In the wake of a damning assessment issued by a US human rights department, a government spokesman has insisted the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is committed to elections, adheres to ethical legal practices and respects human rights.
He was speaking in reply to the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2017, which was released on Friday.
The report cited "limitations on civil liberties imposed by the NCPO"; "excessive use of force by government security forces"; "arbitrary arrests and detention by government authorities"; and "abuses by government security forces" among a number of areas where it said Thailand could do better.
"The people facing legal action violated the law. We have to distinguish between rights and freedom and law violation," Lt Gen Sansern Kaewkamnerd said yesterday.
Lt Gen Sansern also denied the government had completely prohibited political activities, saying that the NCPO chief's order had been misunderstood.
Chief of Defence Forces Gen Thanchaiyan Srisuwan said the criticism was a result of things that happened in the past and the NCPO's invitations for "attitude adjustment" had never involved violence.
"Arrests of those with different attitudes might have happened previously, in the first period of the NCPO when the strict use of laws was needed to keep order. However, we never hurt anyone, and we no longer do that," he said.
The report also claimed that official impunity continues to be a problem, especially in the southernmost provinces, where the Emergency Decree on Public Administration in the State of Emergency (2005) and the 2008 Internal Security Act remain in effect.
