Murder and martyrdom in Thailand’s forgotten jihad

This is a photo of Mahrosu Jantarawadee, 31, a Malay-Muslim insurgent who last month led a raid on a remote military base in Thailand’s war-torn southern provinces. The marines stationed there were waiting for him, and Mahrosu and 15 other militants died in a hail of bullets and shrapnel. Peace talks begin in Malaysia today [...]

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Two Tropical Gulags

Today, as Al Jazeera continues its daily broadcasts of “Thailand’s Tropical Gulag,” a documentary I co-produced with filmmaker Orlando de Guzman, I read two pieces of torture news. Please compare and contrast: In Indonesia, a military tribunal found three soldiers guilty of torturing Papuans. Horrific footage of this abuse was filmed and posted on YouTube [...]

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You’ve Got Cholera

Haiti’s cholera epidemic took place some 10,000 miles from my home in Thailand, but I watched it unfold with more than just academic interest. I recently woke up feeling too nauseous to even sip water. Then diarrhea struck. A few hours later, weak and dehydrated, I was being wheeled into a Bangkok hospital, my blood [...]

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Is the Thai Military Torturing Detainees?

TIME.com 1 December 2010 War logs published via WikiLeaks suggest that the U.S. military ignored torture by its Iraqi allies. Those allegations still resonate in Thailand, and not just because this staunch U.S. ally is fighting an insurgency of its own. America and Thailand share a history of torture.

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