An eminent monk in Wat Tako monastery in Thailand passed away three months ago and his dead body miraculously remains unrotten after 100 days from his death.
Following Buddhist tradition, disciples of the eminent monk organized a memorial ceremony for him on the 100th day since he died. They opened the coffin intending to dress him in a religious robe and found his body was naturally mummified. The body was all well in shape but the skin had contracted and darkened a little. The eminent monk looked peaceful as if he was just sleeping.
Buddhist expert explained that the natural mummification was due to the fact that the eminent monk had absorbed enough energy from praying when he was alive, hence the body would not be affected by the outside world or decompose by bacteria even after he had passed away.
BANGKOK (AP) — A leading international human rights organization on Thursday urged the Thai government to stop forcing political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety to return to authoritarian home countries, where they may face torture, persecution or death.
In a new report, Human Rights Watch said Thai authorities repeatedly violated international law by expelling the dissidents, many of whom were registered with the United Nations as refugees and were awaiting resettlement in third countries.
The report, titled “We Thought We Were Safe,” analyzed 25 cases that took place in Thailand between 2014 and 2023.
Many of the cases involved the forcible repatriation of Cambodians, with the suspected involvement of Cambodian security personnel. But the group also listed cases where dissidents from Vietnam, Laos and China were “tracked down and abducted,” or “forcibly disappeared or killed.”
The report said that in return for tracking down and returning the dissidents, the Thai government received cooperation from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam to spy on Thai dissidents who had fled their own homeland to escape political repression.
Human Rights Watch called this a quid-pro-quo form of transnational repression “in which foreign dissidents are effectively traded for critics of the Thai government living abroad."
The group said such arrangements, informally known as “swap mart," became increasingly frequent after the Thai army staged a coup in 2024 ousting an elected government. Military and military-backed rule lasted 10 years, until an elected civilian government led by Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin took office last year.
“The Srettha administration should launch an investigation into these allegations of harassment, surveillance and forced returns of asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand. It should investigate the disappearance of Thai anti-junta activists in other Southeast Asian countries," Elaine Pearson, director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, told The Associated Press.
”I think there is an opportunity to end this practice and for the Srettha administration to show it is different from the previous military-led government," she added.
She noted that the Thai government is currently seeking a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council “and that comes with responsibilities to protect human rights.”
The report cited nine cases of Thai activists in Laos and Cambodia who were disappeared or killed in mysterious circumstances.
The mutilated bodies of two missing activists were found in late 2018 floating in the Mekong River. In 2020, a young Thai activist, Wanchalearm Satsaksit, was snatched off the street in the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh and never heard from again.
Thai authorities have repeatedly denied any connection with such events.
Dr. Francesca Lessa, an associate professor in International Relations at University College London, said there were some parallels with the way autocratic leaders in Latin America made agreements to work together to eliminate political opponents on each other's soil in the late 1970s to 1980s.
“Whether they follow right or left ideologies, these autocratic governments consider opposition and dissent as constituting a threat to their survival in power and, thus, to be eliminated, whatever the means required,” Lessa told the AP.
Asked about the Human Rights Watch report, Thai Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura said that Thailand is committed to respecting and upholding humanitarian principles, including not forcing asylum-seekers and refugees to return to their home countries where they might face persecution or where their lives or freedom might be endangered.
Separately, the Thai Foreign Ministry announced Thursday that the country has concluded the ratification process for the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which will come into effect on June 13. Thailand has had its own law on the Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance since 2003, said the statement.
The ministry said that ratification means that Thailand will now be party to eight of the nine core international human rights treaties.
FILE - Thai rescuers cover a body on the shore of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province northeast of Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday Dec. 27, 2018. DNA tests show that two bodies found washed up on the shore of Thailand's Mekong River are the corpses of anti-government activists, police said Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in what are feared to be political killings. A leading international human rights organization on Thursday, May 16, 2024, criticized the Thai government for helping its authoritarian neighbors by expelling political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety and forcing them to return to their home countries. (AP Photo, File)
FILE - In this photo released by the government spokesman office, Thailand's Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, left, escorts Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Manet after they review an honor guard during a welcoming ceremony at the government house in Bangkok, Thailand, Wednesday, Feb. 7, 2024. (Government Spokesman Office via AP, File)
FILE - An activist holds a photo of Thai dissident Wanchalearm Satsaksit during a rally in front of Cambodian Embassy in Bangkok, Thailand, Monday, June 8, 2020. Wanchalearm, has been abducted in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, a human rights group said Friday, June 12, 2020 raising concern that a mysterious campaign targeting exiles for disappearance or death may have been revived. A leading international human rights organization on Thursday, May 16, 2024, criticized the Thai government for helping its authoritarian neighbors by expelling political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety and forcing them to return to their home countries. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit), File)
FILE - Thai rescuers cover a body on the shore of the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province northeast of Bangkok, Thailand, Thursday Dec. 27, 2018. DNA tests show that two bodies found washed up on the shore of Thailand's Mekong River are the corpses of anti-government activists, police said Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2019, in what are feared to be political killings. A leading international human rights organization on Thursday, May 16, 2024, criticized the Thai government for helping its authoritarian neighbors by expelling political dissidents who fled to Thailand for safety and forcing them to return to their home countries. (AP Photo, File)
