Crackdown on Thailand-based Burmese dissidents

The Irrawaddy reports (h/t Kyi May):

The arrests of Nyi Nyi Aung and Ko Htut were followed by crackdowns on Burmese dissidents in Burma and Thailand. . . .

In neighboring Thailand, the offices of several Burmese exile groups were raided by Thai police— including the Human Rights Education Institute of Burma, where Ko Htut used to work.  

In Chiang Mai, 10 Burmese women activists were arrested and held in custody for several days. Other dissident groups closed their offices, and several remain shut in the Thai-Burmese border towns of Mae Sot and Sangkhlaburi according to dissident sources.

Sources reported that staff of Burma’s Bangkok Embassy are photographing activists attending demonstrations and other functions in Thailand.


Win Min, a Chiang Mai-based Burmese analyst, said a Burmese military attaché in Bangkok is active in requesting Thai security officials to harass Burmese opposition groups in exile.   

Burmese opposition groups last faced close Thai scrutiny during the administration of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Many offices closed for several weeks, fearing official crackdowns.

The last paragraph is incorrect.  There were major crackdowns on dissidents in Thailand as recently as Nov. 2007 -- long after Thaksin had been ousted.   Irrawaddy did some commendable reporting on those crackdowns, but they happened under Thailand's interim government (elections were not held until Dec. 2007).  At the time I blogged about Thailand's crackdown on the Burmese (see here and here):

Last week we learned that Thai agents are working to shut down pro-democracy news organizations operated by Burmese dissidents in exile. (The Irrawaddy, the source of this very report, is one of those groups that may be targeted by the Thai authorities). Since the brutal crackdown in September, Thailand appears to have placed a higher priority on supporting the Burmese junta in its crackdown than supporting the international community in its efforts to pressure the junta. 

Any new pressure on dissident groups is a test for Thai PM Abhisit, who has an opportunity to demonstrate that his commitment to human rights goes beyond words.  It's also a chance for Abhisit to prove that the Thai generals get their orders from Thailand's government, not Myanmar's wealthy junta..

As noted in the article, the crackdown comes in the wake of the arrest of Nyi Nyi Aung (aka Kyaw Zaw Lwin), an American citizen. The imprisonment and torture of Nyi Nyi coincided with the opening of new talks between Washington and Myanmar.   Washington ought to insist that Thailand not make the arrest, imprisonment and torture of an American citizen a pretext for doing the junta's bidding.   


Photo by Jotman.