Thai junta forces cancellation of HRW event in Bangkok

Sunai Phasuk, left, Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher in Asia, and Umesh Pandey, a board member of Foreign Correspondents of Thailand, right, talk to policemen at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok, Thailand Friday. Pic: AP.

By Asian Correspondent Staff Jun 26, 2015 

Thai authorities have forced a human rights group to cancel the launch of its report on the Vietnamese government’s persecution of an ethnic minority.

The 33-page report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) describes persecution of Montagnard Christians in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, whose religious practices have been described by the government as “evil.”

Thai police said in a statement Friday the scheduled event at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) could impact national security or the relations between Thailand and Vietnam.

The FCCT said it received a written order from the Royal Thai Police to cancel the event at 10.34am Friday. The report launch was scheduled to take place at 10.30am.

“From the perspective of the FCCT, it was a routine press event and part of any normally functioning media environment… The release of reports with no particular connection to Thailand, such as the one on the Vietnam’s Montagnards cancelled today, reflects the significant foreign media presence in Thailand covering Southeast Asia, nothing more,” the FCCT statement said.

HRW also issued a statement Friday, saying it was “disappointed” that the Thai government forced the cancellation of the event.

“By stepping in to defend a neighboring state’s human rights violations against a group of its people and interrupting a scheduled press conference, Thailand’s military junta is violating freedom of assembly and demonstrating its contempt for freedom of the press,” it said.

“This action today is just the latest indication that Thailand is choosing to side with dictatorships in ASEAN while further stepping up repression at home.”

Human Rights Watch researcher Sunai Phasuk said the intervention will damage Thailand’s already tarnished international reputation under the military rule.

Thai authorities have cracked down on critics and dissents since last May’s coup.

Friday’s press conference was the third event in one month that has been cancelled at the venue.

On Thursday, HRW issued a report at the FCCT that sharply criticized Thailand’s treatment of the Burmese Moken ethnic minority.

The full HRW report on the plight of the Montagnard Christians in Vietnam can bedownloaded here.

RELATED: Thai junta shuts down FCCT event for 2nd time this month

Additional reporting from Associated Press