David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

YALA, Thailand – Yala has been under emergency rule since 2005.  More than 4,400 people have died from what seems like daily attacks. Fighters in Thailand’s south have waged a violent campaign since 2004.

While the international media focuses on Red and Yellow Shirt clashes and a temple spat, a deadly rebellion still brews in Thailand’s south.

Insurgents have intensified their attacks in the lower South in the hope of attracting the intervention of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, says army commander-in-chief Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Thailand is on the brink of political crisis as the separatist rebellion in the country’s south has largely escaped international attention. Its seventh anniversary passed quietly, with little mention.

Major shooting and bomb attacks, since the start of the year, are being seen as an attempt by separatists to intensify the violence in a bid to highlight Thailand’s southern insurgency.

The army chief said more surveillance cameras must be installed as they could help identify rebels perpetrating violence.

A call for more residents of the South to become the eyes and ears of the state as Gen Prayuth said tighter security measures would be implemented.

The army is concerned for the safety of people who might be harmed by insurgents for cooperating with authorities.

The Thai government extended emergency rule in the country’s south for an additional three months, despite rights groups being concerned about the powers the law gives the military.

The commander-in-chief said the army was handling the insurgency problem through a multi-dimensional approach using the justice system, military strategies and development projects.

Gen Prayuth said the army might have to go on the offensive and try harder to locate militants in hiding in the mountains and around towns.

“We will not fall for the [militants’] tricks,” the army chief said.

“We will do our best by invoking the law and by solving our own internal problem.”

The more progress officials make and the more support they gain from local people, the more militants will intensify their attacks.

Meanwhile, police have linked a key member of the militant Runda Kumpulan Kecil separatist movement to Monday’s motorcycle bomb attack in Yala in which 18 people were injured.

The man was identified as Aumran Ming, an RKK group leader who lives in Narathiwat’s Rangae district, said provincial police Chief Chaitat Inthanujit.

Mr. Aumran is wanted for involvement in many violent attacks against authorities and civilians since 2003.

A sad truth is that, February was just another month in southern Thailand.

Most of the past seven years, the authorities have decided to dismiss the attacks as random acts of violence carried out by either bandits or a handful of disgruntled Islamic militants.

Five years passed before the Thai police admitted they had a separatist movement on their hands, a well-structured organization consisting of five related groups operating across four provinces—Songkhla, Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat—where six million Muslims live.

This is about more than just some obscure provincial groupings, there has also been evidence of links with al-Qaeda and regional terrorist outfits like Jemaah Islamiyah.

‘What’s happening in Pattani isn’t an internal conflict, some (fighters) come from the neighboring country, some come from far away, many thousands of miles,’ he has said, while urging Muslims in Malaysia and Indonesia to join Jemmah Islamiyahs jihad.

For more information, please see:

The Diplomat – Thailand’s Forgotten Conflict – 24 February 2011

Bangkok Post – Prayuth says rebels hope to draw in OIC – 24 February 2011

Al Jazeera – Car bomb hits southern Thailand – 13 February 2011

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

PREAH VIHEAR, Cambodia – A day after the United Nations security council urged the two sides to exercise restraint, there have been further clashes on the disputed border with Cambodia and Thailand.

Maria Luiza Ribeiro Viotti, the current head of the Council, called on both sides “to display maximum restraint and avoid any action that may aggravate the situation”.

On Monday, Cambodia’s Foreign Minister Hor Namhong and Thailand’s Kasit Piromya appeared before the United Nations Security Council to set out their respective positions.

Sunai Pasuk, a representative for Human Rights Watch in Thailand, says the U.N. will provide a forum for debate over the clashes, and could help determine human rights violations.

“But the basis for conflict resolution is still within bilateral process,” noted Sunai. “A presentation at the U.N. Security Council will be an opportunity to both Thailand and Cambodia to further allegations of human rights violations to international laws as the use of cluster ammunitions can only be resolved with independent observation of the affected area.”

“Members of the Security Council urge the parties to establish a permanent ceasefire and to implement it fully,” she said.

Both countries have accused the other of using banned cluster bombs in the fighting.

The conflict had intensified around the 900-year-old Preah Vihear temple.

The temple is home to four days of clashes this month in which 11 people died.

Both sides have claimed the UN statement supports their position. Cambodia went into the meeting calling for a permanent ceasefire, and Thailand, which regards the dispute as a purely bilateral issue, welcomed the UN’s decision not to become more actively involved.

In 1962 the grounds of the temple itself were awarded to Cambodia by the International Court of Justice, but it is the 4.6 sq km of nearby territory, a main access route, and remains in dispute.

