The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that Ms. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, director of Prachatai online newspaper, was detained by the immigration police at Suvarnabhumi Airport, in Samutprakarn province near Bangkok, and transferred to Khon Kaen police station, in northeastern Thailand. She has been charged with violating the Computer Crimes Act BE.2550 (2007) and Articles 112 and 116 of the Criminal Code BE.2499 (1956) (section of the code relating to lesè majesté).

Pro-junta militias operating in Shan State are now the main players in the drug trade, according to new findings by local Shan analysts.

The latest Shan Drug Watch newsletter, issued on 29 Sept, details how the Burmese regime’s War on Drugs has fallen way behind schedule, with 46 of Shan State’s 55 townships still growing opium. This is attributed to the Burma Army’s reliance on taxation of opium, and its policy to allow numerous proxy local militia to deal in drugs, including methamphetamines, in exchange for policing against resistance activity.

The First International Conference on Human Rights in Southeast Asia will be held on October 14 and 15, 2010 at the Royal River Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand.

Dr. Sriprapha Petcharamesree, Thailand's Representative to the ASEAN Inter-governmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) comments: "This conference on human rights in Southeast Asia is historic as it challenges the existing norms in Southeast Asia. And it does this by providing a platform to contribute to righting the wrongs."

Paris-Bangkok, 27 September 2010 - On Friday, September 24, 2010, at approximately 2.30PM, the Thai immigration police arrested Ms. Chiranuch Premchaiporn, executive director of Prachatai, an independent news website, at the Bangkok Airport on charges of defaming the monarchy of Thailand and of violating articles 14 and 15 of the 2007 Computer-related Crimes Act and article 112 of the criminal code. Ms. Premchaiporn was returning from Hungary, where she had attended a conference entitled The Internet at Liberty 2010.