18 civil society organisations in the Deep South region of Thailand have urged Thai state authorities to stop the intimidation and suspension of rights of civil society workers.

At the Muslim Attorney Centre (MAC) in the southern province of Pattani on Tuesday morning, 14 July 2015, 18 civil society organisations, members of the ‘Southern Border Provinces CSO Network for Peace’, came together to read a joint statement to demand that the Thai authorities stop the abuse of rights and intimidation.

The CSOs came together to make the statement a month after the group requested a meeting with Lt Gen Prakan Cholayut, Commander of the 4th Army Region, to talk about the intimidation and harassment of rights activists in the South by security officers, but the request was ignored by the army officer.

According to the statement, state security official in the Deep Southern provinces arbitrarily search, arrest, and torture students and CSO workers without warrants.

“Under the governance of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), which has a policy to hold peace talks with southern insurgents, intimidation and abuses of human rights of CSOs and Peace workers still go on,” the group wrote in the statement.

As examples, the group pointed to the recent search and brief detention of students and CSO workers of the Federation of Pattani Student and Youth (PERMAS) at the organization’s office in Yala province and similar measures taken by the authorities against members of the Selatan Cultural Centre (BUMI) in Yala.

The statement also accused state security officials of carrying out information operations or cyber attacks through social media to discredit CSO workers in the Deep South, such as the online bullying of Tuwaedaniya Tuwaemae-ngae, Director of the Academy of Patani Raya for Peace and Development (LEMPAR).  

Deep South CSO Network added that arbitrary detention and the Thai state policy of random collection of DNA samples from Muslim people in the Deep South are derogatory to human dignity and rights.