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The stalled Thai Deep South peace talks apparently will have to go on without one of the chief negotiators who on Friday announced his plan to resign.
Sukree Hari, the chief negotiator for MARA Patani, posted a short letter announcing his plans to step down from negotiations. MARA Patani is an umbrella group that has represented southern separatist rebel groups and factions in Malaysia-brokered talks with Thailand's military government since 2015.
The full letter, which was posted on the Thai PBS television station and did not state the reason for his resignation, read:
"To Ustaz Awang Jebat, the head of Patani Consultative Council.
"Re: Resignation as the head of delegation of peace dialogue of Patani Consultative Council.
"As mentioned above:
"Since Patani Consultative Council being formed, I, Ustaz Sukree Hari has been given the trust and a mandate as a head of delegation of peace dialogue on behalf of the Patani Consultative Council with the Thai government to find solution to the never-ending conflict in Patani and I believed that I have done well. Alhamdulillah.
"With that said, I am going to resign from the post effective Wednesday.
"Thank you, wassalam."
The Patani Consultative Council is another name for MARA Patani, and "Patani" is a Malay word that southern Thai separatists use to refer to the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South.
When contacted late Friday to confirm the news, MARA Patani spokesman Abu Hafez Al-Hakim said he had just learned about Sukree's letter. He said it was not the first time that Sukree, who is believed to be 53, had spoken about leaving the negotiating table.
"He expressed his intention to resign because of health reasons a few months ago," Abu Hafez told BenarNews.
The spokesman said MARA Patani likely would wait until after the Eid al-Fitr holiday in June to name Sukree's replacement.
Divisions within MARA
"Two years ago, Ustaz Ahmad Chuwo temporarily replaced him for a few months because of health reasons," Abu Hafez said.
Sukree's resignation could have been based on something other than his health, according to assistant professor Srisompob Jitpiromsri, who directs Deep South Watch, a think-tank based in Thailand's southern border region.
"It could be because of MARA's internal rift. MARA and the Thai peace talk team were at odds, so that could be the reason for his resignation," Srisompob told BenarNews.
Meanwhile, a security source in the Deep South who asked not to be named said internal issues among the MARA Patani team could be to blame.
"We know that MARA members have different thoughts and could not work together," the source told BenarNews. "Sukree may have had it enough and quit his position."
Sukree's letter came as a surprise to Malaysian facilitator Abdul Rahim Noor, who was appointed by Malaysia's new government in August 2018.
"I'm not aware of his resignation. I was not informed," Rahim Noor told BenarNews.
Talks stalled
Peace talks have been on hold following a failed meeting in February. Rahim Noor's effort to host an introductory meeting between the two sides in the talks fell apart when the Thai government's recently named chief negotiator failed to show.
Thai chief negotiator Udomchai Thammasarorat, who was promoted to the post in late 2018, claimed he was never meant to attend the meeting, which he described as technical-level only.
Rahim Noor told BenarNews at the time that Udomchai's "strange behavior" shocked him, adding that negotiators from both sides had arrived in Kuala Lumpur for the introductory dialogue. Udomchai told Malaysian facilitators that he would meet with Sukree only despite all negotiators being present, and he returned to Thailand the next day.
Shortly afterward, Sukree issued a video statement announcing that peace talks would be delayed until after the Thai elections in late March were finished and the new government was in place.
Earlier this month, the Election Commission announced final poll results for the lower house of parliament and the government announced the names of 250 senators who are expected to select the new prime minister on May 27. Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who took over in 2014 after leading a military coup, is the leading candidate for the top post.
MARA Patani includes representatives from the National Revolutionary Front (BRN), the largest and most powerful of southern insurgent groups, but its hardcore leaders have stayed away from the peace talks.
The Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in Songkhla province. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the region since the insurgency flared up again in early 2004 after a dormant period.
Mariyam Ahmad in Pattani, Thailand, and Noah Lee in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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King Maha Vajiralongkorn has pardoned a man imprisoned for life in connection with insurgent attacks that killed more than 100 people in Thailand's Deep South in 2004, in what a prison official said was the first royal pardon of a suspected southern rebel.
Abdulroning Jeloh, who was interviewed by BenarNews at his mother's home in Pattani province on Tuesday, expressed gratitude to the monarch for granting the rare pardon that gave him back his freedom after 15 years behind bars.
"I thank the King for the pardon," he said, "otherwise I needed to wait for two more years, 10 months and 10 days."
Abdulroning received a death sentence in 2004 but it was commuted to life imprisonment in 2004. His pardon came about three years before his scheduled release for good behavior.
A prison official, who requested anonymity, confirmed that Abdulroning had received a royal pardon and was released last Friday. He was the first among 500 suspected insurgents incarcerated in the Deep South to receive such a pardon, the official said.
Royal pardons are offered occasionally at "auspicious moments," such as during the monarch's coronation, and would include some criteria, corrections officials said.
According to the Royal Gazette, prisoners who could be eligible for royal pardon would include those with disabilities or terminal diseases, or those within a year of completing their sentence.
Fateful day
On April 28, 2004, separatist insurgents launched widespread pre-dawn attacks on 11 security checkpoints and government locations in the southern provinces of Pattani, Songkhla and Yala.
Initial reports said there were 108 fatalities on both sides, but Thai authorities later reported that 107 suspected insurgents and five members of the security forces had been killed.
Abdulroning was captured after being shot in the ribs during coordinated attacks, but he maintained his innocence during the interview with Benar.
Abdulroning, who declined to give his age but appeared to be in his 50s, said on that day in April, he drove a truck carrying some of his neighbors. He was told to stop the vehicle when they arrived at Mae Lan police station without knowing what would happen next, he said.
He figured out what his neighbors had in mind only after shooting erupted and a bullet pierced his chest, he said.
"I thought I was dead, but the nurses saved me," Abdulroning said, adding that five of his neighbors were killed in the attack. "I was detained and tried," he said, emphasizing that he thought he would only be sent to jail for 10 or 20 days.
The 2004 attacks led to a massacre at the historic Krue Se Mosque, when suspected 32 insurgents hid in the small concrete structure and were killed after a general ordered an all-out assault.
In January of the same year, insurgents raided a military barracks in Narathiwat, another Deep South province, and looted more than 400 rifles, reigniting the insurgency that began in the 1960s and has killed more than 7,000 people in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region since 2004.
The Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the strongest of the separatist insurgent groups that fight for independence of the Malay Patani people in the Deep South, never officially claimed responsibility for the attacks.
During the past five years, Thailand has attempted negotiations BRN but talks have largely stalled.
Abdulroning told BenarNews that he would live a clean life, growing chili peppers in their backyard to raise money.
"I intend to become a merchant to feed my mom," he said.
His mother, Aesa Lateh, said she was very happy to have her son back.
"I don't need to go to the prison to visit him no more," she said.


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Authorities in Thailand have detained two Chinese refugees, one of whom helped imprisoned dissident Huang Qi, and both of whom now face repatriation to China, RFA has learned.

Jia Huajiang, 37, who hails from the northwestern region of Xinjiang, was arrested by Thai police on May 6, and is currently being held in an immigration detention center in Pattaya.

Jia only holds temporary refugee status, and has yet to receive a formal notification of his status from the United Nations, fellow Chinese refugee Ai Wu said after visiting him.

"We went to visit him over several days," Ai said. "He was sent to the immigration detention center; I'm not sure if it's the one in Bangkok."

"I'm pretty worried right now [that he could be sent back to China]," she said. "But as long as he doesn't sign anything, it's less likely that will happen."

At the time of Jia's detention, Ai's husband, Yang Chong, called on the U.N. High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to issue Jia with an official document recognizing his refugee status as soon as possible.

"People from Xinjiang will definitely receive a very heavy prison sentence, usually for more than 10 years, so this situation is definitely more serious for him," Yang said.

Thai police have also detained Chinese dissident Liu Xuehong who recently supported detained rights activist Huang Qi, the founder of the Tianwang human rights website.

Her husband Shuai Zhongren said Liu's detention came after the couple made a placard in support of Huang on May 5, and walked through the streets of Bangkok in protest.

"But as soon as we got to the imperial palace, we were stopped and checked by police," Shuai said. "Then Liu was taken into a police cell because her visa had expired, and held there until ... the immigration police took her away to an immigration detention center."
Seeking UNHCR help
He said Liu, who comes from the central Chinese province of Hubei, appeared at a hearing at Dusit Kwaeng Court in Bangkok two days later.

"The police charged her with overstaying her visa, but the Thai authorities didn't supply any interpreter at any point," Shuai said. "Liu pointed out that she couldn't understand the proceedings, but they refused to comply with her request."

Fellow Chinese refugee Xing Jian said Liu has been officially recognized by UNHCR, and called on the agency to lend her its support as soon as possible.

"Thailand should have a duty to care for and protect U.N. refugees," Xing said. "Now she can only seek the help of UNHCR. There are also human rights groups that can call on the Thai government to release people."

Calls to the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok rang unanswered during office hours after Jia and Liu's detentions.

Huang, 56, stood trial in January at the Mianyang Intermediate People's Court in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan on charges of "leaking state secrets" and "leaking state secrets overseas," amid concerns that he could soon die in detention.

A co-defendant has publicly accused the police of torturing him, Huang and a third defendant in a bid to force a "confession" from them.

Huang was recently identified by Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) as one of 10 citizen journalists in danger of dying in detention.

Huang, who founded the Tianwang rights website, has repeatedly denied the charges and refused to "confess."
This report was produced by Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews.


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The leader of a pro-democracy party in junta-ruled Thailand denounced the Constitutional Court after it suspended him from his parliamentary seat Thursday, just a day before the king officially opens the new House of Representatives.
The court ruled on an allegation by the Election Commission that Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, head of the Future Forward Party (FFP), improperly held stocks in V-Luck Media Co. Ltd. during the campaign for the March 24 general election, Thailand's first polls since the military seized power in a coup five years ago.
"[The nine-judge panel] unanimously decided to take the case for consideration and has informed the accused to clarify the case within 15 days," according to a press release.
It went on to state that Thanathorn would be suspended from parliament until the court ruled on the allegation. No date has been set for that ruling.
Later, the politician met with reporters where he challenged the decision and criticized the military government.
"I disagree with the Constitutional Court decision," Thanathorn told reporters at his party's headquarters in Bangkok.
"It's not the time for despair, but it's time to expose the evilness of dictatorship," Thanathorn said, adding that he had "volunteered to stop the junta regime, to halt the dictatorship."
A former tycoon of an auto-parts chain, Thanathorn, 40, took the Thai political arena by storm with his calls to cut the military's political power and his promises to bring greater democracy to Thailand.
King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who was officially crowned earlier this month, and Queen Suthida are scheduled to preside over the opening session of parliament's new lower house on Friday afternoon.
On Saturday, lawmakers are expected to hold a confidential vote to elect the house speaker and two deputies. The house speaker will then establish a session for the house, in conjunction with the 250-member senate, to elect the prime minister.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who appears to have enough votes to retain his post, took control of the government after leading a military coup on May 22, 2014 that overthrew the civilian government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
To be elected, the prime minister must have at least 376 votes – one more than half of the 500-member lower house combined with the senate. Because Prayuth's government picked all the senators, they are expected to support him, meaning he needs only 126 additional votes to remain in office.
A deputy prime minister said he expected the new prime minister be named no later than the end of May.
Thanathorn's FFP won 80 of the 500 seats in the lower house of parliament, finishing behind only Palang Pracharat Party, which supports Prayuth and won 115 seats, and the Phu Thai Party, which backs the Shinawatra family and won 136 seats.
Yingluck's older brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted from the prime minister's office by an earlier military coup in 2006 and is living in exile.
Sedition charges
The decision to suspend Thanathorn was the second blow in as many days for the FFP.
On Wednesday, house member Rangsiman Rome was charged formally with sedition stemming from an incident in 2015 that marked the first anniversary of the coup.  He was one of about a dozen students who were arrested for participating in anti-government protests, violating a law imposed by the junta that limited political protests to five or fewer people.
In February, police questioned Thanathorn for his role in allegedly helping Rangsiman and others escape from the 2015 protest, claiming he used his mother's van to aid in the escape. International diplomats and other observers showed up outside of a Thai police station in April when he was charged with sedition tied to the incident.
The action against Thanathorn was politically motivated, according to a Thai analyst.
"What happened reflects the use of the law as a tool to undercut Thanathorn. It is an unwise political move by the junta because it showed that the country has not returned to democracy," Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the political science faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University, told BenarNews.


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After five years of military rule in Thailand, the king and queen on Friday opened the first session of parliament, calling on lawmakers to remember that their vital duty was to serve the nation's people.
Nearly 500 members of the House of Representatives and the 250-membered Senate convened at the Foreign Ministry compound for the ceremony and to hear the king's welcome.
"May all members realize the importance of your duties and perform them duly because your efforts have impact on the national security and the happiness of the people," King Maha Vajiralongkorn said in a nationally televised address.
The parliament is divided into two chambers, the 500-member lower house and the 250-member senate, whose members were all picked by the junta government led by Prayuth Chan-o-cha.
Following the king's welcome, the senate named its leader, Pornpetch Wichitcholchai and two deputies, Gen. Singsuk Singprai and Supachai Somcharoen.
The house is to meet Saturday to begin the process of selecting its speaker and deputy leaders. Unlike the senate, where all the members are aligned with the junta government, the lower house is split among more than two dozen parties, making it difficult for one faction to have control and the power to select the leaders.
Once the house leadership is in place and approved by the king, the two chambers will begin the process of selecting a new prime minister. Because the senate has an equal role in the process, Prayuth appears to have an edge in the race to 376 votes – one more than half of the two houses – need to form a government.
Among those in attendance on Friday was Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, head of the Future Forward Party (FFP), despite being suspended from performing his parliamentary duties by the Constitutional Court on the eve of the opening.
A former tycoon of an auto-parts chain, Thanathorn, 40, who is seen as a maverick politician noted for challenging the power of the junta leadership, will not be able to participate in the selection of house leaders, an official said.
"The constitutional court did not revoke Thanathorn's status but suspended him from performing the duty. Therefore he will not be able to vote in the parliament," Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said Friday.
Thanathorn, who wore the white uniform signifying his membership in parliament, is under investigation for holding media company stocks during the election campaign. He vowed to challenge the court's decision.
Alliances
Palang Pracharat Party (PPP), which holds 115 seats and nominated Prayuth as prime minister, announced that it had a coalition giving it enough votes to control the lower house as well as the senate, but did not elaborate, according to local media.
Previously announced alliances gave PPP 128 seats, which when added to 250, puts it over the 376-vote threshold to seat the new prime minister. On Friday, the 10-seat Chartthaipattana Party confirmed it is aligning with PPP, adding to its count.
Prayuth has served as prime minister since leading a May 2014 military coup overthrowing the democratic government of Yingluck Shinawatra.
The PPP is being challenged by a pro-democracy coalition led by the Pheu Thai Party which is backed by Yingluck's brother, Thaksin, who was ousted from the prime minister's office by a similar coup in 2006.
Following the March election, Pheu Thai Party, which holds 136 seats, announced a seven-party, 245-seat bloc, including 80 seats from Thanathorn's FFP.
Recently, the leader of alliance member New Economy Party, resigned his post but remained a member, raising suspicion about whether the six-member party would change its allegiance to PPP.
Two other parties, the Democrat and Bhumjaithai, said they will decide together whether to join PPP or align with the pro-democracy alliance.
Professor Anusorn Unno, dean of sociology and anthropology Thammasat University in Bangkok, said when as many as 27 parties have seats, it is difficult for the democratic alliance to form the new government.
"The junta's men became senators. It is shameful," Anusorn told BenarNews. "It is a distortion of democracy."


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Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha and people in Thailand's troubled Deep South condemned a bombing that killed two civilians, including a 14-year-old boy, and wounded 23 others at a Pattani province market as locals in the mainly Muslim border region were shopping for Ramadan on Monday.
Authorities suspect that separatist insurgents were behind the attack, which occurred before nightfall at the Bo Thong market in Pattani's Nong Chik district. Four of the wounded were soldiers, officials said.
The bombers intended to harm a crowd of shoppers who were buying food with which to break their daily fast during the Islamic holy month, officials said, alleging that the act was also done to retaliate for the killing of a rebel commander by government security forces earlier on Monday.
In Bangkok on Tuesday, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha offered condolences through his spokesman to the families of the two victims.
"[The attack] is severe and inhumane," said deputy government spokesman Lt. Gen. Weerachon Sukhonthapatipak. "It happened in Ramadan, the time to do good deeds."
The victims of the marketplace attack were identified as Edil Fitri Yako, 14, and Saripah Ayosae, 35.
The teenager's older sister spoke to BenarNews during a Monday night funeral.
"It's painful to see the kid come back home lifeless," said his sister, who identified herself as Aslina.
"I urge the attackers to think for a second about how painful it is for those who lost loved ones," she added. "I don't know what you want out of this violence."
Monday's explosion occurred when attackers detonated a motorcycle they had rigged with a homemade bomb and left at the Bo Thong market, police said.
Col. Thanawee Suwanarat, spokesman for the army's regional internal security command (ISOC-4), who spoke at the funeral service for Edil, said insurgents launched the attack to avenge the killing in nearby Yala province of an insurgent commander, Abdulloh Lateh, hours earlier.
"Because of the insurgent loss, they ... [bombed] the Bo Thong marketplace where brothers and sisters came to shop for food," Thanawee told the gathering of mourners.
Monday's violence occurred a day after two Thai marines were shot dead while riding a motorcycle to their base in Bacho, a district of Narathiwat, another province in the Deep South, authorities said.
Kasturi Mahkota, who sits on a panel representing southern rebel groups and factions in Malaysia-brokered peace talks with Thailand's government, called for an investigation of the incident.
"We would be deeply saddened if the act was carried out by the fighters, as that would damage the image and reputation of the fighters," Kasturi, who represents the Patani United Liberation Organization (PULO), told BenarNews. "We strongly condemn this atrocity and demand that the government conduct a transparent and fair process of investigation to bring the perpetrator to justice as soon as possible."
About 7,000 people have been killed in violence in Thailand's Malay-speaking southern border region since the insurgency reignited 15 years ago, according to Deep South Watch, a local think-tank group.
Matahari Ismail in Narathiwat, Thailand contributed to this report.


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Thai security agencies agreed in principle this week to amend the National Security Act so the military could request that criminal charges be dropped against southern insurgents who lay down their weapons and enroll in a rehabilitation program, officials said.
Officials have been assigned to prepare the amendment, said Gen. Wallop Raksano, director general of the National Security Council, after a security meeting in Bangkok on Wednesday.
"The meeting agreed in principle to amend the 2008 National Security Act and assigned the Internal Security Operations Command to handle the amendment proposal," Wallop told reporters without elaborating.
The proposed amendment was long overdue, said Panitan Wattanayagorn, who led Wednesday's meeting and serves as adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan.
"This idea was initiated under the leadership of then-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, to give a sort of immunity to defectors absent in previous laws," Panitan told BenarNews on Thursday. "Officials could find its benefits and make use of it."
Abhisit served as prime minister from 2008 to 2011.
Since 2004, about 7,000 people have been killed in violence in Thailand's insurgency-stricken Deep South. In many cases, rebels linked to the Barisan Revolusi Nasional – the country's largest separatist insurgent group – are considered prime suspects.
To ease violence in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region, the military has backed the state-run rehabilitation program, known as Bring People Home, since 2013. It allows enrollees to live in their home villages while attending activities, including "attitude adjustment" indoctrination sessions and vocational training, aimed at helping them get jobs and reintegrate into civilian life.
Under the act as written, those who wish to participate but have criminal records or face outstanding arrest warrants can get legal assistance and be promised a fair trial, but cannot be absolved by joining the program.
The amendment would allow the military to ask the attorney general to clear enrollees who registered with the Internal Security Operations Command Region 4 (ISOC-4), received training and proved themselves to be free of ties to insurgents during a two-year probationary period, according to the Bangkok Post.
Support for amendment
In Yala, one of the provinces in the Deep South, a Muslim cleric welcomed the proposal.
"That will be very good if there is a law to support the enrollees. They can rest assured they are entitled to have charges dropped," said cleric Nimu Makaje, who is also a trainer in the Bring People Home project. "That will also make the program more efficient."
He said some suspects who wanted to enroll in the program had been charged with criminal offenses by mistake.
Meanwhile, an ISOC-4 spokesman said he did not have the details of the proposal but that the military recognized its need.
"We are discussing this matter to make it benefit the enrollees," Col. Pramote Prom-in told BenarNews on Thursday.


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Thailand's parliament will convene June 5 to select a prime minister, the newly elected house speaker said Friday in announcing a joint session that could anoint junta leader Prayuth Chan-o-cha as a civilian ruler five years after he seized power in a coup.
The 500-member lower house and the Senate, whose 250 members were all chosen by the junta, will jointly pick the premier, making political maneuvering and alliances necessary to get 376 parliamentary seats needed to clinch a majority and form a new government
"Tomorrow, the Parliamentary Secretariat will send a circular letter to the members to call for a meeting on June 5," House Speaker Chuan Leekpai told reporters hours after King Maha Vajiralongkorn had endorsed him as house leader.
"There will be a parliamentary meeting on the important agenda to vote for a prime minister at 11 a.m.," Chuan said.
Prayuth, 65, is expected to breeze through the process, assuming he gets backing from most of the senators that he helped appoint, according to political analysts.
The pro-junta Palang Pracharat Party (PPP), which is led by former members of Prayuth's cabinet, previously announced alliances that would help pass the threshold required to seat the new prime minister.
The PPP, which contested the polls with a goal of electing Prayuth as prime minister, is expected to be challenged by a pro-democracy coalition led by the Pheu Thai Party, which is backed by former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
On Friday, the Chartthaipattana Party confirmed it was aligning with PPP, adding 10 more seats that could potentially support Prayuth's nomination. PPP and its allies now command 198 constituency votes, while the pro-democracy alliance has 246 seats, local reports on Friday said.
Chuan, 80, a former prime minister, took the speakership on May 25 after a 258-235 vote in favor of his nomination, defeating another candidate supported by liberal parties. Observers said his nomination would solidify Prayuth's chances of becoming installed as premier.
Prayuth, a former army chief, began serving as prime minister in May 2014 after he led a coup that toppled the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. She is on a self-imposed exile with her brother Thaksin, who, eight years earlier, was also ousted in a coup.
After the military overthrew Yingluck, it installed a provisional government that tore up the old constitution and revamped parliamentary procedures for electing a new prime minister. A junta-backed constitution, which framed new rules for forming a government after elections, was approved by a majority of Thais in an August 2016 referendum.


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Asia-Pacific nations pledged at talks in Bangkok on Friday to take steps, including legal reforms, to tackle statelessness, a key issue in the region.
More than half of the world's 10 million people who are stateless live in Asia, with at least 1 million of them Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, according to the United Nations.
Government officials from 16 Asian countries "have made commitments to take further steps aimed at preventing and reducing statelessness," a statement from the U.N.'s refugee agency, UNHCR, said at the end of a two-day meeting in the Thai capital.
"A number of states committed to taking specific steps, including measures to achieve universal birth registration and targeting hard-to-reach populations. Others said they would be tackling legal reforms, especially on issues related to childhood statelessness," UNHCR said.
People who are not formally recognized as a national of any state under the operation of its laws are considered stateless.
Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia are among countries in the region grappling with the issue of stateless people living within their borders.
"One of the key things that I was inspired by today was that several states have said that they will not allow children on their territory to be stateless any more," said Carol Batchelor, UNHCR's Special Advisor on Statelessness.
The Bangkok meeting came ahead of high-level, global talks to be held in Geneva in October, as part of UNHCR's 10-year #IBelong Campaign to End Statelessness.
Since the campaign was launched more than four years ago, governments have moved swiftly to contain the statelessness problem, U.N. officials said.
"In this region, some 50,000 people at least, that are known to us, now have a nationality that they didn't have before this campaign was launched 4½ years ago. So that is a tangible example of some of the progress that's been made," Caroline Gluck, a spokeswoman for UNHCR, told BenarNews.
According to Jelvas Musau, senior regional protection officer (statelessness) at UNHCR, one of the main obstacles to addressing the issue is simply understanding it. People often confuse stateless individuals with refugees, he said.
"Refugees are not stateless people. They have their nationalities of where they came from and they will return to those countries. So statelessness is slightly different and once it's understood properly, I think states will be very keen and eager to address it," he told BenarNews. Rohingya Muslims sheltering in Bangladesh are an exception, as they are both refugees and stateless.
More than 700,000 Rohingya who fled a bloody military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state in 2017 are languishing in camps in southeastern Bangladesh. About 800,000 stateless Rohingya remain in Myanmar.
In Thailand, hundreds of thousands of people who have no official citizenship from any state are living in Thai territory, including tribespeople who have come from neighboring countries like Myanmar and Laos.
In Malaysia, authorities are dealing with stateless Rohingya as well as stateless children of Thais who crossed into Malaysian territory to flee from violence in Thailand's insurgency-hit Deep South. And in the southern Philippines, there are stateless Indonesians living there who came over from Sulawesi island in Indonesia.
In their efforts to reduce the number of stateless people, it is important for countries to share information in their databases about such persons, Batchelor said.
"I think the way forward in improving data is to ... have a procedure to determine if somebody is stateless," she said. "If they are on the territory and they are not a national and they don't have nationality anywhere else, then they are probably stateless."
"So having a procedure that identifies and allows for numbers and statistics and data, so once the problem is identified, the solution can be brought to bear. It will be very helpful for the UNHCR and others to have improved statistical information."
'One of the proudest moments of my life'
At the Bangkok conference on Friday, an 18-year-old woman, who just a few weeks ago received Thai citizenship, told officials from 16 nations about how her life had changed.
Namphung Panya said she was able to travel to the United States to compete in a science and engineering fair a few days after receiving her citizenship, and would be able to continue her education at the university level.
"It was one of the proudest moments of my life," she told the conference, according to UNHCR.
Namphung was born in Thailand and lives in Chiang Rai province near the border with Myanmar, the Bangkok Post reported. She is classified as stateless because her parents are from the Thai Yai ethnic group.
Thailand's strict Nationality Act does not automatically confer citizenship at birth.
In June and July 2018, a small group of stateless people in Thailand drew international attention and scores of TV satellite trucks to a deep cave where a soccer coach and the 12 members of youth team were rescued more than two weeks after they became trapped by rising water.
The world soon learned that the coach and three team members were among the nearly one-half million stateless people registered in Thailand.
In less than a month, the Thai government awarded citizenship to the coach and players. Local reports at the time noted all four were born in Thailand, but were not declared citizens because of the Nationality Act.
Thai Human Rights Commissioner Tuenjai Deetes, who attended the meeting, said Thailand was working to register people but was limited by manpower issues.
"We registered more than 500,000 stateless people, but we have few officials to interview, document and fill in the nationality request which must be solid," Tuenjai told BenarNews. "The civil service commission could not provide us with more manpower."
A widespread issue
Elsewhere in the region, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia are also facing issues involving stateless people.
Decades ago, Indonesians sailed from North Sulawesi Province to remote sections of Mindanao island in the Philippines where they are undocumented and stateless, and therefore unable to return home.
In 2018, Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that thousands of passports were issued to Indonesians and Filipino-Indonesians to allow them to travel to their home country.
A Philippine Department of Justice official said that while his country did not have a specific law pertaining to statelessness, it managed to solve the issue with Indonesia. Adonis P. Sulit, an assistant secretary at the department, offered tips to other nations that could have similar concerns.
"It will be helpful if you have a particular person or group or office to deal with the stateless issue," he told the meeting in Bangkok. "We were able to reduce statelessness through strong bilateral relationship with Indonesia."
The Philippines was able to naturalize a large group of stateless persons, while Indonesia did the same for another group and a third was granted dual citizenship.
In 2016, Thai government officials traveled to Malaysia to discuss efforts to help stateless children of parents who escaped from the insurgency-wracked Deep South. Officials at the time did not say how many people would be affected by the efforts.
To combat the plight of statelessness involving children, Malaysia has declared that any baby born in the country is a Malaysian citizen if such citizenship to another country does not carry over through the child's parents, according to officials at the meeting.
Childhood statelessness has a variety of causes including being born to a stateless parent, lack of registration at birth, migration and gender discrimination that prevents some women from passing their nationality to their children.


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Thailand's pro-junta bloc has secured a majority in the lower house of parliament after the Democrat Party joined Tuesday, making it highly likely junta chief Prayuth Chan-o-Cha will return as prime minister and the military will remain entrenched in politics.
The party's move comes as parliament prepares to vote Wednesday for prime minister, after five years of junta rule. The choice appears to be Prayuth or Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the Future Forward Party, after the opposition bloc announced Tuesday it would nominate him for the post.
On Tuesday night, the Democrat Party put the pro-junta alliance, which now consists of 19 parties, over the top in securing a simple majority in the 500-seat lower house by announcing it was coming on board.
"We agree to join Palang Pracharat," Democrat leader Jurin Laksanawisit told a press conference, referring to the anchor party in the pro-junta bloc, adding that his party would join in nominating Prayuth as prime minister. His party holds 53 seats.
"The party's decision is for the benefit of the country, beyond its own," Jurin said. He listed several reasons for the move, including getting the country "out of uncertainty."
With 254 seats in hand, the alliance controls a slender majority in the lower house, compared with 246 seats held by the pro-democracy opposition bloc, made up of seven parties.
Under new voting rules put in place during junta rule, a coalition must secure at least 376 seats in the lower and upper houses to form a government. However, the junta appointed all 250 members of the senate, the upper house, who are widely expected to vote for Prayuth on Wednesday.
Jurin noted that the National Council of Peace and Order (NCPO) – the formal name of the junta – would be dissolved as soon as a new government was sworn in.
Moreover, Democrats agreed to join Palang Pracharat "on condition that the new government amends the constitution, making it more democratic," he added, without elaborating how.

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Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the pro-democratic Future Forward Party, arrives at parliament in Bangkok for the official opening of Thailand's newly elected legislature, May 24, 2019. [AP]

Thanathorn: 'Ready to be prime minister'
The choice for PM comes down to former army chief Prayuth, 65, who seized power in a May 2014 coup, and Thanathorn, the 40-year-old leader of the Future Forward Party, who comes from a wealthy family that made its fortune from a chain of auto-parts stores.
Thailand's Constitutional Court recently suspended Thanathorn from his parliamentary seat over an alleged breach of Thai electoral rules during campaigning for the March 24 general election.
On Tuesday, Future Forward spokeswoman Pannika Wanich announced on behalf of the opposition coalition that they would nominate Thanathorn for prime minister during Wednesday's session.
"Although the Constitutional Court ordered Thanathorn to stop his role as a member of parliament, House Speaker Chuan Leekpai said clearly it is possible for all prime-minister candidates to deliver their visions [on the parliamentary floor] because no laws prevent it," Pannika told reporters.
Thanathorn addressed a separate news conference in the evening.
"I'm ready to be prime minister," Thanathorn said. "Today, the most important thing for the country is to steer it back to democracy. The first step to achieve this is to stop the NCPO, stop Mr. Prayuth from becoming a prime minister another time."
Many lawmakers are demanding that the two contending candidates address the legislature and present their visions for leading Thailand prior to Wednesday's vote. But Prayuth appears to be reluctant to do so.
Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam told reporters in Bangkok that no regulations require Prayuth to attend Wednesday's parliamentary deliberations, according to Khaosod, a Thai news website.
In case Prayuth was a no-show on Wednesday, House Speaker Chuan has promised to give MPs enough time to debate about the qualifications of PM candidates before undertaking a vote, Khaosod reported.
"Everyone wants the government to be formed quickly. Those who are working to form the cabinet must find a way to create a stable government," Prayuth said, according to Reuters.
"This will not be a government of just any one party. There must be a way and the people are hopeful about the government," he added.


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Thailand's parliament voted junta leader Prayuth Chan-o-cha back into power as prime minister late Wednesday, officially transforming the former army general who seized power in a 2014 coup into a civilian leader, amid criticism of the electoral process.
The vote during a joint session of the two parliamentary houses came after hours of heated debate in which lawmakers delivered speeches for or against a pair of candidates for PM: Prayuth, who was backed an alliance led by the pro-junta Palang Pracharat Party, and lone rival Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, who represented a coalition of pro-democracy parties.
"Prayuth Chan-o-cha received more than half of the existing votes and was elected as prime minister," House Speaker Chuan Leekpai announced in parliament late in the evening.
After all the votes were counted, Prayuth received 500, while Thanathorn took 244 votes, Chuan said.
Each candidate needed at least 376 votes from the combined 750 seats in both houses to clinch the post of prime minister, paving the way for the winner to form a new government.
Both nominees were not present during the day's parliamentary deliberations.
Prayuth did not issue any statements immediately after he was selected as PM.
Thanathorn, 40, talked to reporters outside the parliament's assembly hall.
"We have been robbed of victory," Thanathorn said after hearing the vote result.
Last month, Thanathorn, leader of the Future Forward Party, was suspended from the parliamentary seat he won in the March 24 general election, pending a court's decision on a complaint filed by junta authorities that he had violated election law by holding shares in a media company.
Thanathorn has denied the various legal challenges filed by the junta against him, describing them as politically motivated.

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Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit speaks to the media before the parliamentary vote for Thailand's new prime minister in Bangkok in June 5, 2019. [AFP]

Prayuth's election was expected after his supporters skirted a potential deadlock, when the Democrat Party on Tuesday agreed to join Palang Pracharat, bolstering the goal of a pro-junta alliance of at least 18 parties to elect the former general.
The Democrat Party's pledge to support the pro-junta alliance forced its ex-leader, former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, to resign his seat in parliament, saying he had promised during the election campaign to fight Prayuth's goal of continuing as prime minister.
"I could not vote for General Prayuth," Abhisit told reporters. "That would mean I would break my promise with the people."
"I believe that only the politics based on ideals and principles can create happiness and benefits for the people and the nation in the long run," he said. "Therefore, effective immediately, I resign as MP."
Spirited debate
The heated parliamentary debate was unusual in Thailand, which has experienced a rubber-stamp legislative assembly since Prayuth, a former army general, seized power after leading the coup that toppled the civilian government of Yingluck Shinawatra in May 2014.
Yingluck, 51, was elected prime minister in 2011, Thailand's last election before the March 2019 polls. She is living in exile with her brother, Thaksin, who served as prime minister from 2001 until he was overthrown in a similar coup in September 2006.
Prayuth, 65, did not run for a seat in the lower house. He headed the junta government, officially known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which enacted a new constitution that does not require the incoming prime minister to be an elected member of parliament.
The junta also tweaked the system of electing the new prime minister, virtually assuring that Prayuth would get the official parliamentary votes. Under the new legislative rules, the premier would be chosen jointly by the 500-member House and its other half, the Senate, whose 250 members were appointed by the junta.
Under Prayuth's government, Thais have lived with strict controls on political gatherings and free speech that tamed the kingdom's polarized politics.
Sen. Seri Suwanapanont, in his parliamentary speech prior to Wednesday's vote, defended the coup that catapulted Prayuth to his country's political helm, saying Thailand was then in chaos with violent protests that threatened the people's livelihood.
"The problems existed in the country not because of the coup, but because of us, politicians," he said.
"I'm accused of favoring authoritarianism," he said. "I appreciate democratic dictatorship but I don't appreciate sham democracy."
Another senator said 131 people were killed, 3,388 were injured and country sustained economic losses under Thaksin's rule.

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Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, Army chief, votes in parliament for Prayuth Chan-o-cha to become prime minister for a second term, June 5, 2019. [Nontarat Phaicharoen/BenarNews]

As the verbal clash raged in parliament on Wednesday, Prayuth's critics questioned his qualifications to lead Thailand.
"The general has no faith in democracy," The Nation, a Thai daily newspaper, said in an editorial, citing that Prayuth had used the country's military to demolish a civilian government before handpicking 250 senators who were expected to vote him back as chief executive. "Nobody on this planet can deem that action democratic."
"Parliamentarians should consider the fact that Prayuth lacks a mandate from the people since he did not run for election," the newspaper said. "If he is elected today, Prayuth's administration will be one of the most unstable in recent history."
Despite the advantages stacked in favor of the military-back Palang Pracharat, the opposition alliance won most of the seats in the lower house, making it likely difficult for the government to pass legislation.
Another daily, The Bangkok Post, said the nation's Election Commission (EC) should have tried to prove that it was politically independent and impartial in the lead-up and during the aftermath of the March 24 general election.
But it said the commission had taken steps, including allegations of gerrymandering when it redrew constituency boundaries, which prompted accusations that the agency was playing favoritism.
"The EC's handling of the polls then proved to be flawed and plagued with irregularities detected at polling stations and during vote counting," the Post said in its editorial over the weekend.
The newspaper also slammed the commission's use of a new calculation formula for the distribution of party-list members of parliament "despite criticism that the method distorts the principles of the election law."
"Thailand will be a country with a parliament, but it won't be a democratic parliament," Sirote Klampaiboon, an independent political analyst, told the Washington Post on Wednesday. The House of Representatives and Senate, he added, established as checks on power and as legislative bodies, will be "meaningless."

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Thai junta chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha waves to photographers before leaving government house in Bangkok, June 5, 2019. [AP]




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With his election victory secured, Prayuth Chan-o-cha will soon take the oath again as Thailand's prime minister but without some weapons of junta rule that he instituted after leading a 2014 coup overthrowing the nation's last democratic leader.
A day after a joint session of parliament voted Prayuth in as PM, his spokesman promised that the ex-army general would do his best to serve the nation, its people and its different religious groups, while the junta chief himself limited his post-victory comments to six words.
"Thank you. Everything is the same," Prayuth told reporters on Thursday.
On Wednesday, he received 500 of 750 possible votes for prime minister from lawmakers after a marathon joint session of parliament, easily surpassing the minimum of 376 votes needed to earn the right to form a new government.
"The prime minister stressed that the votes from the house representatives gave him the lead to begin with. And when combined with senators, it added up to 500, in line with the rules," spokesman Lt. Gen. Weerachon Sukhonthapatipak said in a press release.
Only one other candidate, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, who represented a coalition of pro-democracy parties, received votes for prime minister.
Thanathorn, the 40-year-old leader of the Future Forward Party, was suspended last month from the parliamentary seat he won in the March 24 general election, pending a court's decision on a complaint that he had violated election law by holding shares in a media company. Thanathorn has denied the allegations and described them as politically motivated.
On Thursday, he posted a message on Twitter reiterating his call for Thailand to move toward democracy.
"The dictators could not forever stand the wind of change. People are calling for justice for the next generation. Don't be desperate. Let's join together to recreate constructive politics and democracy," Thanathorn tweeted.
Now that parliament has elected Prayuth prime minister, House Speaker Chuan Leekpai will present Prayuth's name to King Maha Vajiralongkorn for his approval.
Once given, Prayuth will form his government, selecting members of his cabinet. Analysts expect the government to be in place before the end of June.
"In the meantime, [the new government] should draft its proposal for governing so when the cabinet is royally endorsed, it can proceed before the swearing-in within 15 days," Wissanu Kreau-ngam, a deputy prime minister, told Thai media.
With those moves comes the expected dissolution of the junta, officially known as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO). It formed following the overthrow of democratically elected Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in May 2014.
Yingluck is the younger sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, the leader of the opposition Pheu Thai party who also lives in exile and was deposed by the military in a 2006 coup. Until this year's general election, his party had won every election since 2001.
As of Thursday, Thaksin had not issued any statements about Prayuth's election, which came more than two months after polls that the opposition had criticized as unfair and skewed in favor of a pro-junta party.
Earlier in the day, a Thai court sentenced Thaksin in absentia to two years in prison over a lottery program that he implemented while he served as prime minister, the Associated Press reported.
'He will be unearthed'
Upon being sworn into office, Prayuth is expected to lose Article 44, which was adopted as part of the 2014 interim constitution that brought his military government to power and gave him absolute authority to give orders he deemed necessary for the good of the country without seeking input from others, such as clamping down on free speech and making arrests without warrants.
In Bangkok on Thursday, a Bangkok taxi driver questioned whether Prayuth would be able to function without the NCPO.
"Now he doesn't have draconian Article 44 to protect himself. He will be unearthed and I will see how he can answer. He won't last long. He will have a meltdown in the parliament," Chanthorn Chankhun told BenarNews.
On Tuesday before the vote for prime minister, Human Rights Watch (HRW) challenged the government to investigate the assaults of three junta critics who were attacked since May.
"Thailand's friends should not let the recent elections become an excuse for ignoring the deteriorating rights situation in the country," HRW Asia Director Brad Adams said. "Thailand needs a vibrant human rights community more than ever, and concerned governments should be clear to the Thai leadership that real action needs to be taken to end the attacks on activists."
Now, Prayuth must work with the 500-member lower house of parliament to establish new laws. The 250-member senate, which gave Prayuth a huge advantage in his election as prime minister because its members were appointed by the junta, will not have a role in the lawmaking process.
"I'm glad Lung Tu is prime minister for another time because at the moment there is no one as good as him. I have trust in his determination, righteousness and honesty," said a women who identified herself as Amporn, referring to Prayuth by a nickname.
Leading up to the vote, the Palang Pracharat Party (PPP), which supported Prayuth even though he did not run for parliament, formed a coalition with 18 other parties to secure his election.
A major addition, the Democrat Party agreed to join the coalition in exchange for cabinet positions including agriculture, according to media reports. One of its former leaders, ex-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, quit the party before resigning from parliament on Wednesday because he refused to vote for Prayuth.
Asia Times reported that the Bhumjaithai Party also teamed up with PPP after being assured it would have a lead role in the public health portfolio to push for medical marijuana legalization.
Analysts raised concerns that the parties pushing for their own pet projects could lead the coalition into competing policy directions which could harm the government, Asia Times reported.
Reactions from the south
Meanwhile, in Thailand's heavily militarized southern border region, people said they hoped to see more of the prime minister who only traveled to the region twice since seizing power in May 2014.
They said they wanted the new government to bring improvements to the Deep South, a mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region been plagued by insurgency that has led to the deaths of about 7,000 people since 2004.
"We wanted a democratic prime minister, but we get a dictator, well, we need to accept it," Napa Jamjai, a resident of Pattani province, told BenarNews. "We hope he fix the troubles and bring peace to Deep South."
Nimu Makaje, a cleric in nearby Yala province, called on Prayuth to visit the region.
"In Deep South people's views, the prime minister must look far and wide for first-hand accounts to solve the problems regarding the economy and job creation," he told BenarNews.
Mariyam Ahmad in Pattani, Thailand, and Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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Fresh from his election as prime minister, junta chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha is facing hurdles in his bid to form a new cabinet while keeping his political coalition intact, an analyst and Thai media reports said Friday.
Prayuth was endorsed as prime minister by parliament Wednesday after the military-backed Palang Pracharat Party formed a coalition with 18 other parties to secure his election, even though he did not run for a legislative seat in the March 24 general polls.
Two major members of the coalition, the Democrat Party and the Bhumjaithai Party, agreed to vote for Prayuth, who seized power in a May 2014 coup, after being assured they would receive cabinet posts in the new government.
According to reports, three coalition parties are bickering over key portfolios, including the agriculture ministry, which is crucial for the Democrat Party to strengthen its rural base.
"In his first term, he ordered everyone as he selected them by himself. This new term, he must go through negotiations with coalition and many parliamentary debates," political analyst Anusorn Unno told BenarNews.
Anusorn, dean of sociology and anthropology at Thammasat University in Bangkok, expressed concerns that the new government could have a short lifespan.
"I think the government certainly does not have stability, but we have to wait and see what the cabinet looks like and if he can control it," Anusorn said. "If the cabinet comprises uncontrollable men, he could have a hard time using his power."
"I think it won't last beyond a couple of years," he said.
Leading up to the vote for prime minister, the Democrat Party sought a leading portfolio in agriculture in exchange for its votes. The deal so angered one of its former leaders, former premier Abhisit Vejjajiva, that he quit the party and then resigned from parliament on Wednesday.
The Bhumjaithai Party joined after being assured it would have a lead role in the public health portfolio to push for legalization of medical marijuana, according to media reports.
But those deals hit snags less than 48 hours after the vote, reports said.
Wranglings over cabinet portfolios had not settled amid possible back-tracking over promises made prior to Wednesday's parliamentary vote, according to the thethaiger.com.
Palang Pracharat leaders, meanwhile, had insisted on maintaining control of the cabinet posts promised to the two coalition members and cancelled the deal, according to The Nation.
Puttipong Punnagun, a Palang Pracharat member, said while Prayuth may change ministerial portfolios, he does not see such a move as hurting the coalition.
"There might be a small revision, but it is not a friction. It is Prayuth's right to do so, if needed," Puttipong said. "I believe in working together, we need to look at many aspects, such as the suitability of the nominees to push forward an action plan and work efficiently."

