RAMPANT ABUSE OF RIGHTS BY WARDERS

Human rights commissioner Charan Ditthapichai said: inmates still suffered brutal punishment at many prisons in Thailand, “we admit old punishment methods have been used at many prisons. But Mr. Charan conceded it was difficult to convince prison officials to adopt humane practices even though it would cost them very little or nothing at all”.

PRISON CONDITIONS AMOUNTING TO CRUEL, INHUMAN

OR DEGRADING TREATMENT

The topic of overcrowding has been discussed by Thai government officials for several years; however, little has yet been done to actually reduce the prison population. In the last 3 years since 2003 since the prime minister so called war on drugs was launched hundreds of thousands more people have been thrown into prison, not to mention the unofficial shoot on site policy by police which (only officially claimed 2.500 lives in the first few months) By the prime minister Toxin Shinawhat own admission at least 20% of those in prison are innocent.

Lard Yao womens prison and Bombat Narcotics Remand prison are extremely overcrowded and in some dormitories there have been divided horizontally into two floor so prisoners have to live in cells with ceilings as low as 4 ½ to 5 feet height, leaving them unable to stand straight. It appears that the prison system has not been given a proportionally larger budget to deal with this influx of prisoners, and also a large proportion of this budget is skimmed off to line the pockets of corrupt guards and officials. Severe overcrowding persists and is getting worse, although it is unclear as to how much this is due to lack of money and how much is to lack of political will on the part of the Royal Thai Government. Poor prison conditions are exasperated by corruption of officials and guards.

 

 

LATEST NEWS DECEMBER 2006

                                                                     By Bert Bratoo

 

It’s 7pm on this the last day of 2006. New Years Eve. We have been locked in our cell for the past three and a half hours. Of my ten companions sharing this small space, five are already asleep, one is meditating as he does at this hour every night and another is splashing around in the hole in the corner, for all intents and purposes sounding like a beached flounder or performing seal.

 

‘China’ the only Chinese delegate in this, our mini-united nations is tucking into his supper and has just offered to share it with me. Tonight it’s two undersized cucumbers off the food barrow and his pride and joy, a small but beautifully formed red tomato. It’s this that he offers me first but I refuse as I always do, recognizing the gesture as one of great kindness from a man who survives on the ghastly prison food and the occasional handout from the Christian missionaries. He offers again but after I politely decline a second time, he resumes crunching away on a cucumber, chewing it to extract every last bit of goodness from it but not looking as though it’s an enjoyment. Of the remaining two guys, one is laying reading court documents and the other is having an awkward time of it trying to rub some cream onto very serious looking patches of some skin infection or another, no doubt picked up from showering in the polluted river water.

 

It may be new years eve but there is peaceful silence in our cell tonight and so a good time for me to bring you up-to-date with events from the last month here on ‘planet bangkwang’

 

There was a big surprise in store for us in early December when the only British guy on death row had his sentence reduced to 33 years by the appeal court.

 

The man in question, ’Mr. G’, was Steve Willcox’s co-accused in their original criminal case alleging the manufacture of 760 grams of heroin. Steve was cleared of that charge at trial. As was ‘Mr. G’ who went on to be found guilty for the possession for distribution of the heroin and was sentenced to death. Steve was found guilty and sentenced only for the 25 grams of class ‘A’ drugs found at his house during the arrest. He was handed down a staggering 33 years and 4 months.

 

Steve wanted to continue his case and take it to the appeal court on the grounds that his sentence was far too severe for the tiny amount of drugs found in his possession but the prosecutor, suffering a loss of face over his failure to make the manufacturing charges stick, threatened a counter appeal. Steve’s lawyer advised him not to return to court and instead, close his case. The prosecutor had made it clear that he would tie any appeal up in the court for years which meant that Steve would not be able to benefit from future amnesties and would also risk an increased sentence to life or death for having the audacity to appeal against what the prosecutor obviously thought was a fair sentence.

 

I have heard of plenty of cases where defendants have beaten charges in the first court but the prosecutor has appealed the trial judge’s verdict (there’s no jury system in Thai courts) and the defendants have remained in prison for years until the appeal has come around. Some of these ‘innocent’ people in the first court have been sentenced to death by the second. For this reason Steve couldn’t afford to risk an appeal.

