war on behalf of the oppressed Malays, battered by centuries of colonisation.

What has been resonated is the struggle of the Filipinos to reintegrate “ourselves as part of the Malay world”.

muradmerican@gmail.comy

The writer is a professor at ISTAC-IIUM and the first recipient of the Honorary President Resident Fellowship at the Perdana Leadership Foundation

- The NST

- https://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnists/2019/09/520693/filipinos-and-malay-world

Digital border guards with an AI LIE DETECTOR will interrogate travellers over what is in their suitcase at EU borders in a bid to toughen security

• iBorderCtrl will quiz travellers at four crossings in Hungary, Latvia, and Greece
• It uses AI to scan your face while you answer questions about your travels
• The system is part of a six-month trial run by the Hungarian National Police 

A digital border guard will interrogate travellers at some European Union borders in an attempt to ramp up security at crossings. Dubbed iBorderCtrl, the agent features an AI lie detector that quizzes tourists on their trip, including the contents of their suitcase (Mailonline stock)

By Harry Pettit for Mailonline; Published: 1 November 2018

A digital border guard will interrogate travellers at some European Union borders in an attempt to ramp up security at crossings.

Dubbed iBorderCtrl, the agent features an AI lie detector that quizzes tourists on their trip, including the contents of their suitcase.

The system is part of a six-month trial run by the Hungarian National Police at four different border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia, and Greece.

Each crossing borders a country outside of the EU.

If successful, the technology could be rolled out to borders across the union's member states.

'We're employing existing and proven technologies - as well as novel ones - to empower border agents to increase the accuracy and efficiency of border checks,' project coordinator George Boultadakis of European Dynamics in Luxembourg.

'iBorderCtrl's system will collect data that will move beyond biometrics and on to biomarkers of deceit.'

The digital border guard will question people after they have passed through a checkpoint.

It works via your laptop or phone, using your device's camera to record your face when you give answers.

The system then uses AI software to scan the video for 38 'micro-gestures' which it scores to assess whether a traveller is lying.

Questions include, 'What's in your suitcase?' and 'If you open the suitcase and show me what is inside, will it confirm your answers were true?', New Scientist reports.

Those that pass the test will receive a QR code that they can scan to cross the border.

If a traveller doesn't pass the test, the AI will reportedly take a more serious tone, and hand the offender to a human border agent for further questioning.

During the upcoming pilot, iBorderCtrl will quiz real tourists, though it won't affect their ability to travel.

Travellers will be invited to take part in the trial after they have passed through one of the four test crossings.

An early version of the system was tested using 30 volunteers at a fake border crossing.

The system is part of a six-month trial run by the Hungarian National Police at four different border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia, and Greece. Each crossing borders a country outside of the EU (Mailonline stock)

Half were told to lie to the bot, while the other half told the truth. The AI guessed correctly with an accuracy rate of 76 per cent.

Experts said the AI's accuracy rate in the real world could be lower, as people who are told to lie present clearer facial tells than those who fib earnestly.

'If you ask people to lie, they will do it differently and show very different behavioural cues than if they truly lie, knowing that they may go to jail or face serious consequences if caught,' Maja Pantic, a Professor of Affective and Behavioral Computing at Imperial College London, told New Scientist.

'This is a known problem in psychology.' 

With more than 700 million people travel through the EU every year, according to the European Commission, the low hit rate raises concerns over the number of travellers who could get away with lying at the border.

iBorderCtrl team Keeley Crockett, a researcher at Manchester Metropolitan University, said they are 'hopeful' they can bring the accuracy rate up to 85 per cent.

AI systems rely on artificial neural networks (ANNs), which try to simulate the way the brain works in order to learn.

ANNs can be trained to recognise patterns in information - including speech, text data, or visual images - and are the basis for a large number of the developments in AI over recent years.

Conventional AI uses the input to 'teach' an algorithm about a particular subject by feeding it massive amounts of information.

