SAKON NAKHON — Residents of Nong Pai Yai village in northeastern Thailand are demanding local authorities install electricity in their village, twenty-five years after they first submitted a request.

A child reads by candle light in Nong Pai Yai village.

Pom Jairew, 53, said she was among the first group of villagers who went to the District Office to apply for electricity, when her daughter was still a baby.

"Now my daughter is already 25 years old and married," Pom said. 

According to Pom and other residents of Nong Pai Yai, local electricity authorities told them to wait while their request was processed. But the electricity never arrived. 

"They told me to wait. They said it's like going to hospital, you have to wait in line" said Kawi Nampha, a 70-year-old woman who was born and raised in Nong Pai Yai. "In the end people could not endure the wait, so they contacted the District Office again, but the officials also told them to wait."

Twenty-five years later, their patience has run out. Today the villagers banded together to stage a small protest and demand officials make good on their word.

"I'm sorry for the little kids in the village," Pom said at the protest. "They can't read books at night because there's no electric lights, they can't watch TV. They can't even own mobile phones because there's no electricity for their chargers."

She continued, "The only way we know about the outside world is to listen to the radio."

Villagers in Nong Pai Yai village demand electricity, 12 Dec 2014.

Twelve families now live in Nong Pai Yai, which is only two kilometres away from the local District Office in the northeastern province of Sakon Nakhon. Whenever the village holds weddings or funerals, villagers are forced to borrow a small generator from a nearby community, and children have to finish their homework before dark.

Prawit Suphon, 40, said he and his fellow villagers decided to contact the press this time rather than seek help again from authorities again.

"The District Chiefs would slam their fists on the table and shout at us, scolding us for not knowing the meaning of waiting in a queue," Prawit told Khaosod. 

According to official numbers from 2010, the situation in Nong Pai Yai is rare: 99.7% of all Thai households are said to have access to electricity.

Responding to Khaosod's request for comment, an official at the local electricity authority in Sakon Nakhon province said they could not process the villagers' complaint at the moment because their supervisor "is not in the office."

"We have a policy of providing electricity to every household in Thailand, but we must follow the procedure. We have to wait for the supervisor,” the official explained. 

BANGKOK — Anti-coup activists disrupted an award ceremony organized by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) this morning to protest the agency's perceived apathy in the face of human rights abuses following the 22 May coup.

NHRC chairperson Amara Pongsapitchaya was scheduled to hand awards to a number of people and organisations at the Government Complex in Bangkok today to honour their "exceptional contribution to human rights" in Thailand. 

Just before Amara presented the award to a representative from the student activist group Dao Din, several other activists stormed the stage and criticised Amara for her failure to challenge the military junta's repression in Thailand.

Other activists simultaneously moved to the front of the stage and held signs ridiculing the NHRC's weak response to the coup.

"You are fired, NHRC," one sign read. Another mockingly asked, "Are you still alive, Amara?"

Security officers then attempted to escort activists off the stage, but Amara agreed to accept their letter of complaint.

Dao Din made headlines in Thailand when five of its members staged an anti-coup protest in front of Thai junta leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha while he was giving a speech in Khon Kaen province on 19 November. 

However, the group's opposition to the military coup was not cited by the NHRC in its award statement; rather, the NHRC awarded Dao Din for other campaigns related to social and environmental issues. 

Activists storm the stage during the NHRC award ceremony on 12 Dec 2014.

More commotion took place when the Dao Din representative flashed the "three-finger salute" on stage after receiving the award from Amara. The gesture was adopted as a symbol of coup resistance from the Hunger Games film trilogy in late May.

The student also read a statement from Dao Din vowing to boycott any of the junta’s "reconciliation" or "reform" forums, which the group deems "illegitimate." 

"We will organise our own 'people's forum' to voice the frustration of the people," said Payu Boonsopon. "We also oppose martial law because it violates the rights of the people."

Today’s protest was led by the Thai Student Centre for Democracy (TSCD). One of the protesters was Natcha Kong-udom, a first-year student at Bangkok University who was arrested in front of a cinema in Bangkok on 20 November for flashing the forbidden "three-finger salute."

