Thai Army Secretly Detains Muslim Student Activists – HRW

Thailand’s military has arbitrarily arrested 17 student activists in the troubled southern Narathiwat region, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Friday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — The arrested student activists are members of a Malay Muslim student network at the Princess of Naradhiwas University, and were detained at their dormitories on April 2, according to Human Rights Watch.

Thailand’s military authorities have provided no information of why the students were arrested or when they are to be released.

“Arbitrary arrests, secret detention, and unaccountable officials are a recipe for human rights abuses,” HRW’s Asia director Brad Adams said in a statement. “The use of martial law to detain student activists shows how out of control the Thai military authorities have become.”

The group urged for the students to be released unless charged with a credible offense, and noted that the risk of torture increases substantially when detainees are held incommunicado in unofficial locations.

Human Rights Watch also pointed out that the Thai military lacks training in civilian law enforcement.

Thailand’s southern regions have seen years of ethnic and religious insurgency, resulting in an estimated 5,000 deaths since 2004.