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Democrat Party leader Jurin Laksanawisit arrives at the parliament in Bangkok for the prime minister vote, June 5, 2019. (AP)

Coalition leaders speak out
A Democrat Party leader told reporters on Friday he expects the deal to stick.
"I am telling you this – there was agreement between the Palang Pracharat and Democrat parties and I believe it's because we have talked for a certain period of time and reached an agreement," Jurin Laksanawisit said.
Those discussions led to an agreement on another issue important to the Democrat Party.
"One core condition is that we amend the constitution to make it more democratic. That is one of the conditions we agreed to before joining the government," Jurin said without elaborating.
The Bhumjaithai Party leader, on the other hand, offered a pragmatic view.
"We are here to work and not to negotiate. We want to work in the ministry as we promised people as part of our platform during the campaign. We think we can do what we are good at," Anutin Charnvirakul said on Thursday.
"But we will compromise to push the country forward."
As the new cabinet takes shape, Anusorn said Prayuth's military background could hurt him in his efforts to maintain a democratic government.
Five years ago, then-Gen. Prayuth led a military coup that ousted the democratically elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra, appointing himself leader of the junta government that has been in charge since then.
Yingluck is the younger sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, the leader of the opposition Pheu Thai party who lives in exile and was deposed by a similar military coup in 2006.
"Prayuth came from the military coup background, now he follows parliamentary procedure, but he has denied a few parliamentary traditions," Anusorn said, referring to reports that PPP is pulling back on the portfolio deal. "With his military-type personality but under parliamentary rules, I think the government will struggle and would likely not last long."
"He may still act like a junta leader," he said. "That won't be easy."
Wilawan Watcharasakwet in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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Authorities have arrested three suspects in a bombing that killed two people at a market in the Thai Deep South during Ramadan, police said Monday, as a Malaysian broker of peace talks confirmed he would visit the region this week.
The suspects were arrested when security forces raided several homes in Pattani and Yala provinces on Sunday, Maj. Gen. Piyawat Chalermsri, the Pattani provincial police chief, told BenarNews. A fourth suspect escaped during a separate raid, he said.
"They are held under martial law for interrogation and we will decide whether to charge them or not," Piyawat said. "We have solid evidence against them."
Authorities blamed suspected separatist insurgents for the attack at the Bo Thong market in Pattani's Nong Chik district on May 27 that killed a 14-year-old boy and a 35-year-old woman, as well as injured 24 other people, as locals were food shopping for Ramadan in Thailand's predominantly Muslim southern border region. Four soldiers were among the injured.
The next day, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha offered condolences through his spokesman, Lt. Gen. Weerachon Sukhonthapatipak, who described the attack as "severe and inhumane."
Piyawat said surveillance cameras captured images of the three suspects riding a motorcycle, which investigators said was rigged with explosives.
A relative of one of the arrested suspects denied those allegations, saying the kin was not involved in the bomb attack.
"Officials said they just want to question him. I don't know what others think, but to us he was not guilty," the relative, who asked not to be identified, told BenarNews. "Officials told all of us at home that he will be released."
Under the Martial Law Act, imposed in the Deep South in 2004, military authorities have legal immunity and broad powers to detain individuals without charge in informal places of detention for up to seven days, according to New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Broker expected in region
Also on Monday, a Thai security official told BenarNews that Abdul Rahim Noor, the facilitator of the Malaysia-brokered peace negotiations, was expected to visit the Deep South for four days, starting Tuesday. Rahim Noor last visited the region in early January.
The source, who requested anonymity, said Rahim Noor was expected to meet with the military's regional commander, local politicians and Muslim academics, among others.
Rahim Noor was appointed in August 2018 to facilitate the talks aimed at settling the conflict in the majority-Muslim region.
Rahim Noor, in a phone interview with BenarNews late Monday, confirmed that he was coming to the Deep South, but declined to give more information. 

"If you heard that, that's your news. It's supposed to be a secret," he said. "But if you ask me why I would be there, what is my mission [that] I cannot answer."
Four years ago, negotiators launched a widely publicized debut of the Thai military government's peace talks with MARA Patani, an umbrella group representing southern insurgent groups, but the talks facilitated by Kuala Lumpur largely stalled earlier this year.
MARA announced in February that it was suspending its participation in the talks until after the Thai general election on March 24.
Last week, Thailand's parliament voted to elect junta chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha, as prime minister of the next government, although he has held that since leading a coup that toppled a civilian government in May 2014.
About 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the far southern region since the insurgency reignited 15 years ago, according to Deep South Watch, a local think-tank. The Malay-speaking region borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in Songkhla province.
Hadi Azmi in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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Thai junta chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha officially began his first term as an elected prime minister on Tuesday by receiving the king's blessing five days after a parliamentary majority picked him to lead the next government.
Dressed in a white uniform, Prayuth, who has served as PM since leading a military coup in 2014, knelt before a portrait of King Maha Vajiralongkorn at his office in Bangkok, as he ceremoniously accepted a royal decoration following the monarch's endorsement.
"His Majesty King Maha Vajiralongkorn has a royal command to announce that whereas the parliament voted on June 5, 2019, for Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha to become prime minister with more than half of combined houses, therefore [HM the King] appointed Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha prime minister in accordance with Section 158 of the constitution," an announcement in the Royal Gazette stated.
After the ceremony, Prayuth, 65, addressed the Thai people on national television.
"I affirm that I will dedicate myself to public service with honesty and integrity in pursuit of the greater good of the country and the people of Thailand," the prime minister said.
Although Prayuth was sworn into office, it was unclear when his new cabinet would be finalized. He had said previously that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) – the official name of the junta – and the draconian Article 44 would end when he and the new cabinet were sworn in before the king.
Article 44, which was adopted as part of the 2014 interim constitution that brought his military government to power, gave Prayuth absolute authority to give orders he deemed necessary for the country's good, such as clamping down on free speech and making arrests without warrants.
Prayuth remains as prime minister even though he did not run for a parliamentary seat in the March 24 general election because the constitution allows an outsider to assume the office.
It also stipulates that 250 senators can join 500 house representatives to select a new prime minister, a rule change seen by the opposition and analysts as skewed in favour of the junta because the senators were hand-picked by the NCPO.
Last week, Prayuth received 500 votes from the senate and lower house as the pro-junta Palang Pracharat Party (PPP) and a coalition of 18 other parties carried far more than the 376 votes needed to form a new government.
Smaller coalition parties were upset over reports that the PPP sought to keep ministerial seats promised as part of a deal to secure their votes, or that Prayuth would have the final say on who served in his cabinet.
"There will be discussions. Suitability will be considered and compromises must be made. The benefits of the country and people will be the priority," he told reporters, according to the Bangkok Post.
 
The Democrat Party agreed to join the new ruling coalition in exchange for cabinet positions including agriculture. One of the party's former leaders, ex-Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, quit it and resigned from parliament because he refused to vote for Prayuth.
In addition, the Bhumjaithai Party teamed up with the coalition after being assured it would have a lead role in the public health portfolio to push for medical marijuana legalization.
Only one other candidate, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of Future Forward Party, was nominated for prime minister. He received 244 votes from a pro-democracy coalition despite being suspended from the parliamentary seat he won, pending a court's decision on a complaint that he had violated electoral law by holding shares in a media company.
Thanathorn claimed that the pro-Thaksin Shinawatra opposition was "robbed of victory."
Thaksin, a former prime minister now in exile, was booted out in a military coup in 2006. A similar fate befell his younger sister, Yingluck, who was ousted in a similar coup led by Prayuth, the then-army chief, in 2014.
As he begins his second term but first as an elected PM, Prayuth, who is accustomed to ruling without opposition, may face a hard time dealing with elected politicians who might not follow his command, according to an analyst.
The hand-picked senators who helped drive up Prayuth's vote count in the race for prime minister will have no parts in passing laws, budget or no-confidence debate, said Anusorn Unno, dean of sociology and anthropology at Thammasat University in Bangkok.
While Prayuth's lower house coalition collected a slim majority of 254 to 246 votes, the house speaker, a member of one of the ruling coalition parties, abstains from voting, Anusorn pointed out.
"Prayuth cannot act the same way because now there is an opposition. He can no longer refuse to answer questions, unlike during the time of the NCPO," Anusorn told BenarNews.


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Sixty-five Rohingya landed on an island in southern Thailand on Tuesday with six suspected human traffickers, including five from Myanmar, after their wooden boat ran out of fuel, officials said.
Five children were among the Rohingya passengers that included 29 men and 31 women who were stranded on Rawi island in Satun province, Thai Coast Guard Cmdr. Thanapong Sudrak told reporters.
He said a Thai man and five Myanmar nationals were on board and were being held for questioning, as authorities believe they helped facilitate the travel in what could be a case of human smuggling or trafficking.
"We moved them to the mainland for questioning because there was one Thai man on board and we will investigate if this is human trafficking," Thanapong said, emphasizing that Coast Guard crewmen had provided water and food to the passengers and their suspected "facilitators."
Police identified the Thai man as Sangkom Papan, 50, from nearby Ranong province, next to Myanmar, but did not release the identities of the five Burmese.
"Officials from agencies involved discussed an urgent plan to help them and to interrogate the Thai," Police Col. Samrej Jai-eau, the deputy chief of the police station in La-ngu district of Satun, told BenarNews.
Four years ago, Thai authorities discovered the graves of 32 Rohingya and Bangladeshis near the Malaysian border, prompting a crackdown on illegal immigration. Thailand subsequently sealed its maritime borders to boats smuggling people from Bangladesh and Myanmar.
In 2017, a Thai court convicted and sentenced Former Army Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen to 27 years for trafficking Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshis as part of a crime syndicate that was exposed through the unearthing of the graves in the jungle in southern Songkhla province. The former military officer was among dozens of people convicted.
A co-founder of the rights groups Fortify Rights told BenarNews that Rohingya would be expected to continue fleeing their homes in Myanmar where they have been subjected to decades of hostility and denied citizenship.
U.N. officials believe a few hundred thousand Rohingya remain in Myanmar's northern Rakhine state despite the destruction of villages during a military crackdown beginning in August 2017 that led to an exodus of more than 700,000 into Bangladesh.
"The numbers of Rohingya arriving in Thailand have decreased in recent years when compared to 2015, but they've never really stopped coming," said Matthew Smith, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fortify Rights.
Thai authorities are obligated to provide protection, Smith said.
"Rohingya are continuing to flee mass atrocities and genocide in Myanmar and inhumane conditions in refugee camps in Bangladesh," he said. "They're refugees and they have rights."
House rescue
In a separate incident, Thai police on Tuesday said they had rescued 38 Myanmar nationals who were confined in darkness in a house while awaiting their "facilitators" in the Had Yai district of the southern province of Songkhla.
Authorities identified them as workers who were hoping to reach Malaysia, but did not release additional details.
Police Inspector-General Suchart Teerasawat said Myanmar nationals often pay their facilitators or brokers about 20,000 baht (U.S. $637) per person.
People found guilty of human trafficking in Thailand could be sentenced up to 15 years in prison and fined up to 1 million baht ($29,759). Thai law imposes double punishment for government officials who are found guilty.
The crime persists despite the stiff penalties, officials said.
"We have ordered local police to eradicate trans-boundary human trafficking, a big problem similar to that of Rohingya," Suchart told BenarNews. "But there's still an influx of illegal workers from Myanmar destined for Malaysia."


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A Taiwanese businessman is scheduled to face trial in Thailand's northern Chiang Mai city next week on charges that he illegally hosted a radio station that broadcast uncensored news to listeners in China, amid claims that Beijing pressured Thai authorities to shut down the station.
The June 19-20 hearing at the Chiang Mai provincial court comes more than five months after Chiang Yung-hsin, 52, was indicted on charges of setting up the station without a permit for Sound of Hope (SOH), a San Francisco-based radio network that was founded by Falun Gong, a religious movement banned in China, according to court documents.
Chiang, who could be jailed for up to five years if convicted, denies the charges, saying the broadcasting facility was set up by his tenants.
"I did not set up any radio station, but friends used the premises I rented to set up transmitters," Chiang told BenarNews in a brief interview in Bangkok through an assistant while denying the charges against him.
Chiang's attorney was not available for comment. Prosecutors and Chiang's defense team are scheduled to present their cases over the two-day hearing.
Sound of Hope Radio is a public network that broadcasts news to China through shortwave radio signals in nearby countries, spokesman Frank Lee said.
Lee alleged that the Thai government pressured Chiang, who was not aided by a translator, to sign documents pleading guilty at the time of his arrest. He also alleged that Thai officials were pressured by the Chinese government.
"Giving in to the pressure from Beijing to suppress free press is not good for Thailand and its people," Lee told BenarNews.
"Mr. Chiang is a volunteer for SOH, he didn't do this for his own gain. We urge the Thai government to free Mr. Chiang so that he can return to Taiwan to his wife and two children."
But Thai officials flatly rejected the claims.
"Thai law enforcement arrested Chiang without any pressure from the Chinese," a Thai security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told BenarNews.
In August 2018, officials shut down the shortwave radio station broadcasting from property that Chiang rented in Chiang Mai, and arrested him on Nov. 22, 2018. He was released on bail three days later but ordered to remain in Thailand.
Police filed the charges against Chiang alleging that he violated the Radio Communications Act and the Broadcasting and Television Business Act, both of which carry a sentence of up to five years if convicted because he did not have the necessary permission or license to operate, according to various sources.
"The Thai justice system is handling this case," Busadee Santipitaks, spokeswoman for the ministry of foreign affairs, told BenarNews when asked for comment.
Protests against prosecution
In January, press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) spoke out against Chiang's arrest.
"This totally unjustified arrest deals a new blow to the freedom to inform in Thailand and penalizes Chinese listeners who count on this radio station for information that circumvents censorship," RSF said in a news release at the time.
"We call on the Thai authorities to stop abetting Beijing's operations against opposition media outlets and to drop charges against Chiang."
RSF said it has learned that the Chinese government pressured the Thai authorities to shut down the radio station.
Paris-based RSF said Thai officials took the action after receiving a complaint from a "mysterious witness" who claimed to have seen a 30-meter (100-foot) antenna being erected at the site.
SOH insisted that no antenna was constructed because it is not needed for shortwave broadcasting and denied any involvement in "illegal broadcasting," according to RSF.
U.S.-based Freedom House had also spoken out against Chiang's arrest. It said the Thai government took advantage of his limited knowledge of the language and "deceived Chiang into what amounted to signing a confession."
"This is not the first time Beijing has pressured Asian governments to crack down on SOH broadcasts," Freedom House had said in a recent update of press freedom news related to China published on its website. "In 2011, two men in Vietnam were jailed for broadcasting content into China, and Indonesian authorities attempted to shut down SOH affiliate Radio Era-baru, which transmitted programming to local Chinese communities in Southeast Asia."
Lee said the SOH broadcasts were needed.
"SOH believes shortwave broadcasting to China is very critical to the people in there to learn about truthful and accurate news in China and around the world," Lee said. "The Chinese communist regime constantly censors news on its human rights violations, religious persecution and objective news from around the world."
Founded in 1992 in China's northeast, the Falun Gong spiritual movement gained increasing influence as the fastest growing religion in the PRC and overseas over the next seven years. In 1999 the Chinese government at the orders of then President Jiang Zemin began a harsh and sometimes deadly crackdown on the sect, dragging practitioners from their homes and sending them to detention centers.
Outside of China, the movement was considered harmless and continued to flourish. It is often cited as an example of religious persecution in China, with practitioners and allied religious freedom advocates holding protests in major cities to bring attention to the situation faced by Falun Gong believers in the PRC.


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The Malaysian facilitator of the peace process to end a long-running insurgency in Thailand's Deep South has expressed optimism that talks between the Thai government and Muslim rebels could resume in two weeks.
Abdul Rahim Noor said during his first visit to the Deep South since taking over as facilitator in August 2018 that he was awaiting "commitment" from the Thai government, MARA Patani, a panel that represents some armed groups, and other rebel factions.
"If there are no obstacles, the peace dialogue will be held in two more weeks in Penang, Malaysia,'' Bernama, the Malaysian state news agency, quoted him as saying while he visited Pattani province, a hotbed of the insurgency.
"As the facilitator, we want to know their commitment (Thai government, Majlis Syura Patani [MARA Patani] and the other armed groups) in a discussion which is to be held soon," he said.
On Friday, Rahim Noor wrapped up his visit to the Deep South, a mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region that borders Malaysia. He led a five-member delegation from Kuala Lumpur in four days of meetings with Thai military officials, politicians, academics, as well as religious and civil society leaders.
"It is a good signal and sincere commitment of the facilitators in order to create peace for the people in Deep South – the thing we believe all sides wish to happen," said Lt. Gen. Pornsak Poolsawat, the Thai army chief in the region.
Pornsak met with the Malaysian team at his office in Pattani province on Wednesday to discuss how to move ahead with the peace process. Pornsak is also a member of the Thai delegation in the peace talks.
The Malaysian delegates "asked about materials from Malaysia used to make weapons, the connection between the insurgents and the civil society organizations, and Western funds for insurgents, if any," an official who attended the meeting, but asked to remain anonymous, told BenarNews.
He did not elaborate.
The Malaysian delegation also met with leaders of the Islamic Committee of Pattani. The clerical body is part of a network of provincial Islamic committees that were established under Thai law to advise the Thai government on religious issues affecting Thailand's Muslim minority and to manage Islamic matters at the local level.
The same anonymous official attended the meeting between the Malaysians and the Islamic Committee of Pattani.
"Tan Sri Abdul Rahim asked if Islamic committees have any measure to handle insurgents in the case they are pushed back from Malaysia to the Deep South. The chairman and company could not respond," the source told Benar.
Meanwhile, in a separate interview with the news outlet Thai PBS, Rahim Noor expressed his hope that all of the concerned parties in the separatist conflict "will commit to continuing with the talks," saying he was confident that a new change of government in Thailand would not disrupt the peace process.
" might be wrong, but I think there is no change in the Thai government's decision to talk for peace," Rahim Noor told Thai PBS.
The talks between MARA Patani and Thailand's then-military government began four years ago but have led to no breakthroughs and have been stalled since February, when MARA announced that it was suspending its participation in the negotiations till after Thailand's general election on March 24.
On Tuesday, Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and former army chief who seized power in a May 2014 coup, officially began his first term as an elected prime minister.
MARA Patani includes representatives of the main groups waging a separatist insurgency. Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the largest and most powerful of the rebel groups is represented on the panel, but hardcore leaders of BRN have refused to join MARA in the talks.
When asked to comment on the prospect of the next session of peace talks taking place in Penang in two weeks, MARA Patani spokesman Abu Hafez Al-Hakim told BenarNews, "so far, we have not been officially notified."
About 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the far southern region since the insurgency reignited 15 years ago, according to Deep South Watch, a local think-tank. The Malay-speaking region borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in Songkhla province.


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Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged Thailand's military Wednesday to transfer to police custody a militiaman arrested in connection with a pair of killings in the insurgency-hit Deep South, as it questioned whether the suspect would face justice under martial law.
Earlier this week, Thai military and police officials announced that security forces had captured militia member Abdul Hakeem Darase in Muang, a district of southern Yala province, on Friday. The officials said Abdul Hakeem provided information that led to the capture of another suspect, civilian Saimawee Waekaloh.
Abdul Hakeem was "allegedly responsible for a long list of murders of ethnic Malay Muslim men and women accused of involvement with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) separatist movement," Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher in HRW's Asia division, wrote on Wednesday.
BRN is the largest and most powerful of insurgent groups in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region. The Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in Songkhla province. The region has seen nearly 7,000 people die in violence since the decades-old insurgency flared up in early 2004.
Abdul Hakeem's arrest raised hopes that the Thai government was "finally getting serious about countless abuses carried out by its security services in Thailand's restive southern border provinces," Sunai said.
But he also questioned the military's decision to hold Abdul Hakeem, citing martial law, to interrogate him about weapons that were allegedly seized from him instead of turning him over to the police.
"As a result, the police cannot press charges against him. And so far, no criminal investigation into any murder cases has begun," Sunai wrote.
He noted that BRN rebels had cited the alleged abuses committed by Abdul Hakeem "as a justification for reprisals."
The militiaman had not acted alone, but the government had yet to prosecute a single member of the security forces for unlawful killings, enforced disappearances, torture or other acts committed against Malay Muslims in the Deep South, Sunai wrote.
"The government should take an important step to break this cycle of violence by ordering the military to transfer Hakeem to police custody for a transparent and impartial criminal investigation and to be prosecuted as the evidence warrants it. There can be no excuses," Sunai said.
Suspected in killings
Abdul Hakeem is blamed for attacks on May 9 and 22 that led to two deaths, according to Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the military's internal security operations command in the region (ISOC-4), and Col. Thiraphot Yindee, commander of the police station in Bannang Sata, another district of Yala where Abdul Hakeem served as a village defense volunteer or militiaman.
Thiraphot said Abdul Hakeem had not been charged following his arrest.
"No allegations have been filed as he also faces charges related to weapons of war.  He was arrested under martial law," Thiraphot told BenarNews. "If the allegations are confirmed in the next two to three days when martial law is due to expire, charges will be pressed accordingly."
Thirapot and the ISOC official spoke to BenarNews on Monday, before Human Rights Watch came out with its statement.
The officials said Abdul Hakeem was transferred to a military unit in Yala for questioning while Saimawee was being detained at the main interrogation center at an army camp in Pattani. No details have been released about alleged crimes committed by Saimawee.
Security forces seized an M-16 and other weapons along with ammunition when they took Abdul Hakeem into custody, according to officials.
The military and police allege that Abdul Hakeem was involved in the May 9 shooting of village headman Arsae Niseng, who was traveling in a car with his wife and two daughters, in front of Ban Cho school in Yala. The headman's wife was killed and the others injured.
Nearly two weeks later, Sama-ae Sama, 55, vice chairman of the Tha Thong sub-district administration, was shot and killed on May 22 in Yala.
"After the incident, the ISOC Region 4 commander region ordered that witnesses be questioned and security cameras be checked. There were many witnesses who gave us useful information," Pramote told BenarNews, referring to the earlier incident.
"Actually, the person who knows what happened is the village headman. The last time we went to visit, the children were recovering from injuries," Pramote said.


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Thai authorities are requiring cellphone users in the Deep South to have their photographs taken as an extra step in registering SIM cards, saying it could help prevent bombings by insurgents, but rights advocates warn this could threaten people's privacy.
Some 1 million cellphone users in the troubled southern border region have till the end of October to register their SIM cards with Thailand's three mobile phone providers, or have their service disconnected if they don't comply, said officials with the regional Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC-4).
Cellphone users already are required to register their SIM cards with providers but now are being asked to show up at providers' outlets to present identification and have their photos taken as an extra layer of security, officials said.
Under an old system, phone users could register their phones with the authorities by presenting I.D. cards, but insurgents still have been able to use SIM cards registered under other people's names, or buy cards from neighboring countries or over the internet, ISOC-4 spokesman Col. Pramote Prom-in said.
"We found SIM cards used in some bombings, including the attack on the bronze mermaid statue on Samila Beach in Songkhla province late last year in which a suspect in the bombing admitted that he had ordered a SIM card online," Pramote said.
He was referring to bomb explosions that targeted the Golden Mermaid statute, a beachside landmark in a district of Songkhla province that lies outside the conflict-ridden Deep South.
"Some SIM cards were ordered online from outside of the region or from a neighboring country, or phone numbers were registered with someone else's names," Pramote added.
A security official who asked not to be named said insurgents could use a clock, radio, walkie-talkie or a cell phone to detonate homemade bombs. Roadside bombings and other attacks are a frequent occurrence in the Deep South, where a separatist insurgency has persisted for decades in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking region.
On April 9 and on June 21, the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (NBTC) announced in the Royal Gazette that residents of the Deep South, as well as visitors from outside the region, were required to register their cellphones in person via local branches of the country's big three mobile phone providers: AIS, TrueMove H and DTAC.
However, the notices in the gazette did not state that cellphone users would be required to have their photos taken – and human rights proponents see this as cause for concern.
"I understand the NBTC announced the regulation but it is not specific on photographing," Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, director of the Cross Cultural Foundation, a Bangkok-based NGO, told Benar News.
"DTAC staff said it simply keeps photographs without filing them into a database of faces, but it seems that the ISOC-4 is filing the photos in their database. That is too much and a breach of privacy rights," Pornpen said.
A member of the National Human Rights Commission expressed similar concern.
"Some people use a facial scanner to access their devices or when they deal with their bank. But if facial identities are kept or used by authorities without their knowledge, privacy could be violated," Human Rights Commissioner Angkhana Neelapaijit told Benar.
Col. Pramote defended the new measure against criticism. He said the photographic information would be kept at a centralized database, but he did not give more information about it.
"The SIM card owner's photograph is required, no matter whether they are citizens, soldiers or whoever. They must be under the same rule in order to protect innocents from fraudsters, and insurgents who used other's I.D. cards to buy SIM cards," Pramote said.
"We don't mean to violate anyone's rights. This is for the benefit of the people but insurgents, their sympathizers and fraudsters will suffer," he added. "One can give up his or her cellphone because of fear of verification. That is one's right but he or she can't say that their rights are violated."
The Deep South, which is heavily militarized and under emergency rule, borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in Songkhla province. The region has seen nearly 7,000 people die in violence since the decades-old insurgency flared up in early 2004.


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Analysts say the 34th ASEAN summit this weekend made little progress on two key security issues facing the region: Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea and stalled repatriation of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who are languishing in Bangladesh.
Leaders from ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations gathered in Bangkok to tackle regional issues including trade, terrorism, and ongoing wrangling over the potentially mineral-rich South China Sea.
But with its traditional emphasis on enhancing "trust and confidence" among nations, the summit refrained from criticizing China's military installations on disputed islands, and did not use the word "Rohingya" in addressing the plight of the stateless ethnic minority in its final statement.
"We can call it ASEAN style – avoid talking the hard part and reach agreement on peripheral issues to complete the negotiating process within the timeline," Dulyapak Preecharush a professor at Thammasat University in Thailand, told BenarNews.
The ASEAN chairman's statement said the bloc was encouraged by the progress of the negotiations "toward the early conclusion of an effective and substantive Code of Conduct (COC) in the South China Sea within a mutually agreed timeline."
"We welcomed efforts to complete the first reading of the single draft COC negotiating text by this year," it said.
The statement was referring to the first of three planned rounds of talks on the proposed code, with more difficult points such as whether it should be legally binding relegated to later rounds, the Associated Press reported, citing Southeast Asia diplomats.
ASEAN member states and China agreed on a "draft code of conduct negotiating text" in June 2018, after vowing to put the pact in place in 2002.
During that time, Beijing built up and occupied islands in the mineral-rich sea, and has stationed missiles on islands in close proximity to countries such as the Philippines.
China claims the strategic sea in its entirety despite overlapping claims by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
"The ASEAN summit did not seem to deliver anything new with regard to the South China Sea. The language used in the chairman's statement was mostly recycled from previous summits," A. Ibrahim Almuttaqi, head of the ASEAN studies program at the Habibie Center in Jakarta, told BenarNews.
"This may be as a result of the 'continued improving cooperation between ASEAN and China' mentioned in the [final] statement, and the desire to not disrupt the current status quo."
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte complained Sunday about the pace of negotiations through his spokesman.
"The longer the delay for an early conclusion of the COC, the higher the probability of maritime incidents happening and the greater the chance for miscalculations that may spiral out of control," spokesman Salvador Panelo told Philippine media.
Earlier in June, the Philippines filed a diplomatic protest against China, after Manila said that a Chinese ship sank a fishing boat within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone, leaving 22 Filipino fishermen floating at sea until they were rescued by a Vietnamese boat.
Officials said a Chinese militia ship likely was behind the ramming.
But on Saturday, Manila accepted Beijing's offer to conduct a joint probe of the incident, after earlier rejecting the idea and announcing both countries would hold their own investigations.
On Monday, Duterte said he could not take bolder action over the incident because it was just a "maritime accident."
"I'm sorry, but that's how it is," local news portal the Sun Star quoted him as saying.
Rohingya plight
Regarding Myanmar, the ASEAN chairman's statement stressed support for ensuring safety in conflict-torn Rakhine state and facilitating the return of "displaced persons in a safe, secure and dignified manner."
About 740,000 Rohingya fled into Bangladesh from their homes in Rakhine state starting in August 2017 following a military crackdown against the minority Muslim group.
Bangladesh and Myanmar signed a reparation deal that was to begin in early 2018, but so far no Rohingya have expressed a willingness to return until Myanmar guarantees their safety, grants them citizenship and acknowledges their ethnic identity.
In June, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told reporters in Dhaka that Myanmar was reluctant to take back the Rohingya Muslims despite the signed agreement to repatriate them.
"Everybody wants the Rohingya people to return to Myanmar from Bangladesh. But Myanmar does not want to take them back. Here lies the problem," Hasina said.
In Bangkok Saturday, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah called for "perpetrators of the Rohingya issue to be brought to justice," and said repatriation must include citizenship.
But bowing to Myanmar's official practice, the final summit statement did not acknowledge the group's ethnic identity.
"ASEAN is failing the Rohingya. The failure of ASEAN to properly address the crisis escalates the threat that Myanmar poses to international peace and security, increasing the need for the U.N. Security Council to refer the situation to the International Criminal Court," Fortify Rights chief executive officer Matthew Smith told BenarNews.
Other analysts questioned ASEAN's commitment to the Rohingya.
"There seems to be some 'foot dragging' with the issue being bogged down by questionable procedures such as a fact finding team, preliminary needs assessment missions, and so forth," Almuttaqi said.
Aaron Connelly, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies headquartered in London, said ASEAN's action could prove counterproductive.
"The Bangladeshi government of Sheikh Hasina is under political pressure to see the refugees return, and there is significant risk that it will force them back across the border," he told BenarNews.


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A trio of lawmakers in Thailand's Deep South say members of parliament should participate in peace talks between the government and armed separatist groups because they represent people who would be most impacted by ending the region's 15-year-old insurgency.
Areepen Utarasint, who just retired after nine terms as an MP representing Narathiwat, one of the provinces in the Deep South, said people there wanted to feel like they were represented in Bangkok. He noted that about three-quarters of eligible voters in the southern border region had cast ballots in parliamentary elections on March 24.
"There should be politicians, especially MPs as 'observers' during peace talks. There are 11 MPs from the Prachachart, Democrat, Bhumjaithai and Palang Pracharat parties [who represent the Deep South]. They need to be involved in the negotiations because they know more about the local people's problems," Areepen told BenarNews.
He was referring to four-year-old Malaysia-brokered peace talks between the government and MARA Patani, an umbrella organization representing rebel groups in negotiations with the government. So far, these have produced no tangible results.
Three of the parties – Bhumjaithai, Democrat and Palang Pracharat – support Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, while Prachachart is part of an opposition coalition. Prayuth took over the reins of government after leading a military coup against then-Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014. Earlier this month, the former Thai army chief was elected to a second term as prime minister by a vote among MPs and senators.
Sukarno Matha, a current Deep South MP from the opposition Prachachart Party, supports Areepen's call for MPs to have a voice in the peace process.
"In the past, the committee led by the southern army commander, did not open a room for local politicians," Sukarno told BenarNews. "There should be MPs included in committees which could have roles in the peace talks."
"With their insights about the region, they could bring in dimensions that the military could not see," Sukarno said.
Areepen's suggestion also drew support from lawyer-turned-MP Adilan Alee-ishoh, who is a member of the pro-Prayuth coalition.
"The government must not fuel the fire by allowing violence to be carried out by insurgents, allowing them to expand their alliances," Adilan told Benar. "Nowadays, there is something that pushes locals to become sympathizers or insurgents. Exercising unfair law enforcement will push people to join the other side."
Support for Areepen's statement, however, was not unanimous.
The man who submitted his resignation letter last month as the chief negotiator for MARA Patani raised doubts about adding MPs to the mix.
"I don't really agree with that ... it would allow the MPs to build up 'political mileage,'" Sukree Hari told BenarNews.
Sukree is one of three National Revolutionary Front (BRN) members involved with MARA Patani. The largest and most powerful of the southern insurgent groups, BRN's hardcore leaders have avoided the peace talks.
MP advising regional army chief
Before his election, Adilan sat on a local committee supporting peace-talk efforts.
He now serves as an adviser to a local committee led by the regional army commander. He said he appreciated a statement by the commander, Lt. Gen. Pornsak Poolsawat, who said he would like to discuss human rights issues with local MPs.
Still, Adilan said, the military has not created a mechanism for people to follow the talks. In his view, local residents and MPs should be members of committees involved in the process.
The talks between MARA Patani and Prayuth's military government began in 2015, but have led to no breakthroughs. They stalled in February, when MARA Patani leaders announced they were suspending participation until after the March general election.
In 2015, the junta established three committees to oversee the peace talks. The steering committee is led by the prime minister and is responsible for mapping out the government's policy on the Deep South.
The peace dialogue panel, which saw the promotion of retired Gen. Udomchai Thammasarorat in late 2018 to chief negotiator, is responsible for negotiating with representatives of the insurgents.
The inter-agency coordination working group led by Pornsak includes locals and at least one MP. It is responsible for creating good will in the region to aid peace talk efforts.
The Malay-speaking and predominately Muslim Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in Songkhla province. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the region since the insurgency flared up in early 2004 after a dormant period.
CORRECTION: An earlier version listed the Democrat Party as part of the opposition.


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Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha pointed to quarreling among coalition members as he apologized to the Thai people Monday for not having named his cabinet weeks after being sworn in following Thailand's first election during five years of military rule.
The Palang Pracharat Party (PPP), which nominated Prayuth for PM, saw him elected after a junta-backed constitution gave smaller parties access to seats in parliament, even if none of their candidates won the popular vote in any district. As many as 19 parties joined a coalition with PPP and voted for Prayuth to retain the office he has held since leading a 2014 military coup.
"The prime minister feels discomfort and, on behalf of Palang Pracharat Party, must apologize to the people because there have been a lot of internal squabbles as reported in the media," Prayuth said in a message to the media.
"I hope things will move forward to respond to the people as a government for all, a reform of government to disallow politics from heading back to old issues that could catalyze an unwanted way of solving problems," Prayuth added.
Opposition leaders, however, viewed that last remark by Prayuth as a threat to stage another coup. In May 2014, Prayuth, then the army chief, removed democratically elected Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra from office, citing political turmoil and impasse, and installed himself as PM.
"As far as I read his mind and thought process, he has an itch to seize power again. He endangers democracy," said Sutin Klangsaeng, an MP with the opposition Pheu Thai Party MP. "He eventually created problems for himself within the party out of his eagerness to retain power and by rigging the rules."
On June 5, the 750-member parliament voted by 500 to 244 to appoint Prayuth as prime minister. While half of the votes came from the lower house coalition, the other half came from the 250-seat senate whose members were handpicked by the military government and will have no legislative power.
Prayuth did have an explanation for the delay in naming his cabinet.
"Because the coalition is brand new, its members from various occupations are so determined to perform their MP duties and to try their best to perform in the cabinet," Prayuth said.
An early member of the coalition called Sam Mit (Three Buddies) demanded that Prayuth award the energy ministry cabinet post to Suriya Juangroongruangkit, an uncle of opposition leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit who challenged Prayuth for the prime ministerial post.
On June 11, Prayuth took the oath to serve as the democratically elected prime minister. The constitution does not set a deadline for a new cabinet to be in place but its members must have an audience before the king and be sworn in before the taking office.
At that time, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the official name of the Prayuth-led junta, and the draconian Article 44 will be dissolved. Adopted as part of the 2014 interim constitution that brought the junta to power, Article 44 gave Prayuth absolute authority to give orders he deemed necessary for the country's good, such as clamping down on free speech and making arrests without warrants.
An academic said the cabinet delay would not affect Prayuth.
"To be able to form the cabinet or not doesn't hurt Prayuth but that allows the NCPO to have power until we have a new government," Titipol Phakdeewanich told BenarNews.
"But I think they can solve the differences and be able to form a cabinet through reconciliation for the sake of mutual interest," said Titipol, dean of political science at Ubon Ratchathani University. "The seat allocation is not based on individual qualifications but on parties' interest."


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Thai police charged a paramilitary volunteer with murder, officials said Thursday, less than a month after a rights group described him as being allegedly involved in "a long list of murders" of ethnic Muslim residents and separatist rebels in the insurgency-wracked Deep South region.
Abdul Hakeem Darase, a militiaman in Yala province, was charged with the murder in May of a village headman's wife about two weeks after he was detained for questioning under martial law, officials said.
"Police pressed murder charge," Col. Thiraphot Yindee, chief of the Bannang Sata police station, told BenarNews, referring to Abdul Hakeem.
Thiraphot said Abdul Hakeem was accused of opening fire at a car carrying Arsae Niseng, chief of Bannang Kuwae village, in front of a school in Yala on May 9 this year. Arsae survived his injuries but his wife died and their two daughters also suffered wounds in the attack, Thiraphot said.
"He is currently in jail at Yala provincial court," Thiraphot said. "Last week, he was denied bail."
Security officials, citing martial-law powers, took Abdul Hakeem under custody on June 14 after entering his home in the province's Maung district, claiming they needed to question him about his possession of assault rifles and other military-grade weapons, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said.
HRW said the arrest "raised hopes that the Thai government was finally getting serious about countless abuses carried out by its security forces" in the restive southern border provinces.
On May 22, almost two weeks after Arsae's ambush-shooting, 55-year-old Sama-ae Sama, vice chairman of the Tha Thong sub-district administration, was also shot and killed in Yala. Security sources told BenarNews that Abdul Hakeem was also suspected of involvement, but it was not immediately clear why he was not charged in that killing.
The Thai Criminal Code classifies murder, a premeditated killing committed with intent and malice, as a capital punishment, which carries the death penalty or 15-20 years in prison. A person sentenced to death in Thailand cannot apply for probation.
Shadowy Muslim rebels operate in Buddhist-majority Thailand's southernmost provinces Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, in a decades-old insurgency campaign that has killed almost 7,000 people since it reignited in early 2004, according to rights groups that monitor the region.
Last month, HRW called for Abdul Hakeem's transfer from military to police custody, saying the move would allow police officials to pursue criminal charges.
"The government should take an important step to break this cycle of violence by ordering the military to transfer Hakeem to police custody for a transparent and impartial criminal investigation and to be prosecuted as the evidence warrants it," Sunai Phasuk, a senior researcher in HRW's Asia division, said in a statement. "There can be no excuses."
Sunai said Abdul Hakeem was "allegedly responsible for a long list of murders of ethnic Malay Muslim men and women accused of involvement with the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN) separatist movement."
BRN is the largest and most powerful of insurgent groups in the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South region, which borders Malaysia and encompasses the three provinces, as well as four districts in Songkhla province.
Abdul Hakeem's arrest raised hopes that the Thai government was "finally getting serious about countless abuses carried out by its security services in Thailand's restive southern border provinces," Sunai said.
A relative of Abdul Hakeem expressed surprise after hearing about the murder charge.
"It is unbelievable he was eventually charged because I heard officials want to keep the case quiet," the relative, who requested anonymity, told BenarNews. "I don't know how the case would end, but the officials would handle it accordingly."


