Good morning,

The Burmese junta is asking monks not to participate in the increasing number of street demonstrations in the country (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=8400). The sight if armed thugs maltreating unarmed, boy monks would be publicity too horrifying even for the generals to permit. Burmese people are doing their best to get word about mistreatment out to the world’s media (http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=8398) and they have achieved some success (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6964282.stm).

Human Rights Watch has released a new report about the insurgency in the south of Thailand (http://hrw.org/reports/2007/thailand0807/) which points out that 2,463 people have died since 2004 when the insurgency began and nearly 90% of them have been civilians. Key recommendations made by the report:

1. Separatist groups should cease all attacks against civilians whatever their religion or ethnicity, the civilian population, and civilian objects, including schools, places of worship, and public health centers.
2. Separatist groups should cease all attacks that do not discriminate between combatants and civilians, and take all feasible precautions in the choice of means and methods of attack against military objectives to avoid or minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects.
3. Separatist groups should take all necessary steps to ensure that members and militants of separatist groups understand and respect the obligation to protect civilians. They should discipline or expel militants or commanders who target civilians, or use indiscriminate or disproportionate force that unnecessarily harms civilians, or unlawfully detain or mistreat any person in custody.
4. Separatist groups should agree to abide by international humanitarian law, particularly Common Article 3 to the 1949 Geneva Conventions and Protocol II of 1977. They should seek assistance from impartial humanitarian agencies to obtain compliance with international law.
5. Separatist groups and the Thai government should stop threatening, undermining, and discrediting the effort of persons working to protect and report on abuses, such as the National Human Rights Commission, human rights lawyers, journalists, and others who have played a crucial role in reporting allegations of abuses.
6. The Thai government should devise and implement a comprehensive security strategy—which must be in full respect of international human rights and humanitarian law, as well as in cooperation with local communities—to effectively monitor, prevent, and respond to insurgent attacks on civilians and civilian objects.
7. The Thai government should establish necessary measures, such as an emergency fund, to ensure that those affected by insurgent attacks may safely continue to have access to education, healthcare, and other public services.
8. The Thai government should prosecute officials, regardless of rank, who are responsible for abuses or who knew or should have known about the abuses but took no action. It should provide prompt, fair, and adequate compensation for the victims and family members of those who have been abused by security personnel and government officials. In this regard, the Thai government should strengthen the independence and capacity of the Ministry of Justice, the Office of the Public Attorney, and the National Human Rights Commission to ensure stronger investigations and reporting of allegations of abuses. It is vital that each is able to act independently and have the resources and security to perform their respective functions.
9. The international community should condemn any group for attacks targeting civilians or civilian objects, or that is indiscriminate or cause disproportionate civilian casualties.
10. The international community should support efforts by the National Human Rights Commission and the human rights community in Thailand to safely monitor, investigate, and report on allegations of abuses by all parties.

Yesterday a woman teacher was murdered in Pattani and a wave of arson attacks was mounted against schools in the district (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/28Aug2007_news05.php).

We will, apparently, have an election on December 23^rd (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/28Aug2007_news01.php). Continued imposition of martial law may, some argue, be used to hinder the legitimate political rights of certain parties aiming for votes among the rural poor. Perhaps international observers could be invited to monitor the elections to determine how fair they are.

Today at Suite 101: “Majority Live in Cities” (http://easianaffairs.suite101.com/article.cfm/majority_live_in_cities).

Back tomorrow.