Forensic science to help combat Thai south insurgency
Sujadi Siswo
08 July 2011


Thai Military Detention Centre

PATTANI, Southern Thailand : With attacks continuing in southern Thailand, the army continues to detain suspected insurgents using martial law and emergency law.

The Military Detention Centre is one of the most-feared detention centres run by the Thai Army in the South meant for suspected insurgents.

At the height of the insurgency beginning 2004, the detention centre housed more than 4,000 suspects. It now has only 29 suspects undergoing investigation and rehabilitation.

25-year-old Abbas Abdullah has been detained for almost two weeks.

He is accused of shooting a resident in his village in the neighbouring Narathiwat province.

Under martial law, the army can detain a suspect without trial for up to seven days, and up to another 30 days under Emergency law.

"We have frank and open discussions with the suspects. Our interrogations are carried out in a friendly atmosphere," said Lt-Col Piyawat Nakawanich, Commander of the Military Detention Centre.

The military has arranged several visits for community leaders to convince them and the public that the detainees are not tortured.

But memories of the army's excesses in 2004 still linger.

That year, 85 youth arrested for violent protests died upon reaching the camp, after being transported in cramped military trucks from neighbouring Tak Bai district.

Most were not found to be insurgents.

"95 per cent detained here were found to have links to the insurgency. Their involvement is not direct. They are not insurgents. But they provided assistance to the insurgents such as acting as look-outs and throwing nails on the roads. They had to help the insurgents so that they can continue living in their villages. We will release them once we are convinced," said Lt-Col Piyawat Nakawanich.

More than 4,000 civilians and soldiers have been killed in the Southern border provinces since 2004.

Insurgents have been blamed, but with no certainty.

Dr Pornthip Rojanasunan, Thailand's famed forensic scientist, has been helping with the army's investigations in the South for the past seven years.

Her findings have helped confirm the public's speculation that not all violence is linked to the insurgency.

"The attack on the military camp in January... through the DNA, we could link to a group of people that moved in three provinces. And from that case, the link is to oil smuggling issue," said Dr Pornthip, Director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science.

The Central Institute of Forensic Science has assisted the military in gathering some 50,000 DNA profiles in its database in the South. This has helped the army, to a large extent, differentiate between criminals and insurgents.

And with this, it is hoped that peace-building efforts can commence with greater certainty.

channelnewsasia.com