BANGKOK — Junta chairman and Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha says he doesn't intend to bring up any sensitive issues during his official visit to Cambodia, which begins today.

Prayuth told reporters that he and his Cambodian counterpart, Prime Minister Hun Sen, will discuss how the two countries can cooperate in the areas of trade, investment, tourism, and decreasing illegal logging along the border.

However, sensitive issues like territorial disputes are off the table, Prayuth said.  

“I have talked to Hun Sen and Tea Banh, deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense of Cambodia, several times about the Preah Vihear case and we agreed not to bring up the issue during our latest meeting,” said Prayuth, referring to a land controversy over a temple near the Thai-Cambodian border.

Yet Prayuth said he would propose promoting tourism packages that involve visiting sites in both countries, which could include a trip to the disputed temple.

“They could travel around Thailand for 3 days then explore in Cambodia for a couple days,” Prayuth said.  “And this plan might as well include a trip to Preah Vihear.”

Prayuth is expected to sign two other memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with Cambodian officials concerning a joint effort to combat human trafficking and the construction of a railway linking the two countries. 

Relations between the two countries have fluctuated over the years, mostly over border disputes and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen's alleged support of the Shinawatra clan, who led the government ousted in the 22 May coup. 

The two-day visit is Prayuth’s third official trip out of the country since he seized power in a coup d’etat in May and was chosen to be Prime Minister by his rubber-stamp parliament in August.

BANGKOK — An international human rights organization has called on the Thai government to prosecute the army ranger who confessed to killing a 14-year-old Muslim boy in southern Thailand last month.

“The Thai government faces a clear-cut test on whether it will arrest and prosecute those responsible for the killing of a Malay Muslim teenager,” said Brad Adams, the Asia director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch. “A failure to act decisively will further fuel perceptions in the Muslim community that the Thai security forces are untouchable and can commit abuses with impunity.”

Last month, an army volunteer in Narathiwat province confessed to shooting and killing a 14-year-old boy who was passing by his post on a motorcycle on 21 August, officials said. After finding the teenager dead, the ranger then allegedly planted a gun in the boy’s hand to frame him as an insurgent.

Narathiwat and two other southern provinces in Thailand have been plagued by Islamic separatist violence since 2004. 

Authorities said the ranger, Ekkapoj Samansuan, was charged with manslaughter and other offences, yet according to Human Rights Watch no disciplinary action has been taken against Ekkapoj or any other members of his unit.

Local authorities gave the boy’s family 500,000 baht, “but providing compensation does not absolve the government from its responsibility to prosecute officials responsible for an unlawful killing,” Human Rights Watch said in a press release today.

Over 6,000 people have died in the separatist violence that has terrorised the provinces of Narathiwat, Yala, and Pattani since 2004. Several groups of Islamic insurgents seeking autonomy from the Thai state are thought to be behind many of the attacks targeted at Buddhist civilians and security officers, though there have also been cases of revenge attacks on Muslims by Buddhist vigilantes. Civilians have accounted for more than 90 percent of the deaths.

Human rights groups have criticised the military's occasionally heavy-handed approach to stamping out violence in the southern border provinces, as well as their reliance on rangers, many of whom are volunteers armed by the authorities.

In March, two rangers confessed to shooting three boys dead and wounding their parents to seek revenge for one of their family members in Narathiwat province.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Thai government has repeatedly failed to discipline and prosecute security personnel who commit human rights violations.

“The Thai government should wake up to the fact that attempts to cover up misconduct of its security units and protect them from criminal responsibility fans the flames of violent reprisals,” Human Rights Watch's Adams said. “Insurgents have repeatedly used the impunity of government forces to justify brutal attacks on civilians.”

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Ranger Admits Murdering, Planting Gun On Muslim Boy