US highlights Thailand human rights record

The report linked Thai police to disappearances, as well as tortured, beat, and otherwise abused detainees and prisoners, many of whom were held in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions.

The report came just two days before Asean leaders were about to hold their 14th summit in Cha-am during which the terms of reference for a human rights charter for the region.

The leaders are expected to debate the role of the civil society in shaping the future direction of the region and to function as a watchdog on human rights issues.

While there was no confirmed reports that the government committed politically motivated killings, however, security forces continued to use excessive and lethal force against criminal suspects and committed or were connected to numerous extrajudicial, arbitrary, and unlawful killings.

The report quoted Thailand's Ministry of Interior's Investigation and Legal Affairs Bureau, saying 459 persons died in prison or police custody, 34 due to the actions of police officers during the year of 2008.

The report also pointed to the March 2008 beating death of a Narathiwat imam, Yapa Kaseng, during his detention along with his two sons who were suspected of being part of separatist insurgency in the deep South.

 "At year's end no member of Task Force 39 had been charged in connection with Yapa's death. Five members of the group testified during the postmortem inquest that they were subsequently transferred to Petchabun Province and received punishment according to internal army procedures," the report said.

"On December 25, the Narathiwat Provincial Court issued a ruling on the postmortem inquest that concluded Yapa died in state custody at the hands of state officials. However, the court did not explicitly identify the perpetrators," the report said.

Individuals were executed in apparent extrajudicial killings following their participation in army-sponsored reeducation centres, the report said.

The report said nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and legal entities continued to report that members of the police and military occasionally tortured and beat suspects to obtain confessions.

It pointed to newspaper reports of numerous cases in which citizens accused police and other security officials of using brutality.

Investigations were undertaken in many of the cases, including several in which the accused police officers were suspended pending the results of internal investigations. At year's end no military personnel had been charged or prosecuted.

The report highlighted the statement from the two Yala Rajabhat University students, Ismael Tae and Amisi Manak, who claimed soldiers from Yala's Task Force 11 had tortured them. The two students were released without charge within nine days after a complaint was filed at the Yala Court.

Other claims of tortured, highlighted in the annual report, include Aminudeen Kaji, a religious teacher in Songkhla, alleged that on February 5, border patrol police (BPP) subjected him to beatings that resulted in the bursting of his eardrums, suffocation with plastic bags and stomping on his throat.

With regard to the controversial three-month drug war launched in 2003 during the Thaksin Administration, the report said there were few developments in the Justice Ministry's investigations regarding the extrajudicial killings of at least 1,300 persons.