Thailand has blamed the UN decision to list the temple as a World Heritage site in 2008 for inflaming the current tensions.

The armies of both governments remain on alert as thousands on both sides were forced to flee their homes.

In Thailand, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva says the temple should be de-listed as a United Nations Scientific and Educations Organization World Heritage site.

Mr. Abhisit says doing so and scrapping a proposed Cambodian management plan would defuse the border conflict. However, Cambodia is expected to oppose the idea.

By the time the armies of Thailand and Cambodia end their battle for Preah Vihear, an 11th century temple on the border between the two countries, there may be nothing left to fight over, as many reports have it.

For weeks, there have been protesting in Bangkok, espousing hate speech against Cambodians and issuing a set of extremist demands that include a Thai boycott off the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and the use of military force to evict Cambodian villagers from the disputed area.

It isn’t clear yet whether the U.N. Security Council will take up the conflict, and if it does, how quickly it will proceed.

For more information, please see:

TIME – Thailand and Cambodia’s Battle for an Ancient Temple – 7 February 2011

Voice of America – Thailand, Cambodia Border Fight Moves to UN – 11 February 2011

Financial Times – Thailand accuses Cambodia of fresh attack – 15 February 2011

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – Scores of people caused unrest in Yongchon, North Pyongan Province in North Korea by shouting, “We can’t live! Give us fire [electricity] and rice!”

The event occurred on February 14, two days before leader Kim Jong-il’s birthday, when people fashioned makeshift megaphones out of newspapers and shouted those words.

“At first, there were only one or two people, but as time went by more and more came out of their houses and joined in the shouting,” the source added.

The State Security Department investigated the incident but was unable to identify the people who initiated the commotion when they met with a wall of silence.

“When such an incident took place in the past, people used to report their neighbors to the security forces, but now they’re covering for each other,” the source said.

Such demonstrations are extremely rare in repressive North Korea where information is tightly controlled by the state and people have no access to outside world. But as the regime staggers under international sanctions and failure of currency reform, people are showing signs of discontent.

“Discontent erupted because the regime cut off electricity that had been supplied to them only a few hours a day, and they had hard time putting food on the table due to soaring rice prices,” said one refugee.

In this particular case, the already infrequent electricity supplies were said to be diverted to the capital Pyongyang to light up the night there to mark Kim’s birthday, the paper said.

For two decades, since the collapse of a public distribution system that supplied food rations, Kim Jong Il’s government has neglected to care for its people. In the early and mid-1990s, an estimated 2 million died in a famine.

Despite these signs of people’s anger, analysts, however, doubt the possibility of a popular revolt similar to those in North Africa and the Middle East.

“I don’t see anything in civil society that would lead to a kind of Egyptian phenomenon,” said Stephan Haggard, Professor at University of California San diego, at a Washington presentation last month.

For more information, please see:

The Chosunilbo – N.Korean Protesters Demand Food and Electricity – 23 February 2011

Radio Netherlands Worldwide – N. Koreans protest over power cuts: report – 23 February 2011

The Washington Post – Starving N. Korea begs for food, but U.S. has concerns about resuming aid – 22 February 2011

David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch, Asia

MANAMA, Bahrain – At least 50 people were wounded when soldiers opened fire on an apparently peaceful protest Friday.

Anti-government protesters streamed back into their former stronghold of Pearl Square in Bahrain’s capital Manama, witnesses said, after the army and riot police withdrew.

Pearl Square, which has become for Bahrain what Cairo’s Tahrir Square, was for Egypt.

The protesters were kissing the ground in joy and taking pictures of about 60 police vehicles leaving the area.

“We are victorious,” the protesters chanted.

“Down with the king, down with the Khalifas,” they cried, referring to the kingdom’s ruling family. Anger among the overwhelmingly Shia Muslim demonstrators towards the Sunni dynasty that has ruled Bahrain for more than 200 years is now virulent.

The protest has called for the dissolution of the 2002 constitution and the formation of a new panel to draw up another new constitution.

They have called for the release of political prisoners and an end to torture and prosecution of journalists and human rights activists.

“They have done nothing for us in the past except discriminate against us,” said one nurse, sobbing against a hospital gurney. “Now their new trick is to kill us.”

Later reports show that 60 to 80 people were taken to Salmaniya hospital after being hit by rubber bullets or inhaling teargas. A doctor said the hospital was full and did not have enough oxygen to deal with the casualties.

The crown prince was asked by the king to start a national dialogue “with all parties” to resolve the crisis in the island kingdom, where six have died and hundreds have been wounded since protests by the Shiite majority began five days ago.