 

‘Mr. G.,’ on the other hand, was forced to an ‘automatic’ appeal because of his original sentence of death in the first court. Don’t forget that he too beat the manufacturing charge leveled at both him and Steve but, was convicted on ‘possession’ for sale charges. This meant that Steve’s conviction was no longer tied to ‘Mr. G’s’. There was now no connection between the two cases because the charge for which they had been jointly accused had not been successfully proved.

 

Approximately 2 ½ years later and ‘Mr. G.’ was summoned to court earlier this month to hear the outcome of his appeal. It should be noted that ‘Mr. G’s’ appeal was not just a request for clemency and a reduction in sentence but an attempt, for the second time, to deny all the charges.

 

The court in its infinite wisdom found ‘Mr. G.’ guilty for the second time round, but reduced his sentence to 33 years imprisonment.

 

Hang on a moment! Have I missed something here? Let me get this straight? Two guys are picked up separately and accused of manufacturing 760 grams of heroin. The first guy is caught with it in his possession in Bangkok. The second guy is arrested in Koh Samui, over 700km away, charged and given further charges amounting to the 25 grams of class ‘A’ found in his house, less than an ounce.

 

They win the trial for the manufacture charge but the ‘Bangkok’ guy must be found guilty of ‘possession for sale’ because he was caught with the heroin. The ‘Samui’ guy is now cleared of any involvement with the heroin but pleads guilty to the 25 grams found at his house. He is sentenced to 33 years and 4 months in prison. The ‘Bangkok’ guy is found guilty on the possession for sale charge and sentenced to death. Nothing unusual so far but then two and a half years later he goes to appeal is found guilty a second time and given a new sentence of 33 years!

 

If this doesn’t demonstrate what a complete ass the Thai justice system is then I don’t know what does? One man with less than an ounce of class ‘A’ drug found in his home for his own use gets 33 years and 4 months. Another, caught with 760 grams of heroin gets 33 years. Where’s the fairness and justice in either of these decisions?

Especially when viewed from the point of view of the other. It is clear that there is no parity in sentencing and in particular when balancing the severity of the sentence with the crime, here in Thailand.

 

There are wider questions to be asked concerning the whole sentencing process. As I’ve explained, ‘Mr. G’ was originally found guilty and sentenced to death. His guilty verdict allowed for this sentence to be given within Thai law. He then re-fights his case at appeal where he is also found guilty. ’Mr. G.’ was caught and prosecuted of a crime in which it was never proved that anybody but him was involved. How then, can his punishment be death in one court decision and 33 years imprisonment in another? Is he now only partly guilty, less than the original court found he was and if so how? If you are convicted of a crime committed solely by you, how can you be less or more guilty of it? You must be either guilty or not, there is no in between.

 

And so we have a ludicrous situation where a man with approximately 30 times the quality of drugs get sentenced to 4 month less than a man with an infinitely smaller amount. Thai justice is plainly bollocks!

 

But the lunacy does not end there and if ever there was a more glaring example of the absurdity of the effects that the reduction in ‘Mr. G.’s’ sentence will have on his ‘eligibility for parole’ date when he returns to serve out his time in a British prison then I’ve yet to see one. Under the terms of the seriously flawed Anglo-Thai prisoner repatriation treaty ‘Mr. G.’ has in real terms just had his sentence extended by approximately 8 years. I’ll explain why.

 

The shortest route to freedom for any British prisoner being held in Thailand on drug convictions is to transfer to the UK with a life sentence. A returning life sentence prisoner must be given a tariff, attached to that life sentence, by a British court. Prisoners returning on a fixed or ‘numbered’ sentence (i.e. 33 years) do not have this benefit and must serve at least 50% of their full sentence before being considered for parole.

 

‘Mr. G’ was never going to be executed. Had his death sentence been maintained through both the appeal and supreme courts it would, as remarkable as it sounds, have done him a big favor, he would then have been pardoned, down to a life sentence by H.M. King at the bequest of the British Govt. (no ‘Brit’ has ever been executed in Thailand).