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Chinese investors and their Thai partners have inaugurated a durian processing factory in the insurgency-stricken Deep South, in a joint venture where hundreds of residents could reap jobs from the tasty fruit known for its spiny husk and stinky aroma, agriculture officials said.
Manguwang Food Co., Ltd., would employ up to 1,200 workers at its 700-million baht (U.S. $24 million) factory in Thepa, a district of Songkhla province that lies in the Deep South, company officials said. The factory will freeze dry and package durian grown in the region for export to China, where products made from the fruit are in great demand.
"The Deep South has quality and tasty durian," Xiao Yaoheng, the company's managing director, said during the factory's opening ceremony on Sunday. "We are determined to help farmers in Deep South and promote durian internationally."
By next year, the factory would be processing about 20,000 metric tons [44 million pounds] of durian, or about a third of the Deep South's yearly crop, providing the region with an annual cash flow of 2 billion baht (U.S. $67 million), company officials told BenarNews.
Manguwang's website lists two products that would be produced in Thailand: Freeze-dried whole durian and quick-frozen "durian pulp." Freeze-drying involves the use of liquid nitrogen, allowing the fruit to be kept up to two years while maintaining its freshness, experts say.
King of fruits
Durian became even more popular in Southeast Asia when Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma showcased the magic of digital commerce when he visited Bangkok in April 2018, selling 80,000 golden-pillow durians within a minute on his retail website T-mall.
Thailand exported more than 600,000 tons (600 million kilograms or 1.3 billion pounds) of fresh durian and durian products such as candy bars last year to China, according to the Thai Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives.
After Alibaba's announcement of plans to splash about U.S. $330 million in Thailand in its bid to tap Chinese consumer's appetite for Thailand's agricultural goods, the Deep South noticed a massive influx of Chinese importers, according to local media reports.
Farmers began cutting down rubber trees, replacing them with durians, and growers of fruits, such as mangosteen, also joined the fray, reports said. Durian farmers in neighboring Malaysia recently told reporters that demand for the fruit perked up since China began importing whole durians in May this year.
But Thai officials and traders cautioned that not every farmer or small-scale local trader in the region would benefit from the trend due to strict trade standards and lack of capital.
In 2018, China notified Thailand at least 1,700 times about pesticide contamination in the nation's durian products. To solve the issue, Beijing officials called on farmers and traders to follow the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP), an international system for ensuring that products are consistently produced and controlled according to quality standards.

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A local tourist peels durian while attending a durian festival in the Thai Deep South province of Yala, July 25, 2018. [Pimuk Rakkanam/BenarNews]

Durian, nicknamed the King of Fruits, has an overpowering sulfuric scent and the texture of foie gras, but admirers describe it as delicious. It has been occasionally banned from public transport in Southeast Asia but has a strong number of buyers in China, with the Hong Kong consulting firm Plantations International predicting that the global market for the fruit could potentially reach $25 billion by 2030.
The GMP standard requires the Thai agriculture ministry to issue a certificate of quality to farmers, a paperwork hurdle that covers chemical use, quality control of soil and water, among other issues, Jamnong Petch-anand, an agriculture official in Yala, told BenarNews on Monday.
"Not many traders have such certificates," Jamnong said. "But the government is trying to upgrade the standards of community traders."
About 100 durian traders have recently received certificates, while authorities were still processing the papers for about 400 others, officials said.
'Not real for me'
But small-scale local traders such as Yaya Jema said that the new factory would not immediately impact local farmers and smaller local traders because many do not have certificates, and the factory procures durian in 50-ton lots.
"Many farmers do not have the GMP certificate and smaller traders like me do not have capability to compile 50 tons of durian every day to sell to the company," Yaya told BenarNews. "So, the government's promise that it would get rid of commercial-scale middle man is not for real."
According to the United Nations International Trade Statistics Database or U.N. Comtrade, Thailand exported 202.4 million kilograms (444.4 million pounds) of durians worth U.S. $418 million to China last year, reflecting Bangkok's position as the world's biggest exporter of the pungent fruit.
About 460,000 people out of the Deep South's population of about 2 million make a living through the agricultural sector, according to Thai officials.
But agriculture authorities could not immediately provide figures on how many farmers grow durian in the region, where Muslim rebels operate in a decades-old insurgency campaign that, according to rights groups, has killed almost 7,000 people since it reignited in 2004.


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Thailand's king approved a new cabinet Wednesday featuring some familiar names to serve with junta leader-turned-elected Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who a day earlier partially abolished executive orders introduced during five previous years of military rule.
Thirty-three men and three women were named to 39 cabinet positions, including Prayuth, a former army chief who takes on a new parallel role as defense minister, according to an announcement in the Royal Gazette.
He and eight other cabinet members carried over from leadership roles that were in place after a military coup led by him toppled the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in May 2014.
"This is a government for all Thais," Prayuth's office said in a statement.
A Thai political scientist, however, cast doubt on that assertion.
"As he takes the post of defense minister, it indicates that the shadow of the junta remains intact," Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of political science department at Ubon Ratchathani University, told BenarNews. "The military doesn't vanish and this government doesn't promote democracy."
Other cabinet members come from six coalition parties and outsiders handpicked by Prayuth, including Gen. Prawit Wongsuwan who gave up the defense minister position but retains the role of deputy prime minister, and Gen. Anupong Paochinda, who remains interior secretary overseeing domestic government and para-military forces.
Uttama Savanayana, the leader of the Palang Pracharat Party, which nominated Prayuth for prime minister, was named finance minister, while Jurin Laksanawisit, the leader of the Democrat Party, became one of five deputy prime ministers and commerce minister.
Anutin Charnvirakul, the leader of Bhumjaithai Party, which promotes free marijuana cultivation, became minister of public health and another deputy prime minister, while Don Pramudwinai retained his post as foreign minister.
The cabinet is expected to be sworn in by King Maha Vajiralongkorn next week, official sources said. Prayuth received the king's blessing last month to serve as prime minister after parliament members voted to keep him in the post.
The king's endorsement came nine days after Prayuth apologized to the Thai people for a delay in forming his cabinet nearly a month after parliament elected him as prime minister following Thailand's first general election in eight years. The PM pointed to quarreling among members of the new ruling coalition.
Before the new cabinet was revealed, Prayuth also said that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) – the official name of the junta – and the draconian Article 44 would end when he and the new cabinet were sworn in before the monarch.
Article 44, which was adopted as part of the 2014 interim constitution that brought his military government to power, gave Prayuth absolute authority to give orders he deemed necessary for the country's good, such as clamping down on free speech and making arrests without warrants.
"I won't be using Article 44 anymore," Prayuth told reporters on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
Earlier this week, however, Prayuth maintained two key NCPO orders – one banning political gatherings of more than five people and one allowing authorities to search homes without a court warrant as well as to hold suspects for seven days without filing charges.
Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, an advocacy group, said such power should be used only in emergencies.
"The orders which allow the military to detain individuals for seven days without verification of the detention place, visits by relatives or lawyers, and court supervision is unlawful," the group said in a statement. "It violates the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."
Titipol, the political scientist, said Prayuth had failed to improve politics in Thailand after staging the coup.
"There is no such thing as political reform," Titipol said, suggesting that the appointment of ministerial seats was based on reconciling political interests and not filling cabinet posts with the best people.
"In four years to come, there likely will not be any policy changes on anything, such as human rights or freedom of speech. There will be continued violations of people's rights," he added.
Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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ASEAN defense ministers on Thursday committed to creating a "sea of peace" in the South China Sea, a region marked by tension over competing territorial claims by member nations, Taipei and Beijing, which has built up its military presence there.
Meeting in Bangkok, the defense chiefs representing the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed a declaration, which includes a guideline to reach a code of conduct in the South China Sea while improving information-sharing among members.
"We affirm the importance of promotion of peace, stability, safety and freedom to sail in the South China Sea," Thai Defense Minister Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters after the ministers signed the declaration, which was delivered to ASEAN Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi.
The declaration emphasized the commitment of "all parties to work together in a constructive and peaceful manner for the South China Sea to become a sea of peace, stability and prosperity through the full and effective implementation of the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea and the early conclusion of an effective code of conduct in the South China Sea on a mutually agreed timeline."
It did not go into detail about how this and other goals would be reached, but Prawit announced that the defense ministers had reached an agreement.
"We agreed to promote mutual trust and restraint to avoid acts which could make the situation more complicated and promote peaceful conflict settlement through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea," Prawit said in responding to a reporter's question.
South China Sea tensions
Last month, tensions were raised between Manila and Beijing after a Chinese trawler allegedly rammed into a Philippine fishing boat off Recto Bank and left 22 Filipino fishermen stranded at sea. Amid mounting domestic anger over the sinking of the Filipino boat, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte in late June agreed to an offer by Beijing to conduct a joint investigation into the incident.
China has constructed military facilities on islands in the South China Sea, much of which it claims as its own including waters in the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. It has denied claims by the United States that it has conducted missile tests.
U.S. officials joined the Philippines and other nations in June issuing a warning against China's efforts to expand its territories. In addition, the state department announced that Washington is supplying four ASEAN members – the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam – with drones to be used for South China Sea surveillance.
The Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam, along with ASEAN member Brunei and non-member Taiwan, have their own claims to portions of the South China Sea.
Other ASEAN members are Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar and Singapore.
In June, following the 34th summit of ASEAN leaders, Thailand, which is chairing the regional bloc this year, announced that progress was made in negotiations "toward the early conclusion of an effective and substantive code of conduct" for ASEAN members and China.
That statement was referring to the first of three planned rounds of talks on the proposed code, with more difficult points such as whether it should be legally binding or relegated to later rounds, according to diplomats. Officials expect a first reading of the code by the end of 2019.
Thursday's declaration reaffirmed "the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, security and freedom of navigation in and overflight the South China Sea as well as the need to enhance mutual trust and confidence, exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities and avoid actions that could further complicate the situation and purse peaceful resolution of disputes."
In addition to the South China Sea efforts, the ministers adopted a series of plans to deal with regional security issues, including setting up a hotline.
Maj. Gen. Tikumporn Chuleelang, a Thai defense planner, said the ministers were setting up the special phone line with the so called ASEAN-Plus countries – Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Russia and the United States – along with a group of European Union countries.
"It will be a direct phone call or hot line, defense ministers could call each other to discuss matters directly," he said.


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Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha and his cabinet were sworn in by the Thai king on Tuesday, marking an official end to five years of military rule although the new government will retain some of the junta's strict executive orders.
The former army general and 2014 coup leader, along with his 35 ministers, had an audience with King Maha Vajiralongkorn at the Dusit Palace in Bangkok. The cabinet, which includes Prayuth holding the dual posts of prime and defense ministers, was endorsed by the monarch on July 10.
"I, Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha, do solemnly declare that I will be loyal to the King and will faithfully perform my duties in the interests of the country and of the people. I will also uphold and observe the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand in every respect," the prime minister declared before the king and Queen Suthida.
In response, the king said: "Every task has obstacles. Every mission faces problems. It is normal to take on work and solve problems so the country can be run smoothly according to circumstances."
Prayuth led a military coup that toppled the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014. He then installed himself as prime minister and head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the official name for the junta.
In March, the Palang Pracharat Party, which supported Prayuth and was led by his former and current ministers, won the first parliamentary election under junta rule with support from 18 allies.
On June 5, the 750-member parliament voted by 500 to 244 to appoint Prayuth, who did not run for a seat in parliament, as prime minister. While half of the votes came from the lower house coalition, the other half came from the 250-seat senate whose members were handpicked by the military government and will have no legislative power.
 
Many orders remain in place
On the eve of the cabinet's swearing in, Prayuth declared an end to military rule and resigned as head of the NCPO, saying the council would cease to exist following Tuesday's ceremony, as outlined in the 2017 Constitution.
"Thailand is now fully governed as a democratic country with a constitutional monarchy, possessing a parliament that is elected and a government endorsed by parliament. Several rights and liberties are safeguarded by the constitution in line with the highest international norms and pending problems will be solved through democratic processes without the application of any special powers," Prayuth said on national television when making the announcement.
Last week, however, Prayuth revoked 66 of about 500 NCPO orders, but maintained two key ones banning political gatherings of more than five people and allowing authorities to search homes without a court warrant, as well as hold suspects for seven days without filing charges.
Also on Monday, an official said the new government would maintain but modify infamous "attitude adjustment" sessions, where Internal Security Operations Command officials summon dissidents and call on them to stop their actions against the government.
Wissanu Krea-ngam, a deputy prime minister for legal affairs, said the ISOC members – police, military and civilians – could issue a summons to question the dissidents but, unlike in the past, would not be able to detain them.
Reactions
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a statement congratulating Prayuth and the other leaders.
"The United States looks forward to working with the newly formed Royal Thai government to deepen the alliance and partnership between our two nations, building upon over two centuries of friendship between our people," he said, adding that the U.S. would keep working with the Thai government to "support transparency and good governance."
"The U.S.-Thailand alliance remains strong, and we continue to support Thailand's role as a regional leader, including its chairmanship of ASEAN this year. Our alliance will grow even stronger as we work together to advance goals common to both countries, such as security, peace, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and throughout the world."
Meanwhile, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said the government did not embody democracy.
"Prayuth is trying to persuade the world he is democratic when his ascension is based on military backing, unelected senators and a rights-abusing constitution, along with politically motivated persecution of political opponents and critics," HRW Asia Director Brad Adams told BenarNews.
"It's not surprising, then, that Prayuth is trying to hold on to as many dictatorial, rights-violating NCPO orders as possible because he knows that he will likely need them to hold on to power. His government looks like it will have the shortest political honeymoon of any new Thai government in recent history."
A farmer from Chiang Mai, on the other hand, said he appreciated the new government because it includes some down-to-earth ministers who could be able to solve problems for the poor.
"I believe someone like the red-neck type deputy agriculture minister will perform better than old-clique bureaucrats or technocrats," said Don Hommanee, referring to Thammanat Prompao.


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The lead negotiator for Muslim rebels fighting for a separate state in southern Thailand has slammed the government as insincere and indifferent in peace talks over the past four years.
Sukree Hari headed a rebel delegation at peace talks with the Thai government from 2015 until May, when he resigned citing health issues. He was among three individuals at the talks said to represent the largest and most lethal group fighting in Thailand's Deep South, the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN).
"The Thai government is not sincere about resolving the conflict in Patani. The negotiations held thus far were a tactic for wasting Malay Patani people's time," Sukree said, referring to the three southernmost provinces of Thailand and the ethnic Malay Muslims who live there.
"Whatever was agreed together at the negotiating table, the Thai side was not willing to sign, and that is clear proof that the Thai side was just pretending in the negotiations, playing for time," he said in a recent interview with BenarNews in northern Malaysia.
MARA Patani, the panel representing separatist groups and factions at the Malaysia-brokered talks, has not yet named a replacement for Sukree, according to its spokesman.
"We have to wait for the names suggested by BRN. Sukree Hari has to attend an upcoming meeting and express his views. ... If he is determined not to lead the Mara dialogue panel, BRN will have to name his successor," Abu Hafez Al-Hakim told BenarNews in a text message.
The peace talks personnel change would be the latest in a series, after Thailand replaced its head negotiator in October 2018 after Malaysia brought in a new mediator in August.
Talks launched in 2015 under the junta that ruled Thailand until earlier this month have been on hold, and their only outcome – a proposed ceasefire in one province or "safety zone" – never took place.
The negotiations were dogged by allegations that rebel leaders in touch with fighters on the ground were not participating in the talks and did not support the effort. But Sukree denied this.
"BRN is BRN ... the issue about the real or not real BRN is an issue that aims to divide BRN in the eyes of the people of Pattani, so that they lose confidence in BRN," he said.
'BRN has never shown itself'
Sukree declined to answer when asked if BRN was responsible for attacks in the south in recent years that are never claimed by any group but typically blamed on "dissidents" by Thai security forces. The region has been under martial law almost continually since 2004.
In the latest attacks Wednesday, three soldiers patrolling a road in Bacho district of Narathiwat province were seriously injured when suspected insurgents detonated a bomb, authorities said.

"The attackers hidden in the area triggered the bomb with a radio device," police Capt. Paiboon Keudam told BenarNews. "Suspected insurgents are aimed at disputing the area, we believe."
On Monday, three marines were injured in a roadside bomb attack in the same district while traveling in a light armoured vehicle.
Analysts said the BRN is a secretive group in which cells operate independently and people higher in the organization sometimes learn about attacks after the fact.
"That's the way they are structured. It's foolproof. The Thais can take down one cell but not reach the other," security analyst Don Pathan, an expert on the Deep South, told a United Nations Development Program representative in an interview about the conflict last year.
"The insurgents are part of the community ... they're everywhere but nowhere. And they have multiple roles. One minute you could be tapping your rubber or feeding your chickens, the next minute you set off a roadside bomb and then follow up with a brief gunfight," he said.
In a recent interview, BenarNews asked Areepen Utarasint, a retired nine-term MP representing the Deep South province of Narathiwat, if people there support the BRN. "How are people supposed to know and support BRN? Because BRN has never shown itself," he said.
'We still have peace talks'
Thai officials meanwhile stressed that talks were under way at various levels, although the last publically announced formal meeting with MARA Patani was in 2017.
"At present, we still have peace talks in accordance with national strategy. The Thai government is always open for all dissident groups to talk, without forcing anyone to," retired Lt. Gen. Udomchai Thammasarorat, the chief Thai negotiator, told BenarNews.
"Currently, talks still go on. There is some progress with some groups. Once the talks are done it will become official," he said, without elaborating.
Maj. Gen. Tira Daewa, director of Peace Operations Center at the army's regional internal security command (ISOC-4), said that many rebels were being enticed to surrender through such talks and only "10 percent of them want to continue with an armed fight."
"In regard to Sukree Hari, you should see who he is. He doesn't want to talk to us, we don't either. There are 90 percent of them want to talk with us," he said.
On June 14, Abdul Rahim Noor, the Malaysian facilitator of the talks, said talks would resume "in two weeks," but this did not occur.
"It seems that everything is still up in the air; no one seems to know what the talks will look like, said Pathan, who is a BenarNews columnist.
He noted that Sukree had asked the Thai government to drop Udomchai as a negotiator after he took the safety zone proposal off the table and reached out to the central committee of the BRN.
"Just weeks ago, Sukree decided to step down. In my view, there is an opportunity for both sides to come together now that the 'spoiler' Sukree is gone," he said. "The attitude among the MARA Patani and Thai officials is that, a bad peace process is better than no peace process at all."
Mariyam Ahmad in Pattani, Thailand, and Kate Beddall in Washington contributed to this report.


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Organized crime in Southeast Asia involving drugs, counterfeit goods and human trafficking wields unprecedented muscle, the United Nations said Thursday in a report calling on countries to cooperate in ridding the region of these underworld activities.
Lax law enforcement efforts in some parts of Southeast Asia have allowed organized crime groups to scale up operations in locations where there is weak governance, particularly border areas, the U.N.'s Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) found. In addition, the use of casinos by these organization to launder money presents a significant challenge, the agency said.
"While transnational organized crime syndicates use their financial muscle to further corrupt and undermine the rule of law, they are also destroying the lives of countless people in Southeast Asia. Aside from the direct effects – including drug use, sexual exploitation and environmental damage – organized crime groups in Southeast Asia launder considerable amounts of money through lightly or unregulated cash based industries like casinos," the report said.
"As a result, transnational criminal groups now represent a primary threat to the public security, health and sustainable development of the region."
In a news release accompanying the 194-page report, UNODC Regional Representative Jeremy Douglas said the study was the most comprehensive in more than five years.
"Southeast Asia has an organized crime problem and it is time to coalesce around solutions to address the conditions that have allowed illicit businesses to grow, and to secure and cooperate along borders," Douglas said.
The synthetic drug trade has rapidly become the region's most profitable business for organized crime, with the methamphetamine market valued at between U.S. $30.3 billion and $61.4 billion, according to the report.
To keep pace, syndicates have innovated their business model while expanding distribution. Methamphetamine, which is increasingly produced in northern Myanmar, is the drug of concern in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand, the report said.
"To meet and expand demand for methamphetamine in the region, transnational organized crime groups are trafficking staggering amounts of both methamphetamine tablets and crystalline methamphetamine to markets in East and Southeast Asia and, increasingly to other parts of the world," the report states.
In addition, "Organized crime groups in Southeast Asia launder considerable amounts of money though lightly or unregulated cash-based industries like casinos," it said, adding that the groups represent a primary threat to public security and regional development.
A Thai senator who had served as a deputy prime minister offered to work with other nations to combat transnational organized crime, the Bangkok Post reported.
"We are ready to take a leadership role and work with UNODC and international partners to build resilience and address cross-border trafficking," Prajin Juntong said.
Human trafficking and counterfeit goods
The report confirms that the disparity between developed and least developed countries has created a demand for cheap labor, driving the growth in human trafficking and smuggling of migrants looking for work.
More than half of all smuggled migrants detected in Malaysia from 2013 to 2018 were Indonesian nationals, almost 28 percent were from Myanmar, 8.5 percent from Bangladesh and 6 percent from the Philippines.
Meanwhile, a factor making Southeast Asia vulnerable to counterfeit goods is its proximity to China, which has been identified as the world's main source of such products. Malaysia and Thailand also place a significant role in the manufacture and repackaging of such goods for international markets, the report said.
Fake products including tobacco, auto parts, handbags and alcohol produced in the region are valued at $35.9 billion, according to the report, which pointed to another sector of products that are pulling a profit at a cost to consumers.
"Alarmingly, falsified medicines continue to proliferate and cause immediate health impacts for users while also changing patterns of disease, and they are generating as much as $2.6 billion per year," UNODC said in its news release.
Regional efforts
The report supported regional efforts to ratify the U.N. Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, and it applauded the Association of Southeast Asian Nations for convening meetings among senior officials on transnational crimes and drug issues.
"However, there remain significant limitations due to the absence of a comprehensive regional strategy for transnational crime," the report stated.
It called on national leaders to recognize the problems and establish strategies to combat organized crime.
"It is important that countries in the region not recognize transnational organized crime solely as a law enforcement matter, and that any strategy or strategies incorporate measures to address demand for illicit commodities and services," it said.
The report called on the nations to establish a regional framework to monitor and regulate the casino industry to cut back on money laundering.
A casino junket operator who returned nearly $10 million of $81 million from the Bangladesh Central Bank in a 2016 cyber heist admitted to investigators that three men had used his casino to launder the money he returned.
The findings by UNODC also urged the countries to strengthen regional data collection and reporting along with cross-border exchange of information to help identify key trends and concerns while providing a foundation for developing evidence-based investigations.
"It is important that countries take steps to increase collaborative intelligence gathering, law enforcement operations and criminal justice responses. This should also include initiatives to support regional networks of law enforcement officials and financial intelligence units, and strengthened use of mutual legal assistance," the report concluded.


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A Thai military official said Monday that authorities were investigating to determine how a suspected Deep South rebel fell into a coma while in army custody over the weekend, while the detainee's wife questioned whether interrogators had tortured him.
Abdullah Esomuso, 34, was found unconscious on Sunday after being brought for interrogation at the Inkayuthaboriharn army camp in Pattani province, the largest military installation in Thailand's southern border region. Authorities said Abdullah was arrested a day earlier after being implicated by an alleged insurgent cell leader who claimed that he had colluded in several attacks in Pattani.
Army spokesman Pramote Prom-in said representatives from human rights groups could observe the investigation while it was under way to make sure it was transparent.
"From a preliminary examination, we found that authorities had strictly followed protocols. We have not yet found any evidence to indicate it was the action of any authority," Pramote said.
He said doctors examining Abdullah found no traces of bruising on his body, adding that he suffered severe brain swelling from a lack of oxygen. Abdullah remains hospitalized in another province in the Deep South.
Despite the preliminary report, Pramote said that if a crime was committed by those involved in arresting and interrogating Abdullah, "they will face severe punishment."
Sumaiyah Minga said she believed her husband was tortured or beaten during interrogation.
"I have lodged a complaint with police," she said. "I don't believe the brain swelling is a natural cause."
Amnesty International (AI) Thailand called for the National Human Rights Commission to conduct an independent investigation into the incident.
"If any involvement of authorities if found, the trial should be carried by the civilian court, not a milltary court," AI Thailand director Piyanut Kotesarn said.
The Thai military has been in charge of security for 15 years in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South after a separatist insurgent uprising re-ignited in 2004. About 7,000 people have been killed since then in violence in the region.
During that time, rights groups have accused the military of using excessive force in the Deep South, including systematic torture and extrajudicial killings against insurgents. 

MARA Patani spokesman Abu Hafiz Al-Hakim said the brain swelling could have been caused by torture by suffocation or water intoxication, adding the Thai government must clearly answer if there was such torture and if so, who was responsible.
MARA Patani is an umbrella organization of Deep South insurgents groups and factions involved in peace talks brokered by neighboring Malaysia since 2015.
Meanwhile in Yala, another province in the Deep South, four members of a security patrol were injured Monday by an explosion from a remotely detonated bomb.
A container stuffed with explosives believed to weigh about 40 kg (88 pounds) had been hidden beneath a road. The bomb went off when the team's truck passed by, leaving a crater in the road. Authorities said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
In the past month, bomb attacks have killed one and injured at least 22 in the region.


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At least one soldier and two defense volunteers were killed, and three others injured, during a Tuesday night attack by suspected insurgents on a village security post in Thailand's Deep South, authorities said.
The assailants threw grenades and fired at the security personnel during the attack targeting a Tambon Defense Force post in Muang Pattani, a district of Pattani province, officials said. A tambon is a local government unit that encompasses a cluster of villages, with armed locals volunteering to help the Thai military and police defend the villages.
Yannapong Ubonban, the district's police chief, said the attack occurred before 9 p.m. and resulted in a gun battle. Following the attack, police discovered the three bodies along with the three injured volunteers.
"An unknown group of assailants rode motorcycles to the area and threw grenades and fired guns in the attack," Yannapong said, adding that authorities were searching for the suspects believed to be local insurgents. "They then poured fuel in an attempt to burn two of the injured volunteers, setting off a long gun battle before the assailants fled."
In addition to the gun battle, the assailants also spread nails and burned tires on the route leading from Pattani to neighboring Yala province.
Also on Tuesday night, police in Yala's Krong Pinang district reported that a gunman shot and killed the son of a village headman.
The mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South has suffered from a separatist insurgent uprising that has left about 7,000 dead since 2004. Including Tuesday's three deaths, at least four have been killed by bombs and 25 others injured in the last month.
Unresponsive
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Thai military doctors reported that the brain of Abdullah Esomuso, a 34-year-old suspected insurgent, was unresponsive after he fell into a coma and was hospitalized. He was found unconscious on Sunday after being brought for interrogation at an army camp in Pattani province several hours earlier.
"The patient arrived at the hospital without consciousness but had a stable pulse with high-dose heart stimulants. ... The next morning, we reduced heart and pressure stimulants though his brain is still unresponsive," physician Suphak Phulsawat said. "After that, the patient was transferred to Songklanagarind hospital."
The army has established fact-finding committees to investigate what caused Abdullah to slip into a coma. Pramote Prom-in, a spokesman for the military's regional command, said the army would seek to conclude its investigation quickly.
"We have established new independent committees consisting of civil society groups, human rights committee and various sectors acceptable by society to conduct the probe," he said.
"We have established two committees, one to investigate the conduct of the military to determine potential disciplinary or criminal action, and one to investigate possible violations of the protection of human rights in the Deep Southern provinces," he said.


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Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha raised his voice on several occasions Thursday as he faced scrutiny from opposition lawmakers for the first time, while delivering his new government's policy plans that include restoring peace in the insurgency-hit Deep South and solving economic problems.
Prayuth, the former junta chief, faced questions in parliament as soon as he began reading from his 40-page statement that included his 12 major policies on a variety of issues, such as economic growth, drugs and corruption.
"The government is determined to help people ease their economic problems [nationwide], as well as solve drug problems and create peace in the southern border," Prayuth said, referring to the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South region that borders Malaysia.
A summary of his government's policy plan, which was released earlier this week, said the government's top priority was to protect the king and the royal family.
The 65-year-old Prayuth, a former army general who seized power in a 2014 coup, served for five years as an unchallenged junta leader before calling for last March's general election, which opposition leaders allege was engineered to keep the military in control.
While speaking to the parliamentarians, Prayuth, who is known for his short temper, faced a challenge from a member of the opposition Pheu Thai party, who told him to stick to reading the policy document and not provide extra comments.
But the prime minister generally retained his composure, despite repeated interruptions from opposition lawmakers who asked him to tone down his voice.
Officials sent out the policy document to all lawmakers last week for their study before Thursday's parliamentary debate.
Pheu Thai party leader Sompong Amornvivat said he had no confidence that the policies would solve national issues.
Sompong cited a lack of trust in Prayuth's leadership and in his economic advisers, saying they included the same people "who had failed over the past five years."
Lt. Gen. Pongsakorn Rodchompoo, deputy leader of the opposition Future Forward Party, said during the debate that officials should understand the issues in the Deep South provinces.
"The human rights issue is the most important." Pongsakorn said. "Using military force is unreasonable."
Prayuth responded by saying that the government had adopted measures to handle rights issues.
"Whenever people are arrested, we give justice to them," he said. "The problem today doesn't come from the state. The state doesn't shoot first, the soldier doesn't want to shoot first. If people didn't get shot first, they won't open fire."
Thailand's Deep South includes Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces, as well as four districts in Songkhla province, where shadowy separatist rebels are engaged in a decades-old insurgency campaign that has killed almost 7,000 people since it reignited in early 2004, according to rights groups that monitor the region.
Since 2015, Thailand under Prayuth's leadership has engaged with MARA Patani, a panel of negotiators representing southern Thai rebels groups and factions, in Malaysia-brokered talks aimed at ending the conflict, but the talks have stalled and yielded no breakthrough.
Concerns raised about human rights
A day before Prayuth issued his government's policy, New York-based Human Rights Watch accused the former army general of starting his second term "with the same blanket disregard for human rights that characterized his first term."
"His policy statement contains no language whatsoever addressing the serious problems under repressive military rule since the 2014 coup," Brad Adams, HRW's Asia director, said in a statement Wednesday.
He said copies of the statement that had been submitted to parliamentarians on July 19 did not discuss human rights issues.
"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," Adams said.
Titipol Phakdeewanich dean of the political science faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University, told BenarNews that he found nothing new in Prayuth's policies, but he was not surprised.
"The policy that focuses on the military stability rather than human security is not suitable for the country's development in the modernized world," he said.
Mookta Makae, a Pattani resident, said villagers were not hopeful that the government's policies would solve the violence and other issues in the area.
"Human rights abuses would still continue," he said.


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As Secretary of State Mike Pompeo prepares to travel to Thailand next week, U.S. government officials on Friday noted "significant progress" in the country's transition from a military junta to a democratic government in 2019.
Pompeo, who is making his first trip to Thailand as secretary of state, will arrive in Bangkok on Aug. 1, where he will participate in ministerial-level meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as well as meet with officials of the newly installed Thai government.
"The movement from the coup in 2014 to certification of the election demonstrates significant progress," senior State Department officials told reporters. "We can always work on where we are in terms of democracy, and I look forward to working with the Thais further on this."
The officials were not named because they were briefing reporters on background about Pompeo's upcoming trip during a conference call from Washington.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who served as prime minister following the 2014 coup, was recently elected to remain in that position by members of parliament, after Thailand held its first general election since 2011.
Despite the move to democracy, Prayuth announced he was keeping some of the old junta's executive powers including one to limit the number of people who can participate in political demonstrations, and one empowering authorities to make warrantless arrests.
Human rights advocacy groups have criticized Prayuth for retaining such powers. Some have also questioned whether Thailand has returned to democracy, suggesting that Western powers are not holding Bangkok accountable.
"Some policymakers in Washington and Brussels now appear ready to ignore the problems in Thailand's fabricated democracy and restore past close military and economic assistance, in part because they are worried about increasing Chinese influence in the region," John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch, wrote in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post earlier this month.
"Thailand's friends should be pressing, not easing up on, the Thai military to respect human rights and restore democratic rule. The only message that silence sends is assent," Sifton said.
North Korea
In Bangkok, Pompeo will attend the ASEAN Regional Forum Meeting, a security meeting involving 27 countries, during which North Korea's nuclear weapons program and the South China will be among key topics of discussion.
In the run-up to the meeting, there was widespread speculation that the top American diplomat would hold talks with his North Korean counterpart, Ri Yong Ho, on the sidelines of the forum in a bid to defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula.
But on Thursday, reports broke that Pyongyong's chief diplomat would not come to Bangkok for the regional forum.
On the same day, the North Koreans carried out another nuclear weapons test by launching two short-range missiles into the Sea of Japan, reports said. Pyongyang described the launches as a "solemn warning" against "South Korean warmongers," according to BBC News.
During Friday's telephone briefing to reporters, the State Department officials were asked if Pompeo might still meet with any North Korean officials in Bangkok.
"[T]his question has been asked before and the response is the same. We – one, we're not going to talk about the specific bilateral meetings other than the ones that have been announced," the officials replied.
But, according to the Associated Press, the officials would not rule direct discussions between the U.S. and North Korea.
In Thailand on Aug. 1, Pompeo will also co-chair a U.S. meeting with ASEAN ministers as well as a Lower Mekong Initiative meeting involving Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
The LMI was created following a 2009 meeting between then-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the foreign ministers of the Lower Mekong countries – Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam – in order to enhance cooperation in the areas of environment, health, education, and infrastructure development.
South China Sea
The State Department officials also said they expected that matters involving the South China Sea would be discussed during Pompeo's trip to Bangkok.
"It seems to be a growing interest among the region in the – specifically the code of conduct negotiations and the desire to make sure that any code of conduct is in line with existing international law, naming – namely the Law of the Sea," the officials said. "It is interesting that China is pushing on these states to limit with whom they do military relations exercises and then with whom they do offshore resource development."
The U.S. is interested in ensuring stability in the region, the officials said, referring to a recent incident where a Chinese trawler sank a Philippine fishing boat near Recto Bank.
"That was noticed by the Philippines, missile launches and such. So these are – I guess fly in the face of any claims of interest in peace and security," they said. "So since we're going to Southeast Asia, the South China Sea is a key part of that.
In addition to attending the regional meetings in Bangkok, Pompeo is expected to meet with Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai.
"Our relationship with the Kingdom of Thailand remains one of our most important in the Indo-Pacific," the senior officials at the State Department said. "Our broad cooperation benefits both our countries, the region, and beyond.
"Thailand has performed admirably as the chair of ASEAN this year, and as longtime treaty allies, we are invested in their success in that role."
Pompeo will travel from Thailand to Australia, and then to Micronesia.


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Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha said Tuesday that the Royal Navy was moving ahead with purchasing a second Chinese-made submarine as part of a 2018 plan to establish a fleet of three of the vessels.
Prayuth, who also serves as defense minister in Thailand's new government, said the purchase was set.
"It was already done. Why? We should have it, shouldn't we," he asked reporters after chairing his first defense ministry meeting.
"Is it OK to have only one submarine which will need repair some day. We should have a back-up, shouldn't we," he said. 

Prayuth did not release details about the deal and naval officers refrained from discussing it as well.
Before the meeting, the Bangkok Post quoted navy sources saying that a second submarine was valued at 12 billion baht ($389.6 million). The navy is expected to submit its 2020 fiscal budget for approval by parliament before the sub can be purchased.
In 2018, under a military government led by Prayuth, the navy announced a 36 billion baht (U.S. $1.6 billion) plan to buy the three submarines. The purchase of the first was approved in April 2018.
In May 2018, former government spokesman Lt. Gen. Sansern Kaewkumnerd told BenarNews that the cabinet approved the navy's plan to buy the first Yuan class disel-electric submarine for 13.5 billion baht ($438 million) from China Shipbuilding & Offshore International Co. Ltd.
A ceremony to mark the start of construction was held in September 2018 at a shipyard in Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province. Delivery is expected in 2023, according to officials.
A military affairs observer who asked to not be identified questioned the quality of Chinese submarines compared with those made by Western manufacturers, and pointed out that China refrained from releasing performance details.
"Performance, materials, endurance, sonar and weapon systems have not been proven yet, unlike those of western nations. Therefore, the life of the Chinese submarine is about 10 to 15 years, while those of western nations are 30 years plus," the observer told BenarNews.
The submarines will be the first purchased by Thailand in more than 60 years, the Bangkok Post reported, adding navy officials said they were needed to protect maritime interests. The subs are to be stationed in the Gulf of Thailand and the Andaman Sea.
In the fiscal 2019 budget, the defense ministry has been assigned 49 billion baht ($1.59 billion) for the army, 23 billion baht ($746 million) for the navy and 28 billion baht ($909 million) for the air force.


