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Red editor says emergency decree like mafia law

The emergency decree is being used as a tool to "destroy political dissent and democracy", said Somyos Pruek-sakasemsuk, a key red-shirt member and editor who was detained for three weeks under the law.

Calling it "mafia law", Somyos said there were still 400 more people - some as old as 70 - being detained with very little information known about their condition. Most are unlikely to be proven as "terrorists" as alleged by the Abhisit Vejjajiva government, he said. The red-shirt supporter was detained from May 24 to June 13, when the court found that there was not enough evidence to detain him.

 People being detained under the emergency decree are "political prisoners", though the government maintains that they are mere suspects, Somyos said.

"I was definitely a political prisoner," he said, adding that he had no access to TV or newspapers until the last two or three days in prison. He says he had to endure scorching heat, living in a makeshift tent outdoors, surrounded by two layers of two-metre tall barbed wire at the Adisorn Army camp in Saraburi province.

While the heat was almost unbearable, he realised that freedom was very dear to the human spirit.

"They interrogated me on everything - though many [issues] had nothing to do with my charge," he said. He had been detained on the charge of "assembling with more than five people for political reasons", while he was distributing leaflets calling for a rally in a province that was not under emergency rule.

Somyos insisted there were only three persons, including fellow detainee Suthachai Yimprasert, a historian at Chulalongkorn University.

"They tried to make me confess that I received money from Thaksin Shinawatra and offered me some help in return if I stopped my political activities - such as ending the publication of the Voice of Taksin magazine [which was eventually shut down by the government]," Soyos told The Nation. "This offer is unacceptable anyhow."

A big change in his detention came in the third week, on June 2, when - just five minutes prior to the arrival of members of the National Human Rights Commission - his makeshift 3x5-metre tent, where light was kept on all night to make sure he didn't escape, was quickly dismantled. His accommodation was upgraded to a small dorm-like room.

Officers listened to his conversations with all visitors, including those from the rights commission.

While hundreds detained under the law are little known figures, Somyos has a high public image and an online campaign to free him was launched by sociologist Chaiyan Ratchakoon, a former director of the Thai Studies Centre at Thammasat University. Somyos credited Chaiyan, who he does not know personally, for the pressure that eventually led to his release.

Now out of detention and planning to challenge the government by launching a new red-shirt bi-monthly magazine called Red Power early next month, Somyos said detaining people under the emergency decree will not lead to reconciliation.

"Reconciliation can only take place in a democratic environment. The government must accept the equality of those who have differing political views," Somyos said. He is currently exploring possible legal ways to hold the government accountable for holding him in a small tent under the scorching sun for more than two weeks.

Source: 
<p>http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/06/26/politics/Red-editor-says-emergency-decree-like-mafia-law-30132455.html</p>

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