Sirawit Seritiwat, a core TSCD activist, said the group did not intend to "disrupt" the award ceremony.

"We only wanted to organise a symbolic resistance to the coup," Sirawit explained. 

Students from TSCD and Dao Din flash the forbidden "three-finger salute" after the NHRC award ceremony, 12 Dec 2014.

The NHRC has come under fire for its half-hearted rebuke of the 22 May military coup and the junta’s subsequent crackdown on freedom of expression. 

The commission's responses are a stark contrast to other international human rights agencies, such as Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International, which have repeatedly criticised the junta’s suspension of civil liberties.

In her speech at the award ceremony today, Amara did not explicitly criticise the junta’s ongoing ban on political expression, only noting that activists and the junta view human rights differently.

"The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) thinks we have to sacrifice personal rights to protect the rights of all citizens, while the anti-coup faction believes personal rights and political rights cannot be infringed at all," Amara said.

"This debate will continue for the next several years," she said. "We have to exercise our judgment about individual rights. Sometimes we may have to lose some personal rights for the sake of public rights."

The rest of her speech focused on the need to tackle issues of discrimination and inequality in Thailand.

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​Amara with student activists after the NHRC award ceremony on 12 Dec 2014

Amara later met with the anti-coup protesters and told them that the NHRC is doing "its best" to defend human rights.

Critics of the NHRC accuse the agency of harbouring a bias against the Redshirt movement, which supported the former government toppled in the coup.

The NHRC's 2013 report about the military crackdown on Redshirt protesters in 2010, which left over 90 people dead, was slammed by Redshirt supporters and human rights activists for its glaring omission of security officers' use of force against unarmed protesters.

According to the NHRC narrative, Redshirt protesters "violated human rights" by staging a protest in downtown Bangkok, which "forced" the government at the time to enact emergency laws and send in armed troops to disperse the rallies. 

BANGKOK — The Thai government has denied the existence of a secret prison inside the country’s borders following fresh queries about the alleged CIA "black site" after the release of a damning report on the US's post-9/11 interrogations of suspected terrorists.

“There is no secret prison in Thailand,” said Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, a Cabinet Minister in Thailand's junta-appointed government. “There is no documented case of torture in Thailand. Thai agencies are not involved in this. This is a domestic issue for the US, between the Senate Intelligence Committee and the CIA.”

Thai authorities have denied the existence of a secret CIA-run jail in Thailand since rumours about the detention facility first surfaced in the early 2000s during the administration of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Although the US Senate Intelligence Committee's heavily redacted report does not reveal the locations of the CIA’s overseas prisons, NGOs and news organisations have used other details in the report to determine the location of eight so-called black sites in five countries around the world, including one in Thailand.  

The prison in Thailand is believed to be referred to as “Detention Site Green” in the report, which was released on 9 December.

The report describes abusive interrogation tactics used against al-Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah while he was allegedly held in Thailand’s secret facility.  According to a series of cables quoted in the report, Zubaydah became “completely unresponsive” during one waterboarding session. The sessions reportedly became so brutal that they brought some CIA officers “to the point of tears.” 

According to the report, “Detention Site Green” was established in March of 2002, but by April of that year a media organization had caught wind of the country Zubaydah was being held in. Several months later in November, the CIA learned that a major US newspaper also knew about Zubaydah's location, prompting senior CIA officers and US Vice President Dick Cheney to urge the newspaper to keep quiet. Although the newspaper – later identified as The New York Times – complied, the two cases of media attention led the CIA to shut down operations at “Detention Site Green,” the report says.

A page from the US Senate Intelligence Committee's report on the arrest of terrorist suspect Hambali in Thailand.

Thailand is also mentioned by name in report’s section on the capture of suspected Bali bombing mastermind 'Hambali' in Ayutthaya, Thailand. His arrest, which was carried out with the help of “Thai investigative activities,” was cited by CIA officials as evidence of the “effectiveness of enhanced interrogation techniques” that had been used on another detainee.