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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged Southeast Asian nations Thursday to speak out against what he called "Chinese coercion" in the South China Sea, although he emphasized that Washington was not asking them to "choose" between the United States and Beijing.
Pompeo conveyed the message in Bangkok during an annual meeting of top diplomats from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), which had underscored its neutrality and called for respect for territorial sovereignty when it adopted a strategic concept on the Indo-Pacific region in June.
"Look, we don't ever ask any Indo-Pacific nations to choose between countries," Pompeo said in his speech. "Our engagement in this region has not been and will not be a zero-sum exercise. Our interests simply naturally converge with yours to our mutual benefit."
He said he had conveyed to his counterparts from ASEAN's 10-members "to speak out against Chinese coercion in the South China Sea."
Last month, the U.S. State Department expressed concern over reports that Beijing was hampering oil and gas activities of other nations with overlapping claims in the contested waterway, including Vietnam's long-standing exploration and production activities. While it did not clearly say when those alleged incidents took place, the department said that Beijing's acts threatened regional peace and security.
"By blocking development in the SCS [South China Sea] through coercive means, China prevents ASEAN members from accessing more than US$2.5 trillion in recoverable energy reserves," State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement issued on July 20.
The United States "firmly opposes coercion and intimidation by any claimant to assert its territorial or maritime claims," she said, adding, "China should cease its bullying behavior and refrain from engaging in this type of provocative and destabilizing activity."
'Stand firm'
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea and frequently castigates Washington and its allies for naval operations in the maritime region, where China has built numerous military installations with advanced ballistic-missile capabilities on reclaimed islands under its control.
China's recent deployments of Coast Guard ships and a fleet of fishing militia in disputed waters brought about a condemnation by both Republican and Democratic senators who lambasted Beijing's "unlawful activities" in the South China Sea.
"Identifying concrete ways to push back on China's aggressive activities in the South China Sea should be at the top of the United States' agenda during ASEAN meetings in Bangkok this week," U.S. Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.
"It is crucial that our partners in the region, particularly ASEAN countries, stand together and stand firm against China's coercion," he said. "Without a stronger rebuke of its behavior, China will continue to act with impunity in the South China Sea, to the detriment of our shared interests."
Sen. Bob Menendez, a Democrat from New Jersey, said "it is critical that China be held to account for its behavior in the South China Sea."
"We need a strategy that reflects America's deep and enduring interests in working with allies and partners to help build a South China Sea where international law is respected, freedom of navigation is ensured," he said.
Sen. Cory Gardner, chairman of the Senate subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific, called on Pompeo to emphasize that the United States would always stand by its ASEAN partners.
"China's militarization of the South China Sea and hostile actions toward other claimant states are illegal, destabilizing, and contrary to international law," he said.
Amid trade and maritime disputes between the two major powers, Beijing has been exhibiting its global clout through its One Belt One Road infrastructure initiative, which aims to link China with Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia through networks of railways, bridges and ports.
Reassuring allies
Before Pompeo left the United States for his trip to Thailand, a senior U.S. State Department official told a news briefing that the top U.S. diplomat was expected to reassure U.S. allies that Washington was fully engaged in Asia despite China's active moves to bolster its political and military ties in the region.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who met Pompeo on the sidelines of the ASEAN forum on Thursday, said he was told by his American counterpart that the United States had no desire to contain China's development.
"China has the right to development, too," Wang told reporters after the meeting. "It will not be stopped by anyone."
The big-power rivalry took center stage a day after Manila said it had filed a diplomatic protest over Chinese boats swarming around territory occupied by the Philippines in the South China Sea.
Philippine defense officials had confirmed that 113 Chinese vessels were spotted near Pag-asa Island – which the Chinese call Thitu Island – on July 24 and 25,
On Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin announced via Twitter that Manila had lodged a protest but did not say when it took the diplomatic action.
Manila has occupied Pag-asa, located about 300 miles (483 km) west of Palawan province, since the 1970s.
Earlier this week, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana accused Beijing of "bullying" his country in the South China Sea.
Lorenzana made the allegation as Manila and Beijing dealt with the fallout from a June incident when a Chinese trawler rammed and sank a smaller Filipino fishing boat near Recto Bank, also in the South China Sea.
ASEAN defense ministers met in Bangkok last month and signed a declaration, which included a guideline to reach a code of conduct in the South China Sea. For years, ASEAN and Beijing have been working on that code, which diplomats hope will make the sea more peaceful.
On Thursday, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told reporters in Bangkok that ASEAN must remain neutral in its dealings with China and the United States.
Five countries  – Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines – have overlapping claims in the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which more than U.S. $3 billion of trade passes annually.
"We must maintain ASEAN centrality in as far as the concept of Indo-Pacific and all of the other concepts," Saifuddin said.
Hadi Azmi in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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Thai police detained two men from the insurgency-stricken Deep South the night before a series of small bombs rocked Bangkok on Friday, when top diplomats from the United States, China and other world powers were in the Thai capital for security talks.
Police said the men were arrested in southern Thailand on Thursday as they were returning from a trip to Bangkok – before nine bombs exploded in five locations on Friday. They did not directly link the men to the blasts, which injured four people.
The Royal Thai Army commander in chief, Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, said police detained the men in Chum Phon province after they were identified through surveillance video. He did not say why they were held.
Asked whether the two were linked to the bombings, he said, "In regard to the suspects, it does not matter if Deep South men were involved in the bombings, the kingpin remains out there."
The blasts were the first in the Thai capital in more than two years.
Apirat did not identify the men, who were picked up after police found a box containing an electric circuit and ball bearings but no explosive materials outside the National Police Bureau in the Thai capital on Thursday.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who retained his post after a controversial March election returned his junta to power as a civilian government, blamed the bombings on "a group of ill-intended people [who] have recently incited violence while the government is propelling the country forward," according to his office.
He said the blasts were an attempt to ruin a series of meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) which drew US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and top diplomats from more than 30 countries.
Answering a media question whether the explosions were aimed at disrupting the ASEAN meetings, Prayuth said, "Certainly yes."
"So we should not let them succeed with their objective," he said during a visit to the police headquarters near the venue of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting on Friday.
A woman claiming to be a relative of one of the two arrested men said they were from Narathiwat and had been in Bangkok but were not involved in the bombings. The woman who asked not to be identified because of privacy concerns said authorities searched her home Thursday after the men were detained.
"I don't believe they took part in the explosions," she told BenarNews. "They went to Bangkok to sight-see. I was startled when officials came and searched my home."
The Thai military has been in charge of security for 15 years in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South after a separatist insurgent uprising re-ignited in 2004. About 7,000 people have been killed since then in violence in the region.
Zachary Abuza, a security analyst specializing in Southeast Asia, said he did not believe those responsible for Friday's bombings in Bangkok were linked to the insurgency in the Deep South.
The blasts "have no ties to the insurgency in the #DeepSouth, that has its very own bombings," he tweeted. There were 11 incidents of violence in the Deep South in July, leaving 9 dead and 21 wounded, he noted.
As of late Friday (local time), no one had claimed responsibility for the bombs.
Explosions began at 9 a.m.
Prayuth said the blasts began at 9 a.m. and through the afternoon. None of the injuries sustained by the four were life threatening but two of the victims were hospitalized, according to officials.
The first bomb exploded on Rama 9 road, injuring three janitors. Later, two bombs exploded at Chong Non Tree electric train station, injuring another. The rest went off in other locations, including near the Chaeng Wattana government complex and the Defense Secretariat Office, officials said.
Throughout the day, explosive ordnance disposal units rushed to investigate reports of additional bombs – which turned out to be false – while security officers were on alert around the venue of the ASEAN meetings and at department stores and tourist attractions around Bangkok.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement warning citizens traveling in or residing in Thailand to remain vigilant and "pay close attention to personal safety at all times."
Previous Bangkok attacks
Roadside bombings and other attacks by insurgents occur often in the Deep South, but are far less frequent in Thailand's capital.
A pipe bomb packed with TNT exploded at the Erawan Shrine during rush hour in central Bangkok on Aug. 17, 2015, killing 20 and injuring more than 125 people.
The Hindu shrine, a popular spot for tourists and local people in the heart of Bangkok's tourist district and which is surrounded by shopping malls and upscale hotels, reopened two days after the attack.
On April 5, 2017, two women were injured when a pipe bomb blew up near Bangkok's Grand Palace and Monument of Democracy.
About six weeks later, on May 22, 2017, a retired engineer set off a pipe bomb that injured 21 people at a Bangkok military hospital. The explosion occurred on the third anniversary of a military coup that overthrew the democratic government of Yingluck Shinawatra. The suspect, Watana Pumret, was sentenced to 31 years in prison.


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Asia-Pacific foreign ministers and America's top diplomat called for a peaceful resolution to disputes on Friday as they wrapped up an annual security meeting, where tensions in the South China Sea and North Korea's latest missile launches were high on the agenda.
As Thailand hosted U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and ministers from more than two dozen countries at the ASEAN Regional Forum in Bangkok, small bombs exploded in the Thai capital, injuring four people, police said. But the blasts did not disrupt proceedings where diplomats talked about regional security issues, including prospects for rekindling stalled negotiations with Pyongyang about its nuclear weapons program.
"ASEAN also has a goal, which is a collective gain for all involved, where the whole could be greater than the sum of the parts," Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai, the chairman of this year's regional forum, told a news conference, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
"There must be more efforts generated into talks to lessen friction and come up with acceptable solutions," he said.
Negotiations aimed at denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula were overshadowed by Pyongyang's latest ballistic missile tests, which South Korean and U.S. officials said, included the launching of a pair of short-range projectiles into the sea off its east coast on Thursday.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho did not participate at this year's regional security forum despite overtures by Washington to resume talks with Pyongyang.
It was the first time in 10 years that Pyongyang did not send its top diplomat to the 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum, which allows the region's key partners to participate. The forum includes the United States, China, Russia and South Korea, among other major nations.
Pompeo expressed regret after Ho failed to show up.
North Korea has yet to issue a response to Washington's efforts to hold more talks, but a Pentagon official earlier told reporters that Pyongyang's recent missile test-firings would not impact the U.S. defense posture.
After a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting on Thursday, France, Germany and Britain condemned the latest North Korean missiles tests.
Pyongyang also launched two missiles from the Hodo Peninsula in the east coast province of South Hamgyong earlier this week, according to the South Korean news service Yonhap, quoting defense officials. The missiles did not pose any immediate threat to the U.S. or its regional allies, U.S. officials told NBC News.

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North Korean Ambassador to Thailand Kim Je Bong attends the ASEAN Regional Forum meeting in Bangkok, Aug 2, 2019. [Nontarat Phaicharoen/BenarNews]

On Thursday, Pompeo held talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on the sidelines of a series of ASEAN meetings. Wang hailed their bilateral meeting and said it helped increase "mutual understanding,"
Pompeo also met Japan's foreign minister, Taro Kono, and his Australian counterpart, Marise Payne, on the same day to talk about the South China Sea, where China, Taiwan and four ASEAN states – Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines – have contending territorial claims.
The three diplomats, in a joint statement released by the U.S. State Department, reaffirmed their commitment to working with other countries to ensure that "freedom of navigation and overflight and other internationally lawful uses of the sea are upheld."
"They reaffirmed their commitment to working with other countries to uphold a rules-based order, including to ensure that: disputes are resolved peacefully in accordance with international law and without the threat or use of force," said the statement, which was issued on Friday.
On Friday, the ASEAN chairman also issued a similar statement saying that the ministers had "reaffirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, security, stability, safety and freedom of navigation in and overflight above the South China Sea."
Pompeo, whose weeklong tour of the Indo-Pacific region had been described by analysts as a symbol of Washington's bid to forge closer ties with Southeast Asian nations, urged his counterparts on Thursday to speak out against what he called "Chinese coercion" in the South China Sea.
Beijing claims almost the entire South China Sea and frequently castigates Washington and its allies for naval operations in the maritime region, where China has built numerous military installations with advanced ballistic-missile capabilities on reclaimed islands under its control.
Last month, during its 34th summit that was also held in Bangkok, ASEAN also called for "non-militarization" and "self-restraint" in the South China Sea, after claimant nations raised concerns over China's maritime activities and land reclamations in the disputed region.

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Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi (centers) scans through documents while attending the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum in Bangkok, Aug 2, 2019. [Nontarat Phaicharoen/BenarNews]



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More than 10 people were involved in minor bomb blasts that injured four people around Bangkok last week, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha said Monday, as police awaited results of DNA tests that could establish whether two Deep South men arrested last week were among them.
Nine small devices exploded at five locations around the Thai capital during daylight hours on Friday in what officials called an attempt to disrupt a summit of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) taking place there, with top diplomats from more than 30 countries on hand.
"[We] do not rule out any possible motives. We need to be patient and carefully investigate ... there are more than 10 people involved who must be brought to justice," Prayuth told reporters, referring to the Bangkok blasts. He did not say what his assertion was based on.
"We can't name the culprits yet, but whoever they are, they are mean, black-hearted, to have created turmoil in the country while it is moving forward with an elected, democratic government," Prayuth said while speaking at a military academy in central Nakhon Nayok province.
Southern militants rarely mount attacks outside Thailand's southernmost provinces, where they have been waging a low-grade but persistent insurgency since 2004.
In the latest attacks there, bombs exploded at three ATM booths in Pattani province Sunday morning, security officials said. No one was hurt or claimed responsibility, according to media reports.
'Never torture him'
Separately, police and relatives named two Deep South men picked up in southern Thailand late Thursday after police said they were seen on surveillance cameras planting a box containing an electric circuit and ball bearings but no explosive materials outside the National Police Bureau in Bangkok earlier in the day.
Officials said the two men – Wildar Maha, 29, and Lu-Ai Sae Ngae, 23 – were being held for questioning at a police operations center in the Deep South province of Yala.
Authorities were performing DNA tests to establish whether the two were involved in the blasts, according to police Maj. Gen. Tewthawat Nakhonsri, superintendent of the police forensic bureau.
"At the moment, officials have compiled DNA samples of the duo to compare them with the DNA database of the police and other government agencies, to see if they had crime records in the Deep South or elsewhere," Tewthawat told reporters.
"It will take about two to three days to see if the DNA matches with the specimen from the scene at the National Police Bureau, before we can pass these findings on to a working committee to see if a charge could be pressed," said Tewthawat.
Relatives, including Wildar's mother, Rohaning Maha, were relieved to learn the whereabouts of the two men on Monday.
"I feel fine seeing him and happy seeing him safe," Rohaning said. "I forgot to ask him about the events, but I asked officials to perform their duties fairly. If he is guilty, they should proceed accordingly, but never torture him."
Asked whether the bombings in Bangkok would impact stalled peace talks between southern insurgents and the Thai government, Prayuth replied that the talks "must be conducted cautiously."
"And they must abide with the constitution. Thailand is a single, indivisible state in terms of territory and areas within the nation," he said.
He said that for now, Gen. Udomchai Thammasarorat, the chief peace negotiator for the Thai government, would continue in that role despite his recent appointment as a senator.
In 2013, southern insurgents successfully set off bombs near Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok, injuring at least six people.
In August 2016, a series of coordinated bomb attacks killed four people and injured more than 30 others at tourist hotspots across southern Thailand, in provinces outside the Malay speaking, majority-Muslim region where violence linked to a separatist movement has claimed some 70,000 lives since 2004.


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Thai officials on Tuesday announced they had arrested seven more suspects linked to a series of bombings in and around Bangkok last week.
The seven arrests brought the total number of suspects in custody to nine. Police arrested two men hours before the bombs went off Friday morning as they were traveling south from Bangkok.
"Today we have increased the number of suspects to nine. We are performing an extended investigation of perpetrators to bring them to justice by mean of the judicial process," Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha told reporters on Tuesday.
Nine small devices exploded at five locations around the Thai capital Friday in what officials said was an attempt to disrupt a summit of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) taking place there. Four people were injured but none of the injuries was life-threatening.
On Monday, Prayuth said more than 10 people were involved in the bombings.
Prayuth and government spokeswoman Narumon Pinyosinwat did not identify the seven new suspects or give details about why they were arrested.
"Inter-agency officials worked together which resulted in suspects being arrested, two within the 24 hours, and they were able to arrest seven more. Those suspects are all under investigation," Narumon told reporters.
'We can't rule out political motives'
Officials previously announced they had taken DNA samples from the first two suspects and were conducting tests to see if they matched DNA taken from the crime scenes.
The two men, identified as Wildar Maha, 29, and Lu-Ai Sae Ngae, 23, were taken into custody in Chum Phon province in southern Thailand late Thursday. Police alleged the duo had been caught on surveillance cameras planting a box containing an electric circuit and ball bearings but no explosive materials outside the National Police Bureau in Bangkok on Thursday.
Meanwhile, the director of Deep South Watch, a think tank at the foremost university in southern Thailand, told BenarNews that the region's largest militant group, the National Revolutionary Front (BRN), could be responsible for the attacks.
"Aug. 1 is the birthday of the BRN and there was violence in Deep South throughout the day. It may have expanded to Bangkok to show off the group's potential to attract the government and the public to turn to the Deep South issue," said Srisompob Jitpiromsri.
"But we can't rule out political motives either," he added.
On Friday, Zachary Abuza, an American security analyst specializing in Southeast Asia, said he did not believe there was a link between Deep South insurgents and the Bangkok bombings.
The blasts "have no ties to the insurgency in the #DeepSouth, that has its very own bombings," he said in a tweet.
Southern militants rarely mount attacks outside Thailand's southernmost provinces, where they have been waging a low-grade but persistent insurgency since 2004.
Thailand's Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in neighboring Songkhla. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the Malay-speaking, majority Muslim region since a separatist insurgency flared in 2004.


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Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha on Tuesday said the government was not involved in an assault on exiled critic of the monarchy who claimed a masked man entered his home in Japan last month and sprayed him and his partner with a chemical substance.
Thai academic Pavin Chachavalpongpun, 48, an associate professor at Kyoto University, said that he and his partner were jolted from sleep on July 8 when an intruder dressed in black entered the bedroom of their apartment, pulled down their blanket and sprayed a chemical that gave them a burning sensation on their skin.
He said Japanese police understood "the context" of his status as a refugee in Japan and suggested the attack "could have been linked to politics in Thailand." Pavin earlier told reporters he had no evidence to prove the Thai government's involvement.
"In the case of Mr. Pavin, I feel sorry for him. However, he was attacked in Japan and he accused the Thai government of being behind such action. Who would dare to do such thing?" Prayuth said at a news conference. "I probably don't do that ... not probably ... I didn't or won't do it."
After Prayuth spoke, Pavin posted on his Facebook page that Japanese authorities were trying to track down the suspect in the attack, which he said was clearly aimed at intimidating him.
"Of course, no government would admit of sending a team of assassin to get rid of dissidents in foreign countries," Pavin said, in reaction to Prayuth's comments.
Attacks on dissidents
Pavin, a former contributor to the Bangkok Post, frequently writes opinion pieces for The Washington Post. He has almost 180,000 followers on Facebook, making him one of the most prominent critics of Prayuth's leadership.
After the chemical attack, Pavin said, the Japanese police asked him not to discuss the case, but he decided to break his silence after news leaked out.
On July 23, Pavin recounted the attack during a seminar hosted by the East-West Center in Washington and said the international terrorism unit of the Japanese police was investigating.
"They seemed to understand the context, my context. They seem to suggest that this could have been linked to politics in Thailand," he said as he revealed he was no longer living in the same apartment in Kyoto, following advice from investigators.
In an editorial on Tuesday, the independent daily Japan Times said the attack on Pavin followed reports in recent weeks that several Thai dissidents who fled to Laos were killed or had disappeared after demanding respect for democracy and human rights in Thailand.
"Japan, the biggest source of foreign direct investment in Thailand, must speak out in defense of those rights and condemn all efforts to silence those voices," the newspaper said.
After Prayuth took power following a military coup in 2014, dozens of Thai dissidents fled to neighboring Laos and Cambodia, as they feared arrest and prison terms under the nation's strict law against insulting the monarchy, which provides prison terms of up to 15 years.
Members of the Thai folk band Faiyen were celebrating this week after being admitted to France as refugees after traveling there from Laos. They told reporters in Paris that their fears had increased after three Thai activists left Laos for Vietnam in January and then disappeared.
Prior to that, three other Thai dissidents had disappeared in Laos. New York-based Human Rights Watch urged the Lao government to investigate after Thai authorities confirmed that DNA from two bodies found in the Mekong River matched two of the missing activists, Phu Chana and Kasalong.
Prominent Thai anti-monarchist Surachai Danwattananusorn, 78, and two close aides, known as Phu Chana, 56, and Kasalong, 46, were last seen in Vientiane on Dec. 11, 2018. Their colleagues promptly reported the disappearances to Lao authorities, the statement said.
"The two bodies' hands and feet were bound and their faces smashed beyond recognition. They also both had been disemboweled and stuffed with concrete," HRW said, as it expressed concern for Surachai's fate.
The bodies of the two anti-government activists were found on Dec. 27 and 29, 2018, along the river which divides the two nations, Thai police said.
At least six exiled Thai activists who lived in Laos have disappeared since December, rights groups said.
Pavin moved from Singapore to Japan in 2012 to take up a job at the Kyoto University.
After the junta issued a warrant for his arrest following the 2014 coup and authorities revoked his passport, Pavin applied for and received asylum in Japan.


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Police filed attempted murder charges Thursday against two men from Thailand's insurgency-wracked Deep South for allegedly planting a device that did not explode outside national police headquarters, hours before a series of minor bombs exploded in Bangkok on Aug. 2.
Authorities filed warrants on the charges against Wildar Maha, 29, and Lu-Ai Sae Ngae, 22, who were being held under an emergency decree following their arrests in southern Thailand last week, National Police Chief Gen. Chakthip Chaichinda and Lt. Gen. Suwat Changyodsuk told a news conference in Bangkok.
"We charged them with attempted murder because there was a bomb package laid in a crowded area that could cause death to others even though they failed to go off. We do this is in line with the law, case by case," Suwat said.
Apart from attempted murder, the two suspects were charged with possessing explosive devices and soliciting others to join a criminal enterprise, the officials said. The suspects were arrested in southern Thailand hours before the bomb blasts in Bangkok. They could face life in prison if convicted.
"We had arrest warrants out against the two suspects who are under custody in a police office in Yala ... we are proceeding with criminal offenses," Suwat said, referring to one of the provinces in the Thai Deep South.
In addition to the device found at the headquarters of the National Police Bureau, nine bombs or incendiary devices – timed to go off and powered by batteries – were planted at four locations in and around Bangkok, Chakthip and Suwat said. Not all the devices exploded, they said.
Police have not linked Wildar and Lu-Ai directly with the other bomb incidents in Bangkok last Friday.
Seven other suspects were arrested since Friday and remain in police custody but have not been charged. Officials said as many as 15 people could have been involved in the attacks.
Suwat said Wildar and Lu-Ai were identified from surveillance camera footage around the police headquarters, adding that DNA tests were not complete. Crime records from the Deep South also showed that the two suspects were allegedly involved in previous attacks, giving investigators sufficient evidence to proceed with the case, the senior police officials said.
"These two are suspects in a marine outpost attack and car blasts," Suwat said.
 

 
Disguises
Police officials said the pair tried to disguise themselves as they left Bangkok, but officers eventually captured them in Chum Phon province in southern Thailand. A relative of one of the men had said they had been in Bangkok, but were sightseeing.
"They had in their backpacks five pairs of shoes, five pants, five caps and five eyeglasses and masks, you just ask whether they are smart or dumb," said Suwat, referring to the evidence collected from the pair.
Security camera footage revealed that the two kept changing their clothes as they were traveling, police said.
On the day of the bombings which injured four, none seriously, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha told reporters that the attacks were aimed at disrupting a meeting of foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), China, the United States and other countries.
On Thursday, Chakthip told reporters that most of about 20 bomb explosions that had occurred in Bangkok since 2001 were tied to politics.
"In my personal point of view, 80 to 90 percent of Bangkok blasts were politically motivated," Chakthip said. "We all have the same key questions: Is it political? Who ordered it?"
No groups have claimed responsibility.
"In my experience in the Deep South, no one claims responsibility after attacks no matter if they are BRN, PULO, RKK, MARA Patani, unlike in foreign countries. None do it in our country," he said, using acronyms for Deep South insurgent groups as well as naming a panel representing rebel organizations in regional peace talks with the Thai government.
About 7,000 people have died in violence since the separatist insurgency reignited in the Muslim-dominated Deep South in 2004.
In Bangkok on Thursday, Suwat said police were trying to catch those who ordered the two charged suspects to plant the device.
"We try to focus on and catch all involved. The two are at the bottom of the chain where there is secrecy within the group. They are well practiced," he said.
"The suspicion of insurgency is one theory, we don't rule out any possibilities," Suwat said. "I won't prematurely name suspects until we have solid evidence to prosecute them."


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Eighteen Thai fishermen who told relatives they were not receiving enough pay or food aboard an Iranian-flagged fishing boat arrived in Thailand on Monday after being repatriated with the help of a European naval fleet that located their boat in Somali waters.
About five months ago, 42 Thais were recruited and traveled to Iran to work on two Iranian-flagged fishing boats – Wadani 1 and Wadani 2 – which were transferred four years ago from a Thai owner, officials and a crew member said.
Four members of the Wadani 1's crew returned to Thailand earlier this month, while 14 waited for the final four to be cleared so they could travel to Bangkok together. Officials did not discuss the fate of the 20 Thai crew members on the Wadani 2.
Rescue efforts began earlier this month after a Wadani 1 crew member posted a message on his personal Facebook asking for help because his boat was running low on fuel and food supplies, according to a Thai Navy press release.
The navy asked the European Union Naval Force Somali – a counter piracy operation in Somalian waters – to track down the boats, allowing Thai officials to contact the crews, who said they wanted to go home. The fishing boats have been moored at the port of Bosaso in Somalia, according to the release.
Speaking to reporters at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport after flying home from Dubai, crew members said they had received partial payment for only two months of work. They said they caught plenty of fish on the trip and kept working despite not receiving their money.
"I was promised 15,000 baht (U.S. $486) per month, but I received only 5,000 baht ($162) in the first two months. That's all," Thanakorn Chararum told reporters.
"Why didn't they pay me? Why they made me wait? How can I feed my wife and kids," Thanakorn said. "We caught lots of fish. We worked for them every day."
Thirteen of 42 crew members, including eight who returned to Bangkok on Monday, belong to the government's Overseas Workers Welfare Fund, which assists workers when employers fail to pay their salaries, according to a report by the state-run National News Bureau of Thailand.
Authorities said each was entitled to 30,000 baht (U.S. $972) in compensation.
The fishermen left the airport for a meeting with Labor Minister Jatumongkol Sonakul, who said the ministry would probe their complaints.
"Government agencies involved will question those rescued crew members as well as start an investigation to determine whether the case is related to human trafficking," he told reporters. "If so, the authorities will proceed accordingly."
The National News Bureau reported that the government would transport the men to their homes in Buri Ram, Surin, Phetchabun, Samut Sakon and Chaiyaphum provinces.
Broker involved
Thanakorn said he and his friends were hired by a broker known as "Brother Chang."
Broker Nithiwat Thiranantakul, who is also known as Brother Chang, told a Thai-language newspaper that he handled salary payments to the crew members on behalf of their employer, the Bangkok Post reported, adding he would not name the employer.
The broker claimed he had been unable to pay July salaries because seven seafood containers had yet to pass an inspection by the Department of Fisheries and could not be sold.
"I explained that the reserved money was used up and the Department of Fisheries was still considering releasing the goods," he said.
Adison Phromthep, the department's director, challenged the broker's assertion, according to the Bangkok Post.
"It's the employer's responsibility to pay his or her employees their salaries, and this should have nothing to do with the department's work of inspecting the employer's catches," he said.


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A Thai opposition leader said Monday that the army should stay out of politics as he hit back against its chief for accusing new political parties of using "fake news" to incite youths against the monarchy and military.
Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Future Forward Party (FFP), rejected comments from Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, who said in an interview Friday that the nation's security forces had to fend off "cyber warfare" waged by enemies of the government.
"We don't promote fake news, but it is us who are victims of fake news," Piyabutr told a news conference. "The Thai people will finally see and can judge which is true, false or fake news."
Emphasizing that his party "never looked at the army as an enemy," Piyabutr said the military should not worry about how the younger generation thinks.
"[We] only want the army to be reformed, stay under elected civilian government, as a professional modern army ... not get involved in politics," he said, alluding to the military's long shadow on the country's politics and its history of seizing power through coups.
Apirat made the comments in an interview with Reuters a week after a series of small bombs exploded in different parts of Bangkok on Aug. 2, as top diplomats from more than 30 countries gathered for a regional security meeting hosted by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Officials had earlier described the blasts as an attempt to disrupt the ASEAN Regional Forum.
"The threat now is fake news," Apirat said. "It's like cyber warfare. And when it combines with the [bombing] incident that happened last week ... it's like hybrid warfare."
Apirat declined to name which group was behind the bomb attacks. But he referred to "some political parties" that he said were "just born a couple of years ago" and which had "the platform of their propaganda directed to [people] when they were 16 and 17 [years old]."
It was not immediately clear if Apirat was referring to the Future Forward Party, whose leader is Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, a 40-year-old former business tycoon popular with millennial voters.
But Apirat's remarks indicated that the army and the government "intend to be a controller of, rather than a servant of, the people," said Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the political science faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University.
"The government and the army are not ready to be questioned," Titipol told BenarNews. "The government doesn't promote democracy and tries to eclipse people's thoughts with the authoritarian power."
FFP, which campaigned with a promise to end junta rule, won 80 seats in parliament in the March election, surprising everyone by taking the third-largest number of representatives overall, despite the junta's efforts to push the outcome in favor of pro-military candidates.
A day before parliament was set to reopen in May, Thailand's constitutional court suspended Thanathorn's status as a member of the legislative body, after he was accused of breaking an electoral law by holding shares in a media company when he registered to run in the March 24 general election.
Thanathorn rejected the allegations and said he had divested his interests at V-Luck Media, transferring his stocks to his mother in January.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, meanwhile, has faced criticism for allegedly failing to properly take his oath of office during the inauguration of his Cabinet on July 16.
Piyabutr, the FFP secretary-general, pointed out during a parliamentary session on July 25 that Prayuth had failed to recite the oath in full when he omitted a phrase in the oath of office, in which he was supposed to pledge to uphold every aspect of the constitution.
The 65-year-old Prayuth, a former army general, led a military coup that toppled the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014.
Prayuth then installed himself as prime minister and head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the official name for the junta, which introduced elections laws that critics said were engineered to ensure his return as prime minister.


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Thai officials knowledgeable on security matters in the country's Deep South told BenarNews on Monday they believe the largest rebel fighting force in the insurgency-wracked region was behind recent bombings in Bangkok.
They claimed the bombings were aimed at drawing international attention to ongoing violence in the three Malay-speaking, majority-Muslim provinces near Thailand's southern border, where more than 7,000 people have been killed in insurgency-related attacks in the past 15 years.
The comments came after a senior member of the National Revolutionary Front (BRN) told Reuters in a recent interview that the group was not involved in the blasts.
"I trust BRN operatives traveled to Bangkok to mount attacks in order to make news and draw foreign attention to intervene in Deep South violence. Lately, foreign countries do not pay attention to the 'daily' shootings or bombings," a security source told BenarNews.
Many of the suspects have a record of links to the BRN, said the source, an intelligence officer based in the Deep South who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
"I'm confident these attacks were carried out by the BRN operatives," a senior military official told BenarNews, also speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason.
He pointed to a spate of 11 bomb blasts in August 2016 in multiple locations in southern Thailand as evidence that rebels do not confine their activities to the Deep South.
"They scouted areas where they wanted to attack many months in advance before they attacked those provinces," the official said.
The leader of a BRN combat unit later claimed responsibility for those attacks, which killed four. Four insurgents were found guilty that same year for bomb blasts that injured six people at a Bangkok university in 2013.
'It is not true'
Nine small devices exploded at four locations around the Thai capital on Aug. 2 in what officials said was an attempt to disrupt a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) taking place in Bangkok. Four people suffered injuries that were not life-threatening.
Two suspects from the Deep South have been arrested in connection with the blasts, and arrest warrants have been issued for four other individuals with names characteristic of Deep South Muslims.
A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha had earlier announced seven additional arrests, but officials clarified that those individuals were questioned and released.
In an interview with Reuters, a man identified as a senior BRN member said the group was not behind the Bangkok bombings.
"We will not attack beyond the three southernmost provinces because we do not want to be perceived as terrorists," a man identified as Pak Fakir was quoted as saying. "We have our territory. Why should we venture out of it? ... Someone else must be behind it."
The man also said BRN officials had met a Thai delegation "at a location in Southeast Asia" on Aug. 16, but Thailand's peace talk chief, Gen. Udomchai Thammasarorat, flatly denied this.
"It is not true. We did not have such talk at all ... In regard to Pak Fakir, the man who claims to be the a senior leader of BRN, I don't know who he is and where he lives," Udomchai told BenarNews.
Pak Fakir is a BRN member but not its spokesman, according to Abu Hafez Al-Hakim, a spokesman for a panel representing insurgent groups that has been engaged in desultory peace talks with the Thai government since 2015.
The demands reportedly voiced by Fakir on Friday – the release of all people detained over suspected links to the insurgency, and a transparent investigation into abuses by security forces – were among those presented to the Thai government in 2013, during a round of peace talks under the government of Yingluck Shinawatra.
"These demands were proposed to the Yingluck administration by the BRN, during the tenure of Hassan Toyib as the BRN's peace-talks leader. They would have talked, if only the Thai government accepted those," Abu Hafez told BenarNews on Monday.
Those talks ground to a halt in 2014, shortly before Yingluck's government was overthrown in a military coup.
Questions have persisted as to whether the most militant elements in the decentralized BRN have ever signed on to the peace talks with the military government led by Prayuth, who is now Thailand's elected prime minister. The peace talks have yet to formally resume since he was elected to the office in April.
CORRECTION: The explosions on Aug. 2 occurred at four locations around Bangkok.


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Amid tensions in the contested South China Sea, the navies of the United States and the 10 ASEAN member-states will stage their first combined maritime exercise in early September in the Gulf of Thailand, Thai navy officials announced Friday.
The five-day drills consisting of at least eight ships and two aircraft will kick off from the Sattahip Navy Base in Thailand's Chonburi province on Sept. 2 and conclude on Sept. 6, according to a statement released by the Royal Thai Navy.
Thai Rear Admiral Sompong Nakthong and Capt. Matt Jerbi, commodore of Destroyer Squadron 7 with the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet, will lead the drills, the statement said.
The drills involving the United States and navies from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations will be "the first multilateral maritime exercise between the navies of the ASEAN countries and the U.S. Navy," it said.
The ASEAN-U.S. Maritime Exercise is aimed "at creating mutual cooperation in maritime security building," the statement said.
"It focuses on prevention and suppression of illegal activities in the seas. Members will share information, build awareness and co-operate under the international law and each individual country's law," the statement added.
The drills will extend from Chonburi to the tip of Ca Mau, Vietnam's southernmost province, it said.
Late Friday (Washington time), officials with Task Force 73 of the U.S. Navy's Logistics Group Western Pacific, based in Singapore, told BenarNews via an email that final planning was being conducted with ASEAN countries "participating in the ASEAN-U.S. Maritime Exercise 2019."
But the officials did not give a date for the drills, saying that details about the exercise "to take place this summer in international waters in Southeast Asia" would be released "closer to the start of the exercise."
Vietnam and three other ASEAN countries – the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei – along with Taiwan and China have territorial claims in the South China Sea, where tensions have been high lately over Chinese maritime activities. Beijing claims nearly all of the sea, including areas close to its neighbors.
In June, officials in Manila voiced anger after a Chinese trawler struck and sank an anchored Philippine fishing boat in waters claimed by the Philippines.
Officials from the United States, meanwhile, have accused Beijing of "its bullying behavior" in the sea region.
On Thursday, the U.S. State Department said Washington was deeply concerned about a series of "aggressive steps" by China in recent weeks, including Beijing's alleged interference with Hanoi's oil and gas activities in Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone in the sea.
The State Department cited China's redeployment of a government-owned survey vessel, together with armed escorts, into waters offshore Vietnam near Vanguard Bank on Aug. 13 as an "escalation by Beijing in its efforts to intimidate other claimants out of developing resources in the South China Sea."
The coordinated drills by the U.S. and ASEAN navies will take place in the Gulf of Thailand nearly a year after ASEAN and China staged their first joint naval exercise off Zhanjiang, in Guangdong province, in October 2018.
BenarNews staff in Washington contributed to this report.


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The widow of a suspected Deep South rebel who died over the weekend after falling into a coma while in army custody said she would find a way to sue military officials whom she believes tortured her husband, an allegation that officials deny.
Abdullah Esomuso, 34, was found unconscious in a cell on July 21 after being taken for interrogation at the Inkayuthaboriharn army camp in Pattani province. Authorities said they had arrested Abdullah a day earlier after an alleged insurgent cell leader implicated him in several attacks in Pattani, one of the provinces in Thailand's troubled southern border region.
His widow, Sumaiyah Minga, said she had consulted with a lawyer to seek justice because she believed that her husband was tortured soon before he fell into the coma.
"I've discussed with the president of the Muslim Attorney Center of Pattani how to file a criminal case with the police against suspected officials and proceed with the case," Sumaiyah told BenarNews on Monday. "I hope to get the case going within a few days. He did not die from a natural cause."
"I must seek justice for Abdullah who died under official custody. Until now, we didn't get any true explanation," she said from her home in Pattani, a day after her husband died and was buried hours later.
Meanwhile in Bangkok, a deputy prime minister denied that military officials had anything to do with Abdullah's death.
"Officials gave interviews already that the man was hospitalized for a month suffering from infection. Three hospitals also confirmed that he had an infection. Soldiers did not cause his death," Prawit Wongsuwan told reporters.
Songklanagarind Hospital in southern Songkhla province issued a statement saying that Abdullah died before dawn on Sunday after suffering severe pneumonia and septic shock.
His widow buried Abdullah six hours after his death. She and relatives refused to have a comprehensive autopsy performed because they were skeptical of the government's handling of his case, according to a cousin.
"Relatives have doubts, are skeptical about the handling of justice," cousin Mohamadrohmad Mamu told BenarNews.
"Despite having an ISOC-appointed committee to protect human rights in Deep South to help prove the issue, it did not make progress," he said, using an acronym for the army's regional security command. "How can we rest assured that the autopsy has integrity and could reveal the truth? We relatives don't trust it."
Investigative committees
On July 22, the day after Abdullah slipped into a coma, the Thai government announced that the army had established fact-finding committees to investigate, military spokesman Pramote Prom-in said while promising transparency.
"We have established two committees, one to investigate the conduct of the military to determine potential disciplinary or criminal action, and one to investigate possible violations of the protection of human rights in the Deep Southern provinces," he said at the time, confirming that Abdullah had been interrogated before being put into the cell.
Later that month, Pattani Islamic Committee chairman Waedueramae Mamingji, who led one of the committees, announced initial findings that showed no signs of Abdullah being involved in an accident or being physically assaulted, but he said the investigation would continue.
He said the swelling to Abdullah's brain could have been caused by a concussion, an aneurysm or cerebral hypoxia, which could have occurred when he fainted and did not receive CPR immediately.
Rights watchdog raises concerns
Human Rights Watch (HRW), meanwhile, questioned the government's progress in the investigations.
"The military-dominated inquiry has been unable to provide even basic information about Abdullah's treatment at the interrogation center, the cause of oxygen deprivation, and the methods that soldiers used to interrogate him," HRW said in a news released posted Monday on its website.
"Moreover, ISOC Region 4 claimed that all security cameras installed at the detention facility were not online at the time and could not provide video recordings or any other evidence for the inquiry."
The international rights group called for a complete investigation into the case.
"The death of Abdullah Esormuso is an important test case for the Thai government on whether it is willing to address rights violations in military detention," said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch. "Thai leaders need to demonstrate that they are serious about conducting an independent investigation and prosecute any wrongdoing or risk complicity for yet another unlawful conduct of soldiers."
The Thai military has been in charge of security for 15 years in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South after a separatist insurgent uprising re-ignited in 2004. About 7,000 people have been killed since then in violence in the region. During that time, rights groups have accused the military of using excessive force in the region, including systematic torture and extrajudicial killings against insurgents.


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Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha on Tuesday denied allegations that the Thai military had tortured a suspected rebel who died more than a month after falling into a coma while in army custody in Thailand's insurgency-hit Deep South.
Speaking for the first time in public about the case that has attracted the attention of human rights advocates, who are pressing for full official accountability in the death of Abdullah Esomuso, Prayuth said his government was "open for an investigation to make things clear."
"The government says all along it does not have a policy to use violence on suspected individuals or suspects," he told reporters at Government House in Bangkok during his weekly post-cabinet press briefing.
"There must be videotape on hand every time to avoid problems in the future," he said, as he called on authorities to ensure that closed-circuit TV cameras work during interrogations of suspects.
According to officials, CCTV cameras were not online when army officials questioned Abdullah after they took him into custody in Pattani province on suspicion of insurgent-related activities.
Soon after the interrogation at the Inkayuthaboriharn army camp there, he was found unconscious in a holding cell on July 21, officials said. Abdullah, 34, died on Sunday.
In a statement, Songklanagarind Hospital in southern Songkhla province said Abdullah had died there after suffering from severe pneumonia and septic shock.
Repeating the cause of death as stated by the hospital, Prayuth said Abdullah's death "could not have stemmed from torture."
"[We] are ready to give additional information. In fact since it happened, three hospitals – the Inkayuthaboriharn Hospital, Pattani Hospital and Songklanagarind Hospital – reported the same that Abdullah's body was intact, [with] no traces of assaults, internally or externally," the prime minister said.
Authorities said they arrested Abdullah on July 20 after an alleged insurgent cell leader had implicated him in several attacks in Pattani, one of the provinces in Thailand's troubled southern border region. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the Deep South, a mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region, since a separatist insurgency reignited 15 years ago.
Abdullah's widow, Sumaiyah Minga, told BenarNews on Monday that she was considering filing a law suit because she believed her husband was tortured before he fell into the coma. Abdullah's body was buried within six hours of his death.
On July 22, a day after Abdullah became comatose, the Thai military said it had established fact-finding committees to investigate whether his human rights were violated while in its custody.
Later in July, the chairman of the Pattani Islamic Committee, who led one of the investigative committees, said initial findings showed no signs of Abdullah being physically assaulted or being involved in an accident.
Swelling to Abdullah's brain could have been caused by a concussion, an aneurysm or cerebral hypoxia, which could have occurred when he fainted and did not receive CPR immediately, the chairman said.
On Tuesday, Abdul-asib Tadae-ing, who sits on the Committee to Protect Human Rights in the Deep South, said doctors from the hospital had indicated that they had found no signs of torture on Abdullah's body.
"According to the doctors, the cause of death was severe pneumonia and septic shock, which happened after he had previous hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy," Abdul-asib said in a statement.
"The oxygen deprivation could mean torture such as suffocation with a bag, water boarding as some people claimed, or simply [that] he fainted out without CPR. The doctors said torture would show traces like hemorrhage in the eyes, swollen gums and dark face, etc., which were not found in the case of Abdullah," he said.
The committee to which Abdul-asib belongs was appointed by the military's regional command in the Deep South and includes officials, Muslim clerics and rights advocates.
On Monday, however, international watchdog Human Rights Watch called on the Thai government to conduct a complete investigation into the circumstances leading up to Abdullah's death, saying it was "an important test case."
Meanwhile, Angkhana Neelapaijit, a former member of Thailand's Human Rights Commission, said officials had not accounted for how Abdullah succumbed to a lack of oxygen.
"Though there is no evidence that the officials tortured him, there was no evidence to explain how he had hypoxia either," she told BenarNews.