This process may have taken anything up to 7 or 8 years by which time ‘Mr. G’ would have served the statutory minimum on a life sentence foreigners wishing to transfer to jail in his own country, 8 years. Any amnesty’s awarded over this period would not have affected ‘Mr. G’s’ as his case would not be over until at least 2 months after his final appearance in the supreme court. Even if one of the two appeal courts had reduced his sentence to that of ‘life’ he would still be in with a chance of returning to the UK with that sentence intact providing that no amnesties were awarded before his departure.

 

‘Mr. G.’ could then be administered by and given a tariff under UK law and had his day in court. Under a ruling made by lord chief justice Crane on 1^st December 2005, in deciding the case of Adeole Soyege, the first British prisoner to return on the treaty with ‘life’. ‘Mr. G.’ would then have been freed, albeit on lifetime parole.

 

From ‘death’ to freedom, via ‘life’ would have seen ‘Mr. G.’actually serving no more than around 9 years in prison. By reducing his sentence to 33 years the appeal court in Thailand has unwittingly extended ‘Mr. G’s’ sentence and time he must serve to no less than 16 ½  years.

I have never, until now, met a person who was unhappy to be coming off of death row. In Bangkwang there is always a first time for everything. I’m wondering if the UK authorities are enjoying the irony of this absurd situation as much as I imagine them to be? Or maybe it’s that they had a little more input into the final outcome than we will ever be allowed to know? By the way, no one has ever, as far as I can find out, been reduced from ‘death’ straight down to 33 years. Like I say, there is a first time for everything here……..

 

CHRISTMAS IN BANGKWANG

Christmas is not the best time of year to be in prison, not that there ever is a best time but just the thought of trying to drum up enthusiasm for a celebration of any sort when we are thousands of miles from those that we love leaves us a bit cold hearted to say the least.

 

The feeling of indifference is made easier still because we are living in 90 degree temperatures and in the midst of a predominantly Buddhist culture that does not celebrate the birth of Christ.

That’s not to say they wouldn’t if given the chance. It’s just that declaring yet another national holiday for the Thais at Christmas would mean that those whose job it is to plan the country’s myriad of other national holidays and annual events would never be in the office at all and the whole thing would collapse in on itself. This is a country that likes it’s time off!

 

Despite all this we were reluctant to ignore it altogether and so we decided that the best way to mark the occasion, as with any, would be by being able to bang a few coffee mugs of ‘good cheer’ together to wish each other good fortune and perhaps raise a few to ‘absent friends’. The necessary equipment was mustered up and soon we had a few gallons of promisingly ‘high octane’ sugar water on the go, secreted around the place.

“Hubble Bubble toil and…… we just had to watch out for the “TROUBLE”!!!

 

Some of the other foreign lads had decided to have a ‘ whip round’, all throwing in some cash to order the ingredients through the coffee shop and knock themselves up a special feed for Christmas day itself, but with a Frenchman who claimed he knew how to cook, an Israeli handling the funds and an acne face Khazakstani kid given the job of  ‘eyeing’ the potatoes, we decided to duck out and stick with our ‘ladyboy’ cook ‘Tha’.

 

During her formative years ‘Tha’ was probably influenced a lot more by her mother than her father. Standing at 6 feet tall and desperately in need of some friendly pointers into the art of shaving, she is nevertheless, a dab hand when it comes to handling a hot ‘Wok’ and a bottle of cooking oil (so I’ve been told!)

 

In terms of Christmas snacks and goodies, we had already been taken care of by our wonderful friends in the ‘British Women’s Group’. In the fortnight leading up to Christmas they had sent in some tasty treats via parcel post which amongst other things included Christmas cake, puddings, custard, biscuits and crisps. There was even some of those daft Santa hats and a few squeaky balloons

 

Other people had also made the effort to send us their well wishes over the Christmas period. We received many cards and letters of support and would like to thank all of you who were kind enough to send them. We will try to answer all of you but please give us time. No doubt we will still be opening cards next February if the mail system here does not improve in any way.