However, the US Senate report overwhelmingly concludes that the CIA’s harsh interrogation tactics, which included a range of painful and unapproved procedures, did not provide essential breakthroughs in intelligence.

In a statement released by the White House, US President Barack Obama said the report confirmed his view that “these harsh methods were not only inconsistent with our values as [a] nation, they did not serve our broader counterterrorism efforts or our national security interests.” President Obama formally ended the CIA's post-9/11 detention and interrogation program when he took office in 2009.

Immediately after the report was made public, the US State Department notified American citizens in Thailand, Afghanistan, and Pakistan that the release of the report's findings “could prompt anti-U.S. protests and violence against U.S. interests, including private U.S. citizens.”

Thai minister Suwaphan said he has informed Prime Minister and junta leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha of the report and its potential effects on American interests in Thailand.

“We have increased security measures for foreigners in the country,” Suwaphan said.

Thailand is one of the US’s strongest allies in the region. In 2003, the Thai government dispatched at least 450 soldiers to assist with the American military operation in Iraq. 

BANGKOK — Anti-coup activists organised a roadside "birthday party" to celebrate Thailand’s national Constitution Day amid tight security in Bangkok yesterday.

The "party" consisted of a dozen activists sitting, drinking, and eating northeastern Thai cuisine on a traditional mat laid on the pavement across from Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, while dozens of security officers stood guard nearby. A police officer said at least "one company" of uniformed and plain-clothed police was deployed to "maintain peace and order" in the area. 

The activists were led by Payao Akhard, the mother of a volunteer medic who was killed in the 2010 military crackdown on Redshirts, and Pansak Srithep, whose 14-year-old son also died in the crackdown. 

Payao billed the event as a birthday celebration for her late daughter, Kamolkate Akhard, aka Nurse Kate, presumably in an effort to circumvent the military junta's ban on political activities. 

"Kate was born on 7 December, but in the past, when she was still alive, our family always celebrated her birthday on 10 December," Payao explained. 

When a group of police officers approached the activists and tried to persuade them to call off their "picnic," Payao refused and insisted that she was merely celebrating her daughter’s birthday. 

At around 8 pm, Pansak and Payao lit candles on their "birthday cake," which was shaped like Democracy Monument, before serving up slices to fellow activists and security officers.

Pansak saved the biggest piece of cake for military officers who were observing the event from a distance. 

"Today is Constitution Day, but since we don't have any actual constitution, we settled for eating a symbol of the constitution," Pansak told reporters. "Normally, I would give out equal sized pieces of cake, but I believe the military has a different definition of equality, so I gave them bigger pieces than everyone else."

Payao (L) and Pansak (C) cut the cake before distributing slices to activists and security officers.

After releasing 20 white balloons to mark the occasion, the activists dispersed peacefully without any incident.

Constitution Day, which is celebrated annually on 10 December as a public holiday in Thailand, commemorates the promulgation of Thailand's first official charter on 10 December 1932, six months after a group of military officers and bureaucrats staged a coup in Bangkok to replace the absolute monarchy with constitutional democracy. 

According to the state narrative taught in school textbooks, King Rama VII voluntarily bestowed Thailand’s first constitution to the people in response to an attempt by "hot-headed" and "Western-educated" revolutionaries to seize power on 24 June 1932. This narrative virtually ignores the 27 June Provisional Charter penned by the revolutionaries, which was Thailand’s actual first constitution and is more democratic in wording.

Gen. Prayuth at the statue of King Rama VII in Bangkok, 10 Dec 2014.

Yesterday Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, Thailand’s current Prime Minister and junta leader, paid a visit to a statue of King Rama VII at the Parliament complex in Bangkok, where he laid down flowers to pay homage to the monarch. 

Thailand has seen 19 charters since it became a constitutional democracy in 1932, making the Kingdom the country with the highest number of charters in the world. 

The last constitution, the 2007 charter, was dissolved by the military junta after Gen. Prayuth seized power in May 2014. The junta later replaced it with the 2014 Interim Constitution, and has set up a committee to draft another "permanent" constitution by 2015.