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Thailand will take delivery of 10 armored vehicles from the United States next month, the first batch of 120 American-made infantry carriers expected to be transferred by 2020, officials said Wednesday.
U.S. military aid to Thailand, one of Washington's major allies, was slowed as a consequence of the Foreign Assistance Act, a law that bars American security forces from cooperating with nations where an elected government has been toppled through a coup.
"They are coming and will arrive soon," outgoing U.S. Chargé d'Affaires Peter Haymond told reporters in Bangkok, referring to the 10 armored vehicles.
"[We are at] full diplomatic ties, with good partner history. We will continue to cooperate with Thailand as we did in the past," he said.
Thai Army Chief Gen. Apirat Kongsompong also confirmed that the eight-wheeled vehicles would be delivered during a ceremony at army headquarters in Bangkok on Sept. 12.
"The army is preparing a ceremony to take delivery of the Strykers with four vehicles present. The first batch would be 10 [vehicles]," Apirat told reporters.
He said Gen. Robert Brooks Brown, chief of U.S. Army Pacific, would co-preside at the ceremony.
Kongsompong told reporters that Thailand would receive 70 U.S.-made armored vehicles by the end of this year and 50 more next year, but he did not give the value of the deal, according to Reuters.
In July, the U.S. State Department approved a sale of 60 Stryker Infantry Carrier Vehicles to Thailand for an estimated cost of $175 million (5.4 billion Thai Baht), a Pentagon statement said.
Since the 2014 bloodless putsch that toppled the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, China has attempted to fill Thailand's military requirements, as it sensed an opportunity to expand its influence in the kingdom, according to security analysts.
In January, the Thai army announced it was seeking cabinet approval to buy 14 Chinese-made battle tanks in a 2.3 billion baht (U.S. $75 million) deal with the China Ordnance Industries Group Corporation, also known as Norinco, one of the world's largest defense contractors.
The Foreign Assistance Act, a law first enacted in 1961, requires the United States to suspend foreign aid to any country run by a military junta. The ban can be lifted if the State Department certifies there has been a restoration of civilian democratic rule.
As a result of that ban, then-U.S. President Barack Obama cut about U.S. $4.8 million in financing for Bangkok's acquisition of U.S. defense equipment, services and training, as Washington also cancelled or downsized joint military exercises.
Nevertheless, Thailand purchased four Black Hawk helicopters from the United States in 2017, according to the nation's then-army chief, Gen. Chalermchai Sitthisart.
Former Army Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who led a bloodless putsch that overthrew Shinawatra, was formally elected in June as the country's prime minister by members of the two chambers of Parliament, consolidating his grip on power after the March national elections that his opponents say was engineered to keep him in power.


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The Thai Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the death sentence of two Myanmar migrant workers who were convicted of killing two British backpackers five years ago on Koh Tao island, a popular tourist destination in southern Thailand.
Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun (also known as Wai Phyo), were escorted from the Bang Kwang maximum security prison to a court in the province of Nonthaburi, north of Bangkok, where the defendants, lawyers and reporters listened to the verdict via teleconference from the Supreme Court.
The duo were arrested on Koh Tao on suspicion that they murdered David Miller, 24, and raped and murdered his companion Hannah Witheridge, 23. The suspects were seen on surveillance cameras at the time the crimes were committed on Sept. 15, 2014, and arrested about two weeks later.
"In this case, there are witnesses, evidence and scientific proof – the DNA tests that match the defendants [to the crime]," a judge said, adding that similar tests had also been done on various suspects to eliminate those who were not involved in the murders.
"The DNA samples were swabbed from the cheeks of the duo, matching the compiled scientific evidence. It is hard to believe that police fabricated evidence to frame the defendants," the judge said. "Upholding the lower court and the Appeal Court Region 8, it is final that the defendants are to be executed."
After the verdict, the duo was allowed to speak to the court, reiterating their innocence.
"Both affirmed that they did not do the crime. They regretted being punished," Aye Mar Cho, the defendants' translator, told BenarNews. "They asked me when they will be executed. That worried them."
After the final verdict, Zaw Lin and Win Zaw Tun were escorted back to prison.
 

 
Seeking king's mercy
The case has drawn attention from the public because there was suspicion that the murderers could have been local Thais.
The defense claimed that the way the police compiled evidence was dubious, and that their clients' confessions had been made under duress.
The lawyers said they planned to seek mercy from the Thai king to reduce the sentence to life imprisonment.
"The defendants said they did not commit the crime but fell victim, it is something they have to bear. ... We will seek mercy from the king, with the hope that they will be spared execution," Nakhon Chomphuchat, the defendants' chief lawyer, told reporters after the verdict.
The defense team had earlier challenged the transparency of the proceedings.
Nakhon cited as examples alleged confessions made by the suspects without any of their lawyers being present and problems with how police collected DNA from Witheridge's body.
"The collection of DNA was not in line with international standards either," he said after the trial court sentenced the two Myanmar suspects to death in December 2015. A court of appeal upheld the sentence in March 2017.
Another lawyer said the courts did not believe the duo was tortured to confess crimes.
"There are times that torture happens without a trace, such as being kept under freezing temperatures," Natthasiri Bergman, another lawyer, told BenarNews on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Andy Hall, an international adviser for the defense team, released a personal statement following the verdict, saying he believed the death penalty was not the correct sentence.
"I consider that the death penalty sentence and conviction of the two accused Myanmar nationals, Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo, should instead have been reversed and quashed by the Supreme Court," Hall said.
Hall also questioned how authorities handled forensic evidence related to the case.
"For this reason alone, the evidence relied upon to convict the accused was unreliable and the case against them ... could not be proven by the prosecution beyond reasonable doubt and should not have been upheld," he said.
Wilawan Watcharasakwet in Bangkok and Radio Free Asia, a BenarNews-affiliated online news service, contributed to this report


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The government of Myanmar must restore full citizenship rights to Rohingya Muslims living in Myanmar and in refugee camps in Bangladesh, and abandon the issuing of National Verification Cards (NVCs) that describe them as "foreigners," a rights group said on Tuesday at a press conference in Thailand.

The cards stigmatize the Muslim ethnic group, who are widely viewed in Myanmar as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh though many have lived in Myanmar for generations, and authorities routinely force Rohingya to accept their use, threatening loss of access to livelihood if they refuse, the U.S. and Swiss-registered group Fortify Rights said.

"In our view, there are no versions of pragmatism that can justify coercing Rohingya to accept NVC," Fortify Rights executive director Matthew Smith said in remarks given at Bangkok's Foreign Correspondents' Club on the release of the report "Tools of Genocide: National Verification Cards and the Denial of Citizenship of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar."

Rohingya villagers have also been threatened at gunpoint to accept the cards, with others beaten or tortured for refusing to comply, the rights group said in its report, adding that even Rohingya holding NVCs are "systematically denied freedom of movement" in Myanmar.

"The government continues to confine nearly 500,000 Rohingya to isolated, poor villages and to 24 squalid internment camps located in five townships in [western Myanmar's] Rakhine state," the rights group said. Meanwhile, Rohingya working for aid groups in Myanmar have been threatened with loss of their jobs if they refuse to register for the cards.

Following enactment of a revised citizenship law in 1982, the government of Myanmar has refused to recognize the Rohingya as a legitimate national ethnic minority, and has denied the group citizenship, access to health care and other rights, despite the Rohingya community's longtime presence in the country's western region.

'Not for us'

Speaking in Bangkok on Tuesday, Ambia Parveen of the European Rohingya Council called for the ethnic group's citizenship to be restored.

"This notification card is not for us. We have enough evidence that we are an ethnic group of Myanmar, and we had full citizenship rights before," she said. 

"If we accept the national verification card, it will be like killing two birds with one stone – we will be agreeing that we are foreigners, and we will also have to write in the card ourselves that we are foreigners or 'Bengalis.'"

Also speaking in Bangkok, Myanmar-based interfaith religious leader and activist Khin Maung Myint said that the intention of Myanmar authorities "is now very clear."

"They want to get rid of these people in Rakhine state, and they don't want to take them back as citizens of this country," he said.

In August 2017, more than 740,000 Rohingya fled to neighboring Bangladesh amid brutal clearance operations by Myanmar's military in response to Muslim militant attacks on border police posts.

More than 1 million Rohingya live there in squalid camps, mostly in the district of Cox's Bazar.

Horrific accounts

Refugees have given U.N. investigators horrific accounts of rape, murder, and the burning of their homes as they escaped from Rakhine, though Myanmar military officials have rejected claims of atrocities, saying their troops were conducting legitimate counter-offensives against militant attacks.

Rohingya in the camps have called on Myanmar's government to grant them full citizenship rights and to ensure their safety in the Buddhist-majority country before they decide to return under a repatriation agreement that Myanmar and Bangladesh signed in November 2017.

To bring the Rohingya back, the government of Myanmar must first prove its sincerity by restoring rights to an estimated 150,000 Rohingya displaced by an earlier round of violence in 2012 and now living in camps in Rakhine, Khin Maung Myint said.

"You have to give rights back to these people and send them back to their places of origin," he said.

"Then the 800,000 to 1 million people who are living in Bangladesh will willingly come back to the country. You won't have to beg them," he said.

Issues must be addressed

Issues of national and ethnic identity must be fully addressed as Myanmar approaches national elections next year, Fortify Rights said in its report.

"The Government of Myanmar should immediately abolish the NVC process and restore equal access to full citizenship rights for Rohingya through a speedy administrative process developed in meaningful consultation with the Rohingya community in Myanmar, Bangladesh, and the diaspora."
Unless this is done, U.N. refugee officials and the government of Bangladesh should suspend plans to send Rohingya refugees now sheltering in Bangladesh home to Myanmar, the rights group said.
Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews, contributed to this report.


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A Karen land-rights activist who went missing in 2014 was murdered, Thai police said Tuesday, after divers recovered a portion of his burned skull from a reservoir near his home.
Porlajee Rakchongcharoen (also known as "Billy"), was last seen on April 17, 2014, near Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi province, 100 miles (160 km) south of Bangkok. He was 30 when he disappeared in suspicious circumstances.
"He was murdered," police Lt. Col. Korawat Parnprapakorn, deputy director of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), told reporters Tuesday.
"The DNA test matches the skull to his mother, Porrogee Rakchongcharoen," said Korawat, adding that a witness led investigators to the crime scene. "We can confirm that the discovered skull belongs to Billy."
DSI director Col. Paisit Wongmaung said investigators began diving into the reservoir in May and continued through late August to gather evidence.
Korawat said divers used sonar to detect submerged items, including a burned 200-liter barrel containing firewood and human bones.
 

 
Billy's widow, Pinapa Prueksawan, said she would discuss the latest development in the case during a news conference on Wednesday.
In 2016, Pinapa blamed the then-chief of the national park, Chaiwat Limlikit-aksorn, and three of his subordinates for detaining her husband.
Billy was to testify in a court case filed by his fellow ethnic Karen farmers against Chaiwat and others. The farmers had alleged that Chaiwat and others ransacked and burned their homes and properties in Pongluek-Bangkloy, a village near the national park, in 2011.
Billy disappeared a day before he was to take the witness stand and Chaiwat was acquitted over insufficient evidence in July 2014.
Three years later, Billy's widow and rights activists called on the DSI to reopen investigation.
Pornpen Kongkachonkiet, director of the Thai Cross-Cultural Foundation, an NGO that advocates for minorities, joined the request for DSI to reopen the case.
On Tuesday, she welcomed the confirmation of a DNA match, but feared those responsible for Billy's death could escape prosecution.
"There was no summons nor arrest warrant against suspects or wrongdoers who took part in Billy's murder," Pornpen told BenarNews. "Such influential figures may try to elude such a heavy charge. I hope DSI is prepared to prevent that."
A hill tribe
The Bwa G'Naw people, otherwise known as Karen, Kariang or Yang, are members of a hill tribe scattered across Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.
The number of Karen ranges between 7.5 million and 14 million, with most of them concentrated in Myanmar, according to official population estimates. The Australian Karen Foundation estimates as many as 1 million Karen live in Thailand.
The Karen differ from other hill tribes in that they live in permanent villages at lower elevations.
Their communities sometimes practice slash-and-burn farming, which can lead to conflict with forestry officials, especially when certain zones are declared forest reserves or protected national parkland. Park officials set fire to 20 homes in 2011 in an effort to stave off alleged land encroachment by Karen, according to the Bangkok Post.


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Laos, Malaysia and Thailand have agreed to expand a trilateral power deal, under which Lao electricity will be sold to the Malaysians via the Thai grid, Thailand's minister of energy said.
"Thailand, Laos and Malaysia achieved a new purchase deal, raising the capacity from 100 to 300 megawatts," Sontirat Sontijirawong, Thailand's minister of energy, told a news conference during during a four-day meeting of energy ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) that wrapped up in Bangkok on Thursday.
"It is a model project of ASEAN grid connectivity. We agreed to officially sign the contract soon," he said.
The three countries have yet to formally sign off on the deal, but he said they had agreed to the expansion.
The first phase of the agreement known as the Lao PDR, Thailand, Malaysia – Power Integration Project (LTM-PIP), was implemented in early 2018 and is set to transition to a second phase, starting in January 2020, the minister said. Under the new agreement, Laos will increase the amount of electricity its sells to Malaysia via Thailand, from 100 MW to 300 MW.
Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia's minister of Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change, and Khammany Inthirath, the Lao minister of Energy and Mines, took part in the talks with Sontirat in Bangkok.
"This cooperation will be a stepping stone to further grid connection. Now we have Laos, Thailand and Malaysia. In the future, we will have Singapore, Myanmar and Cambodia joining the next phases," Sontirat said.
According to the Thai minister, Thailand and Myanmar were also studying a 250-MW power connection plan because, he said, Myanmar needed to boost its supply of electricity as part of its economic development. Myanmar's current supply meets 50 percent of its electricity needs, he said.
In order to protect the environment and reduce global warming, Thailand's National Science and Technology Development Agency and ASEAN Center of Energy on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding to cooperate in finding alternative sources for producing electricity, such as solar power and wind power, to replace fossil fuel or coals.
"The signing is aimed at pushing ASEAN to use renewable, alternative energies from 14 to 23 percent by 2025," Sontirat said. "ASEAN is moving toward clean energies ... to help reduce global warming."
The trilateral deal between Thailand, Malaysia and Laos is part of a plan by Thailand to become a hub in efforts to creating a regional grid, Wattanapong Kurovat, the director-general of the Thai government's energy policy and planning office, said last month, according to Bloomberg News.
"We're trying to move quickly to become the center of the region's power grid," Wattanapong told Bloomberg news agency. "We already have the capacity and the infrastructure to support the vision to become the regional hub."
Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews, contributed to this report.


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A Lao man working in Thailand has disappeared after criticizing his country's government online and in public protests, Laotian sources said.
Od Sayavong, 34, vanished on Aug. 26 after telling a roommate that he would be home for dinner, Od's roommate told Radio Free Asia's Lao Service on Friday, speaking on condition of anonymity. Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a sister entity of BenarNews.
"At around 6 p.m., he sent me a text message telling me to cook rice for dinner, and that he would buy some other food on his way home, as he didn't want to eat the food left in the refrigerator," Od's friend said.
"We waited for him until 11 p.m., and then till midnight, but he never showed up," he said, adding, "Another roommate of ours called Tiger tried many times to reach him on the phone, but the calls didn't connect, so we finally decided to eat without him."
Also speaking to RFA, another friend who lives in the same building in Thailand's capital Bangkok said he had seen Od briefly on the morning of the day he went missing.
"I saw him go off to work wearing his work uniform. I didn't talk to him or ask him anything," he said.
Od's involvement in politics was the likely reason for his disappearance, the friend said.
"He had come out to protest against the [Lao] government, and most recently he had posted a video clip online criticizing the Lao government during the time of the ASEAN meetings in Thailand," he said.
Democracy, human rights
Part of a group of Lao dissidents living in Bangkok, Od had taken part in a June 16 protest in the city calling for political freedoms and human rights in Laos, especially for the victims of government land grabs and dam collapses that have left hundreds stuck in poor housing without a way to earn a living.
Kongcheep Tantravanich, a spokesman for the Thai defense ministry, denied knowledge of Od's case and said Thailand does not have a policy to "suppress political refugees" from other countries, Channel News Asia quoted him as saying.
Od had also called for the release of three Lao workers given long prison terms in April 2017 for criticizing their government while working in Thailand, and for a U.N. investigation into the disappearance of rural development expert Sombath Somphone.
Sombath disappeared on Dec. 15, 2012, when police stopped him in his vehicle at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Vientiane. He was then transferred to another vehicle, according to a police surveillance video, and has not been heard from since.
Before his abduction, Sombath had challenged massive land deals negotiated by the government that had left thousands of rural Lao villagers homeless with little paid in compensation. The deals sparked rare popular protests in Laos, where political speech is tightly controlled.
Rights groups call for Thai probe
In a Sept. 6 statement, the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights and its member organization, the Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR), called on Thai authorities to immediately investigate the activist's disappearance.
"Od sought refuge in Thailand but the country has become increasingly unsafe for asylum seekers," the rights group wrote.
"Thai authorities must immediately determine Od's fate or whereabouts and the government must adopt measures that guarantee the rights of asylum seekers in accordance with international standards."
Speaking to RFA on Friday, LMHR president Vanida Thepsouvanh said that Od's case reminds her of the three Lao workers jailed in 2017 who had been kidnapped on their return from Thailand to Laos and then vanished in custody until their trial and sentencing.
"This appears to be a forced disappearance," she said.
Early on Saturday (Thai time), Human Rights joined the calls demanding that Thailand probe the disappearance of Od, whom the New York-based rights watchdog described as a refugee from Laos.
"The Thai government should immediately provide information on the whereabouts of outspoken Lao activist Od Sayavong," Brad Adams, the group's Asia director, said in a press release.
"Bangkok's streets should be safe from abductions and wrongful arrests."
According to Human Rights Watch, "Thai authorities have frequently collaborated with foreign governments to harass, arbitrarily arrest, and forcibly return exiled dissidents in violation of international law."
"The Thai government's deference to abusive neighbors has once again appeared to have taken priority over its legal obligations," Adams said. "Thailand needs to reestablish itself as a place where refugees are safe and stop assisting abusive countries by returning their dissidents."


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The United States and 10 Southeast Asian countries have concluded their first combined naval exercise in the Gulf of Thailand and contested South China Sea, with officials from both sides saying it was a success and would help them address security threats more efficiently.
At least eight warships, four aircraft and more than a thousand personnel from 11 countries took part in the five-day Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-U.S. Maritime Exercise (AUMX), which ended on Friday and was co-led by Thailand and the United States.
"The ASEAN-U.S. Maritime Exercise continued the trend of increased multilateral cooperation among navies in the Indo-Pacific," Lt. (junior grade) Rachel McMarr, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Pacific Fleet, told BenarNews from the fleet's headquarters in Hawaii.
"A networked region is key to deterring aggression, maintaining stability and ensuring free access to common domains. The Combined Task Force structure allows our navies to continue to work together – leveraging our complementary forces, unique perspectives, regional relationships, and information capabilities. The ASEAN-U.S. Maritime Exercise increased our collective ability to address threats to security and stability together," she said.
In Thailand, a Royal Thai Navy officer told BenarNews that "the exercise ended on Friday with good results." The officer spoke condition of anonymity because he had not been authorized to release such information.
Before the combined exercise began on Sept. 2, senior U.S. Navy officers stressed that the drills were part of fostering closer maritime security ties with the ASEAN countries in keeping waters in the Indo-Pacific region open and free – an apparent indirect challenge to Beijing's territorial expansionism and naval activities in the South China Sea, where international tensions have been high lately.
"AUMX builds greater maritime security on the strength of ASEAN, the strength of our navy-to-navy bonds, and the strength our shared belief in a free and open Indo-Pacific," Rear Admiral Joey Tynch, the commander of Singapore-based Task Force 73, who oversees the U.S. Navy's security cooperation in Southeast Asia, said in a statement.
The exercise, which kicked off from the Sattahip Naval Base in Thailand, ended in Singapore, officials said.

[https://www]

Officers of the U.S. Navy and maritime forces of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) participate in the inauguration ceremony of the ASEAN-U.S. Maritime Exercise, in Sattahip, Thailand, Sep. 2, 2019. [AP]

The exercise involving sailors from the U.S., Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam was taking place "in international waters in Southeast Asia, including the Gulf of Thailand and South China Sea," the U.S. Navy said on Monday.
Although Malaysia sent personnel to observe the ASEAN-U.S. naval exercises, according to sources at the Malaysian defense ministry, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad this week questioned the need for the drills, saying these were "a waste of money" that could antagonize China.
The exercises "cost a lot of money and only provoke other people, and if you do that in the South China Sea ... the Chinese would feel threatened," the 94-year-old leader said during a question-and-answer session while visiting the Royal University of Phnom Penh in Cambodia.
"What do they do when they feel threatened? They too would want to build bigger ships, a stronger naval force and also send their ships to the area," he added, when asked to comment about the ASEAN-U.S. drills.
Malaysia and three other ASEAN countries – the Philippines, Vietnam and Brunei – along with Taiwan and China have territorial claims in the South China Sea. Beijing claims nearly all of the sea, including areas close to its neighbors.
In June, officials in Manila voiced anger after a Chinese trawler struck and sank an anchored Philippine fishing boat in waters claimed by the Philippines.
American officials, meanwhile, have accused Beijing of "its bullying behavior" in the sea region. Late last month, the U.S. State Department said Washington was deeply concerned about a series of "aggressive steps" by China in recent weeks, including Beijing's alleged interference with Hanoi's oil and gas activities in Vietnam's Exclusive Economic Zone in the sea.
The coordinated drills by the U.S. and ASEAN navies took place nearly a year after the Southeast Asian bloc and China staged their first joint naval exercise off Zhanjiang, in Guangdong province, in October 2018.
Imran Vittachi in Washington contributed to this report.


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A cabinet member in Thailand's new government said Tuesday he had no intention to resign after an Australian newspaper published evidence showing that he had spent four years in prison in Sydney over a drug-smuggling conviction.
Thammanat Prompao, a member of the Palang Pracharat Party, was sworn-in as deputy agriculture minister in July. He had described himself during previous interviews as the main "blood vessel" of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha's advisers due to his skills in binding coalition parties.
"I never pleaded guilty. I have never done anything wrong," Thammanat told reporters as he responded to a Sydney Morning Herald report, which dug up evidence about his arrest in 1993 when police seized heroin worth US$4.2 million from a local hotel.
Days before he was sworn in as a cabinet official in July, Thammanat sought to downplay reports of a conviction in Australia in the 1990s. He acknowledged during earlier interviews in Bangkok that he was jailed for eight months, but said he had not been convicted of any drug-related offense.
"Why do I need to quit? A manly convict like me stands on the ground of truth," he told reporters Tuesday.
Prayuth on Tuesday defended his decision to appoint Thammanat to the cabinet following calls from the opposition alliance Democratic Front for the deputy minister to clear his name or resign from his post.
"His qualifications were screened before taking the post. If someone had an old case, he must bear with the consequences," Prayuth told reporters.
Prayuth is a former army chief who has led Thailand since May 2014, when he spearheaded a coup that toppled the government of Yingluck Shinawatra. In July, Prayuth and his cabinet were sworn into office by Thailand's king, months after the country held its first general election since before the coup.
Thammanat accused his Thai political rivals of trying to discredit him by feeding the Australian newspaper with fabricated information.
The Herald's investigative report on Monday said Thammanat, a key ally of top Thai generals, was a young soldier named Manat Bophlom when he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import 3.2 kilograms (7 pounds) of heroin into Australia.
Thammanat was convicted with two Australian men and another Thai man named Sorasat Tiemtad and charged with conspiracy to import heroin, the report said. It said Thammanat and Sorasat were released on April 14, 1997, and immediately deported to Thailand, where he changed his name.
The newspaper said Thammanat's deep connections in Thailand were "underlined when he produced character references from a judge and a police lieutenant-colonel who each said he 'always has good behaviours [sic], honesty and is reliable.'"
Not the first
Thammanat is not the first Thai politician implicated in illicit activities.
In 1992, former Deputy Prime Minister Narong Wongwan's bid to become prime minister failed after the United States had refused him a visa due to suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking, according to reports.
On Tuesday, opposition lawmakers accused Prayuth of constitutional violations for appointing an ex-convict to his cabinet.
"Don't you excuse that [Thammanat] was not jailed in a Thai prison," Cholanan Srikaew, a member of the opposition Pheu Thai Party posted on Twitter. "How come Prayuth installed him [as a minister]?"
Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the faculty of political science at Ubon Ratchathani University, told BenarNews that the government must take the Thammanat issue seriously.
"If he was jailed, that's a serious crime," said Titipol, referring to the deputy agriculture minister. "It is not appropriate to keep him as a minister. It's a bad example."
Updated to indicate that Prayuth made his comments after calls from the opposition alliance Democratic Front for Thammanat to clear his name or resign from his post.


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The army chiefs of staff from Thailand, the United States, China and 25 other nations on Wednesday concluded a three-day conference and related meetings in Bangkok aimed at promoting security, stability and peace in the Indo-Pacific region, officials said.
The 11th biennial Indo-Pacific Army Chiefs Conference (IPACC) provided opportunities to create mutual understanding aimed at sustainable security, Royal Thai Army Commander Gen. Apirat Kongsompong said.
He and U.S. Army Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville hosted the conference, which also brought together the top army leaders from India, Bangladesh, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, and Australia, among other countries.
"The Indo-Pacific Army Chiefs Conference 2019 (IPACC19) was a productive forum to discuss opportunities and issues in the strategically important Indo-Pacific with regional allies and partners" McConville said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.
"Looking forward to this week's Stryker handover ceremony and seeing U.S. Army Pacific supporting our ally Thailand modernize their Army," the American army commander added, referring to the expected delivery of 10 U.S.-made armored vehicles to Bangkok later this week.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, his country's former army chief of staff, addressed the top generals from the 28 nations on Monday.
The conference and its side meetings "will promote the maintenance of the national security environment, build stability, and enable a sustainable peace," said Prayuth, who has led Thailand since spearheading a military coup that toppled a civilian-led government in 2014.
"The meetings are yet another symbol of the close cooperation between Thailand and the United States," added Prayuth, who was sworn into office as PM in July following a general election in late March.

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Lt. Gen. Zhang Mingcai, deputy commander of China's People's Liberation Army (front row, center), participates in a group photo during the opening of the Indo-Pacific Army Chiefs Conference. [Pimuk Rakkanam/BenarNews]

In remarks during the IPACC opening ceremony on Monday, Apirat said the conference's main purpose was to allow regional army chiefs to meet, exchange information and discuss current security concerns.
"The issues of concern are human trafficking, drug trafficking and cyber war," he told reporters later in the day. "We need to brainstorm to have a policy and cooperate with countries in the region to keep the peace."
In his remarks, McConville reminded his colleagues from other countries who were attending the meeting that people were relying on them to keep the region safe.
"Our relationships with allies and partners is a critical part of our strength and gives us much greater capabilities to preserve safety across the region," he said.
"I challenge us all to think in new ways, to think beyond geography and borders, and consider multi-lateral, multi-national, and other creative processes and organizations to preserve and promote security, stability and peace in the region."
McConville spoke to reporters about the importance of IPACC and similar trainings.
"I think we should continue these exercises because they lead to sustainable security in the region and allow for economic growth to those who share the same interests as us," he said.
Thai-US relationship
The United States has stepped up its relationship with Thailand in reaction to China's One Belt One Road initiative to build a 21st-century Silk Road by connecting countries through networks of railways, bridges and ports, according to Dulapak Preecharush, a professor at Thammasat University in Thailand.
"ASEAN is a key region in which the U.S. and China are doing power plays," he told BenarNews. "The U.S. is at disadvantage geographically but has strength with military power projection."
He added that the U.S. has used military relations to strengthen alliances.
"The factor for improved ties is Thailand's geo-political importance given its location as the center of Indo-China – the key country among the CLMV sub-grouping (Cambodia-Laos-Myanmar and Vietnam)," he said. "The U.S. can't afford to not prioritize."


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Thailand took possession of 10 U.S.-made infantry carrier vehicles on Thursday, as a Thai navy official confirmed to BenarNews that the kingdom had agreed to purchase a warship from China earlier in the week.
The vehicles, the first of 47 refurbished Stryker vehicles purchased by Bangkok along with 23 given by Washington, symbolize efforts to address security challenges in the region, U.S. Gen. Robert Brown said at the ceremony.
"I am very proud to be here today with our tremendous partnership and tremendous ally, the Royal Thai Army, to be the first to receive this excellent vehicle to modernize and ensure that their soldiers are protected and again their citizens are protected and ready for any situations," said Brown, the U.S. Army commander for the Indo-Pacific region.
"You need the best equipment for your soldiers and I guarantee you my first-hand experience ... I was on the ground for 75,000 miles in a Stryker in Iraq and was [targeted] by rocket-propelled grenades, IEDs, suicide vehicle bombers, everything – and here I am. I wouldn't be here if it was not for Stryker," he told reporters after the ceremony.
Royal Thai Army Commander Gen. Apirat Kongsompong, who received four of the vehicles during the ceremonial handover, called it an important step in the military's efforts to modernize while maintaining strong relations with the U.S. Thailand is the oldest U.S. ally in Asia, with bilateral ties dating back 201 years.
"This Stryker will not only enhance the Royal Thai Army's capacity but will also act as a tangible symbol of friendship," Apirat said.
In July, the U.S. State Department approved the sale of 60 Strykers to Thailand for a cost of $175 million (5.4 billion Thai Baht), a Pentagon statement said.
Brown was asked if the deal could provoke China.
"No, I don't believe so," he said.
"China was at the conference we just had and they understand. Every nation wants to provide the best security and equipment for their soldiers and their nation. So I don't believe it is provocative at all," he said, referring to the just concluded Indo-Pacific Army Chiefs Conference in Bangkok.
China ship deal
A Royal Thai Navy official who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the media, confirmed a Wednesday report from ChinaMil, the People's Liberation Army's official news site, about the deal signed on Monday.
"The agreement was signed, but the Navy keeps a low profile. It is for amphibious landings as well as other roles such as delivering supplies to submarines and disaster relief," the source told BenarNews.
China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. signed a deal in Beijing with the Royal Thai Navy to export a landing platform dock warship, according to ChinaMil, which did not release specific details about its costs, specifications or delivery date.
"This is the first time for China to export abroad an amphibious transport dock, or dock landing ship, and also marks a major achievement between China and Thailand in comprehensive strategic cooperation," ChinaMil said.


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Pope Francis will come to Thailand in November, on the first leg of an Asian trip that will also take him to Japanese cities devastated by atomic bombs in World War II, the Vatican and archbishop of Bangkok announced Friday.
During his four-day visit to Buddhist-majority Thailand – the first by a pontiff in 35 years – Francis will meet members of the Thai Catholic community, said Cardinal Francis-Xavier Kriengsak Kovitvanit, head of the Bishops' Conference of Thailand (BCT).
"Pope Francis will officially visit Thailand from Nov. 20 to 23, 2019 at the invitation of the Thai government and the Catholic Bishops of Thailand," the archbishop told a news conference in the Thai capital.
Kriengsak said the Pope's itinerary "will be announced later," but Monsignor Vissanu Thanya-anan, BCT deputy secretary-general, told reporters that Francis would visit churches and meet other religious leaders.
"He certainly will have a Mass twice, one for Catholics in Thailand and another one for new generations, the youths, as usual," Vissanu said.
The last Pope to visit Thailand was John Paul II, who made a whirlwind trip in May 1984.
Dominican priests introduced Christianity to Thais but the Catholicism has never gained a significant foothold. As of 2019, Thailand has about 389,000 Catholics, accounting for less than 1 percent of the Buddhist-majority nation's population of 69 million, according to official figures from the Catholic Church.
The Thai Foreign Ministry, in a one-paragraph statement posted on its website, confirmed that the Pope was making a visit "at the invitation of the Royal Thai Government and the Bishops of Thailand."
"The program of the visit will be announced later," it said.
The Holy See's Press Office also confirmed the pontiff's visit.
In Japan, where he will stay until Nov. 26, Pope Francis will visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The United States detonated two nuclear bombs over the two cities on Aug. 6 and 9, 1945, respectively, killing between 129,000 and 226,000 people, according to historians. There are about 450,000 Catholics in Japan, where Shinto and Buddhism are the main religions.
Since being elected by a papal conclave as the 266th Roman Catholic pontiff in 2013, Pope Francis has constantly used his pulpit to draw attention to the powerless and the persecuted.
In a November 2017 speech, Pope Francis "firmly condemned" nuclear weapons.
He has also spoken against the mass killing of Armenians during World War II, risking Turkey's anger by describing the deaths as a genocide, and he has also condemned "the persecution of our Rohingya brothers" in Myanmar.
During a visit to Bangladesh in December 2017, Francis prayed with Rohingya refugees.
"In the name of everyone, of those who persecute you, of those who've done you wrong, above all, the world's indifference, I ask you for forgiveness," the pope told them, his voice trembling with emotion.
Pope Francis' visit to Thailand will mark the 350th anniversary of the founding of the "Mission de Siam," which was founded by Pope Clement IX in 1669.
Born Jorge Mario Bergoglino on Dec. 17, 1936, Pope Francis has visited Sri Lanka and the Philippines in 2014, before visiting Myanmar and Bangladesh three years later.


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Thai Prime Minister Chan-o-cha on Tuesday defended a police order requiring a university to report on the identities and activities of Muslim students enrolled there.

Police needed such information for investigations and to build up a security database, Prayuth told reporters in Bangkok as he fielded questions about the police order.

"We have to admit that sometimes we cannot examine or conduct something because of a lack of a database," Prayuth said. "The move is not violating anybody's rights. Please understand why officials need to do this. Innocents cannot be arrested."

The police order was brought to light by Angkhana Neelapaijit, a former member of the National Human Rights Commission, who posted a copy of the police order on her Facebook page.

The name of the university was blacked out, and it was not immediately clear if the same order was sent to other institutions. 

Among their questions for university administrators, police wanted to know how many Muslim students were enrolled, which "sect" they belonged to, whether Muslim clubs were active on campus, and the names of club presidents, according to the letter seen by BenarNews.   

Col. Krishna Pattanacharoen, a deputy spokesman for the national police, said the letter was sent out by its special branch and intended for "building a database and managing intelligence about situations, persons and groups of person within its jurisdiction."

Yincheep Atchanont, program manager for the Thai civil society group iLaw, said authorities had "no legal grounds" to enforce such an order and were acting as if a junta were still in power.

"There is no law [that] provides them powers to ask for profiles of each student, whether it is related to religion or anything," Yincheep told BenarNews in Washington. 

"This is kind of [a] normal practice when they are in power for more than five years and they feel that they can do anything," Yincheep said, referring to the junta that led Thailand from May 2014 until June, and whose chief is now the elected prime minister. 

Angkhana: 'My role was limited'

Angkhana, who was awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award this month for her work championing human rights in Thailand, told BenarNews in an interview Tuesday that she stepped down from the National Human Rights Commission in July because she was unable to make an impact while working there.

"I resigned because my role was limited and I had no independence," she said, alleging that a senior commissioner had discouraged her from examining rights abuses in the Deep South.

Angkhana has been vocal about alleged rights abuses in the mainly Muslim southern border region, which has been in the grips of a separatist insurgency and under military rule for decades.

She became an activist after her husband, attorney Somchai Neelapaijit, was abducted from a street in Bangkok in 2004. He had been handling a criminal case on behalf of a group of Muslims from the Deep South at the time of his disappearance, and has been missing ever since.

Angkhana called on authorities to take advantage of technological advances in forensics to help solve cases, saying she had received over 100 complaints of torture of detainees in military custody from December 2016 to May 2017. 

"Nowadays, security units have advanced technology [and] forensic science, and if they used these to solve the cases or make an arrest, they would gain trust from people," she told Benar.
Last month, a 34-year-old suspected insurgent died in custody after weeks in a coma. He was found unconscious in his cell shortly after being taken for interrogation at an army camp in Pattani province. 

Thai authorities deny allegations of torture; military officials said that closed-circuit cameras were not online during the questioning.

Wilawan Watcharasakwet in Bangkok and Imran Vittachi in Washington contributed to this report.


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Unidentified gunmen shot dead a village chief in Pattani province on Thursday, bringing to three the death toll this week in Thailand's Deep South, the first killings in the insurgency-hit region after a lull since Aug. 22, officials said.
The shooting took place the same day that an unknown number of assailants struck a school building with gunfire in neighboring Yala province, forcing authorities to order a lockdown, authorities said.
Samsuding Saro-ang, 48, the headman of Bahoyiruering village in Pattani's Sai Buri district, was riding a motorcycle before dawn when he was gunned down, a police investigator told reporters.
"[The victim] was shot at multiple times with handguns and he was pronounced dead on arrival at Yupparat Hospital in Sai Buri," police Lt. Kittikhun Pongpetch said.
Investigators were still trying to determine the attackers' motive, but didn't rule out the possible involvement of separatist insurgents, he said.
On Monday, suspected rebels fatally wounded two village defense volunteers when they opened fire at a motorcycle convoy after detonating a roadside bomb in Koke Pho, another district in Pattani, Maj. Piyawat Chalermsri, the commander of Pattani police bureau, told reporters.
The next day, an unidentified gunman shot and wounded a construction worker who was riding a motorcycle in Pattani's Maung district, police said.
The victim remains under intensive care at a local hospital, officials said. His wife, who was on the same motorcycle, was unharmed, according to investigators. It was not immediately clear if the attack was insurgency-related.
On Thursday morning, gunmen opened fire and struck a building at the Ban Seyoh School in Yaha, a district in Yala province, prompting authorities to order a lockdown.
"The perpetrators fired four or five rounds into the school, but the bullets hit a building and caused no casualties," Capt. Isawat Yingkong, a Yaha police station investigator, told reporters. He did not provide details, but said a defense team returned fire "so the gunmen retreated."
Srisompob Jitpiromsri, director of Deep South Watch, a think-tank, said members of the region's largest insurgent group, the National Revolutionary Front (BRN), could have resumed their attacks after nearly a month of inactivity due to unfavorable weather conditions. He did not provide evidence to support his allegations.
"BRN members still want themselves to be heard," he said. "The rains caused them to pause bombing [activities] in the past weeks."
Despite the lull in insurgency-related attacks, casualty figures in Thailand's predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking southern border region during the first three quarters this year had already matched 2018's statistics, Srisompob said.
According to unofficial figures compiled by BenarNews from police and military records, at least 77 people have been killed and 128 wounded to date this year, while last year saw 80 deaths and 155 injuries.
The Thai Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in neighboring Songkhla. Almost 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the majority-Muslim region since a separatist insurgency reignited in 2004.
Peace talks brokered by neighboring Malaysia have yet to resume formally since Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, the former junta leader and ex-army chief, was elected to the office by lawmakers in June after a general election in March.


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A Thai court acquitted six pro-democracy activists Friday of sedition and illegal-assembly charges over a protest last year when they demanded a general election, which the military government at the time had already postponed repeatedly.
The Criminal Court in Bangkok ruled that the accused had no intent to incite violence when they demonstrated in February 2018, but were merely urging the National Council for Peace and Order– the official name of the junta – to hold polls in November that year, as NCPO chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha had promised.
"From audio tape transcription, the defendants did not use foul language or attempt to instigate violence or hurt officials," a judge at the Ratchada court said.
"Given the circumstances, principles of checks-and-balance and freedom of expression to criticize a government is democratically legitimate," the judge said. "Therefore, the six defendants are not guilty of sedition. The verdict is acquittal."
The six activists – Chonthicha Jangrew, Sirawith "Ja New" Seritiwat, Nuttaa Mahahtana, Anon Numpa, Sukrit Piensuwan and Kan Pongprapapan – were arrested and charged after they led a rally near the Democracy Monument in Bangkok on Feb. 10, 2018. They were free on bail.
Sirawith was previously arrested and detained in 2016 with three other activists on charges of attempting to protest against alleged corruption in a park built by the military. A military court would later release them, saying there was no reason for their detention because the punishment for defying the ban on demonstrations was minor.
In clearing the six activists of charges that they violated the ban on political gatherings of more than five people, the Criminal Court said Friday that the NCPO had been dissolved after the country installed a civilian government two months ago. The long-awaited general election, which saw a pro-junta alliance win a parliamentary majority, was held on March 24.
The six were arrested last year as the junta, which seized power in a May 2014 coup, cracked down on critics and curbed basic freedoms, rights groups said.
Thailand marked an official end to five years of military rule in July this year, when Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha and his cabinet were sworn in by the Thai king, although the new government retained some of the junta's strict executive orders.
Prayuth led the coup that toppled the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra, and then installed himself as prime minister and head of the NCPO.
Activist: Election a junta-scripted 'play'
After the court issued its verdict, Chonthicha said she was glad to be acquitted, but urged foreign governments to keep an eye on the political situation in her country.
"Despite the elections, Thailand is not democratic," she told reporters outside the court, adding that more than 130 people were being prosecuted for participating in peaceful protests, which called for an election.
Chonthicha was among Thai activists who visited Washington this week to meet with American diplomats and Congressional members and tell them that Bangkok was still in the grips of an authoritarian government, despite this year's general election. She returned to Thailand to hear the verdict.
"It was not really an election," Yingcheep Atchanont, a program manager for iLaw, a civil and political rights research and advocacy group based in Bangkok, told BenarNews during the group's visit to the U.S. capital. "It was a play, and the NCPO wrote the script."
On July 26, the United States certified Thailand as a democracy and notched up military sales to its oldest ally in Asia after the polls.
In the U.S. certification, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that "a democratically elected government had taken office in Thailand."
The certification was published in the Federal Register as required under the Foreign Assistance Act. The law bars American security forces from cooperating with nations where an elected government has been toppled through a coup.
Also in July, the State Department approved the sale of 60 infantry carrier vehicles to Thailand for a cost of U.S. $175 million (5.4 billion Thai Baht), a Pentagon statement said. Last week, the Thai military took delivery of 10 of those Stryker vehicles.
Yingcheep questioned the criteria or information used by Washington to arrive at its certification.
Sirikan Charoensiri, of Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, said Washington should also take note that Thai political exiles in Laos and Cambodia had gone missing, and dissidents from those countries who fled to Thailand have been forcibly returned, in cases documented by Human Rights Watch and other groups.
"Thailand has been a bad example to its neighbors," she told BenarNews.
Kate Beddall in Washington contributed to this report.


