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Thailand rights criticism over Pattani death sentences | |
(about 4 hours later) | |
Rights groups have criticised Thailand for giving death sentences to five suspected militants convicted of killing four soldiers. | |
Pattani Provincial Court found the men guilty on Wednesday of opening fire on the soldiers while they were on patrol in the southern province July 2012. | |
Human Rights Watch accused Thailand of double standards, saying the army was also responsible for rights violations. | |
Several rebel groups are fighting for more autonomy in southern Thailand. | |
The country is majority Buddhist but Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat provinces are ethnically-Malay and mostly Muslim. | |
Separatists carry out regular attacks, usually roadside bombings or drive-by shootings, and since the conflict began in 2004 about 6,000 people have died in the three southern provinces. | |
The military maintains a high presence in the region, and has controversially given arms to local people to help them tackle the insurgency. | |
Despite repeated accusations of rights abuses by the security forces, Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch told Reuters that there had never been a successful prosecution of a soldier. | |
"Violence does not come from the separatists alone. The security forces have their own share of responsibility," he said. | |
Rupert Abbott, Amnesty International's Southeast Asia research director, told AFP that the death penalty "is a human rights violation in itself and will do nothing to stem the tide of violence in Thailand's south". | |
"It might be tempting for the Thai authorities to think of the death penalty as a quick fix to combating insecurity, but there is no evidence whatsoever that the threat of execution acts as a particular deterrent to crime." | |
Peace talks with rebel groups came to a standstill when the country was plunged into a political crisis earlier this year. | Peace talks with rebel groups came to a standstill when the country was plunged into a political crisis earlier this year. |
The government, which took power in acoup, has pledged peace in the region. | |