This past Rose café we had the pleasure of having two people hosting the session. The topic was generally about the use of torture and focused on Myanmar and Southern Thailand. Fortunately in addition to Dr. Nick Cheesman, we also got the opportunity to learn about Southern Thailand from human activist Pornpen Khongkachonkiet. From what I could gleam from our sadly too short discussion was that there seems to be a systemic culture of finding the culprit due to the prevalence of violent crime and drug dealing. It didn’t matter if the accused was actually guilty or merely innocent; having a suspect and confession was far more important and thus led to the use of torture. Under such duress, I don’t think such information is admissible since judgement is impaired. It would be circumstantial at best but I don’t know enough to hold a legal opinion. However, torture is not something that can be eliminated entirely. I personally think it is part of human nature and often driven by desperation. All we can do is mitigate its use and allowing it to be used in court.

Dr. Cheesman brings up a good point that we shouldn’t necessarily be asking is torture effective. Rather we should take a more holistic and upper level approach and ask questions like, “What drives the use of torture?” In other words, what factors might encourage or promote the use of torture as a systemic means of gathering information? This has political and moral implications that question the fabric of the country-or society-itself. Khongkachonkiet offered a contrast in information compared to Dr. Cheesman where the former drew upon her extensive experience with interviewing victims in the ‘Deep South’ to illustrate a picture of how it is living there, for the ordinary citizen, law enforcement and the government. The latter seemed to take a more theoretical approach, giving context and asking questions from the real world experiences that Khongkachonkiet describes. I appreciated the two perspectives as it allowed me to view the issue of torture from multiple angles. Torture is an interesting practice and I maintain that it will never go away but I think steps must be taken to limit its use. Something I wondered if Thailand’s apparent use of gratuitous torture would allow for sanctions. Or perhaps that may be too extreme and not worth risking the delicate balance of power that thrums through our globalized society. Regardless I don’t think it will be easy to change regions like Southern Thailand in their use of martial law, unconstitutionally seizing and exercising their power and torture since it seems systemic, engrained in their culture and is top-down. Major changes, most likely through legislature, and protests will be necessary to fight back. Organizations like Khongkachonkiet’s is key to this kind of movement in my opinion and I hope the UN can also get involved and advise Southern Thailand on a better path.

This was definitely one of the more interesting sessions that I have gone to because it opens my eyes to a field that I don’t necessarily get the opportunity to learn and discuss in since torture isn’t necessarily something that comes up in conversation or the relevant courses in educational career. I will definitely be looking into more on torture and picking up some of the books Dr. Cheesman mentioned!