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Thailand's top Muslim leader on Tuesday urged police to drop an order requiring universities to compile a list of Muslim students and activities they are involved in, for entry into a law enforcement database.
In a letter to National Police Chief Chakthip Chaichinda, Sheikhul Islam Aziz Phitakkumpon said the requirement was discriminatory and unconstitutional.
"The Sheikhul Islam Office has learned about the matter and has great concern because if the special branch police and universities implement the inquiry, it discriminates against Muslim citizens in Thailand," he said. "And it contradicts Article 27 of the Constitution which states that each individual is legally equal in terms of rights, liberty and protections under the law."
"The Sheikhul Islam Office requests the [national police chief] consider ordering the special branch police to stop implementing unfair practices on Muslims and all other groups of people to maintain the country's stability and security," Aziz said in the letter.
The letter said the compiling of such information could foster division among different groups throughout Thailand and further alienate people in the Deep South region where some ethnic Malay Muslims have waged an armed fight for independence for more than 15 years.
The Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in neighboring Songkhla. Almost 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the region since a separatist insurgency reignited in 2004.
"The government must rule the country fairly and squarely to build awareness and love for the homeland. ... Discrimination alienates people and may lead to greater separatism efforts," the letter warned.
Muslim extremists
"We admit that, in fact, there are Muslim extremists out there, but police must deal with them individually and not perform a blanket cross-check on Muslim students," Wisut Binlateh, an official in the Sheikhul Islam Office, told BenarNews on Tuesday.
"There are extremists among believers of all faiths. I don't know why they do it to Muslim students only," he said.
The police order came to light when Angkhana Neelapaijit, a former Thai National Human Rights Commission member, posted a copy of it on her Facebook page earlier this month.
Angkhana, who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in the Philippines this month for her work championing human rights, has been vocal about alleged rights abuses in the mainly Muslim Deep South.
Following her revelation last week, national police deputy spokesman Col. Krishna Pattanacharoen confirmed letters were sent to several campuses to build a database and manage intelligence.
"In regard with the Sheikhul Islam's letter addressed to the police chief, the authorities have to study the contents and will later clarify the matter," Krishna told BenarNews on Tuesday.
Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha also defended the police order last week.
"We have to admit that sometimes we cannot examine or conduct something because of a lack of a database," he said.
Meanwhile, Ismail Doloh, a third-year student at Ramkhamhaeng University in Bangkok, said the database was causing fear among people from the Deep South.
"Since the multiple bombings in Bangkok in August, we students and people from Deep South were under close watch, especially around Ramkhamhaeng University. There are many plain-clothed police," Ismail told BenarNews on Tuesday, referring to a series of small explosions during the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting.
Thai police have charged two Deep South men for their alleged roles in the bombings and have issued arrest warrants for nine other unnamed suspects.


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The Pentagon has told Congress it plans to sell light attack helicopters and related equipment worth $400 million to Thailand, U.S. defense officials said, as Washington and Beijing compete to sell military hardware to Southeast Asian nations.
The prospective sale of the eight AH-6i helicopters was announced Tuesday, after Bangkok took delivery this month of 10 U.S.-made Stryker infantry carriers as part of a batch of 47 purchased from the United States.
The Stryker deal was announced after Washington certified in July that "a democratically elected government had taken office in Thailand" after the country held its first general election since the military seized power in a 2014 coup.
"The State Department has made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale to Thailand of eight ( AH-6i light attack reconnaissance helicopters and related equipment for an estimated cost of $400 million," the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement.
DSCA, which deals with foreign military sales for the Department of Defense (DoD), said it had delivered the required certification notifying U.S. legislators on Tuesday of the possible sales deal with Thailand.
In Bangkok, Lt. Gen. Kongcheep Tantrawanich, spokesman for Thailand's defense ministry, told BenarNews that he could not immediately provide information about the helicopter deal.
"I cannot confirm or give details now because there are some long outstanding arms purchase requests, which were stalled during the time of a non-civilian government in Thailand," he said Wednesday, without elaborating.
"But, in general, the defense ministry has a plan to buy equipment to increase the armed forces' potential," he said, "although they are largely meant to replace aging equipment."
DSCA said that aside from the AH-6i, which is an advanced variant of the helicopter model used by U.S. Army Special Operations Forces, Bangkok has also requested to buy 50 Hellfire missiles, 200 rockets and an assortment of equipment, including Gatling-style machine guns.
The proposed sale will improve the Royal Thai Army's (RTA) light attack capability to strengthen its homeland defense and deter regional threats, the statement said. The AH-6i helicopters will replace Thailand's aging fleet of seven AH-IF Cobra helicopters, it said.
In June last year, Thailand also agreed to purchase four Black Hawk helicopters from the United States through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program to complete a full squadron of 16 units, the Thai army chief, Gen. Chalermchai Sitthisart, told BenarNews.
The helicopters would be added to the 12 Black Hawks already in service and purchased before a military coup that brought Gen. Prayuth Chan-o-cha to power in May 2014.
Besides Black Hawks, Thailand expects to replace some of its fleet of Vietnam War-era UH-1 (Huey) helicopters with 30 UH-72A Lakota light utility helicopters. The first batch of six ordered before the coup had been delivered, but one crashed in bad weather, authorities said.
After the coup, the U.S. suspended military assistance valued at 119 million baht ($3.5 million) to Thailand but kept participating in scaled-down annual Cobra Gold training exercises, Thai and U.S. officials said.
Diplomatic ties between Thailand and the United States began 184 years ago, which makes Thailand the oldest American ally in the Asia-Pacific region. The kingdom is also a major non-NATO ally that fought alongside U.S. forces during wars in Korea and Vietnam.
Report: Thailand to postpone acquisition of frigate
Since 2014, Thailand has also purchased weapons from Russia and Ukraine and has signed a contract to purchase a Yuan-class submarine from China with expected delivery in 2020, according to the Royal Thai Navy.
Earlier this month, China held a keel-laying ceremony for one of the three submarines ordered by Thailand in a 36-billion baht ($1.05 billion) deal that generated controversy back in 2015. As a result of Thailand's plan to purchase submarines, the nation's navy would likely postpone its plan to purchase a second frigate, the Bangkok Post reported on Monday.
Thailand also recently purchased 49 battle tanks valued at 4.9 billion baht ($142 million) from China, while Malaysia earlier agreed to buy four coastal patrol ships from China, officials said. Beijing has sold weapons to at least seven Southeast Asian nations since 2006, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think-tank.
BenarNews staff in Washington contributed to this report.


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A Taiwanese businessman was convicted in a Thai court Thursday of illegally hosting a radio station that broadcast uncensored news to listeners in China and sentenced to eight months in jail, suspended for two years, his lawyer said.
Chiang Yung-hsin and his lawyer appeared at Chiang Mai provincial court, 720 kilometers (450 miles) north of Bangkok, Thursday morning to hear the verdict on the charges of "possession and use of an unlicensed transmitter" and "setting up an unlicensed radio station."
"The court sentenced him to 8 months in jail but suspended the penalty for two years and fined him 60,000 baht ($2,000)," Chiang's lawyer, Tawat Wipanguean, told BenarNews.
"In other words, the court believes he knew about the station. Luckily he was not jailed," Tawat said. "Now he becomes a convict but he stays out of jail due to the suspension and becomes persona non grata."
Chiang, 52, was indicted in January on charges of setting up the station without a permit for Sound of Hope (SOH), a San Francisco-based radio network that was founded by Falun Gong, a religious movement banned in China, according to court documents.
Chiang consistently denied the charges in a case that played out amid claims that Beijing pressured Thai authorities to shut down the station.
Tawat told BenarNews that Chiang "will go back to Taiwan and discuss with his family what to do next."
"He has not seen his wife for over a year now. We have a month to appeal but if he doesn't come back again, we won't appeal the case," he said.
A court official confirmed the verdict was read Thursday morning but the court declined to reveal the verdict to the public. An assistant of Chiang said he was not comfortable commenting on the case.
Thailand strictly controls radio and TV stations as well as prohibiting broadcasts in foreign languages, except for pre-approved items, to neighboring countries, according to broadcast experts.
Founded in 1992 in China's northeast, the Falun Gong spiritual movement gained increasing influence as the fastest-growing religion in the PRC and overseas during the next seven years. In 1999 the Chinese government at the orders of then-President Jiang Zemin began a harsh and sometimes deadly crackdown on the sect, dragging practitioners from their homes and sending them to detention centers.
Outside of China, the movement was considered harmless and continued to flourish. It is often cited as an example of religious persecution in China, with practitioners and allied religious-freedom advocates holding protests in major cities to bring attention to the situation faced by Falun Gong believers in the PRC


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Thailand's National Security Council chief said Thursday he would take over next month as head of the Thai negotiating team in peace talks with southern rebels, replacing his predecessor who was appointed only a year ago.
Gen. Wanlop Rugsanaoh, the outgoing NSC director-general, told reporters that Udomchai Thammasarorat had resigned as the top negotiator to assume his role as a senator.
"Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has appointed me to be new the peace-talks delegation chief in place of Gen. Udomchai Thammasarorat," Wanlop said.
BenarNews could not immediately get a reaction from Udomchai, a former army general who led Bangkok's delegation in Malaysia-brokered talks with separatist insurgent groups from the Thai Deep South, starting in October 2018.
A low-ranking insurgent operative in Pattani said the change in the leadership of the Thai negotiating team would have no impact on the peace process unless the rebel groups fulfilled their goal of "Merdeka," a Malay word for independence.
"I personally think no matter who becomes the chief of peace talks, it won't make any difference if we can't achieve Merdeka," the insurgent who identified himself as Fadueri told BenarNews.
He claimed he was a member of Barisan Nasional Revolusi (the National Revolutionary Front, or BRN), the largest among insurgent groups in Thailand's mainly Malay-speaking and Muslim southern border region.
"The (Thai) government set up the peace-talks panel on a lark and played, so we also play our game," he said.
NSC chief's background
Wanlop, an ex-director of the Ministry of Defense's Office of Policy and Planning, has extensive experience dealing with top-level security officials from the United States and other countries.
The Thai cabinet endorsed Wanlop's nomination as secretary-general of the National Security Council in August 2017. During a cabinet meeting at the time, Prayuth described Wanlop as "well-grounded in security and defense."
Wanlop served as an artillery platoon leader in the 3rd Army during the 1980s and 1990s. Years later, he became a policy planner under the Defense Ministry and also served as a mission coordinator for the U.N. Transitional Authority's peacekeeping operation in Cambodia, officials said.
Thailand's Deep South includes Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces, as well as four districts in Songkhla province. A separatist insurgency waged by the BRN and other armed groups has killed almost 7,000 people since it reignited in early 2004, according to rights groups that monitor the region.
Since 2015, Thailand under a military government led by Prayuth has engaged with MARA Patani, a panel of negotiators representing southern rebel groups and factions, in Kuala Lumpur facilitated talks aimed at ending the conflict. The talks have stalled and yielded no breakthrough.
The negotiations were dogged by allegations that hardcore BRN leaders commanding fighters in the field were not participating in the talks and did not support the effort.
In an interview with BenarNews in July this year, Sukree Hari, who headed a rebel delegation at peace talks with the Thai government from 2015 until May 2019, slammed the government over the negotiations.
"The Thai government is not sincere about resolving the conflict ... The negotiations held thus far were a tactic for wasting Malay Patani people's time," Sukree said, referring to the southernmost provinces and the ethnic Malay Muslim majority who lives there.
Prayuth began his term as an elected prime minister this past June after a parliamentary majority picked him to lead the new government in the wake of a general election held in March – the first polls staged in Thailand's since Prayuth, a former army chief of staff, led a military coup that toppled a civilian-led government in May 2014.


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A woman in Thailand's Deep South identified her son on Monday as a student being held by Egyptian authorities on suspicion of links to Islamic State extremists.
News about the student's arrest broke after the Thai Embassy in Cairo posted a statement on its Facebook page Saturday, saying it had taken steps to help him. The statement did not identify the detained student.
"A Thai student in Egypt was arrested by Egyptian security officials on Sept. 24, 2019, because they found photos that might indicate a link to IS," the embassy said, using an acronym for the Islamic State.
The embassy said the arrest took place after a local TV station in Egypt had "disseminated a clip" online allegedly showing him confessing during an interview that he was an IS supporter.
Officials in Thailand's Deep South who had dealt with the embassy in Cairo confirmed to BenarNews that the student was Aiproheng Malee, 25.
Aiproheng's mother, Ya Malee, citing information relayed to her by one of his friends, also identified him as the student who was alluded to in the embassy statement.
"[Egyptian] officials found photos of IS on his cell phone. They forced him to confess, so Aiproheng did," Ya, a resident of Yala province, told BenarNews on Monday. "I am seeking help from the government, please help him."
"One of his friends called my husband and me saying Aiproheng was arrested. The friend said Aiproheng has nothing to do with the IS," said Ya. "He was wrongly accused."
The Thai embassy in Cairo was trying to gain permission to visit the student to provide legal and consular assistance, said Rear Adm. Somkiat Polprayoon, director of the Southern Border Province Administration Center (SBPAC), which oversees civilian-related matters in the Deep South.
"We dispatched officials to work with his family today. We expect to hear progress by tomorrow," Somkiat told BenarNews.
On Sunday, the embassy said that Thai Ambassador Chainarong Keratiyutwong met with Hazem El Tahry, deputy vice minister of the Egyptian foreign ministry, and discussed the student's arrest.
The embassy also posted on its Facebook page a photo of the two officials, but did not give details on what transpired during the meeting.
"[We] expressed concern over the arrest and hope the student is treated fairly according to international judicial system and practices," the embassy said on its Facebook page.
It was not immediately clear if charges had been filed against Aiproheng. BenarNews could not contact the embassy for an update on Monday. Officials at the Egyptian embassy in Bangkok also did not immediately respond to a related inquiry from BenarNews.
Arrested during crackdown
Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country, has a majority-Muslim population in its Deep South region, where a separatist insurgency has killed almost 7,000 people since the conflict reignited in early 2004, according to rights groups.
In 2015, IS supporters in Thailand posted propaganda videos on the internet – the first such videos produced by the militant group with Thai subtitles, a senior Thai security official told BenarNews.

While Thai officials have brushed off the threat of an IS presence in the country, officials in neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia have been warning about the group's growing influence in recruiting local youths on their countries' home soil. 

Pro-IS videos have surfaced online that are clearly targeted toward audiences in those countries. IS has its own Malay-speaking combat unit made up of Indonesian and Malaysian fighters.
According to Thai officials, IS has no presence in Thailand and Malay-speaking insurgents in the Deep South are fighting for independence, and not for a foreign ideology.
"To promote IS ideology is counter-productive to their cause for Merdeka or independence," a security official told BenarNews on Monday. The source spoke on condition of anonymity, saying he was not authorized to speak to the media.


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Thailand has "no links" to any foreign militant group, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-Cha said Tuesday, after Egyptian authorities arrested a Thai student over suspicions that he supported Islamic State extremists.
The Thai Embassy in Cairo has not identified the detained student but posted a statement on its Facebook page Saturday, saying it had taken steps to help him. It said the student was arrested on Sept. 24 after security officials "found photos that might indicate a link to IS" on his mobile phone.
"Officials keep monitoring (Thai Muslims), and there are no links here with any foreign group," Prayuth told reporters in Bangkok.
According to the embassy, the arrest took place after a TV station in Egypt had "disseminated a clip" online allegedly showing the student expressing his support for the Islamic State (IS) group during an interview.
Prayuth did not mention the student's name, but said the Thai Foreign Ministry was dealing with authorities in Egypt.
He said Thai Ambassador Chainarong Keratiyutwong had discussed the student's arrest with Hazem El Tahry, deputy vice minister of the Egyptian foreign ministry, who "promised to follow up the case and cooperate with Thailand."
The arrested student had previously been detained in Sudan and he relocated to Egypt because he could not carry on with his studies there, Reuters news service quoted Thai Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon as saying.
On Monday, a shopkeeper in the Thai Deep South told BenarNews that her 25-year-old son, Aiproheng Malee, was the student taken into custody in Egypt, but she denied that he had ties with militants.
"[Egyptian] officials found photos of IS on his cell phone. They forced him to confess, so Aiproheng did," said Ya Malee, a grocery store owner and resident of Yala province, citing information relayed to her by one of her son's friends.
"I am seeking help from the government, please help him," she said.
It was not immediately clear if charges had been filed against Aiproheng. The Thai embassy in Cairo was trying to gain permission to visit the student to provide legal and consular assistance, Thai officials told BenarNews on Monday. Officials at the Egyptian embassy in Bangkok, meanwhile, did not immediately respond to inquiries from Benar.
Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country, has a majority-Muslim population in its Deep South region, where a separatist insurgency has killed almost 7,000 people since the conflict reignited in early 2004, according to rights groups.
While Thai officials have brushed off the threat of an IS presence in the country, officials in neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia have been warning about the group's growing influence in recruiting local youths on their countries' home soil.
Prayuth told reporters that Thai embassies and diplomats had been instructed to make sure that the nation's youths who are studying abroad would come back and build a career in their homeland.
"Those who are learning both religious matters and regular curricula, we encourage them to learn from moderate Muslim countries. Then come back and have occupation to make a living," he said.


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The Thai police's Special Branch has cancelled an order directing universities to provide information on Muslim students for a law enforcement database, the unit's chief confirmed to BenarNews on Thursday.
Police viewed the order as routine intelligence work but it turned out be controversial with the public, said police Lt. Sarawut Karnpanich, commissioner of the Special Branch Police Bureau, which oversaw the effort that was criticized as singling out Thailand's small Muslim minority.
"When problems arose, I ordered a cancellation of its implementation," he said in a phone interview. "We think it's sensitive."
Sarawut confirmed the cancellation after a parliamentary committee that held a hearing into the matter on Wednesday said police had agreed to stop asking universities for information on Muslim students. The order required universities to compile a list of Muslim students and their on-campus activities and deliver this information to the police.
On Wednesday, officials from the Special Branch testified before the House of Representatives' Committee on Law, Justice and Human Rights, along with members of the Muslim Students Federation of Thailand.
"Our young brothers also met us and we told them we didn't mean to violate human rights. It's our routine job. I apologized," Sarawut told BenarNews, referring to the members of the Muslim student federation.
"We did not think this was an issue. It shouldn't have been an issue, but the matter was exaggerated," he said.
Rangsiman Rome, a spokesman for the committee, said it had questioned Special Branch officials on whether the order discriminated against Muslim students.
"We tried questioning them about, first, the reason behind this, and second, why focus on Muslims. We sought such information as well as whether or not they monitored Christians and Buddhists," Rangsiman told BenarNews on Thursday.
"The [Special Branch] could not say much more because, they said, their work concerned security matters, although we expected to learn some more," he said.
Rangsiman, an MP with the opposition Future Forward Party, is a former student activist who helped lead anti-junta protests in the streets of Bangkok in recent years that led up to Thailand's 2019 general election.
On Thursday, the Muslim Students Federation posted a message on its Facebook page calling on police to issue a formal apology and to make a public announcement about the cancelled order.
"The [federation] demands that the Special Branch deliver written notification about the cancellation [of the order] to universities ... and we call on the Special Branch to show responsibility by offering an apology about its mistake," the federation said.
'A good thing'
The police order was widely criticized by human rights advocacy groups and the Sheikhul Islam, the top Muslim leader in the country, who last week called on police to cancel the order.
"We don't mean to have special privileges but equality and justice, which we take it as a key factor for harmony and true security," Wisut Binlateh, an official with the Office of the Sheikhul Islam, told BenarNews.
"This is a good thing that they listen to people, although he may have taken orders from his superior," he said, referring to chief of Special Branch.
In an editorial published on Sept. 21, the Bangkok Post slammed the police order, saying it appeared "to constitute both outright discrimination and pure prejudice against a minority group of Thai youth."
Stereotyping Muslims, the editorial added, "invites abuse of power by authorities."
Last month, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha defended the order, saying the police needed such information for investigations and for entry into a database.
"The move is not violating anybody's rights," Prayuth told reporters on Sept. 17.
Muslims make up the majority of the population in Thailand's Deep South, where a separatist insurgency reignited in 2004. Thai authorities had arrested at least two Muslim men from the border region and charged them in connection with a series of small bombs that exploded in Bangkok on Aug. 1, injuring four people.


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Thailand's military has filed a sedition complaint against a dozen opposition leaders, politicians, academics and others, accusing them of attempting to "incite turmoil" and "create chaos" while participating at a forum last month in the insurgency-hit Deep South.
Officials with the Internal Security Operations Command for Region 4 (ISOC-4), the military command that oversees the Deep South, lodged the complaint with police in Pattani province, where the  discussions were held, said Lt. Col. Kirati Triwai, a deputy investigator with the local police station.
Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the Future Forward Party, and other prominent opposition leaders, politicians and academics discussed potential solutions for ending the decades-old separatist conflict at the Sept. 28 forum.
Part of the discussions were reported to have touched on a sensitive section of the country's constitution that defines Thailand as a "single and indivisible kingdom."
"ISOC-4 filed a complaint yesterday and we are initially double-checking information regarding the complaint. Then we will issue summons," Kirati said. "This is a new case and it takes time to find factual information."
According to a police report obtained by BenarNews, those targeted in the complaint were said to have "delivered distorted information to people to incite turmoil, disobedience, create chaos in the Kingdom or stir public violation of laws."
During the seminar, panelist Chalita Banthuwong, a professor at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, appeared to suggest that an amendment to the 2017-framed constitution, which was backed by a military government that ruled Thailand at the time, might help settle the conflict.
"The Deep South situation couldn't be improved under this constitution ... The government has three ways to solve the problems, by military and police force, livelihood development and promotion of multi-cultural society that should be handled by the non-security side," Chalita told the forum, which was videotaped and disseminated on YouTube and Facebook.
"[We] see that the attempt for solutions is conducted under the complete jurisdiction of the armed forces. It shouldn't have been that way, but the military has all the power and roles in every aspect," she added.
In 2015, Thailand's then-military government opened Malaysia-brokered peace talks with southern rebels aimed at settling the conflict, which has killed nearly 7,000 people since it reignited 15 years ago in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South.
The talks, however, have achieved no breakthroughs yet. Last week, Thailand's recently elected government said it had appointed a new chief negotiator.
"[T]he solutions to the problems in Thailand don't need to rely on a single state or a centralized state. If the constitution is amended, it is not wrong to amend Section 1 as well," Chalita told the forum as part of the discussion on the Deep South.
She was referring to the section stipulating that Thailand is a "single and indivisible kingdom."
BenarNews could not reach Chalita, who was named in the complaint, for comment on Friday. A fellow panelist defended her, suggesting that the academic was not necessarily endorsing a constitutional amendment.
"She said Section 1 can be reviewed or it can be discussed but she didn't outright call for an amendment," Rukchart Suwan, chairman of Buddhists for Peace, a local NGO, told BenarNews. "I myself don't agree, if someone wants to change the article."
Apart from Thanathorn, the four other politicians listed in the complaint are: Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, leader of the Prachachart Party; Sompong Amornwiwat, leader of the Pheu Thai Party; Songkram Kijlertpairoj; leader of the Pheu Chart Party; and Nikom Boonwiset, leader of Thai People's Power Party.
Deputy PM: Not a government order
In Bangkok, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan denied that the government had instructed ISOC-4 to file the complaint.
"It is the matter of ISOC-4. The government has nothing to do with it," Prawit told reporters.
In response to the complaint, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Future Forward Party, said the government, which includes former generals who were part of a junta that seized power in a 2014 coup, was muffling the voice of activists campaigning for amendments to the constitution.
"We political parties reaffirmed that we are sincere in [the] attempt to amend the constitution for the better," Piyabutr said.
Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, the Prachachart Party leader who hails from the Deep South, said that the opposition, in pressing for amending the constitution, "will not touch on articles concerning the nation's sovereignty and the monarch."
"But we seek change in the selection of senators and the creation of independent institutions," he said, referring to clauses in the constitution that, among other things, gave the junta power to appoint members of the 250-seat Senate after the March 2019 general election.
Nontarat Phaicharoen contributed to this report from Bangkok.


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A judge in Thailand's troubled Deep South was recovering Saturday after shooting himself inside a courtroom right after delivering a defiant verdict in a murder case, in which he railed against alleged interference by his superiors, according to an official who visited him at the hospital.
Judge Kanakorn Pianchana of the Yala Provincial Court, 49, took out a handgun, aimed it at his chest and pulled the trigger in front of a stunned crowd on Friday, a police official and an eyewitness said. The shooting happened almost as soon as Kanakorn acquitted five defendants, who were charged with killing five people at a local poultry farm last year.
"He is safe now," Anirut Jaithieng, the chief judge at the provincial court, told BenarNews after stopping by the hospital to see Kanakorn on Saturday.
But he indicated that an internal investigation into the incident might follow.
"For any future treatment of him, it will follow protocol," Anirut said.
A relative of one of the defendants was in the courtroom when the shooting occurred.
"The judge finished the verdict and he turned to pay his respects to the king's portrait before shooting himself. I ducked," the relative, who requested anonymity, citing concerns for privacy and safety, told Benar.
"Judge Kanakorn Pianchana was injured from a gunshot wound in his chest and was transferred to Yala Central Hospital. From an initial investigation, he shot himself while delivering a verdict," said Col. Narawi Binwae-arong, the chief of police in Yala, one of the provinces in the heavily militarized and insurgency-stricken Deep South.
Before entering the courtroom, Kanakorn posted a message on his Facebook page alleging that higher-ranking officials in the court system had pressured him to convict the five defendants. In the post, he said he planned to disseminate the verdict via Facebook Live.
Some scenes from Friday's court session were broadcast live on the social media platform, according to video clips obtained by BenarNews, but it was not immediately clear whether the shooting was aired on Facebook. Both the post and a recording of the broadcast were later removed from Kanakorn's Facebook page, but video clips and his post were shared online by other internet users.
"I [will do a] live broadcast to tell people that the director of the office of the chief justice (for Region 9) ordered me to penalize the five defendants without solid evidence to prove that they committed crimes, but I don't follow him," Kanakorn wrote in Thai in his post.
The judge alleged that court procedures stipulated that higher-ranking judges could only review his case if it was related to the separatist insurgency. But the case before him did not touch on national security and the defendants were not suspected insurgents, Kanakorn alleged.
A spokesman for the military's regional command later confirmed that the five defendants were not rebels.
"n order to punish them, there must be solid evidence. ... I can't confirm that the defendants did not do anything wrong – they could have – but the judiciary must be transparent, have integrity to avoid wrongly punishing innocent people," Kanakorn said according to a video clip from the Facebook broadcast.
He also alleged this was not the first time that his superiors had tried to interfere with his cases.
'ISOC has never interfered'
In Bangkok, a spokesman for the Office of the Courts of Justice addressed the incident in Yala.
"We initially heard that he [Kanakorn] was stressed out about personal matters. The Office will investigate the incident as it has concerns about it," spokesman Suriyan Hongwilai told reporters.
Sarawut Benjakul, the office's secretary-general, said it would convene a meeting next week to discuss the matter and how to handle it.
The judge's apparent suicide attempt lit up social media, adding fuel to questions about the integrity of Thailand's court system. Some commentators on Twitter and Facebook said the incident raised stark doubts about the independence of the judiciary.
"Kanakorn's bullet finally exposed the corrupted Thai judiciary system. The Yala court incident is the exposure of many other cases of the past that brought hardship, agony, fears and disgruntlement to the families of the victims and general people," Abu Hafez Al-Hakim, a spokesman for MARA Patani, a panel representing Deep South rebel groups in peace talks with Bangkok, wrote in a Facebook post Saturday.
However, Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the regional office of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), the military command, denied that the armed forces had exerted pressure on courts to sway verdicts.
"ISOC has never interfered in justice. The court has its own judgment," he said.

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A student from Thailand's Deep South has returned home to Yala province after being freed by authorities in Egypt who had arrested him on suspicion of ties to Islamic State extremists, the young man and officials said without explaining how he came to be released.
Aiproheng Malee, 25, a student at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, was taken into custody by Egyptian security officials on Sept. 24 for having photos on his cell phone that allegedly showed a link to Islamic State (IS), the Thai Embassy in Cairo had said last week on its Facebook page, adding it had undertaken step to help him.
Aiproheng, who arrived in Yala on Saturday evening, expressed gratitude to Thai officials who helped secure his release.
"Thank you, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, the Thai embassy in Cairo and the ISOC-4 (the army's regional security command) who helped me, Aiproheng Malee, arrive home," he said in a Facebook post on Sunday.
On Oct. 1, Prayuth told reporters in Bangkok that there were "no links" in Thailand with Islamic State or any foreign militant organization.
He said then that Thailand's ambassador to Egypt had discussed the student's arrest with senior official in the Egyptian foreign ministry who "promised to follow up the case and cooperate with Thailand."
On Monday, an official with the Southern Border Province Administration Center, a government agency that oversees civilian-related matters in the Deep South, confirmed details of Aiproheng's trip back to Thailand.
"He traveled with a Thai embassy official, arriving at Bangkok's Suvarnbhumi Airport before connecting to Hat Yai, and ISOC-4 Army officials then drove him home in the evening," the official, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told BenarNews.
A BenarNews correspondent visited the home of Aiproheng's family, but the young man was not in at the time. His father, Mahama Malee, who was at home, thanked Thai authorities for helping secure his son's release from Egypt.
Meanwhile in Bangkok, a Thai foreign ministry spokeswoman had little to say about Aiproheng.
"[We] learned about his arrival at home, but we don't have any further information to share," Busadee Santipitaks told BenarNews.
The Thai embassy in Cairo as well as the Egyptian embassy in Bangkok did not reply to requests for comment.
Predominantly Buddhist Thailand has a majority-Muslim population in its Deep South region, where a separatist insurgency has killed almost 7,000 people since the conflict reignited in early 2004, according to rights groups.
In 2015, IS supporters in Thailand posted propaganda videos on the internet – the first such videos produced by the militant group with Thai subtitles, a senior Thai security official told BenarNews at the time.

Thai officials have said that IS has no presence in Thailand and that Malay-speaking insurgents in the Deep South are fighting for a separate state and not for a foreign ideology.


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China's embassy in Bangkok criticized an unnamed Thai politician on Thursday for "supporting Hong Kong activists," three days after pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong posted on social media about meeting the leader of Thai opposition Future Forward Party (FFP).
Hong Kong was in imminent danger from violence and disobedience of laws, the embassy said in a Thai-language post on Facebook.
The diplomatic mission blamed a "group who wants to separate Hong Kong from China and collaborates with outside influences by circulating rumors and distorted information for their own agenda."
"A certain Thai politician contacted the group ... by gesturing support, which is a grave mistake and an irresponsible act. China hopes that the person involved could sense trouble in Hong Kong and be careful. ... Just act to benefit the relationship between China and Thailand," the statement said.
The embassy issued the statement after Wong, a leader of the ongoing protests in Hong Kong, posted a photo of his meeting with FFP leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit during the Open Future Festival, sponsored by The Economist magazine on Oct. 5. Both Thanathorn and Wong were both listed among speakers at the event in Hong Kong.
"Under the hard-line authoritarian suppression, we stand in solidarity," Wong said in a posting about the meeting.
Wong, who was denied entry into Thailand in 2016 when he was to deliver a speech marking the 40th anniversary of a bloody crackdown at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, praised Thanathorn.
"Although I do not know when I will have the opportunity to visit Thailand and it is not clear whether he will be denied entry to Hong Kong in the future, we hope that as conservative forces or authoritarian power expands in the Asia-Pacific Region, we can continue to promote the value of democratic progress," he said.
Thanathorn, who was a candidate for prime minister earlier this year after Thailand's first general election since a military coup in 2014, stopped talking to reporters a few months ago.
But an FFP spokeswoman said the issue had been resolved with the Chinese Embassy, but she did not elaborate on conversations between Wong and Thanathorn.
"The Future Forward Party has presented factual information about this issue with the Chinese Embassy. We understand each other well," FFP spokeswoman Pannika Wanich told BenarNews by phone Thursday evening.
Thai government officials could not be reached for comment.
Chinese embassy officials did not confirm the conversation, but described how the Hong Kong protests sparked by an extradition bill, which has since been withdrawn, have taken a different tack.
"The opposition to [the] extradition bill has completely drifted into the development of the coup against Xi with interference from influential groups of outsiders who want to separate Hong Kong from China," the statement said.


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Relatives of a suspected rebel in Thailand's Deep South are still searching for answers from officials on how he fell into a coma while under military custody and later died, and they have traveled to Bangkok twice to seek the help of lawmakers to investigate the case.
Abdullah Esomuso, 34, was found unconscious at 3 a.m. on July 21 in an interrogation center at Fort Inkayuthaboriharn, an army camp in Pattani province, after being held there for 10 hours, prompting questions about whether military interrogators tortured him. A suspected leader of an insurgent cell had implicated him in a series of attacks by rebels, according to officials.
This week, Abdullah's cousin, Muhammad Nomud Mamud, accompanied his widow to the Thai capital as she and others from the Deep South visited parliament to ask the House committee on law, justice and human rights to open an investigation.
"We hope to see progress and receive the truth," he told BenarNews. "We have little hope and belief but it is better than praying at home."
They are hoping to persuade lawmakers to help put an end to the alleged torture of rebel suspects by military interrogators.
"The case of Abdullah is not the Deep South's first. There have been many before this," Muhammad said. "So what we relatives are doing is trying to stop the repetition of these things in Deep South and urge officials who did it to stop and be investigated because people are still disgruntled."
Nearly 7,000 people have died in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region on Thailand's border with Malaysia since the separatist insurgency flared up again 15 years ago.
'Healthy'
According to a police officer's arrest note, Abdullah was in a "healthy condition," but he was stressed out during his detention and allowed to rest in the center, according to Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for Internal Security Operations Command-4 (ISOC-4), the military command in Thailand's heavily militarized southern border region.
After being found unconscious, the comatose Abdullah was treated at two smaller hospitals before being transferred to a larger hospital in Songkhla province, where he died on Aug. 25. Hospital officials identified the cause of death as "severe pneumonia and septic shock."
In late August, Abdul-asib Tadae-ing, who sits on the Committee to Protect Human Rights in the Deep South, said doctors stated that they had found no signs of torture on Abdullah.
"According to the doctors, the cause of death was severe pneumonia and septic shock, which happened after he had suffered from hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy [oxygen deprivation to the brain]," Abdul-asib said in a statement.
"The oxygen deprivation could mean torture such as suffocation with a bag, water boarding as some people claimed, or simply [that] he fainted without receiving CPR. The doctors said torture would show traces such as hemorrhaging in the eyes, swollen gums and a darkened face, which were not found in the case of Abdullah," he said.
On Wednesday, Surapong Kongchantuk, president of the human rights group Cross-Culture Foundation, accompanied Abdullah's wife, Sumaiyah Minga, to parliament.
"Oxygen deprivation could have been done without evidence left to find," Surapong told BenarNews at the parliament. "So we want an investigation to make this point clear to prevent a reoccurrence of torture and death."
Government promises thorough probe
Shortly after Abdullah died, Pramote said the military assigned the Committee to Protect Human Rights in the Deep South, which is made up of clerics, civilians and officials, to investigate to determine the facts of the case. It also set up a disciplinary committee to investigate officials who could have been responsible.
Around the same time, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha denied allegations of torture and said the government did not allow violence against detainees.
In early September, Abdullah's family members traveled to Bangkok for the first time in an effort to ask opposition parliamentarians to question the deputy defense minister who promised a thorough investigation.
"The government will take care of justice thoroughly. If any officials did wrong, they will be punished harshly, both disciplinarily and criminally," Deputy Defense Minister Gen. Chanchai Changmongkol, had told the parliament.
On Friday, Pramote said that a portion of the investigation was complete.
"We set up committees. And the Committee to Protect Human Rights in the Deep South examined the autopsy results and it clearly stated that the incident wasn't caused by officials," Pramote told BenarNews.
"The relatives can pursue the case with any legal channels and we won't prevent their efforts," he added.
Chanchai told parliament that the government had offered 500,000 baht ($16,130) in compensation to Abudullah's family, but his relatives turned this down.
"The family said the officials wanted to ceremoniously hand over the money instead of making a bank transfer and they did not give a clear condition, so the family refused it," Muhammad told BenarNews.
On Oct. 1, the family filed a complaint with police in Pattani.
Police Lt. Col. Chakrit Sangchan, Pattani's deputy chief, said he started the investigation by interrogating Abdullah's widow and other plaintiff's witnesses. Police were still compiling evidence, he said.
Pannika Wanich, the parliamentary committee's deputy chairwoman and spokeswoman for the opposition Future Forward Party, said the committee would discuss Esomuso's case.
"Parliament officials could instruct us about who should be summoned, but it will be after next week before we can conduct it after the budget session is finished," Pannika told reporters on Wednesday.
"What we can do is to invite agencies involved to tell us how they could answer the questions from Abdullah's family," she said.
A rights expert, meanwhile, pointed out that the committee has limited power.
"The committee can summon officials to testify, take a look at the arrest note, medical note upon arrest, listen to all sides and make a report," Angkhana Neelapaijit, a Ramon Magsaysay award laureate and former member of Thailand's Human Rights Commission, told BenarNews.
"The ISOC must reply in accordance with committee's executive power. But if officials don't, the committee can only report that the ISOC refused to respond."


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Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha on Tuesday defended recent remarks by Gen. Apirat Kongsompong accusing politicians and academics of destabilizing the nation and attempting to overthrow the monarchy, as lawmakers summoned the army chief for "clarification."
Prayuth's comments came a week after the military filed sedition charges against a dozen opposition leaders and others, alleging that they had stirred unrest when they talked during a forum last month about amending the 2017 constitution.
"I don't want this thing to cause rifts, and hinder the nation from going forward," Prayuth told reporters in Bangkok, referring to Apirat's emotion-packed speech last Friday in which the army chief lashed out at unidentified "communist" politicians and "extreme left" academics.
"In the future we need to be careful and be discrete about the contents [of speech]," Prayuth said.
After reading the text of Apirat's speech, Prayuth said he determined that the army chief merely talked "about growing patriotism, understanding how the nation came to be and a touch on the situation in the Deep South," the insurgency-hit southernmost part of the country.
During a lecture on national security at the Army's auditorium on Friday, Apirat talked about a "hybrid warfare" in which government critics allegedly were exploiting social media to spread propaganda while at the same time using traditional violent means to destroy the nation.
Apirat's comments did not make it clear that there was no war in Thailand, which has been under junta rule during the past five years, despite a separatist insurgency focused mainly in the country's Deep South provinces. Prayuth, the former junta chief, began his first term as an elected premier in June after a general election that critics said was engineered to keep him in power.
"Propaganda in Thailand is severe and worrying," Apirat said. "There are some who can't give up communism ideology, wanting to overthrow the monarchy and turn Thailand to communism."
"Foreign-educated academics collude with communists and they act as the masterminds," he said.
As Apirat spoke, a photograph of Thai King Vajiralongkorn, who was then a captain and the crown prince, flashed behind him on a digital screen. The prince was wearing a military uniform and clutching an M-16 assault rifle while running presumably toward an unseen enemy during what the general said was a fight with communist rebels in the northeastern province of Loei in November 1976.
In his speech that lasted more than an hour, Apirat lashed out at opposition politicians whom he did not identify, but the context of his remarks made it clear that he was including Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the leader of the upstart Future Forward Party (FFP) who ran his family's auto parts empire before entering politics, according to the Associated Press.
Picture sparks criticisms
Apirat's video presentation showed a photo of leading Hong Kong dissident Joshua Wong standing next to a person whose image had been cropped out. Thanathorn had recently posted a similar picture on his Facebook page showing him standing with Wong.
Thanathorn's picture with Wong sparked criticisms from China's embassy in Bangkok, which had issued a statement that slammed an unnamed Thai politician for "supporting Hong Kong activists." The diplomatic mission, in a statement, also blamed a "group who wants to separate Hong Kong from China and collaborates with outside influences by circulating rumors and distorted information for their own agenda."
A candidate for prime minister earlier this year after Thailand's first general election since a military coup in 2014, Thanathorn stopped talking to reporters a few months ago.
At a forum last month in the insurgency-hit Deep South, Thanathorn and other prominent opposition leaders, politicians and academics discussed potential solutions for ending the decades-old separatist conflict, including amending the 2017 constitution written by allies of the military.
Apirat voiced opposition to such ideas.
"I am not saying the constitution cannot be amended, but this section concerns national security and the sacrifices made by our ancestors to protect the country," he said. "No way, I tell you."
Apirat previously showed his disdain for FFP. In April, he criticized the party, even though he did not mention its name, implying that it has foreign-influenced ideas that he said were unsuitable for the Buddhist-majority nation's constitutional monarchy, which he described as "Thai-style democratic system."
Thais are unlikely to voice many opinions about their new monarch because of the kingdom's strict Lese-Majeste law that criminalizes royal defamation, according to political analysts. The junta that has ruled Thailand for five years aggressively enforced that law, which makes it a crime to insult the king or the royal family.
The May 2014 coup was launched in part to ensure a smooth royal succession in the fading years of the late king's reign, according to analysts, and rights groups said the junta has prosecuted about 100 people on charges of violating Lese-Majeste.
Committee summons general
Apirat's remarks spawned criticisms on social media, prompting the House's committee on national security to summon him to clarify his comments.
"The committee finds the matter important because of widespread criticism on social media, the committee, therefore, extended the summons to the army chief clarify the matter of security," spokesman Peeradej Kamsamut said Tuesday. "We hope he will show up."
On Saturday, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, the FFP secretary-general, slammed Apirat's comments for attacking the opposition without naming names.
"It is tacit that he referred to the Future Forward Party," Piyabutr told reporters. "The army chief caused disunity, created hatred and enemies from within."


