Obama help sought for jailed Thais [Thailand called on Obama to help release Thai prisoners from Cambodian jail]

By Pravit Rojanaphruk
The Nation  

November 16, 2012

A Senate panel has called on US President Barack Obama to help secure the release of two Thai activists from Cambodian jails when he visits Phnom Penh.

Tuang Anthachai, chairman of the Senate committee on human rights and freedom, said he had submitted a letter to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to forward to Obama.

                    Veera Somkwamkidand (L) and a Thai MP, Panich Vikitsreth (R), who was later released.

The letter asks Obama to call for the release on humanitarian grounds of Veera Somkwamkid and Ratree Pipattanapaibul, who were jailed in Cambodia after entering the country's territory during a protest over a border dispute. Tuang said the letter calls on Obama to ask the Cambodian government to reduce the penalties for the two Thais or at least agree to exchange them with Cambodian inmates in Thailand.

Tuang said he believed Obama's intervention would prompt Cambodia to release the two activists.

Meanwhile, Washington-based Freedom House urged Obama to highlight human-rights issues during his visit to Thailand, Myanmar and Cambodia.

"Freedom House expresses deep concerns about the way in which such a high-profile visit will be spun by the Myanmar and Cambodian governments to further legitimise their rule. Significant human-rights violations plague both countries, while a nominally democratic Thailand grapples with sectarian violence in the South and lese majeste laws that curtail freedom of expression.

Several human-rights defenders have been killed and arrested ahead of Cambodia's general elections and land grabbing and evictions remain rampant.

"In [Myanmar], hundreds of political activists still remain imprisoned, violence against the Rohingya Muslim minority has recently escalated, and military abuses in ethnic areas continue unabated," the group stated.

Myanmar is far from being a vibrant democracy and this visit seems to "unduly reward the regime", said David J Kramer, president of Freedom House. "Given that the trip is set and announced, what we now hope for at a bare minimum is that President Obama will use this opportunity to further press the [Myanmar] regime to free all political prisoners, provide legal protections to the Rohingyas, and halt military abuse in ethnic areas."