 

A week or so before Christmas I was helping Steve to wrap a present of two cute little teddy bears, sent in so that he could send them out again to his son ‘Oak and his wife’s niece, ‘New’ at their house in the poor northern province of ‘Loey’. The bears could not be wrapped individually because they would need to be looked at and given the once over by the ‘Bear Inspector’ working in the mail room.

The only way to send them both as a wrapped present was to find a scrap of colored Christmas paper and glue it around an ordinary A4 business envelope. That way the outgoing parcel could still have its contents inspected.

 

It was as we were working on the finer points of this glueing operation that I finally felt that warm glow. That real Christmassy feeling that we all know and that I have never felt during my already 3 previous Christmas’s in prison. I smiled to myself as I considered the time and concentration we were spending getting the paper glued just right onto the envelope so that it looked at its most inviting, and compared it with the seconds it would take an excited ‘Oak’ and his little cousin to rip it open on Christmas morning.

I realized then that Steve would have spent a year getting it looking its best had it meant that it would show his love for his son in any greater proportion.

 

I was glad to be a small part of the wee lads happiness and not for the first time that day my thoughts drifted to my own son and the Christmases past in the lap and love of my own family.

 

Disaster struck a couple of days before Christmas when a Thai prisoner inadvertently came across a large stash of ‘Hooch’ and in typical Thai fashion fell over himself in his haste to go bleating to the nearest screw to ‘Grass’. Soon the whole area was being ‘shaken down’ by a gang of Trustee Blueshirt bastards who eventually seized every last drop hidden around the place. Not only ours but other groups too. We watched powerless as drum after drum of, of by now, highly potent fruit juice was poured away into the open sewer channels at our feet. The fumes wafting up told us all we needed to know about what happy time we could have had, had it not been for this sniveling piece of shit who alerted (I.E. woke up) the screws.

 

It had, at last been the first time in years that the gutter had seen anything remotely like a cleaning fluid passing down it, but that was of little consolation. There were some very long faces for the rest of that day and people could be heard muttering under their breaths; “Game Over!” “Shit!” or “That’s f***ing that then!”

 

Christmas day eventually arrived we were opened up late at around 7.30am. apparently the screws were making yet another inspection of our daily living areas in the yard, sniffing around for any overlooked or fresh batches of ‘Happy Juice’ since the earlier raids.

“Don’t they know they f***ing got it all the other day?” A voice piped up as hundreds of us jostled down the narrow concrete stairs and out into the yard.

“Well obviously they f***ing liked it didn’t they! The bleeding’ Pissheads are back for more!” came the terse reply.

First things first, coffee, and for most a fag or two, to ease into the day without too much of a bang. Then it was heads down to decide what our Christmas dinner was actually going to consist of. ‘Tha’ had had the foresight to order a couple of kilos of chicken the day before, unusual for a Thai, (but let me tell you, ‘Tha’ is pretty unusual too!) As soon as we found out that the coffee shop had some potatoes for sale the discussion was over. It was going to be chicken and chips with fried eggs, and the piece de resistance, a tin of Heinz baked beans. I’d been coveting them and had been saving them for just such an occasion after a British Airways aircrew member very kindly parceled them into me during her first ever stop over in Bangkok.

 

3 hours after giving ‘Tha’ very careful instructions in how to make proper chips (‘French fries’ are for woofters!) and heat up a tin of beans (she was already skilled in frying eggs and chicken) we were amazed to be presented with an almost perfect example of a good fry-up. The chicken and eggs were done to a tee, the chips were golden and chunky the way we Brits like’em and the beans made the whole nosh-up sublime. The bread was quickly brought out for later ‘mopping up’ operations, we cracked a cold coke each (worst luck!) and got to work on the feast.

 

The meal was delicious and ‘Tha’ was suitably indulged with our sincerest compliments and a piece of Christmas cake for good measure. I always find it pays off to stay on her good side.

 

Elsewhere in the building others had been celebrating in different ways. The Christmas day church service was being held in one of the outbuildings with, not surprisingly, an unusually high attendance regular Sunday services are organized and attended by three main groups of Christians; the Nigerians, the Chinese and a loose collection of different Hill Tribe people.