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Thailand's parliament approved an emergency decree on Thursday transferring two elite army units under the king's direct command, as lawmakers began three days of talks on the 2020 budget that increases royal services spending by 13 percent.
The decree to transfer the 1st and 11th Infantry Regiments from the military's chain of command to the king's Royal Guard Command was issued by King Maha Vajiralongkorn earlier this month.
After approving the decree, legislators began the first of three days of discussions on the 3.2 trillion baht (U.S. $106 billion) budget presented by Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha. They are expected to vote on Saturday following deliberations on the budget, which is 6.7 percent higher than this year's 3 trillion baht ($99.1 billion) spending plan.
The new budget allocates almost 8 billion baht ($254 million) to King Vajiralongkorn's services, an increase of 13 percent over 2019's allocation of 6.8 billion baht ($225 million).
Members of the opposition Future Forward Party rebuked the decree, which passed by a vote of 374 to 70.
Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, FFP's secretary-general, called it unconstitutional and said it did not merit endorsement.
"The decree is not in line with Article 172 of the Constitution. It is not an urgent matter and does not have an impact on the constitutional monarch, therefore, I as an elected representative cannot endorse the decree," Piyabutr told the parliament.
The article stipulates that in the case of emergency regarding national security, public safety or disaster, the monarch can issue an emergency decree.
Earlier, deputy defense minister Gen. Chaicharn Changmongkol told the MPs the decree is a top priority. While King Vajiralongkorn, 67, is technically the commander-in-chief of the Buddhist-majority nation's armed forces, his decree bypassed the traditional military chain of command.
"The command has to provide security at royal events and the palace as well as for the royals and their guests, therefore it is appropriate to transfer the 1st and the 11th Infantry Regiments to be under the Royal Guard Command," Chaicharn said.
Constitutional monarchy
Meanwhile, Piyabutr said he and FFP members were not taking action against King Vajiralongkorn.
"The Future Forward Party and I reaffirm that we respect the constitutional monarchy," Piyabutr said. "But what I'm addressing today is to confirm the constitutional power for legislators to balance and check the administrative side to maintain the parliamentary system and the constitutional monarchy."
Thailand converted from absolute monarchy to the constitutional monarchy in 1932 when citizens and the military dethroned King Rama VII. The country of 70 million people has endured more than 20 coups since then.
Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon-turned politician introduced policies that proved popular with many people but was ousted in 2006 by a military coup.
His sister, Yingluck, faced the same outcome in 2014 when a Prayuth-led military junta overthrew her government. In taking control of the government, Prayuth said he wanted to guarantee a smooth transition from King Bhumibol to his son, King Vajiralongkorn.
The Thai monarchy is considered revered and protected by the strict Lese-Majeste law that criminalizes royal defamation and carries a prison sentence of three to 15 years if convicted.


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Authorities in Thailand have refused entry to opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) vice president Mu Sochua citing "security concerns," she said Tuesday, after she flew to Bangkok to assist in preparations for the return of acting party president Sam Rainsy to Cambodia next month.

Mu Sochua left Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur just after 3 p.m. on Sunday and arrived at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok around 4:30 p.m., but was prevented from entering Thailand by immigration police who told her that the Thai government believes her presence in the country could "lead to social turmoil or affect security."

The CNRP vice president was forced to return to Kuala Lumpur around 8 p.m. the same day, she told Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews, adding that "negotiations are under way" with officials to allow for Sam Rainsy and other party leaders to enter Thailand and cross the border into Cambodia on Nov. 9 to lead what they have termed a "restoration of democracy" in the face of a crackdown by Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Mu Sochua expressed optimism that an agreement would be reached with Thailand's government, which she said is increasingly democratic in nature, following the country's March general election—the first since a military coup installed General Prayut Chan-o-cha as prime minister.

"The current Royal Government of Thailand is no longer fully controlled by the military – it's a government that was formed through multiparty elections in which there are liberals and democrats who appreciate the fight for democracy," she said.

Mu Sochua also remained confident that the CNRP and its supporters will be able to return to Cambodia "no matter what."

"We are so committed to creating a [political] dialogue at home that we will find a solution," she said.

"We have to continue the fight for our people's rights, freedom and democracy. We have to continue the fight for a positive change. If we cannot enter Cambodia by land, we will go by air or water."

A report by The Phnom Penh Post quoted Cambodia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation spokesman Ket Sophann as saying that Thai immigration police had "banned" Mu Sochua from entering the country "because she is placed in a blacklist on Cambodia police's requests," adding that they had stamped the words "banned from entry" on her passport.

Building support

Sam Rainsy and other CNRP leaders have been urging supporters – particularly those among the migrant laborer community in Thailand – and members of the armed forces to join them on their return, but Prime Minister Hun Sen has vowed to arrest the opposition leaders as soon as they set foot inside the country.

Cambodia's courts have labeled the return part of a "coup" and in recent weeks police have arrested dozens of supporters and activists of the CNRP, which was banned by the Supreme Court in November 2017 for its role in an alleged plot to topple the government, two months after authorities arrested the party's president Kem Sokha on charges of treason.

The ban on the political opposition, along with a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on NGOs and the independent media, paved the way for his ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in parliament in the country's July 2018 general election.

Hun Sen has been counteracting efforts by Sam Rainsy and other CNRP leaders to gather the support of the international community by seeking the cooperation of neighboring countries to ensure that their return will be prevented, and Laos has reportedly agreed to take "strict measures" against any opposition officials who attempt to enter Cambodia through its territory.

Mao Vibol, the head of the CNRP in Cambodia's Svay Rieng province, who fled to Thailand following the party's dissolution, said on Tuesday that he as many as 20 fellow party activists have been meeting with Cambodian migrant workers in Bangkok as part of a bid to organize additional support for Sam Rainsy's return to Cambodia.

"We are no longer intimidated by Hun Sen's authoritarian regime," he said, adding that Cambodia's governance is "skidding off course."

"Nov. 9 will be the most significant day of our history, when we lovers of democracy unite and stand up against the oppressors. It is a now-or-never opportunity to save our country."

As the CNRP prepares in Thailand and elsewhere, authorities in Cambodia have made multiple arrests of Sam Rainsy's supporters in recent weeks, bringing to at least 53 the number of CNRP activists detained since the beginning of the year and nearly 186 the number subjected to interrogation over the same period.


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The State Railway of Thailand signed an agreement with a consortium including a Chinese state-owned company to build a $7.4 billion high-speed railway that would connect three airports, officials said Thursday.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha presided over the signing ceremony for the construction of the 220-km (137-mile) line linking Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi and Don Muang international airports to U-Tapao airport, which serves Pattaya, a town popular among tourists in the eastern seaboard area.
"[This] is a historic moment in Thailand that the private sector signed the agreement with the public sector to promote this mega construction project," said Supachai Chearavanont, CEO of the conglomerate Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, which led a consortium that includes China Railway Construction Corp.
Suphachai signed the agreement with State Railway of Thailand Acting Gov. Worawut Mala. China's Ambassador to Thailand Lyu Jian witnessed the signing.
CP Group is Thailand's largest conglomerate. The consortium it led won the bid in November 2018.
The deal was made under Thailand's public-private partnership program, which calls for a government investment of 119 billion baht (about U.S. $3.93 billion) and 117 billion baht ($3.86 billion) from the private sector. Other terms of the deal were not made available to reporters.
The rail project set a precedent for a regional economic strategy to link China's One Belt, One Road initiative with the ECC, Lyu Jian said, according to China's official state news agency Xinhua.
Japanese banks have agreed to partly finance the high-speed rail, which will feature 181 km (113 miles) of elevated track, officials said.
Suphachai told reporters construction is expected to be completed within five years. China's state-run news service Xinhua said some routes would be operational in 2023.
"This was the first project that China and Japan were cooperating with a third country, which makes this project the beginning of a new era of cooperation in Asia," Kanit Sangsubhan, secretary general of the Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC), told reporters.
EEC, the common name for Thailand's eastern seaboard, is the nation's center for export-oriented industries, where high-value goods, such as Japanese automobiles, are manufactured and shipped elsewhere. The region includes the provinces of Chonburi, Rayong and Chachoensao.


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Relatives of 85 people who died in the Tak Bai massacre said Friday they would not seek legal action against those responsible for the incident that helped re-ignite Thailand's Deep South insurgency, despite calls for justice from a human rights activist.
Family members made the statement during the 15th anniversary of the massacre.
On Oct. 25, 2004, seven demonstrators were killed when authorities opened fire on a large crowd of protesters who had gathered at a playground near a police station demanding the release of six volunteer security guards who were accused of supplying southern rebels with stolen government-issued weapons.
Police and soldiers then rounded up and arrested protesters, stacking 1,370 face down with their hands bound behind their backs in military trucks. Officials said 78 people suffocated while they were being transported to a military camp 150 km (93.2 miles) away in Pattani province.
Yaena Salaemae, 60, whose husband was shot and killed and a son detained on that day, has led efforts to reach financial settlements totaling about 600 million baht ($21 million) with the government.
She told BenarNews that while the victims have five more years to pursue justice before reaching the statute of limitations, they have abandoned efforts to charge the officers involved.
"Everyone agrees on bringing an end to this because we do not have the resources to fight the state," Yaena said during a memorial ceremony attended by about 100 in Narathiwat province.
In 2013 after years of negotiations, the survivors of those killed received 7.5 million baht ($210,000) while 51 who suffered injuries were paid 1 million to 4 million baht ($33,000-133,000) each.
Those detained, including 58 who were released two years later, received 30,000 baht ($994) in compensation.
Yaena said government officials asked the survivors to refrain from bringing charges against those on duty that day. Despite a government inquiry, no member of the Thai military or police has been prosecuted over the massacre.
Hayiding Maiseng, who received compensation after he was shot in the back, said he has not fully recovered from his injuries. The complexity of litigation forced him to give up efforts to bring charges even though he does not believe justice has been served.
"The litigation is too painful and difficult for villagers like me," he said.

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Police and soldiers stand over protesters outside the Tak Bai police station, Oct. 25, 2004. (Matahari Ismail/BenarNews)

Call for justice
Angkhana Neelapaijit, a former National Human Rights commissioner, said the government should punish officers who were involved in the incident.
"On the 15th anniversary of the Tai Bai massacre, it is absolutely necessary for all parties to review the justice system to prevent this from reoccurring and bring justice to victims and their families," said Angkhana, a recent recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards, Asia's highest honor.
"Bringing the case to court for hearings is not for revenge or to expose any person or organization, but to lead to full disclosure of the truth and to a culture of accountability," she said. "It will end the culture of impunity and will lead to security and military reform."
Meanwhile, Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the regional office of the Internal Security Operations Command, said outsiders should not get involved.
"All cases involving Tak Bai incident have already come to their conclusion. Justice has been served," he told BenarNews. "Compensation has been made. Currently, only outsiders are trying to tell local people to launch legal battles."
Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking Deep South since the separatist insurgency flared up in January 2004.



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A member of Thailand's ruling coalition said he brought explosive materials into parliament on Wednesday to draw attention to his concerns about the deficiency of the detection devices slated to be used at the upcoming ASEAN Summit in Bangkok.
Mongkolkit Suksintharanon, an MP who leads the Thai Civilized Party and also serves as the House military affairs spokesman, said he asked explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) officials to carry the materials through the detectors to prove they were not effective.
He said the demonstration intended to show that the devices should not be used for the summit of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and related meetings, which are scheduled to run Thursday through Monday.
"Today I coordinated with the EOD to bring TNT into the parliament but the device was not able to detect it, so this parliament is not safe," Mongkolkit told reporters.
Thai PBS reported the politician had two other scanners and a manufacturer's representative to make the case for their effectiveness. He said those U.S.-made scanners would be given to the government to be used during the summit.
Meanwhile, the House speaker said he was not amused by Mongkolkit's tactics.
"I have no conclusion now but I'm looking into this [to see] if he broke any laws," House Speaker Chuan Leekpai, told reporters. He later ordered the parliament's deputy secretary-general to investigate the incident.
Bangkok suffered a series of small bomb attacks in early August when the country hosted a series of ASEAN foreign minister-level meetings, which included the participation of U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo and counterparts from China and Russia.
Police have filed charges against two men who were captured shortly after the attacks, and have identified 20 additional suspects. All are from Deep South where more than 7,000 people have been killed since a separatist insurgency reignited in January 2004.
Possessing explosives is punishable by prison sentences of one to 10 years, according to the gun and explosive act. Police officials could not be reached for comment on the lawmaker's action.


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A Thai court tripled a former Army general's prison term from 27 to 82 years on Thursday, more than two years after he was convicted and sentenced in the nation's largest human-trafficking case.
Former Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen was among 62 people out of 102 defendants who were found guilty of trafficking in July 2017, following a sensational trial that stemmed from the discovery of dozens of graves of Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis near the Malaysian border in 2015.
"Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen was found guilty of five offenses, punishable to 55 years. Combined with other previous 27-year jail terms from other crimes, the total jail term now is 82 years," a judge at the Rachada Criminal Court in Bangkok said Thursday, upholding a lower court's decision.
The appeals court also upheld prison terms for another 87 defendants that included Myanmar nationals, but acquitted 14, who faced a variety of charges, ranging from trafficking to murder.
"The prosecutors lodged an appeal against all 102 defendants. The appeals court sentenced 26 out of 40 who had earlier been acquitted," Somporn Musika, one of the defense attorneys, told BenarNews after the sentencing covered by reporters through a courtroom video link.
Manas was handcuffed and wore ankle chains when he and other defendants disembarked from a prison bus in front of the Ratchada court.
It was not clear how the former general reacted to the court's verdict, as he was wearing a face mask, presumably to protect himself from the city's haze and air pollution.
After the judge read the verdicts, the convicts were returned to prison, officials said.
Under Thai law, the human-trafficking charge carries a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a fine of up to 1 million baht (about U.S. $30,000). The law also calls for double punishment for government officials found guilty, but the sentence is capped at 50 years.
The trafficking syndicate was exposed when authorities unearthed mass graves in the jungle in southern Songkhla province, near the Thai-Malaysia border. Investigators said the graves were part of a camp where traffickers held migrants until their relatives paid for their release.
Many of the dozens of remains found were believed to have been Rohingya Muslims, the persecuted minorities from Myanmar's Rakhine state.
Thailand has been a destination or transit country for people smuggled and trafficked from its neighboring countries, such as Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, according to United Nations and the Australia-based rights group Walk Free Foundation, which monitors countries allegedly experiencing cases of modern slavery.
In its 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report (TIP), the U.S. State Department upgraded Thailand from the Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2, meaning it has taken significant efforts to combat the crime by prosecuting and convicting more people smugglers and by decreasing prosecution time in such cases.
Rights groups praised the appeals court following Thursday's verdicts.
"It is the hard work of the prosecutor team for being able to verify the faults of those defendants more clearly," Puttanee Kangkun, a researcher for Fortify Rights, a U.S-based human rights group, told BenarNews. "Generally speaking, more defendants were punished and jail terms were raised."


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Thai security officers said they killed two suspected insurgents after they allegedly refused to stop their motorcycle at a checkpoint in Thailand's Deep South early Friday and started shooting after a car bombing in a neighboring district.
The shootout occurred after midnight on a street in Balo, a village in Pattani province's Sai Buri district, authorities said as they described the first deadly incident since Oct. 9 related to the region's separatist insurgency.
The two men on the motorbike were suspects in a car bombing attack earlier that targeted a police station in Mai Kaen, another district in Pattani, officials said. The explosion did not injure anyone, but officials dispatched security forces to intercept the suspects.
"When they approached the checkpoint, officials intermittently flashed a light signaling to them to stop, but they turned the motorcycle away and shot back, causing officials to return fire, resulting in their deaths," said Col. Montree Kongwatmai, the chief of the Sai Buri police station.
The slain suspects were identified as Amran Beraheng, 38, and Lukman Saleh, 34, natives of Pattani, who had criminal records related to the rebellion in the southern border region, according to officials.
"Amran Beraheng, the rider, was an insurgent active in the area and Lukman Saleh was also an insurgent operative. We found a 9-mm pistol with spent casings and unused ammo," Col. Pramote Prom-in, a spokesman for Internal Security Operations Command-4, the military's regional command, told reporters.
Intelligence records showed that the pair had links with insurgents, but authorities lacked solid evidence to make any other arrests, he said.
The killings of the two brought to at least 80 the death toll in violence connected to the southern insurgency so far this year, according to information compiled by BenarNews from police and military reports. One hundred and thirty-two people have been injured in more than 80 violent incidents.
The Thai Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in neighboring Songkhla. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region since the separatist insurgency reignited 15 years ago.


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Thailand on Friday opened a new center to combat the spread of "fake news" online, amid warnings from human rights groups that the government could use the facility to muffle dissent and target its critics.
Puttipong Punnagun, Thailand's minister for digital economy and society, gave reporters a tour of the Anti-Fake News Center, which was set up like a TV newsroom with multiple giant flat-screen monitors showing pie charts that track trending social-media hashtags.
"The center is not intended to be a tool to support the government or any individual," Puttipong told reporters. "We just want to reduce the number of fake news [reports and postings] and to educate people to have discretion before circulating them."
Almost 40 internet-savvy staffers monitor online traffic on a range of topics, such as disasters, the economy, health, morality and national security.
State-owned CAT Telecom, which runs Thailand's digital infrastructure, is behind the technical arrangements. The national police's Cyber Task Force augments the center with a desk where complaints are logged for future action.
Puttipong said the center, which has its own Facebook page, monitors postings on major social-media platforms, including YouTube and Twitter. The center would label the alleged fake or misleading news and then publish them on its website www.antifakenewscenter.com he said.
Any materials deemed to violate the country's Computer Crimes Act will be forwarded to the Technology Crime Suppression Division, which has led the investigation of Thai activists in recent weeks.
On Oct. 8, the division arrested and charged a 25-year-old pro-democracy activist for a computer crimes violation after he allegedly posted a screenshot of a tweet about the frustration of Thais with roads being closed whenever a member of the royalty would pass by.
Karn Pongpraphapan's hash-tagged #royalmotorcade topped the trend on the Thai language Twitter a week ago. His criticism that the royal entourage was adding to the traffic congestion in the capital was widely circulated on social media, but officials said his claims had been verified by the government as false.
Puttipong said members of a committee – composed of staff members of the Thai News Agency, the Thai Journalists Association and representatives of the government and private sector – would verify whether the news should be classified as fake or misleading.
But rights advocates warned that the center would merely consolidate a draconian censorship apparatus used by the junta during the past five years. They said the government could also use the center to keep a close eye on public discussion about the monarchy.
"It is yet another censorship tool, not different from what happened under the repressive environment ... under military rule," Sunai Phasuk, a Thai researcher for Human Rights Watch, told BenarNews.
Sunai was referring to the junta led by former army chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha, who toppled the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra and installed himself as prime minister in May 2014, before the March general election that installed him as a civilian leader this year. Critics said that election was engineered to keep Prayuth in power.
During Prayuth's tenure, at least 98 people were charged with Lese-Majeste, a strict law that prohibits comments deemed as insulting to the royal family. Most of the charges emanated from online postings.
"Keeping the internet free is especially challenging when even the most innocuous-sounding regulations are ripe for exploitation," Sunai told BenarNews.
"The Thai government's anti-fake news center has since August been acting like the Ministry of Truth – defending and promoting state propaganda, while suppressing and prosecuting dissenting opinions," he said.


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China should not be able to dictate terms of use in the South China Sea to smaller nations who have their own claims to the strategic waterway, a top U.S. security official told Southeast Asian leaders and officials gathered in Bangkok on Monday for annual talks.
U.S. National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien said the economic success of ASEAN member countries – four of whom have overlapping claims with Beijing on the South China Sea – would help the grouping's ability "to sustain safety and security" in the region, especially in the waterway.
"Beijing has used intimidation to try to stop ASEAN nations from exploiting natural resources, blocking access to $2.5 trillion in oil and gas reserves alone," he said at the meeting with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). "These tactics go against the rules of respect, fairness and national law."
"The region has no interest in a new imperial era where a big country can rule others on the theory might makes right," he said, adding that Washington wanted Beijing to have good relations with its neighbors.
The summit is usually attended by heads of countries but U.S. President Donald Trump sent O'Brien in a move that reportedly disappointed ASEAN officials, who had at least expected Vice President Mike Pence or Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to attend, according to some diplomats.
Meeting host Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha and the leaders of Vietnam and Laos were the only heads from the ASEAN states to attend the US-ASEAN meeting. Other countries sent their foreign ministers.
Prayuth, in his chairman's statement wrapping up the summit, reaffirmed the importance of maintaining and promoting peace, security and freedom of navigation in the South China Sea.
China claims nearly all of the South China Sea as its own, while ASEAN members Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, along with non-member Taiwan, have their own claims to the busy waterway.
China and ASEAN has been negotiating on a code of conduct to regulate behavior in the South China Sea for nearly two decades.
Meanwhile, China has built seven man-made islands and equipped them with military runways, missile defense systems and outposts in the vast sea. Its ships patrol the sea.
"We warmly welcomed the continued improving cooperation between ASEAN and China and were encouraged by the progress of the substantive negotiations toward the early conclusion of an effective and substantive code of conduct in the South China Sea," Prayuth said.
"We reaffirmed the need to enhance mutual trust and confidence, exercise self-restraint in the conduct of activities and avoid actions that may further complicate the situation."
Malaysia and the Philippines called for all nations to practice restraint in the region.
"Any problem we have in the South China Sea, it can be resolved through negotiations, certainly not through violence and war," Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad told reporters.
"The problem now is that other countries (outside ASEAN), which are not friendly with China, are trying to provoke ASEAN member countries to join them and go against China," he said without identifying those countries. "If there were violence and war, the victims will be ASEAN member countries and China."
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman said Manila wanted an effective code of conduct to provide stability and peace in the sea. An international court ruled for the Philippines in 2016 in a claim it brought against China regarding territorial claims in the waterway, but Duterte has disregarded the ruling in an effort to improve relations with China.
"[F]rom what I observe, they (ASEAN members) are concerned about what is happening in the South China Sea. That is why all countries have asked everyone to observe self-restraint to avoid activities that lead to more friction," spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters.
"We will not be a pawn to any powerful countries. We will stick to our policy for that part of the region, particularly, the area that the court says is ours, will remain ours regardless of what others do," he said.
While Indonesia has no claim to the waterway, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo called for peace and stability in the region.
"Through the ASEAN outlook on the Indo-Pacific region, Indonesia wants to encourage cooperation and turn rivals into partners. We also want to promote peace and stability in a larger context," Jokowi told summit attendees, according to Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.


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At least 15 civilians, defense volunteers and police were killed and four others injured in suspected insurgent attacks on two security outposts in Thailand's Deep South late Tuesday, officials said Wednesday (local time).
Police said the incidents — the deadliest outburst of violence in a single day this year in the southern border region, and among the bloodiest attacks since the insurgency reignited 15 years ago — took place before midnight at the outposts in Ban Tung Sadao village in Yala province, a few days after Thai security forces killed two suspected insurgents.
"As defense volunteers were minding check points at the outposts, unknown attackers rode motorcycles while some snuck in on foot to open fire at them using assault rifles and pistols. Officials tried to return fire," Lammai police station chief Col. Taweesak Thongsongsi said.
"They then retreated into a nearby rubber plantation," he said. "We believe they are insurgents."
Yala officials reported that five civilians were among the 15 people killed along with police, government officials and defense volunteers.
Taweesak said the attackers also set off an improvised explosive device (IED) at a lamppost, burned car tires and spread nails across roads to disrupt security forces' efforts to pursue them.
By Wednesday morning, Yala police found two unexploded IEDs and tried to defuse them.
A military official who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak publicly said it was likely the insurgents reacted to the deaths of two comrades last week.
"We believe they wanted to exact revenge," the official told BenarNews.
Early Friday, Thai security officers killed two suspected insurgents after they allegedly refused to stop their motorcycle at a checkpoint in Pattani, another province in the Deep South, as officials blocked a road while searching for a car-bomb suspect.
In Bangkok, a defense ministry spokesman condemned the attacks in Yala.
"It is a cruel, barbarian and inhumane act of Deep South insurgents who hurled hand grenades and shot at civilians," Lt. Gen. Kongcheap Tantrawanit said Wednesday.
The killings brought to at least 95 the death toll in violence connected to the southern insurgency so far this year, according to information compiled by BenarNews from police and military reports.
The Thai Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in Songkhla. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region since the separatist insurgency reignited 15 years ago.
CORRECTION: An earlier version misidentified the chief of the Lammai police station as Sodsong Thongsongsi.


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Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha met with senior security officials Wednesday to review deployment of forces in Thailand's Deep South after suspected rebels killed 15 village defense volunteers in what authorities described as the deadliest attacks since the separatist insurgency reignited in 2004.
At least four security personnel were also injured when motorcycle-riding gunmen and others on foot opened fire on two checkpoints in Maung, a district of southern Thailand's Yala province, late Tuesday, officials said.
"Today we have a meeting with the deputy director of internal security operations on how to adjust the forces," Prayuth told reporters in Bangkok without elaborating.
It was not clear if Prayuth was considering deploying more security forces to the southern border region.
"I reiterate for those on duty to be careful. Those checkpoints are far-off from towns and they can be weak spots and flashpoints," he said.
Tuesday's attacks were the bloodiest since April 28, 2004, when suspected insurgents, including machete-wielding Muslim youths, launched pre-dawn attacks on 11 security checkpoints in three provinces. In the ensuing melee, authorities said, 107 attackers and five members of the security forces were killed.
One of the gunmen in the attacks on Tuesday could have been injured, according to a village resident.
"About seven to eight attackers on foot approached the outpost and opened fire," a resident of Ban Tung Sadao village told BenarNews hours later.
"One defense volunteer tried to escape, but he was still hit and he returned fire," the resident said, requesting anonymity for security reasons. "I saw one attacker getting shot and his friends dragged him away."
Col. Taweesak Thongsongsi, chief of a local police station, confirmed that some members of the security forces traded shots with the attackers, who were armed with assault rifles and pistols.
"They then retreated into a nearby rubber plantation," he said. "We believe they are insurgents."
The attacks appeared to be coordinated, he said, with the insurgents scattering nails designed as spikes along a highway to puncture tires of vehicles entering the province. A small improvised explosive device (IED) was found near an electrical pole and two more unexploded IEDs were found hours later, police said.
About 70,000 soldiers and 20,000 police officers are deployed in the southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, which has a population of about 2 million, about 75 percent of whom are ethnic Malay Muslims in predominantly Buddhist Thailand, officials said.

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Neighbors of Samsami Sama, a defense volunteer killed in Tuesdays attacks by suspected insurgents, carry his body for a funeral in Tung Sadao Village in Thailand's Deep South province of Yala, Nov. 6, 2019. [Mariyam Ahmad/BenarNews]

'I prayed for my husband to be safe'
Five civilians were among the 15 people killed along with police, government officials and defense volunteers.
Thirteen of the people who died in Tuesday's carnage were Buddhists. On Wednesday, relatives of one of two Muslims killed in the attacks, 40-year-old defense volunteer Samsami Sama, held a funeral for him.
"I sent my daughter to bed, and my husband had dinner and then left for the outpost. I later heard the sound of gunfire from the post, and I prayed for my husband to be safe," his widow, Sarinya Jaiya, told BenarNews.
The village headman came by at midnight to inform her that Samsami was dead.
"I burst into tears with sadness. I don't know what to do. Now I can't even tell my daughter where her father has gone," she said, referring to the couple's 3-year-old child.
Village defense forces receive weapons, mostly shotguns, and training from the Thai army but receive only a small allowance, with no salaries.
Lt. Gen. Pornsak Poolsawat, chief of the 4th Army regional command, visited the area on Wednesday and called on villagers to inform authorities about the presence of suspected insurgents in their villages.
"This is the first time in several years that attacks on civilian outposts cost so many lives," he said. "We need to be mobile, avoiding being sitting ducks in outposts."

Almost 7,000 people have been killed in the region since the long-running separatist insurgency flared up again 15 years ago, according to think-tanks and nonprofit groups.
Analysts believe that most of the violence is perpetrated by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), an offshoot of the Patani Malay National Revolutionary Front, which was established in the 1960s to seek independence. Military intelligence officials believe BRN controls about 8,000 militants in the Deep South.
Another group, the Patani United Liberation Front (PULO), publicly calls for a separatist state and claims to control much of the insurgency.
"BRN militants don't usually attack village defense volunteers," Don Pathan, a security analyst and longtime observer of the region's conflict, told BenarNews. "But if they crossed the line and become part of the Thai government security apparatus, then the militants would deem them as legitimate targets."
The killings brought to at least 95 the death toll in violence connected to the southern insurgency so far this year, according to information compiled by BenarNews from police and military reports.
The Thai government, meanwhile, has been holding peace talks with the insurgents since 2015, but the Malaysia-brokered negotiations have achieved no breakthroughs.
Questions have persisted as to whether the most militant elements in the decentralized BRN have ever signed on to the talks, which have yet to formally resume since Prayuth was elected prime minister in April.
Kasturi Mahkota, leader of PULO-MKP and a member of the Mara Pattani peace-talks panel, told BenarNews that Tuesday's attacks underscored "one of the main reasons why the peace process must be worked out as soon as possible."
"What happened in Yala, where 15 people were killed, would be the norm [in the Deep South] as long as the process to find solution is stuck and there is lack of commitment on the part of the Thai government," he said, as he emphasized that he did not know who was responsible for the latest deadly attacks.
Thai government representatives were not immediately available for comment.
"The peace process will continue, and so do the field actions," he said, "as long as no agreement is reached."
Noah Lee in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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Thailand made clear Wednesday that it would not allow Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy into the country, likely derailing his plans to return home from self-imposed exile through the common border of the two countries.
The Cambodian government has vowed to arrest Sam Rainsy, the leader of the Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), if he returns home and has warned of action against any airlines that brings him into the country.
In announcing the decision to prevent Sam Rainsy from entering Thailand, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha cited its obligations as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to refrain from meddling in the affairs of its neighboring nation.
"According to our commitment to ASEAN, we will not interfere in each other's internal affairs, and we will not allow an anti-government person to use Thailand for activism," Prayuth told reporters.
"I have ordered this, so he won't be able to enter the country."
Thailand may represent Sam Rainsy's best chance as a country from which to launch his bid to reenter Cambodia, where he remains popular even though he faces at least 18 years in jail on wideranging charges from defamation to insulting the King.
Sam Rainsy said he was ready to go to jail or die for the cause of restoring democracy in Cambodia, vowing to return home on Nov. 9 in the face of threats by authoritarian Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen, who has vowed to jail him if he sets foot in the country.
Other senior CNRP officials seeking to assist in preparations for his return have met with resistance in Malaysia and Indonesia, while Laos has indicated it will not allow passage for members of the opposition and Vietnam's one-party Communist government is unlikely to support anyone advocating regime change.
Speaking from Berlin, where he was scheduled to board a flight later on Wednesday to an undisclosed location, Sam Rainsy told Radio Free Asia, a sister entity of BenarNews, that there had been no "official response" from Thailand about his status, and said he is "still hopeful" that the Thai government will "soften its stance, in order to help restore democracy in Cambodia."
But he said that he and other senior CNRP officials "are determined to return to Cambodia to help the Cambodian people," adding that there are "many ways and means" through which to do so.
"Our intention is to gather with supporters at the Poipet checkpoint—the main border crossing into Cambodia [from Thailand's Aranya Pratet township]," he said.
"Some people have already arrived and others will be arriving tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Everyone should be in place before Nov. 9, and in the morning we will walk into Cambodia."
Sam Rainsy fled Cambodia to France in 2015 to avoid a string of charges and convictions he says were politically motivated, and since his departure, authorities arrested CNRP president Kem Sokha on charges of "treason" in September 2017 and the Supreme Court dissolved the opposition party for its role in an alleged plot to overthrow the government two months later.
The ban on the political opposition, along with a wider crackdown by Hun Sen on NGOs and the independent media, paved the way for his ruling Cambodian People's Party (CPP) to win all 125 seats in parliament in the country's July 2018 general election.
Hun Sen's government has militarized Cambodia's border provinces and ordered the armed forces to attack any opposition gatherings held on the date of Sam Rainsy's planned return, banned commercial airlines that serve the country from boarding the CNRP chief, and sought the cooperation of neighboring countries by issuing arrest warrants to ensure that the return is prevented.

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Cambodian opposition politician Sam Rainsy (center) speaks to a member of his delegation as he sits in front of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 4, 2019. AP

Indonesian incident
Prayuth's indication that Sam Rainsy will not be allowed into the country came a week after Thailand refused entry to CNRP deputy president Mu Sochua, citing "security concerns."
Also on Wednesday, Cambodia's ambassador to Indonesia, Hor Nambora, confronted Mu Sochua as she held a press conference at a hotel in Jakarta to explain the CNRP's plans.
Hor Nambora called Cambodian opposition leaders "fugitives and criminals" because they had been convicted of plotting a coup. He accused her of misleading Indonesian authorities by traveling to the country on her U.S. passport, despite holding dual citizenship.
Speaking to reporters after the confrontation, Mu Sochua said that she and other CNRP supporters will "risk our lives entering Cambodia unarmed," adding that the planned return is to protect democracy in the country, "not to carry out a coup d'etat."
Following the press conference, Cambodia's embassy issued a statement expressing concern that Indonesia had allowed Mu Sochua to enter the country to "conduct anti-Cambodian activities in Jakarta," and calling on authorities to arrest her and "deport her to Cambodia immediately in the true spirit of ASEAN."
Mu Sochua claimed Hor Nambora had told her that Cambodian police were in the hotel and that if she didn't want to be arrested she should "leave Indonesia right away and not hold a press conference."
Mu Sochua later flew to Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, but was prevented from entering the country, although authorities did not provide an official reason for the refusal.
Malaysia's blocking of Mu Sochua came two days after authorities in the country detained two Cambodian opposition activists, including an asylum seeker, while they waited to board a flight to Thailand. London-based Amnesty International called on Malaysia late on Tuesday to immediately release the pair and ensure they are not deported home, where it said they "face arbitrary arrest and detention."
Cambodia exports repression
Prayuth's comments elicited a strongly worded rebuke from former Philippine lawmaker and ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) board member Teddy Baguilat, who called the decision "outrageous" and said it would effectively prevent the opposition leader from returning to Cambodia.
"The decision is solely based on political grounds and is a blatant attempt to silence voices of the Cambodian opposition," Baguilat said.
The U.S. State Department said it is "deeply concerned" by the ongoing arrests and intimidation of CNRP supporters in Cambodia in a statement on Wednesday, calling the actions "an escalation in suppression of the political opposition ... [that] raise concerns about respect for the freedoms of peaceful assembly and expression under the Cambodian constitution and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights."
"We call on authorities to stop harassment of the political opposition, protect the constitutional and human rights of all people in Cambodia, and take meaningful steps to reopen political and civic space," the statement said, adding that all parties should urgently work towards a peaceful process of dialogue and national reconciliation.


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A Thai general on Thursday defended the use of emergency laws that give security forces broad powers, as police intensified their search for suspected insurgents behind the killing of 15 people – the largest death toll in years – in the nation's violence-wracked Deep South.
Lt. Gen. Pornsak Poonsawat, chief of the Fourth Army Region Command, made his comments after a legislator called for a review of special laws that allow authorities to detain people for a wide range of offenses without a court-issued warrant.
"We are in need of those special security laws," Pornsak told reporters. "Even with those laws, we were not able to prevent such attacks."
He was referring to two attacks late Tuesday, when gunmen believed to be militants struck a pair of checkpoints in Yala province. They killed 15 people – a mix of civilian defense volunteers, police officers and civilians.
"Police are intensifying the search to track other members of the armed group," Pornsak told a news conference. "They may be hiding in the nearby forest."
The attackers on motorcycles and others on foot killed eight people at the scene, while seven of their victims died in the hospital, authorities said, adding that four more security personnel suffered serious injuries. Thirteen of the dead were Buddhists and the remaining two belonged to the border region's Muslim majority.
Some of the attackers may have been injured, Pornsak said, corroborating a statement from a villager, who told BenarNews hours after the attacks that he saw "seven to eight attackers on foot" who opened fire at an outpost in Maung, a district in Yala.
"One defense volunteer tried to escape, but he was still hit and he returned fire," the resident said, requesting anonymity for security reasons. "I saw one attacker getting shot and his friends dragged him away."
Human Rights Watch (HRW), in a report about Thailand's military last year, criticized security forces for regularly using the 1914 Martial Law Act, the 2005 Emergency Decree on Public Administration in State of Emergency, and the 2008 Internal Security Act. According to the rights watchdog, abuses had occurred "with impunity" during operations against separatist insurgents in the Deep South.
The Thai military has dismissed all allegations that soldiers tortured or mistreated detainees. It had also "dismissed calls to disclose information about people held in military detention," HRW said.
On Thursday, Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, a 75-year-old legislator from the Deep South, who is an ethnic Malay and head of the Prachachart Party, demanded that the special security laws be revoked and called on the government to speed up its negotiations with insurgents.
"Those who did this want to destroy the peace process, therefore, the government should soon start the new round of peace talks ... [and] also review the use of those special security laws," Wan Muhamad Noor, whose party considers the Deep South its political stronghold, said in a speech to parliament.
"Military forces are still necessary but they should operate only in their own bases, and refrain from operating into civilian areas," he said.
The Thai government has been holding peace talks with the insurgents since 2015, but the Malaysia-brokered negotiations have yielded no breakthroughs.

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Thai forensic experts examine the site where village defense volunteers were killed by suspected separatist insurgents in southern Yala province, Nov. 6, 2019. [Reuters]

HRW accuses BRN of 'laws-of-war violations'
The Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in neighboring Songkhla.
Almost 7,000 people have been killed in violence in the region since a separatist insurgency renewed its campaign against Buddhist majority Thailand in 2004.
Analysts believe most of the violence is perpetrated by the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), a separatist rebel group.
In its report last year, Human Rights Watch accused BRN of committing "numerous laws-of-war violations," saying most of those killed during the past 15 years "have been civilians, including children, from both ethnic Malay Muslim and ethnic Thai Buddhist communities."
Military intelligence officials estimate that BRN controls about 8,000 militants, mostly armed with rifles and pistols, in the Deep South.
No group has claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack, which is common in the Deep South, where attacks often come in the form of roadside bombs and attacks on security outposts, or killings of village chiefs seen with links to the military.
At its peak, the reignited insurgency campaign was claiming dozens of lives each month, but Tuesday's attacks were the bloodiest in the Deep South since April 28, 2004, when machete-wielding Muslim youths launched pre-dawn attacks on 11 security checkpoints in three provinces. Authorities said at least 108 attackers and five members of the security forces were killed.
After the 2004 attacks, the government erected more checkpoints in the Deep South, where about 70,000 soldiers and 20,000 police officers are currently deployed.
On Thursday in the neighboring Malaysian state of Kelantan, about 142 km (89 miles) southeast of Yala, local police chief Hasanuddin Hassan told reporters he had beefed up security along the frontier with Thailand.
He called on district police chiefs to be on the lookout for fleeing gunmen suspected of carrying out Tuesday's attacks.
"We will take precautionary measures by strengthening security control at the border," he said.