AI systems rely on artificial neural networks (ANNs), which try to simulate the way the brain works in order to learn. ANNs can be trained to recognise patterns in information - including speech, text data, or visual images (Mailonline)

Practical applications include Google's language translation services, Facebook's facial recognition software and Snapchat's image altering live filters.

The process of inputting this data can be extremely time consuming and is limited to one type of knowledge.

A new breed of ANNs called Adversarial Neural Networks pits the wits of two AI bots against each other, which allows them to learn from each other.

This approach is designed to speed up the process of learning, as well as refining the output created by AI systems.

- Further reading: An AI lie detector will interrogate travellers at some EU borders | New Scientist

- Mailonline
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-6341801/AI-lie-detector-interrogate-travellers-EU-borders.html

Muslim insurgent group says it met with Thai government

Flag of Barisan Revolusi Nasional

Thailand national flag

Panu Wongcha-um, Reuters  |  Published: 17 Aug 2019

The main group fighting an insurgency in Thailand’s largely Muslim south said it had held its first meeting with officials from the new Thai government and had set out demands as a condition for any formal peace talks.

The insurgency in the Malay-speaking region of the predominantly Buddhist country has killed some 7,000 people over the past 15 years and has flared on and off for decades.

Officials of the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) said they met a Thai delegation at a location in Southeast Asia on Friday and demanded the release of all people detained over suspected links to the insurgency and a transparent investigation into abuses by security forces.

That could be a step toward formal talks, the officials said, while emphasizing that it was very early in the process.

“If the official peace talks are a feast then these secret meetings are like bringing the cow into the kitchen, but the cow is not even slaughtered yet,” Pak Fakir, 70, a senior BRN member told Reuters in a rare interview.

“The Thai state is like an oiled, slippery eel,” he said.

General Udomchai Thamsarorat (photo below), the head of peace dialogue with southern insurgent groups for the Thai government, declined to comment on whether a meeting had taken place.

The BRN has not been informal talks with the government although contacts did take place at least twice with the former military junta of Prayuth Chan-O-Cha, who has remained as prime minister after an election earlier this year that his opponents said was flawed.

Ongoing war

The past contacts with the BRN never led to talks and it has continued a guerrilla war to demand independence for Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces, which were part of an independent Malay sultanate before the kingdom of Siam annexed them in 1909.

A number of less militarily active southern factions have been in talks with the government.

“The root cause of our problem is colonization, and this has never been touched upon in past talks,” Fakir said.

Although the BRN usually neither confirms nor denies responsibility for specific attacks, Fakir said that the group was not behind a series of small bombings that shook Bangkok on Aug 2.

The bombs wounded four people and embarrassed the government during a regional security summit. Two suspects from the south have been arrested in connection with the attacks.

“We will not attack beyond the three southernmost provinces because we do not want to be perceived as terrorists,” Fakir said. “We have our territory. Why should we venture out of it? ... Someone else must be behind it.”

Despite the arrest of the southerners, the government has also suggested that it could be its political opponents that were behind the attacks - although political parties have condemned it and no group has claimed responsibility.

Tension has been rising in the south over allegations that a southern man, 32-year-old Abdullah Isamusa, was beaten so badly during military interrogation last month that he fell into a coma. The army has said there is no proof of torture.

Mara Patani, an umbrella group representing some factions that unlike the BRN have been informal talks with the Thai military, has called for international intervention after the Abdullah case - a request rejected by Thailand’s army.

- Reuters

- Mkini

- https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/488365

Thailand: New Government Disregards Rights

Policy Statement Fails to Address Major Concerns

Prayuth Chan-O-Cha Courtesy: HRW file photo

(New York) – The new Thai government’s policy statement fails to provide a pathway for restoring respect for human rights after five years of military rule, Human Rights Watch said today. Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-O-Cha will present the policy statement for his second term in office on July 25-26, 2019.