Bahrain’s Shiite opposition on Saturday responded by rejecting any dialogue with the Sunni royal family until “tanks are off the streets” and the army stops “shooting at peaceful protesters.”

Khalil al-Marzook, a senior member of Al Wefaq opposition bloc, said the “atmosphere for dialogue,” led by the crown prince “is not right.”

Some doctors and medics on emergency medical teams were in tears as they tended to the wounded. X-rays showed bullets still lodged inside victims.

This is a war,” said Dr. Bassem Deif, an orthopedic surgeon examining people with bullet-shattered bones.

“Police attacking protesters here at hospital in Bahrain. Tear gas inside. Panic,” tweeted New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof.

“…They were shot to kill; they were not shot to break down their gathering.”

“We don’t care if they kill 5,000 of us,” a protester screamed inside the forecourt of the Salmaniya hospital, which has become a staging point for Bahrain’s raging youth. “The regime must fall and we will make sure it does.”

“No to Sunni; no to Shia,” they cried at one point. “We are all Bahraini.”

U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with the king of Bahrain, Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa, and again urged his government to show restraint against “peaceful protesters,” the White House said.

“If the US walks away from us, this regime will continue to come for us,” said Ismail in the shadow of the graveyard. “There is no option but to press ahead. This is our moment.”

For more information, please see:

MSNBC News – Bahrain protesters reclaim central square – 19 February 2010

The Guardian – Bahrain protest: ‘The regime must fall, and we will make sure it does’ – 18 February 2010

International Business Times – More protest in Bahrain as religious fault line widen – 18 February 2010

Kim unlikely to be affected by Egyptian Revolution due to information control (Photo courtesy of AP)

By Joseph Juhn
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

SEOUL, South Korea – As Hosni Mubarak stepped down last week after 30-year rule of Egypt, following the same fate of his Tunisian counterpart the previous month, the leaders of China and North Korea are wary of domestic upheaval.

Of course, some critics find it naive to hope that the fallout from dramatic events in the Middle East and North Africa can spill beyond the region to stir distant, repressed populations with no cultural or historical affinity.

This is especially so for countries like North Korea, where information is so tightly controlled that it will not likely be affected immediately by the evolving social network service that has played a pivotal role in Egypt’s popular revolution.

One of more effective way of disseminating information to North Korean people is rather old-fashioned. This week, South Korean activists hoisted helium balloons into the air and watched them drift into North Korea with a message attached: discard your leaders, just as the Egyptians did.

“The Egyptian people rose up in a revolution to topple a 30-year dictatorship,” said one of the leaflets. “The North Koreans too must revolt against a 60-year-old dictatorship.”

North Korea is known to have one of the worst human rights records. The strain of poverty and inefficient government in North Korea matches or exceeds that of Arab autocracies currently marred by street protests.

There is no sign of an organized opposition in North Korea, where most people do not have access to outside TV and radio, or the Internet. “They are just completely cut off from the outside world. They have their local system which is in no way physically connected to the Internet” said Andrei Lankov, a professor at Kookmin University in Seoul.

According to the scholar, possession of a short-wave radio to listen to news from abroad carries a 5 to 10 year prison term. “Any publications, including publications from other communist countries, are off-limits for people,” he said.

This is a stark contrast to Egypt, where protesters used Twitter, Facebook and YouTube to organize the uprisings. It is reported that North Korean state media have not reported events in Egypt, and it is doubtful that the leaflets of the South Korean activists, who also send short-wave radio broadcasts to the north, will reach or convince many people.

Paik Hak-soon, an analyst at the Sejong Institute research center near Seoul, speculated that top heads in North Korean government were “definitely aware” of what is happening in Egypt. But a similar uprising is unlikely, he said.

“There are so many differences in terms of ideology, in terms of power structure, in terms of domestic and external relationships,” Paik said. “North Korea is basically an isolated, socialist regime, protected by a most reliable and most supportive big power, China.”

Estimated up to 2 million North Koreans are believed to have starved to death in the 1990s due to years of flooding, poor harvest and economic mismanagement.

Despite a lack of Internet access, a growing number of North Koreans are being exposed to modern information technology and South Korean pop culture through USB devices, according to Lankov.

“In the long run, it will make a tremendous change,” he said.

For more information, please see:

The Korea Times – Pyongyang, Beijing wary of change in Egypt – 16 February 2011

The Associated Press – Egypt revolt becomes global case study – 19 February 2011

Yonhap News – N. Korea not likely to be affected by Egyptian revolution due to information control: expert – 16 February 2011