In ''First step in a long and difficult journey'' (Opinion, March 18), Veera Prateepchaikul writes that the government hopes the Barisan Revolusi Nasional will be able to persuade the insurgents to end their campaign of violence and join the southern peace process.
Let us hope they are successful, but failure at this juncture does not mean the violence cannot be ended.
Back in the 1920s, T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) wrote a guide to terrorism for the Encyclopaedia Britannica in which he stated that terrorists could only operate successfully if the ordinary people in the area supported them, or at the very least were prepared to turn a blind eye and refuse to provide the authorities with intelligence.
If the government can negotiate an agreement that has the support of the local people to the extent they are prepared to cooperate with the authorities, then life will become very much harder for the insurgents and this may even persuade them to join the peace process.
DOM DUNN
TV ban disgraceful
The incident on Friday in which the management of Thai PBS abruptly axed the ''Thai Monarchy Under the Constitution'' episode of the Tob Jote Thailand talk show, was disgraceful.
As someone who supports Thailand as a democracy with the King as the head of state, I also see the need to have the lese majeste law corrected in a way that it ceases to become a political tool for any individual or group to use for their own selfish gains.
Even though the programme was not without flaws, its host and his team should be lauded for having the courage to bring such an interesting discussion topic to public attention. Thai PBS managing director Somchai Suwanban must take responsibility for banning the show.
VINT CHAVALA
Lamphun
Here come Thai gulags
Re: ''Is 'White Prison' making Bang Khwang a darker place?'' (Spectrum, March 17). The answer is yes. Prisons in Thailand are no longer institutions devoted to the rehabilitation of convicted criminals, but rather they are penal colonies.
The ''White Prison'' policy consists of tightened controls within the jail, and a policy of isolation which builds barriers to cut off prisons from the community.
Visits become more difficult; there is now a ban on fruit or freshly cooked food brought by visitors. Printed material is blocked. Recently, I observed the flow of visitors to prisoners serving life sentences had dropped to a handful. There have been reports of serious beatings of prisoners. Rehabilitation has largely ceased. Furniture-making by the inmates has been stopped because of possible abuse of glue or thinner.
Prisoners are citizens entitled to all rights compatible with their loss of freedom. The greatest hindrance to a humane programme of detention and rehabilitation is the huge number of prisoners, including those in pre-trial detention, and those serving sentences out of proportion to their crimes.
Meanwhile, the number of guards is completely insufficient, leading to attempts to restore order through vicious punishments. There is a need to open the prisons to civil inspection. This would be best done by Thailand acceding to the Optional Protocol to the Convention on Torture which envisages the protection of persons deprived of their liberty, by ''non-judicial means of a preventive nature, based on regular visits to places of detention''.
While the National Commission of Human Rights is endowed with the authority to inspect prisons, it has failed to exercise this function. Nor has the International Red Cross fulfilled its mandate, due no doubt to fear of losing whatever possibility it retains to visit prisoners.
The matter is urgent. Accelerating a visit to Thailand by the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and his recommendations may help to ward off policies which are establishing long-term gulags in Thailand and the possible fearful consequences of prison revolts.
DANTHONG BREEN
Chairman, Union for Civil Liberty
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