 

However, today was Christmas day and, as is traditional in Bangkwang, the day that hundreds of Thai prisoners who for the rest of the year are Buddhist, convert to Christianity. But it’s only for the day and by Boxing Day they will have reverted back to their previous faith. But why?

Could it be that attending ‘church’ on Christmas day yields more than a few ;freebies’, laid on by the various Christian and Missionary groups working (or is that paying?) to bring their particular brand of faith to prisoners in Bangkwang.

 

Call me a cynic but surely its more than coincidence that church attendance by Thai’s increases by a huge percentage whenever word gets out that stuff will be given free to whoever turns up. I don’t see many Thai’s converting to Islam at the time of Ramadan so something other than God must be the main attraction? Ultimately though, who can blame them when their own system has let them down so badly, providing them with nothing but electric light, polluted water and animal grade red rice?

Besides, they were going to have to sit through hours of unrestrained ‘babble’ before claiming their free soap and bags of broken biscuits. As on normal Sundays, this service was being lead by a member from each group and each in turn would read the next part in their own language over a microphone being passed between them. This made the whole service roughly 4 times longer. Four because other than the 3 starkly contrasting languages of Ibu, Chinese and a Hill Tribe dialect that I couldn’t identify, the Nigerian leader would go on to read the ‘Lesson’ once again in English just for good measure. It was time to beat a hasty retreat, find somewhere shady and relax until lockdown.

The time has dragged it’s feet since Christmas. It has been a drag all week, made worse by the screws winding down for their New Year break typically at this time of year doing even less than usual, if that is actually possible. The first thing to suffer is the delivery of mail. We’ve had none since December 22^nd.

 

Tomorrow I have the honor of sharing a bit of a special new year’s lunch being prepared by some of the Hill Tribe boys. I think these are ‘Thai Yai’ or ‘big Thai’ but I’m not altogether certain. I am friendly with a couple of them whose lockers are near mine and one of them invited me to come and give their food a try (they speak Thai, Chinese and their own tribal dialect). On the menu tomorrow is Squirrel, something I’ll admit I’ve never tried before.

 

I’m told these are special ‘jungle’ squirrels that area delicacy where these guys come from, way up in the mountainous areas of the ‘Golden Triangle’. I was told that after being caught in traps, the squirrels are then skinned, gutted and hung out in the sun to season and cure. According to my friend, one of his relatives had made a 2 ½ day trek down out of the hills to the nearest post office in order to parcel him a big box of dried squirrel meat! Boy it must be good, to have to walk that far to get it to him. I hope it doesn’t taste horrible, as I’ll feel too embarrassed to say so and they’ll force more on me being guest and all. Thankfully though I’m easy to please and it will probably be ok. How do you say “I’m partial to a nice bit of tail” in Hill Tribe lingo?

 

I’ve just looked at the clock on the cell wall. It’s 12.45! Happy New Year! There is nobody to say it to, they are all asleep! They usually let very loud fireworks off at midnight from Nonthaburi town pier? Strange, why not this year?

 

I don’t think there’s one amongst us who is not happy to see the back of another year in Bangkwang, but at the same time there is feeling of deep regret that we are here at all, and so pleasing relations that we have made it unscathed through another long year of utter madness and are one step nearer the door are tempered with more than a little sadness over the time we have lost getting there. But that is the nature of prison life and only certain way to move forward is to look ahead and get on with it.

I am looking forward to bringing you more interesting updates about our lives here over the coming year. Hope you can join us.

 

See you here in January

                                        Bert Bratoo

 

Post Script: January 1^st 2007. 0530 hours

We have just woken to the news that eight terrorist bombs were detonated in and around Bangkwang last night while people were out celebrating the New Year. So far there are two dead. That would explain the missing fireworks, no doubt cancelled under the circumstances. My God! Has the world gone completely nuts? And I thought that we were supposed to be the biggest threat to the public? Pull the other one. If I may I’d like to offer the world a sound piece of advice given to me by my Mother when I was a kid, and about which it turns out she was absolutely spot on. She used to say “if you pull a face like that long enough sunshine, you’ll stay like it”. How right she was…..