BANGKOK, Jan 19 (TNA) - Thailand's Senate Commission on Human Rights, Liberty, and Consumer Protection will this Thursday discuss media reports charging the Royal Thai Navy with committing abuses against illegal immigrants of the ethnic Muslim minority Rohingyas population in Myanmar, Commission chairman Somchai Sawaengkarn said on Monday.
Mr. Somchai said the upcoming meeting will discuss whether foreign media reports implicating the navy with committing abuses against the Rohingyas migrants were accurate.
This is because Thai media presented the news in a different manner which contradicted the foreign media, he said.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)'s website earlier reported that the Royal Thai Navy mishandled illegal immigrants by setting them adrift off the Thai coast on a boat with no engine and limited food and water supplies.
Thai Supreme Commander Gen. Songkitti Jaggabatara on Sunday reiterated that the Thai navy did not commit any harsh inhumane acts against Rohingyas who sought asylum in Thailand and did not otherwise violate their human rights.
The Senate Commission is expected to "consider the case for not more than 30 days and will first invite representatives of the Navy to explain the matter," Mr. Somchai said.
He also urged the government to speed up its consideration of insufficiently examined human rights violations in Thailand during the past five to six years committed during the administration of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
They included killings of drug suspects during a campaign launched by Mr. Thaksin's government, a disappearance of a human rights lawyer, a massacre at a mosque and a forceful breakup of a rally in troubled Tak Bai district of the southern province of Narathiwat.
Mr. Somchai also urged the government to issue an organic law concerning human rights protection in the constitution in order to genuinely protect rights and the freedom of the people. (TNA)
General News : Last Update : 18:41:27 19 January 2009 (GMT+7:00)
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