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Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has authorized security forces to impose curfews in nine districts of the Deep South after suspected separatist rebels killed 15 people in twin attacks on village defense posts in Yala province on Tuesday.
Prayuth's directive was issued to "prevent, contain, and manage the situation in areas where there are threats to national security," according to the Royal Gazette, which published the authorization Friday. The prime minister signed the directive on the day after the attacks.
Prayuth indicated that the directive was spurred by the devastating attacks in Yala, although the announcement made no mention of the violence that killed a mix of police officers, defense volunteers and civilians. The two attacks inflicted the highest death toll in the border region since 2004, when a long-running separatist insurgency flared up again.
"I don't want the suspects to cross over to other areas," he told reporters in Bangkok on Friday, as he sought to explain the significance of imposing a curfew. "I will try to make it short for measures announced in the order."
The authorization under the Internal Security Act permits the director and other appointed executives of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) – the military's political coordination body headed by Prayuth – to declare a curfew and prevent people from entering or leaving venues related to security operations.
The directive did not make clear what punishment would be given to curfew violators.
The curfew can be imposed from Dec. 1 this year until Nov. 30, 2020 and will cover Betong district of Yala province, Mae Lan district of Pattani province, Sukhirin, Su-ngai Kolok and Si Sakhon districts of Narathiwat provinces, and Thepha, Chana, Na Thawi and Saba Yoi districts of Songkhla province.
The potential curfew affects nine districts that are the only ones in the Deep South not covered by martial law and emergency powers. Tuesday's attacks took place in Yala's Muang district.
It would not be the first time for the Thai government to impose curfews.
In May 2014, Thailand's junta, also led by Prayuth, imposed a nationwide curfew after it seized power, ordering people to stay indoors between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., in a move that affected hotel occupancy, mostly in the capital Bangkok. The curfew was lifted about a month later.
The Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses the predominantly Muslim provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, as well as four districts in neighboring Songkhla, where almost 7,000 people have been killed since separatist insurgents renewed their campaign against Buddhist-majority Thailand in 2004. The region has a total of 37 districts.
Suspect in custody
On Friday, security forces combed through the mountains of Nangchan in Songkhla province, where at least 21 suspects could have fled after the attacks, Col. Pramote Prom-in, spokesman for the military's regional command in the Deep South, told reporters. Pramote declined to elaborate.
A man identified as Mayago Lateh, a resident of Pattani province, had been arrested and detained for questioning on suspicion that he helped scatter metal spikes along a highway during the attacks to block police from pursuing the gunmen, officials said.
"[We] want citizens to keep vigil and inform authorities about any suspect. Those who give assistance, refuge to them, will be guilty and punished the same as them," Lt. Gen. Pornsak Poonsawat, chief of the Fourth Army Region Command, told reporters on Friday.
The general said there was no immediate need to impose a curfew in the region.
"Currently, officials are not disrupted by any individuals or groups of individuals, therefore there is no reason and necessity to declare a curfew," he said.
Authorities said they had determined that more than a dozen firearms were used in an attack at one of the two checkpoints.
"There were at least 18 guns used in one attack, so there were about 18 direct attackers to that spot and about 40 to 50, when counting all, including supporters," police Lt. Gen. Ronasilp Poosara said, citing ballistic-test results.
He said tests on spent shells also linked the same guns used in two previous attacks in Pattani and nearby province Yala.
"I've talked to the Fourth Army Region Commander, Pornsak, that we would launch an operation to catch them in one or two days," said Ronasilp, referring to the attackers.
"The perpetrators have criminal records and we know their names," he said. "Although they may be hiding in the jungle and it is hard to find them, at least we know who they are."
Muslim leader condemns attacks
On Friday, Thailand's top Muslim leader condemned the attacks that also killed civilians, saying "killing innocents is a sheer sin."
"The violence has unavoidably ruined the relationships among Thai brothers – Muslims and Buddhists – inside and out of the [Deep South] region," Sheikhul Islam Aziz Phitakkumpon said in his message posted on his official website.
"Sheikhul Islam's Office views the violence as extreme, inhumane and infringing the religious teaching," he said. "For Muslims, killing innocents is a sheer sin."
The attacks in Yala took place amid a decline in the pace and intensity of militant violence over the past several years, according to the International Crisis Group (ICG), a nonprofit non-governmental organization based in Brussels.
"From a high of 892 fatalities in 2007, the death toll fell to 218 in 2018, the lowest since 2004. It remains to be seen whether the Nov. 5 attack was an aberration or sign of renewed insurgent potency," ICG said in a report.
But the attacks could be interpreted as "a demonstration by militants of their ability to conduct operations and inflict losses, in spite of the decline in violence in recent years," ICG said.
"It also highlights that, whatever the government may say, the insurgent campaign is far from over," the group said.
Bombing suspects plead not guilty
Meanwhile in Bangkok on Thursday, three men from the Deep South pleaded not guilty to terror-related charges stemming from small bomb explosions that injured four people when Thailand hosted a high-level international security meeting in the capital in early August.
"On Nov. 7, the prosecutor indicted Wildar Maha, 27, and Lu-Ai Sae Ngae, 22 and Muhammad Ilhum Sa-i, 27, with soliciting criminal ring and 10 other offenses," defense lawyer Kijja Ahi-isho told BenarNews on Friday. He said the court called for another hearing on Dec. 16.
The three suspects were arrested in connection with the explosion of nine small devices at four locations during an Aug. 2 meeting in Bangkok of foreign ministers from Southeast Asia and other regions.
Prosecutors said the three men were indicted on 11 counts of terror-related charges, including collusion in terrorism, illegal possession of explosives and other related offences.
The suspects denied all the charges.
Their lawyer, Kijja, said the suspects should be sent to a civilian prison, as their legal counsels were having difficulty interviewing them while under constant watch of soldiers.
"They are jailed in the 11th Infantry Regiment prison," he said. "We found that it was not comfortable to discuss the case with them under watch of officials."


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Authorities issued arrest warrants Monday for two suspects in twin attacks that killed 15 people in Thailand's insurgency-hit Deep South last week, while announcing they had detained seven people for questioning.
In court filings in Yala province seeking the warrants based on DNA evidence, investigators allege that the pair were present at one of the two attack sites on Nov. 5, said police Lt. Gen. Ronnasil Phusara, the head of Provincial Police Region 9.
"Both of them have several warrants issued against them in various cases including burning a tour bus two years ago," the commander told reporters, adding that those warrants were used to make the DNA link.
While police announced that they were looking to charge the two suspects, six other men have been detained for questioning and remain in custody. None have been charged and are not facing arrest warrants, Ronnasil said.
A seventh man, whose arrest was announced last week, was released after being questioned without any charges being filed against him, according to police.
Last week's attacks were the result of cooperation between two insurgent cells in Yala and neighboring Pattani province, Thai government officials alleged, adding that three brothers led the Pattani cell involved in the Nov. 5 bloodshed.
The "brothers used to live in Kuanran village but after the security unit issued an arrest warrant, they moved somewhere else. While their parents also moved to another area, claiming they want to do agriculture. We don't know where they all are," the village headman in Kuanran, Suriya Bosu, told BenarNews.
But a Pattani man, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told BenarNews that the brothers were not capable of leading attacks.
Curfews imposed
The Nov. 5 ambushes that killed 15 – a mix of police officers, village defense volunteers and civilians – were the deadliest since 2004 in the Deep South, an area that borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces as well as four districts in Songkhla.
Nearly 7,000 people have died in violence in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region since the separatist insurgency reignited 15 years ago.
On Friday, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha authorized security forces to impose curfews in nine districts of the Deep South following the attacks in Yala three days earlier.


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A high-ranking National Park officer and three of his former subordinates turned themselves in to authorities in Bangkok on Tuesday, a day after a Thai court issued arrest warrants against them on charges linked to killing a rights activist whose remains were found in September.
Chaiwat Limlikhit-akson, two national park officers and one former park officer face murder and other charges in connection with the slaying of ethnic Karen activist Porlajee Rakchongcharoen (also known as Billy), according to arrest warrants issued by a special court for state officials on Monday.
Investigators said Billy was killed at Kaeng Krachan National Park in Phetchaburi province in 2014 when Chaiwat was the park's chief and the three men were his aides.
In September, Department of Special Investigation (DSI) members found bone fragments in an oil tank submerged in a reservoir inside the national park, and officials issued arrest warrants after DNA analysis confirmed the remains as those of the missing activist.
"I deny every allegation against me," Chaiwat told reporters after he and the others reported to the DSI office in Bangkok on Tuesday.
"We are protectors of national forests, our lives have been dedicated to the benefit of the nation," said Chaiwat, the chief of a northeastern conservation area. "Currently, I have been turned into a suspect, especially by social media. It's unfair to me – I can tell you that I have fought for the justice system all along."
The four suspects all denied the charges against them during interrogation, DSI deputy Lt. Col. Pakorn Sucheevakul told reporters. 

They appeared before the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases where each posted bail of 800,000 baht ($26,360).
Slain man fought for Karen land rights
Billy was a leader of the Karen ethnic minority living in an area of Kaeng Krachan National park who fought for land rights after Chaiwat sought to move them from the park.
The initial police investigation showed Billy went missing on April 17, 2014, the day he was stopped by park officers at a checkpoint while traveling to meet Karen villagers who had accused officials of setting fire to their homes three years earlier.
Park officials set fire to 20 homes in 2011 in an effort to stave off alleged land encroachment by Karen, according to the Bangkok Post.
Chaiwat and his aides had told police they released Billy after questioning him for illegally gathering honey.
Billy's family sued Chaiwat for Billy's disappearance but the case was dismissed after a judge ruled there that there was not enough evidence to prosecute.
With the help of rights advocates, Billy's widow, Pinapa Prueksawan, lodged a new complaint asking DSI to reopen the case.
The Bwa G'Naw people, otherwise known as Karen, Kariang or Yang, are members of a hill tribe scattered across Myanmar, Laos and Thailand.
The number of Karen ranges between 7.5 million and 14 million, with most of them concentrated in Myanmar, according to official population estimates. The Australian Karen Foundation estimates as many as 1 million Karen live in Thailand.


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Suspected Thai insurgents shot dead a couple and wounded a toddler Friday in Thailand's Deep South, in a nighttime attack amid heightened security after gunmen killed 15 people last week at two security outposts in the region, officials said.
In Friday's attack, gunmen opened fire as Anukoon Khunkaew, 60, and his wife, Yupin Khunkaew, 55, were riding a motorbike with a 2-year-old girl on their way home in Mae Lan, a district of Pattani province, investigators said.
"We ordered the officers and patrol units to hunt down the assailants," Maj. Gen. Piyapong Wongchan, the provincial police chief, told reporters. "The operation includes setting up checkpoints to search for those who we believe are suspected insurgents in the area."
The attack was the first bloodshed believed to be linked to the separatist insurgency since the 15 were gunned down in neighboring Yala province on Nov. 5.
The girl, believed to be the couple's grandchild, suffered injuries and was taken to a local hospital, Capt. Natthanon Inthongmak, Mae Lan's deputy police chief, told reporters.
He said the couple, who were ambushed after they left a local market, were parents of a police sergeant who serves in Yala.
On Nov. 5, motorcycle-riding gunmen and others on foot opened fire on two checkpoints in Maung, a district of Yala, killing 15 civilians, defense volunteers and police officers.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha later authorized security forces to impose curfews in nine districts of the Deep South after the attacks in Yala.
Lt. Gen. Ronnasil Phusara, the Region 9 police chief, told reporters Friday that authorities had detained at least 11 people for questioning related to those attacks. He did not elaborate.
"The authorities have received more information and evidences after witness examination, including those detained for questioning," he said.
No arrests have been made in connection with Friday's attack. Authorities said this week that they had issued warrants for the arrests of three men - all suspected insurgents - wanted in the Nov. 5 killings.
The Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses the predominantly Muslim and Malay-speaking provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala, as well as four districts in neighboring Songkhla. Almost 7,000 people have been killed in the region since insurgents renewed their campaign against Buddhist-majority Thailand 15 years ago.
According to official figures compiled by BenarNews, at least 97 people had been killed and 137 others wounded in shootings and roadside bombings in the Deep South since January this year. It was not immediately clear how many of those killings could be attributed to insurgents.


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The Chinese defense chief warned the United States on Monday against provoking military tensions by "flexing muscles" in the contested South China Sea, while his American counterpart urged claimant nations to use their sovereign spaces "or risk losing them."
During a 30-minute meeting in Bangkok with U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Chinese Defense Minister Gen. Wei Fenghe underscored Beijing's "commitment to safeguarding territorial sovereignty and maritime rights" in the disputed sea, a spokesman for Wei told reporters here.
"The Chinese side also urged the United States to stop flexing muscles in the South China Sea, and to not provoke and escalate tensions," Col. Wu Qian, spokesman for China's Ministry of National Defense, said through an interpreter. "We called [on the United States] to stop intervening in the South China Sea and stop military provocation."
Wei's comments came as Beijing's first domestically-built aircraft carrier headed into the South China Sea from the Taiwan Strait as part of "equipment tests and routine training," according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.
China claims almost all of the sea, a vital waterway for international shipping and trade, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan have their own overlapping claims to portions of the disputed waters.
On Sunday, Esper urged claimant nations to protect their sovereign waters especially.
"I encourage you to use your sovereign spaces, as well as international ones, or risk losing them," he said.
"Together, we must stand for lawful uses of air and maritime spaces to push back against coercion and intimidation," the American defense secretary said, as he criticized Beijing's for stepping up the use of what it calls "maritime militia vessels" in the South China Sea.
Up to 95 Chinese militia ships had been monitored on Dec. 20 last year in an area near Chinese-occupied Subi Reef, according to a report published by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), a U.S.-based think-tank.
Beijing has strengthened its presence in the maritime region by expanding shoals into artificial islands and building military and other facilities.
"China's activities there are a threat not only to other claimants and the many Southeast Asian nations, but to all trading nations who value freedom of the seas, and the peaceful settlement of disputes," Esper said.
Esper made the comments during a speech at a ceremony in which the United States and Thailand reaffirmed their defense alliance. He met with his Chinese counterpart the next day on the sidelines of a conference of defense ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and eight other dialogue partners, including China and the United States.
For nearly two decades, China and ASEAN have been negotiating a code of conduct to regulate behavior in the South China Sea. Washington, in the meantime, has pressed ahead with freedom of navigation flights and sailing in the sea, through which about U.S. $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes annually.
Esper said the United States had conducted "more freedom of navigation operations in the South China Sea, in 2019, than in any of the past 25 years."
"These operations are intended to demonstrate that the United States will continue to fly, to sail and operate wherever international law allows," he said. "This has been particularly important in responding to steps Beijing has taken to militarize outposts in the South China Sea."
Esper said China, through its militia ships, had "tried to strong arm" and intimidate its smaller Asian neighbors from drilling for oil and natural gas reserves off their own shores.
The U.S. Navy regularly conducts what it calls "freedom of navigation" operations by ships close to some of the islands China occupies.
The Chinese navy said in a statement that the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Wayne E. Meyer had "trespassed" into the adjacent waters off the Nansha Islands on Aug. 28 without permission of the Chinese government.
It said Washington's action had "seriously endangered the peace and stability in the South China Sea." "Nansha" is the Chinese name for the contested Spratly islands.
Taiwan scrambles jets
In related developments, Taiwan, a self-governing island described by China as a wayward province, said it had scrambled jets and ships on Sunday to monitor the southbound Chinese warships led by the aircraft carrier, which has yet to be named.
On Monday, Chinese navy spokesman Cheng Dewei said on his social media account that the carrier's voyage in the South China Sea was "normal practice."
"This is not aimed towards any specific target, and has no relation to the current situation," Cheng said. 
A Chinese aircraft carrier had also passed through the Taiwan Strait in June, Taipei's defense ministry said in a statement.
Meanwhile, according to Malaysian Defense Minister Mohamad Sabu, China and the ASEAN bloc had agreed in principle to take part in another joint naval drill.
"We have agreed to conduct the second maritime exercise. However, we did not discuss in detail when and where it will be held," Malaysia's state news agency, Bernama, quoted Mohamad Sabu as telling reporters.
ASEAN and China conducted their first naval drills at the Zhanjiang Naval Base in southern China in October 2018.
ASEAN defense chiefs, during their meeting in Bangkok, also agreed that a code of conduct in the South China Sea "should be done soonest to increase stability," Gen. Raksak Rojpimpan, the Thai defense ministry's director of policy and planning, told reporters here on Monday.
"Thailand's policy is to strike the balance, we cannot choose sides," he said. "It is just a small country, we balance it out and befriend every country."


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Tens of thousands of Thais from different religions are gathering in Bangkok to glimpse Pope Francis, who arrives here Wednesday for a four-day visit to the Buddhist-majority kingdom, the first by a pontiff in 35 years.
On the eve of the pope's scheduled arrival, 35 students and their teachers from the Attarakeeyah Islamiyah School, a Muslim campus in Thailand's insurgency-stricken Deep South, traveled to the nation's capital to join the crowds heading there in anticipation of the papal visit.
The members of the school's chorus said they were looking forward to joining the concert choir at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University in performing songs of peace in front of Francis. The leader of the Catholic Church is scheduled to stop by the campus on Friday afternoon to meet with leaders of Christian denominations and other religions.
"It is the top honor for us to have a chance to perform music of international peace. We believe the songs present the meaning of living together, regardless of diversity, make peace in the world," Nongma Madama, who directs the chorus from Attarakeeyah, a school in Narathiwat province, told BenarNews.
On his first full day in Thailand, Pope Francis is scheduled to meet separately with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, King Maha Vajiralongkorn (Rama X), and Somdet Phra Maha Muniwong, the country's supreme Buddhist patriarch, as well as visit patients and staff at the St. Louis Hospital in Bangkok.
On Thursday night, the pontiff will preside over a Holy Mass at the National Stadium, according to an official program released by the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Thailand. He will also hold a Mass for young people at the Assumption Cathedral in Bangkok on Friday afternoon, after meetings with Christian leaders and Catholic Bishops during the morning.
"It is a good thing the Pope will visit Thailand because it has been over 30 years now since the latest papal visit. The government is honored to welcome His Holiness," Narumol Pinyosinwat, a spokeswoman for the Thai government, told BenarNews.

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Members of the chorus at the Attarakeeyah Islamiyah School in Narathiwat, a province of Thailand's Deep South, rehearse before joining a university choir in Bangkok to perform songs of peace in front of Pope Francis, Nov. 19, 2019. [Matahari Ismail/BenarNews]

The pope's arrival in Thailand coincides with the 350th anniversary of the establishment of the first Catholic mission there. The country's nearly 400,000-strong Catholic community represents less than 1 percent of the Thai population of 69 million people.
Before he embarked on his trip to Thailand, Francis sent a video message to the Thai people.
"[A]s a multi-ethnic and diverse nation with rich spiritual and cultural traditions, Thailand has worked hard to promote harmony and peaceful co-existence, not only among its own people but also throughout the region of Southeast Asia," the 82-year-old pontiff said.
"In this world that too frequently experiences discord, division and exclusion, this commitment to forge a unity respectful of the dignity of every man, woman and child can serve as an inspiration for the efforts that people of good will around the world are making to promote greater development of our human family in solidarity, in justice and living in peace."
He said he hoped his visit would strengthen "bonds of friendship" between Catholics and Buddhists, "who bear eloquent witness to the value of tolerance and harmony that are so characteristic of your people."

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People walk past a banner welcoming Pope Francis to Bangkok, Nov. 19, 2019. [AP]

The pope will end his visit to Thailand on Saturday, when he will depart for Japan, the next and final leg of his latest Asian trip.
Francis is the first pope to visit Thailand since John Paul II came here in 1984.
Wanwanach Worarakkit, a Thai Buddhist, was a child studying at the St. Joseph's Convent when the first pope visited her country.
Wanwanach, 44, who was taught to recite Catholic prayers in English, clearly remembers the day when she witnessed John Paul II hold a Mass at a stadium in the capital.
"My Christian friends walked up to His Holiness. I, as a Buddhist, just prayed, but I felt the Mass's massiveness and the kindness of the Pope," Wanwanach told BenarNews.
Nontarat Phaicharoen and Matahari Ismail contributed to this report from Bangkok and Narathiwat, Thailand.


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Thai opposition leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit vowed to press on with his political struggle after a court stripped him of his parliamentary seat Wednesday, ruling he violated electoral laws when registering for national polls this year.
Thailand's Constitutional Court found that he illegally had not given up his stocks in a media firm before filing papers for his candidacy as an MP in the March 2019 general election – a charge Thanathorn denied. The court ruled 7-2 to disqualify the 40-year-old politician as a lawmaker.
Afterwards Thanathorn said he would "leave it to the people to judge whether the ruling was fair or not."
He said he would carry on as leader of the Future Forward Party (FFP). The party is especially popular with young Thais. It ran on a pro-democratic and anti-junta platform, winning the third largest number of seats (80) in parliament's lower house in Thailand's first election since the military seized power in a 2014 coup.
"This case is very personal. It is about the status of my membership of parliament so there is nothing concerning the party ... I still am the leader of the party," said Thanathorn.
The billionaire in the auto parts trade and a prime ministerial hopeful in this year's polls has been outspoken about the military's influence in national politics.
"[Because] they don't want me to enter the parliament, I will spend my time with the people. There are millions who want to see changes in this age. I focus on the main goal – a change in the country," he said. "There is a lot of work to be done. I have to campaign for the amendment of the constitution."
The Constitutional Court took up the case against Thanathorn after the Election Commission lodged a complaint, which accused the FFP leader of improperly holding 675,000 shares in the media firm when he registered for the election. Thanathorn rejected the charges, claiming he had sold off his shares in the firm before registering as a parliamentary candidate.
"It is believed that the accused [Thanathorn] is a stock holder in the V-Luck Media Co. Ltd. on the day that the Future Forward Party submitted its list of candidates for the House of Representatives to the accuser [the Election Commission] – a prohibition that disqualifies his status," Voravidh Kangsasithiam, a Constitutional Court judge, said.
"Therefore his status as a member of the House of Representatives is ended since the accused was constitutionally suspended, and a house seat is vacant on the day the Constitutional Court read the verdict to the accused, on Nov. 20," the judge added in reading out the verdict.
ASEAN lawmakers: Thailand 'not ready for an open and free democracy'
On May 23, the court suspended Thanathorn from his parliamentary seat but allowed him to fight the case in the court.
On Wednesday, Wissanu Krea-ngam, the deputy prime minister for legal affairs, said Thanathorn could run as a candidate in the next election.
A group of current and former lawmakers from member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, however, criticized Wednesday's ruling in Thailand, one of the regional bloc's founding members.
The ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) issued a statement calling for "an end to the judicial harassment of opposition members and human rights defenders in Thailand."
"Today's ruling is another indication that despite the holding of elections this year, Thai authorities are not ready for an open and free democracy," said Charles Santiago, a Malaysian MP and chairman of APHR.
"This case must be looked at in a wider context whereby opposition MPs and parties, and specifically the Future Forward Party, have been singled out by Thailand's so-called independent institutions. All signs point to a coordinated attempt to silence a party that has threatened the status quo in its pursuit of constitutional reform."
There were currently 27 lawsuits targeting members of the Future Forward Party, including its secretary general and its spokeswoman, APHR noted, adding that one of these cases "could trigger the party's dissolution."
Future Forward and other parties in the opposition had criticized the March 24 polls as being engineered to favor a pro-junta coalition.
The National Council for Peace and Order, as the junta was officially known, changed the electoral rules by revising the constitution. The changes allowed the military government to appoint all 250 members of the Senate, one of two parliamentary houses that would vote to elect the next prime minister under the new rules.
A majority of Thais approved the new constitution through a 2017 referendum. After the 2019 election, the legislature voted for former junta leader and retired army chief Prayuth Chan-o-cha to serve as prime minister.
Last month, the FFP was the lone party to vote against a government decree to transfer two infantry regiments from the military's chain of command to the Royal Guard Command under King Maha Vajiralongkorn.
The verdict that went against the young leader of the Thai opposition could benefit his party in the long run, according to a Thai analyst.
"Everyone expects this kind of ruling, which reflects that the military still views the pro-democracy camp as an opponent," Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the political science faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University, told BenarNews.
"The ruling instead should bring about more popularity, not the demise, of Thanatorn or the FFP, as well as better foreign acceptance because Thanatorn is seen as a political victim," he added.


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Pope Francis denounced human trafficking, defended migrants and condemned prostitution on his first full day in Thailand on Thursday, during which he met separately with the nation's monarch, prime minister and Buddhist patriarch.
Amid chants of "viva il papa, viva il papa" from thousands of Roman Catholics, the leader of the Catholic Church delivered an open-air Mass in the Thai capital in the evening. He provided a glimpse of one of the cornerstones of his papacy – fighting human trafficking.
"Here, I think of children and women who are victims of prostitution and human trafficking, humiliated in their essential human dignity," the pope said in his homily at the national sports stadium in Bangkok
"All of them," he said, speaking in his native Spanish, "are part of our family. They are our mothers, our brothers and sisters."
Earlier in the day, the pope met King Maha Vajiralongkorn at the Amphorn Sathan Residential Hall inside Bangkok's Dusit Palace, the monarch's residence, according to the Vatican News.
King Vajiralongkorn and his royal consort, Queen Suthida, had a "conversation" with the head of the Catholic Church and gifts were exchanged, the Holy See's news service said, but did not provide details, saying members of the press "were excluded" from the private meeting.
The 67-year-old monarch, who was crowned during a lavish three-day ceremony in May, was the crown prince when he greeted Pope St. John Paul II on the only previous papal visit to Thailand, in 1984.
Pope Francis, who arrived on Wednesday, is on a seven-day Asian trip that will also take him to Japan. He is in Thailand to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the creation of the Apostolic Vicariate in the predominantly Buddhist nation, formerly known as Siam.
On Thursday morning, the 82-year-old pope met Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha at Government House and commended his efforts to curtail human trafficking, which Pope Francis described as "evil."
In response, Prayuth said the nation had taken steps to strengthen the family institution and ensured "equal opportunities for all groups in society, especially women and children."
Thailand, which is notorious for its massage parlors and go-go bars, passed a law in 1960 that makes prostitution illegal, but a 2014 UNAIDS report said more than 123,000 sex workers work in the country. Advocacy groups, however, say the actual number could be twice that figure, including migrants from neighboring countries.
Thailand has recently become a destination for thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled military crackdowns in Myanmar's Rakhine state. A major human trafficking syndicate in Thailand was also exposed when authorities unearthed dozens of mass graves in the jungle in southern Songkhla province, near the Thai-Malaysia border, in May 2015.
During the past few months, Pope Francis has actively campaigned against human trafficking. .
In September, he hosted at the Vatican a worldwide network of religious congregations that were actively campaigning against traffickers. Two months earlier, the pope wrote the preface to a new book in which he described prostitution as "a wound to the collective consciousness."
"A person can never be offered for sale," he wrote. "No one should turn away or wash their hands of the innocent blood that is shed on the roads of the world."

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Pope Francis visits St. Louis Hospital in Bangkok, Nov. 2, 2019. Nontarat Phaicharoen/BenarNews

Pope sits before Buddha statue
In a highly symbolic event on Thursday, the Catholic Church leader also met Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong, Thailand's supreme patriarch of Buddhism, at the gilded Wat Rachabophit temple in Bangkok's historic old quarter, according to the Vatican News.
The supreme patriarch welcomed his visitor while draped in orange robes and barefoot, a gesture reciprocated by the pontiff, who removed his shoes before entering the jeweled room, where they sat before a brilliant Buddha statue.
Throughout the pontiff's first visit to Thailand, he was accompanied by Sister Ana Rose, his second-cousin who has lived in Thailand since the 1960s as a missionary and acts as his translator.
There are fewer than 400,000 Catholics in the country of more than 69 million people, but his visit attracted huge crowds of beaming followers, greeting him at each destination, including at a nonprofit hospital founded by the church in 1898. Tens of thousands also watched his Mass on giant TV screens in an adjacent stadium.
Patcharee Sankusolnaipasutha, a 23-year-old Rajabhat University student, said it was "God-sent" that she was chosen to participate at the Mass by reading the Prayer of the Faithful during the General Intercessions.
"It was a big surprise because I am just a tribal Karen from northern Chiang Mai," she told BenarNews. "I'm so happy."
Supaporn Sritawatpong, a doctor at Rajavithi Hospital in Bangkok, told BenarNews he prepared for the Pope's arrival for two months.
"I'm very happy to have a chance to welcome the Pope. He is like our father," he said. "His visit is a historic moment. He respects other faiths and creates harmony."
 


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Thai security officials have gunned down the two main suspects wanted in twin attacks that killed 15 people early this month in the insurgency-stricken Deep South, officials said Friday.
Suspected rebels Sobri Lamso, 28, and Mayago Lateh, 40, planned the Nov. 5 attacks on two security checkpoints in Yala province, Lt. Gen. Pornsak Poolsawat, chief of the army's Area 4 Command, told a news conference.
He said the two men, suspected to be leaders of local insurgent cells, were gunned down late Thursday when they traded shots with authorities during a raid in nearby Pattani province.
"We are sorry for their relatives and families who may not know about the duo's acts," Pornsak said. "We used lenient measures and tried to negotiate with them to come out to fight in court, but they did not surrender, leading to the losses."
The raid took place two weeks after authorities issued arrest warrants against the two main suspects in the deadliest outburst of violence in a single day in the restive south since the separatist insurgency reignited in 2004, according to the military.
Pornsak said authorities received a tip-off that the suspects were hiding at a house in Pattani's Nong Chik district. Local clerics and village leaders tried to convince the suspects to surrender for about three hours before the firefight with law-enforcement officials ensued, he said.
"The duo were key leaders of the insurgents," Pornsak said. "They hatched the attacks on defense volunteers ... killing 15."
During the same news conference, police Lt. Gen. Ronasilp Poosara said ballistics testing had confirmed that a pair of handguns recovered from the two suspects were also used in several insurgent attacks.
Ronasilp said one of the seized firearms, a 9 mm handgun, was among the weapons used by the attackers in Yala. Another weapon, a .45-caliber pistol, was used in the recent killing of a policeman, he said.
"Those two guns were used in 14 separate attacks," he said, adding that six arrest warrants had been issued against Sobri and 10 for Mayago.
Sobri's father and sister retrieved his body on Friday from Nong Chik Hospital in Pattani. They declined to comment when asked by BenarNews reporters.
But their village chiefs said they had knowledge of their insurgent links.
"The family brought the body home for burial. Local residents feel sad but accept the fact that they were insurgent members," Suriya Bosu, chief of Kuanran Village in Saba Yoi district of Songkhla province, told BenarNews.
After the gunfight, security officials said they had summoned the homeowner for questioning at a military base in Pattani. Authorities had earlier detained six suspects, but none have been charged. BenarNews could not immediately confirm if they were still in detention.
A seventh man, whose arrest was announced last week, was released after being questioned without any charges being filed against him, according to police.
A day after the Nov. 5 attacks, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha authorized security forces to impose curfews in nine districts of the Deep South following the Yala attacks that killed a mix of police officers, village defense volunteers and civilians.
The Deep South borders Malaysia and encompasses Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala provinces, as well as four districts in Songkhla. Nearly 7,000 people have died in violence in the mainly Muslim and Malay-speaking region since the separatist insurgency flared up again 15 years ago.


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Pope Francis urged Thais on Friday not to consider Christianity a "foreign" religion, as he met religious leaders on his final full day here while winding down his visit to the predominantly Buddhist nation.
The pontiff told hundreds of priests and nuns who waited for him at the St. Peter's Parish west of Bangkok that he learned – "with some pain" – that for many people in Thailand, "Christianity is a foreign faith, a religion for foreigners."
That should spur priests and nuns to find ways to talk about their faith in the local dialect, he said.
"Let us give faith a Thai face and flesh, which involves much more than making translations," the pope said, speaking in his native Spanish.
During a visit to the predominantly Catholic village of Wat Roman outside Bangkok, the 82-year-old pope lamented that technology had devastated cultural individuality, amid globalization that imposed a Western influence among young people through social media.
"This produces a cultural devastation that is just as serious as the disappearance of species of animals and plants," he said.
The pope also met with the leaders of Christian denominations, as well as Sikhs, senior Buddhist monks, a Hindu priest and Thailand's chief Islamic leader at a university in Bangkok, where a young Muslim choir from the nation's insurgency-stricken Deep South joined other students who sang for him.
The gathering was highly symbolic for Pope Francis who has advocated inter-faith harmony during his trip to Thailand, where there are fewer than 400,000 Catholics among 69 million people.
Pope Francis told Christian leaders and leaders of other religions that cooperation and mutual respect were needed in a world filled with complex challenges.
"Now is the time to be bold and envision the logic of encounter and mutual dialogue as the path, common cooperation as the code of conduct, and reciprocal knowledge as a method and standard," he said, according to a transcript from Vatican News.
He also urged the religious leaders "to pursue the path of dialogue and mutual understanding."

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Pope Francis leaves after celebrating Mass at the Assumption Cathedral, in Bangkok, Nov. 22, 2019. [AP]

The day before, the Pope had a private meeting with King Maha Vajiralongkorn and his royal consort, Queen Suthida inside Bangkok's Dusit Palace.
Pope Francis also met on Thursday with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha at Government House and Somdej Phra Maha Muneewong, Thailand's supreme patriarch of Buddhism, at the gilded Wat Rachabophit temple in Bangkok's historic old quarter.
The head of the Catholic Church was in Thailand to celebrate the 350th anniversary of the creation of the Apostolic Vicariate in the predominantly Buddhist nation, formerly known as Siam.
His four-day visit to Thailand is the first by a pontiff since Pope St. John Paull II came here in 1984.
During his first full day in Bangkok, he delivered an open-air Mass at a packed national sports stadium, where he urged authorities to strengthen efforts to combat prostitution and human trafficking in Thailand, which is notorious for its sex-tourism industry.
Later on Friday, the pope celebrated a Mass with young people at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Bangkok, his last major event in Thailand before he departs on Saturday for Japan.
There, he will visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the two cities where the United States dropped atomic bombs that killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people at the end of World War II in 1945.
Francis has visited Asia twice in recent years. He went to Sri Lanka and the Philippines in 2014 and, three years later, he visited Myanmar and Bangladesh.


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A community in northeastern Thailand has voted down a local Muslim cleric's request to register as an official place of worship a mosque that has been operating from a house in the area for decades.
The sting of the crushing 528 to 6 vote was amplified by Buddhist activists who arrived in Khon Kaen province Sunday from elsewhere in the country to campaign against the mosque's registration. In a widely-viewed video clip, they expressed anti-Muslim views and tied that day's referendum in Pra Lub, a cluster of villages in Khon Kaen, to violence in Thailand's insurgency-stricken Deep South.
The cleric said he was trying to register the property in Ban Lerng Peau, one of those villages, as required by laws regulating Islamic organizations, in order to expand the facility into a fully-functioning mosque.
"I wanted to register this mosque, an old house donated by a man, in accordance with the government's 1997 Islamic administration law. Because of the negative result, I cannot expand it," Somwang Nettippayanond, president of the Khon Kaen Islamic Committee, told BenarNews.
Somsak Jangtrakul, the provincial governor, said the majority of residents in the tambon (village cluster) voted against the mosque's registration request.
In the majority-Buddhist country, referendums are required ahead of the registration of houses of worship of all faiths under a regulation enacted in 2005, according to a letter from the local district office announcing the referendum.
"This past Sunday there was a referendum on a request to register a mosque in Maung district of Khon Kaen, with 528 against and six in favor of it," Somsak told BenarNews. "So let it be, the registration of the mosque cannot be completed because the consensus must be honored."
Somwang, the cleric, said he had applied to register the Ibadur Rahman mosque, which has been in service since 1974, long before the Prime Minister Office's regulation took effect and the house of worship went through a renovation in recent years.
"In regard to fears of violence, you cannot compare Khon Kaen to the Deep South. We acknowledge the fact of violence there, but here, the Internal Security Operations Command keeps a close watch," Somwang said, referring to the southern border region where Muslims form the religious majority.
He invited local non-Muslims to come and see the mosque for themselves.
"A mosque is like a temple, it is a place for good people to pray. If you fear us [Muslims], we are open for everyone to look," the cleric said, adding that his mosque was usually busy on Fridays.
Governor: 'We don't see conflicts'
According to the Thai Ministry of Interior, there are some 3,000 Muslims living in Khon Kaen, among about four million Muslims nationwide. There are nearly 4,000 registered mosques across Thailand, with an average of 32 requests each year to register new ones, officials with the ministry said.
Khon Kaen is a peaceful province, Gov. Somsak said. He wants to keep it that way.
"At the moment, we don't see conflicts," the governor told BenarNews. "But my concern is how to be fair to all sides, to preserve a peaceful environment, to let everyone express themselves and to have [different groups in] society living in harmony."
On Sunday, however, a group of about 20 Buddhist activists, including from the Deep South, came to Somsak's province to show solidarity with locals opposed to the registration of the mosque in Ban Lerng Peau.
In 2017, Buddhists in the province filed a petition to stop Muslim people in the village from registering the mosque, which was the focus of Sunday's referendum.
"May I beg you that if the Deep South unrest doesn't end, don't you allow any more establishments of mosques nationwide," one of the activists said in a video of Sunday's demonstration that had drawn more than 22,000 page views on YouTube by Tuesday.
The leader of a Thai organization that calls itself Protect Buddhism for Peace, and whose members took part in the demonstration, said his group viewed the Deep South and the Middle East as sources of Islamic extremism.
"We resist Islamism from the Middle East because they see Thais as strangers. Malay Muslims in the Deep South don't see Thailand as their motherland but as the colonizer of Patani state," Iyr Petchthong told BenarNews.
"They indoctrinate youngsters in Pondok schools in order to change Thailand into an Islamic state, separate the country and smuggle foreign men into northern and northeastern regions of Thailand," he added, referring to Islamic campuses.
A separatist rebellion against Bangkok has lasted for decades in the Malay-speaking Deep South. But Thai officials, including Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha, have said there are no links between the border region and Islamic State extremists or any foreign militant group. Nearly 7,000 people have been killed in violence there since the insurgency reignited in 2004.
Saki Phitakkumpon, a former professor at the Institute of Peace Studies at Prince of Songkla University in the Deep South, said Islamophobia had seeped into Thailand.
"We [Muslims] are not dividing the Thai society. In fact, the Islamic organizations are trying to preserve harmony and get rid of Muslim extremism," Saki, who serves nowadays as secretary to the Sheikhul Islam, the leader of Thai Muslims, told BenarNews.


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Thailand's new negotiator for peace talks with insurgents in its southern border region foresees a change in dialogue partners, he told a press conference on Friday.
Gen. Wanlop Rugsanaoh said he expected the first official round of talks under his leadership to take place "soon" but did not elaborate.
In his first extended remarks on the peace talks since being appointed to lead them in September, Wanlop repeated the stance of past negotiators when he said he was seeking to speak with all parties including "groups who have influence on the operatives on the ground."
"At our request, Malaysia has contacted those groups, which we don't know who they are yet or who their leaders are. We need to wait and see when it is clear," Wanlop said.
Asked if there would be a change in dialogue partners, Wanlop replied, "I personally think there will be a change ... As I said, Malaysia is helping us on the arrangement."
From August 2015 until talks ground to a halt earlier this year, Thailand was in talks with MARA Patani, an umbrella group representing various rebel groups and factions. Those talks focused on launching a ceasefire in a single district, which never occurred.
Security analysts said that key figures from the group controlling fighters on the ground, the National Revolutionary Front, or BRN, were not participating in the talks.
"We can first learn from the past roles and lessons on why the talks failed. The best way is to meet the right man so that we fix the trouble correctly," said Thanakorn Buaras, head of Thailand's National Intelligence Agency, one of four panelists at the press conference.
"I just want to say, in brief, please come and talk," Thanakorn said when asked if he had a message for the BRN.
National agenda
Violence in three southern provinces and a handful of neighboring districts that comprise the Malay-speaking, mostly Muslim region known as the Thai Deep South dropped sharply this year, but recent incidents drew international notice.
On Nov. 5, suspected militants killed 15 people – civilian defense volunteers, police officers and civilians – in attacks on a pair of checkpoints in Yala province.
On Aug. 2, nine small devices exploded at four locations in Bangkok during a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), injuring four people. Thai officials knowledgeable on security matters told BenarNews they believed the BRN had orchestrated the blasts to draw attention to the insurgency.
Asked why Thailand was still pursuing peace talks after the Nov. 5 attacks, the bloodiest violence in years in the restive border region, Wanlop referenced a national strategy document launched in 2018.
"[We] affirm to the people, international community and the media that the Deep South is a national agenda, which the Thai government prioritizes," he said. "It is included in the 20-year National Strategic Plan which states clearly that the Deep South must utilize a peaceful approach and friendly discussion."
In 2015, rebels demanded that the government place the Deep South peace process on the national agenda as one of their conditions for continued talks.
More than 7,000 people have been killed in a separatist insurgency in the three Malay-speaking, majority-Muslim provinces near Thailand's southern border since the movement reignited in 2004. Various rounds of peace talks have been underway since 2013.
"We don't have much on new approaches, but we have sincerity, attention and determination to push the talks all the way through," Wanlop said, when asked how he proposed to produce results after five years of failed efforts.
In September, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad expressed the view to BenarNews that Bangkok would never agree to grant autonomy or independence to the region.
Referencing Wanlop, he said, "We will try to work together with this new leader, because we only want to find ways to end the unrest because, in our opinion, there is no way that Thailand will allow them to have autonomy or independence, and it could lead to Thailand becoming hardline, and many more will die."
"As for Mahathir's interview with BenarNews, he may have said this out of his experience that such a long struggle may need change in the cause touching on independence or autonomy," Wanlop said Friday.


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