Military Draft: Torture and Human Rights Violations towards Draftees in Thailand: A Critique from a Non-Killing Global Political Science Perspective

Abstract

While Thailand has compulsory military service for Thai men aged 18 years or over. Every year, the middle class and rich always seem to find a way around it citing numerous reasons. This way, they evade compulsory military service. The result is that in the army the poor are overrepresented. Every year there are reports of beatings and deaths among draftees and in the era of online media, photographs and videos in which draftees are injured and tortured, spread widely. This article questions the violent implication of military drafting and the problem of human rights violations of draftees in Thailand. Analysis is done in accordance with
conceptual framework described in the book by Professor Glenn D. Paige: Non-killing Global Political Science. This article not only shows that retention of military drafting which is supporting violent using to humans, but that there is a specific military culture in army camps and structural violence and Thai culture are also the cornerstone which led military drafting to be firmly institutionalized that accommodates to use violence to the draftees. Mandatory military service therefore is a danger to Thai society and is a barrier that keeps Thai society in a trap of violence.