Phone-tapping in the spotlight in Thailand

The Straits Times, January 24, 2007
By Nirmal Ghosh, THAILAND CORRESPONDENT

While electronic surveillance is technically possible, it would be foolhardy for any operator to do so: Expert


IN BANGKOK - ALLEGATIONS by Thailand's army chief of eavesdropping on mobile phone conversations by Singapore have put the spotlight on the area of electronic surveillance in Thailand.

Globalisation and technology in this case are colliding with nationalism and perceptions of national security within a legal framework which experts say does not adequately deal with the issue.

General Sonthi Boonyarataglin last week said the army's telephone conversations were being routed through and monitored in Singapore. He did not say how or why this might be done.

His remarks were refuted by the Republic on Monday. A spokesman for the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed surprise, and said: 'We do not know what General Sonthi's remarks meant. Domestic calls within Thailand are not routed through Singapore.'

The Thai telecoms and satellite companies concerned also denied monitoring networks.

Last Friday, Advanced Info Service (AIS) CEO Somprasong Boonyachai told reporters: 'Our policy is we will not do anything illegal or immoral, or which threatens our national security.

'Even if our shareholders ask us to do so, we will not do it and will inform the authorities.'

AIS and Shinsat are both Shin Corp companies.

In Thailand, Gen Sonthi's remarks tapped into a vein of resentment over the Temasek-Shin Corp deal a year ago, which many Thais saw as giving control of strategic assets - telecoms and satellites - to foreigners.

Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont this week said the government would debate whether to try to buy a stake in Shinsat or launch a new satellite. But this was not taken up by the Thai Cabinet yesterday.

The furore over foreign control of telecoms networks is not new or unique to Thailand.

Professor Des Ball of the Australian National University's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre was among those who spoke out in 2001 against SingTel's purchase of a stake in Australian telecoms firm Optus.

The deal went through after the Australian Parliament was assured that safeguards would be put in place to protect national security.

Prof Ball returned to the theme and was quoted yesterday by The Nation newspaper as saying the Thai army's communication system had been 'compromised'.

He said Thailand, like Australia, would have to spend millions of dollars to build alternatives to using Shinsat's Thaicom satellites.

'It is not in Thailand's interests to allow Singapore control of such critically important communications systems,' he said.

Speaking to The Straits Times, a consultant in 'lawful interception technology', Mr Karanvir Singh, of New Delhi-based Voxtron Dezign Lab which supplies surveillance equipment to governments, said: 'It is technically possible for a service provider to put any subscriber under surveillance.

'But it would be illegal and extremely foolhardy for any operator to do this without proper government authorisation because their licence would be cancelled.'

Thailand has only recently begun using legal phone taps.

The country's first court-ordered wiretap was the key last year to breaking up a global heroin-smuggling gang, whose members went on trial in New York this month.

Authorised by the judiciary, wiretaps of the gang's front operation in Thailand helped crack the case.

But while 'lawful interception' or court-ordered tapping of phones is not widely used in Thailand, sources familiar with the operations of security agencies told The Straits Times they listened anyway to mobile phones using 'passive' scanner technology which leaves no trace and can be done without a paper trail.

Charges of eavesdropping have some resonance among Thais.

The former government of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra was suspected by its critics of tapping opponents' phones.

In May 2005, a police request for blanket authorisation to tap phones in the insurgency-torn southern provinces was abandoned when civic groups opposed it, citing the need for proper laws and judicial authorisation.

When the military government took power last September, it ordered a stop to all eavesdropping.