The Foreign Ministry will write to the US to deny claims in a recent report that secret jails were used by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to detain and torture terrorist suspects here, a ministry source said yesterday.
The move follows the release of a US Senate report that refers to CIA torture of terrorist suspects at jails alleged to be in Thailand.
Several ministers and the military top brass yesterday came out to counter the report, saying they knew nothing of such prisons in Thailand.
Army chief Udomdej Sitabutr, who is also deputy defence minister, said he had not been privy to any information on the matter, adding the government and the military have been closely monitoring the movements of terrorist suspects. So far, no such movements have been detected in the country, Gen Udomdej said.
He was responding to a warning issued by the US State Department to its citizens and interests in foreign countries who might be affected by the Senate report.
Interior Minister and former army chief Anupong Paojinda also confirmed there were no such secret jails.
The report was merely recycling old information and, if such jails existed, the report should specify where they were located, Gen Anupong said.
Supreme Commander Worapong Sanga-nate said yesterday he knew nothing about the secret jails.
ACM Monthon Satchukorn, the air force spokesman, said he could remember a report by a foreign news agency in 2007 about the CIA having secret jails in which it detained and tortured suspected terrorists in Thailand.
According to the report, one of the secret facilities was in an area under the jurisdiction of the air force in Udon Thani province.
The report referred to what was a relay station of the Voice of America (VOA) radio service in Ban Dung district of the northeastern province.
The media was allowed access to the VOA station and nothing unusual was found there, ACM Monthon said.
Prime Minister's Office Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana, a former chief of the National Intelligence Agency, said he had not seen any part of the report that mentioned Thailand.
"There have been no such jails nor torture of terrorists in Thailand," he said.
He said this was an internal affair of the United States, involving the committee on intelligence and security, the Senate and the CIA, and Thailand had nothing to do with it.
"Current cooperation between the US and Thailand is based on national sovereignty. There are no policies or any practices which are against the law. I can assure you there were no secret jails or torture in Thailand," Mr Suwaphan said.
Mr Suwaphan said the report is a subject of controversy in the US.
What could be affected are US interests in Thailand, and this is a matter for US security agencies to handle, he said.
Asked whether the CIA had asked the government for cooperation to set up an operations base in Thailand, Mr Suwaphan said there has been no such request.