0		Torture, and, Thailand

Last week, I blogged on an Asia Times article about Thailand and torture where Crispin noted:

Still, some observers argue that the US has already left its mark on the conflict, which pits predominantly Buddhist Thai security forces against ethnic Malay Muslim insurgents. Rights advocates monitoring southern Thailand's conflict note a striking similarity between the torture techniques US agents are known to have used against terror suspects held in both Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba with those now in practice by Thai security forces against suspected Thai Muslim militants.

Awzar Thi in his latest Rule of Lords column states:

But have rights advocates really noted a “striking similarity” between these cases and what has gone on in Guantanamo? Isn’t it more relevant to talk about the striking similarity between the abuses in the south and what goes on in police stations all around the country? Or how about what goes on in the Philippines, Sri Lanka or Cambodia?
...
Perhaps the biggest persistent misunderstanding concerning torture in Asia is that it is typical to cases of national security, and that the perpetrators genuinely use it to extract information from their victims.

From years of intensive work, the Asian Human Rights Commission has found that torture across the region is used predominantly in mundane criminal cases. Accused persons are tortured over trifles, such as the theft of some bananas or a traffic violation. They may be tortured to admit to additional charges on top of that for which they have already been detained. They may be innocent of any offence, and the torturers may know it too: no matter.

The purpose of torture in Asia is not for the most part to extract information. It is to get a confession, coerce someone into doing something, or just to show who’s boss.

Most torture victims in Asia are not suspected terrorists. They are not living in areas of civil conflict. Rather, they are poor and easily isolated. They may have criminal records. They are accused of day-to-day infringements: the theft of a car, the sale of some drugs. And above all, they are living in countries in which the police and military forces are powerful, and where the courts are weak.

COMMENT: I obviously agree with Awzar on the "striking similarity" issue as I noted there is little evidence of a striking similarity.

I do want to take issue with one statement by Awzar where he states:

Torture in Asia occurs because policing is corrupted and politicized. It occurs because there are no laws to prohibit it...
This is true of Thailand. Although the country recently joined the U.N. Convention against Torture it has indicated that it won’t amend national law to comply with the treaty’s standards.

COMMENT: I have seen this kind of statement about there being not laws to prohibit torture. I think this is misleading as a reader could infer that if there are no specific laws against torture, it is legal, but this is not the case. Torture is assault and assault is already illegal. It is like saying that there are no specific laws prohibiting killing by a gun, which is true, but you already manslaughter and murder.

btw, if you want to know my views on torture, I agree with this post by Jonathan Adler and the conclusion by Mark Bowden in his excellent The Atlantic article on the issue.