“Prime Minister Prayuth’s second term is starting with the same blanket disregard for human rights that characterized his first term,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “His policy statement contains no language whatsoever addressing the serious problems under repressive military rule since the 2014 coup. Whatever hopes that the new government would bring about human rights reforms and advance democratic, civilian rule suffered a serious setback with the failure to include any commitments in the policy statement.”

Prayuth’s 40-page policy statement, which was submitted to the parliament speaker on July 19, does not discuss human rights issues in the country. It does not even discuss Prayuth’s own “national human rights agenda,” which he released in February 2018 with much fanfare.

Key civil and political rights problems that need to be addressed by the new government include:

 Impunity for Human Rights Violations

As chairman of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta, Prayuth wielded power from 2014-2019 unhindered by administrative, legislative, or judicial oversight or accountability, including for human rights violations. While the NCPO disbanded after the new government took office, the constitution that took effect in 2017 protects junta members and anyone acting on the junta’s orders from being held accountable for human rights violations committed during military rule. And no redress is available for victims of those rights violations.

Restrictions on Freedom of Expression

The NCPO prosecuted hundreds of activists, journalists, politicians, and dissidents for peacefully expressing their views, on serious criminal charges such as sedition, computer-related crimes, and insulting the monarchy. During Prayuth’s first term, the junta frequently used these overbroad laws to arbitrarily punish and silence critics. Under the new government, the military retains the power to summon anyone deemed to have criticized the government or the monarchy, question them without the presence of a lawyer, and compel them to promise to end their criticism to gain release.

Protection of Human Rights Defenders

A climate of fear persists among rights activists and critics of the government. Even those who fled Thailand to escape political persecution are not safe. At least three Thai political activists have been forcibly disappeared in Laos. Two others have been killed. Another three Thai political activists returned by Vietnam to Thailand have also been missing.

Successive governments have disregarded Thailand’s obligation to ensure that all human rights defenders and organizations can carry out their work in a safe and enabling environment. Against the backdrop of a recent string of brutal attacks targeting prominent pro-democracy activists and dissidents, the government has yet to develop a credible policy to better protect them. Thai authorities have not seriously investigated these attacks, and instead repeatedly told activists and dissidents to give up political activity in exchange for state protection.

During his first term, Prayuth frequently stated that Thailand would act to end so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP), which are used by government agencies and private companies to intimidate and silence those reporting human rights violations. However, these cases continue, frequently as criminal defamation cases. Prayuth’s policy statement makes no mention of Thailand’s much advertised commitment to promote business practices compatible with human rights standards.

The policy statement also does not address the urgent need to revamp the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand. The United Nations Human Rights Council has downgraded the commission because of its substandard selection process for commissioners and its lack of political independence. Revisions to the law adopted during Prayuth’s first term further weakened the commission and transformed it into a de facto government mouthpiece.

Enforced Disappearance, Torture, Violence, and Abuses in Southern Border Provinces

Since January 2004, more than 90 percent of the 6,800 people killed in the ongoing armed conflict in Thailand’s southern border provinces have been civilians from both ethnic Malay Muslim and ethnic Thai Buddhist communities. Although the insurgents have committed egregious abuses, rights violations by Thai security forces have greatly exacerbated the situation.

Thai authorities regularly failed to conduct serious and credible inquiries into torture allegations and enforced disappearances. Military detention, which lacks effective safeguards against abuse, occurs regularly during government counterinsurgency operations in the southern border provinces. Successive Thai governments have failed to prosecute security personnel responsible for torture, unlawful killings, and other serious human rights violations against ethnic Malay Muslims. In many cases, Thai authorities provided financial compensation to the victims or their families in exchange for their agreement not to speak out or file criminal cases against officials. Despite these concerns, Prayuth’s policy statement does not address human rights problems in Thailand’s southern border provinces.

