In the latter half of 2009, shortly after one of Thailand’s most notorious political prisoners, Daranee Chanchoengsilpakul, was sentenced to 18 years in prison under Thailand’s draconian lese majeste laws, an experienced human rights advocate contacted Amnesty International’s International Secretariat’s Thai-based researcher, Ben Zawacki. The reason for the correspondence was to try to get to the bottom of why Mr. Zawacki and Amnesty had been almost completely silent on Daranee Chanchoengsilpakul’s incarceration.

Today, finally, I can reveal Zawacki’s response to that question and his clear personal collusion with the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs when deciding Daranee Chanchoengsilpakul’s Prisoner of Conscience status. For the record I have emailed and asked both Mr Zawacki and and Amnesty’s Secretary General for an explanation as to this collusion on several occasions. None has ever been forthcoming.

On Tue, 1/9/09, [email protected] <[email protected]>
; wrote:
From: [email protected] <[email protected]>;

Subject: Re: Da Torpido 18 years imprisoned

NAME REDACTED
Date: Tuesday, 1 September, 2009, 11:16 PM
NAME REDACTED,
PART  OF CORRESPONDENCE REDACTED HERE

But she [Da Torpedo] also—and this is very much the view of the MFA [Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs], including of my most trusted and respected contact there—was rather reckless in her language and either advocated violence against the king or came very close to doing so. I’m thinking in particular of the final lines on Russia and Nepal, right next to urging people to resist and fight.  And I’m told that this is what really did it for her.  18 years is far too much, but she would have run the risk of a (shorter) sentence elsewhere for this, and so is not, as such, a POC [Prisoner of Conscience]. That is why AI is reluctant to take up her case.
PART  OF CORRESPONDENCE REDACTED HERE

Benji
_____________________________________________
Benjamin Zawacki
Researcher, Southeast Asia
Amnesty International, International Secretariat
1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW, UK
Mobile (Thai): 66 (0)81 138 1912
Mobile (UK): 44 (0)7930498054, Tel: 44 (0)2074135908
20/11/2010 15:39

Of course, for Amnesty to be engaged in such a collusion with a Thai government department whose Minister, Kasit Piromya, is so closely associated with the PAD, an organisation deemed “fascist” by the Asian Human Rights Commission, is staggering. How can Mr. Zawacki’s judgement be trusted when he is working cheek by jowl with the Thai government? How far does Amnesty’s much vaunted neutrality extend in Thailand, if it ever existed at all?

Some may also be questioning why I have taken to revealing what is a private and confidential correspondence. Let me explain.

Last week Amnesty International in Malaysia attempted to organise a short discussion with Robert Amsterdam, whose legal firm has been employed by Thailand’s ousted former PM, Thaksin Shinawatra.

At this point Mr. Zawacki and another member of Amnesty International’s International Secretariat, Donna Guest, personally intervened, in a particularly brusque and authoritarian manner, to prevent AI Malaysia holding their discussion.

After this rather inappropriate intervention by Ms. Guest and Mr. Zawacki, several outraged members of Thailand’s human rights community wrote a letter to Mr. Zawacki demanding an explanation.

Ben Zawacki personally responded to that letter today. In that correspondence he states -

“Amnesty International globally has avoided partisan entanglement in the Thai political crisis.  Despite allegations from both sides that the organization supports the Yellow or Red positions and groups, Amnesty has limited itself to the human rights issues and has avoided politics.  Amnesty has been in touch with Mr. Amsterdam over the past year and is aware of the substance of his claims, as well as his political strategy, for which he is compensated.  In this context, Mr. Amsterdam is a paid advocate of former Thai PM Thaksin, and is thus very clearly a partisan of one side of the political crisis.  This is not a value judgment on Mr. Amsterdam’s position, it is simply a factual observation that implicates a rule that Amnesty applies in its work everywhere: remain neutral, objective, and impartial.  Sharing a platform with Mr. Amsterdam would place Amnesty in breach of that rule.”

Clearly, Mr Zawacki is caught in a lie. On the one hand he claims neutrality when it comes to imposing restrictions on his fellow Amnesty members and on the other he is exposed as colluding directly with a government that has used snipers against civilians, imprisoned hundreds, tortured many, cluster bombed their neighbours and which has one of the most draconian censorship regimes on earth.

Mr. Zawacki now needs to do the right thing – resign and let someone more neutral and committed to the admirable values of Amnesty International take his place. He has failed both the Thai people and those committed to human rights.

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Andrew Spooner is a London-based journalist, academic and consultant who comments on Thailand from a democratic and left-wing perspective.