International Obligations

Prayuth’s policy statement only vaguely mentions the importance of Thailand meeting its international obligations. The junta did little to promote Thailand’s adherence to the core international human rights treaties. Although Thailand signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2012, it has yet to ratify the treaty and Thailand’s penal code does not recognize enforced disappearance. Thailand also does not have a law that criminalizes torture, as required by the Convention against Torture, which it ratified in 2007. The junta-appointed National Legislative Assembly suddenly suspended its consideration of the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Bill on February 2017, and the government has not set a new time frame for reconsidering the bill. Prayuth’s policy statement does not include this law among legislation to be urgently introduced by the government.

“Thailand’s foreign friends should not let the recent elections become an excuse for ignoring the deteriorating human rights situation in the country,” Adams said. “There should be no rush to return to business as usual without securing serious commitments and corresponding action from the new government to respect human rights.”

- Human Rights Watch

- https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/24/thailand-new-government-disregards-rights

Indira claims Zakir Naik supporters helping ex-husband hide daughter

Alyaa Alhadjri  |  Published: 25 Jul 2019

A pensive and determined M. Indira Gandhi

M Indira Gandhi's (photo) struggle to be reunited with her estranged daughter Prasana Diksa continues with a rights group today claiming to receive information that her ex-husband was receiving assistance from three groups that included supporters of controversial preacher Zakir Naik.

Indira Gandhi Action Team (Ingat) spokesperson Arun Doraisamy said she had lodged a report at Petaling Jaya police station this morning with the hope that an investigation will be carried out to verify the information that they received through public tip-offs.

"The police report lodged today was based on the latest information we received last week," Arun told a press conference with Indira at Wisma Hindu Sangam in Petaling Jaya.

Aside from Zakir's supporters, Indira in her report also alleged involvement by PAS-friendly NGOs and southern Thailand separatists in helping to shelter her ex-husband Muhammad Riduan Abdullah, who is wanted by the police.

"From 2009 until now we know there were PAS-friendly groups. Before I say this today, I thought about it a few times but I have to say it out loud.

"And now the new information we received, there are groups of Zakir Naik's followers. This too I thought a few times on how to say it," said Arun.

He claimed the help given to Riduan, who is said to be jobless, included monetary assistance as well as logistics aid.

As for the southern Thailand separatist groups, Arun claimed Ingat was informed that they had assisted Muhammad Ridhuan in leaving Kelantan and past the border, despite not having a valid passport.

"People have sighted him. But it’s a small village so people are reluctant to give (confirm) their identity," said Arun, adding that Ingat and Indira had presented all information they received to former inspector-general of police Mohamad Fuzi Harun during a meeting at Bukit Aman on April 19.

"We had a sighting. If previously we were worried whether the child (Prasana) was still alive or not, now we are pretty much confident that she is," he added.

Despite police's failure to locate Riduan and enforce a court order for him to return Prasana to Indira, Arun claimed the groups are supporting Reduan’s movement from Kelantan to Golok, together with a new wife and their children.

Indira in her police report also urged authorities to investigate the 27-year-old woman for allegedly abetting Riduan, who had abducted Prasana a decade ago as an 11-month-old child and has not been seen since.

Both Arun and Indira today insisted that the case had gone beyond the issue of forced conversion.

"If she wants to continue her life as a Muslim, that is her choice.

"It does not matter whether she is Muslim or not, she (Prasana) is still her (Indira)'s daughter," said an emotional Arun.

Indira also teared up as she insisted that her only wish is to be reunited with Prasana.

Riduan took Prasana away and unilaterally converted his three children to Islam in 2009.

A lengthy legal battle between Riduan and Indira then ensued, involving both the Syariah and Civil courts.

Indira’s two eldest children now live with her, but Prasana and her father’s whereabouts remain unknown.

In February, Fuzi said information had not been forthcoming from the public, despite various appeals for help made by the police.

In 2014, the High Court issued an arrest warrant for Riduan but the police have yet to locate him.

Last year, the Federal Court unanimously declared the children’s unilateral conversion to Islam to be unlawful.

- Mkini

https://www.malaysiakini.com/news/485413#.XTmpDLoKaCo.email