PRESS RELEASE
ALRC-PL-001-2006

THAILAND: U.N. warned that Somchai investigation "hangs in the balance"

(Hong Kong, March 23, 2006) The investigation into the 2004 disappearance of Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit today "hangs in the balance", with his family threatened and the government of Thailand not doing enough to fulfill its obligations under international law, the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) warned key United Nations officials on Thursday.  

The Hong Kong-based regional body told the U.N. working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances and the special representative of the secretary general on human rights defenders that the life of Somchai's wife was under threat, and that the director general of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) had failed to do his job.

"The family of the victim is again receiving threats, as the climate around the case is becoming hotter," Basil Fernando, executive director of the ALRC, told the U.N. officials.

"We urge you to immediately communicate with the Government of Thailand... stressing the need for guarantees for the security of the wife of Mr Somchai," Fernando said.

Angkhana Neelaphaijit has said that on March 21 she was visited by a man who informed her that if she traveled she could meet with an accident or find a bomb under her car.

On March 22 she complained to the ombudsman of Thailand that four suspended police officers believed connected with her husband's disappearance were either on duty or seeking to return to duty, and that they could use their positions to destroy evidence and pervert justice.

She argued that under the Civil Service Act BE 2535 (1992) their superior officers could be liable to criminal prosecution for failing to suspend them from duty.

"Four of the five original defendants are at large, and one is serving as a senior officer in a peak police body that has national reach," Fernando told the U.N. officials.

Pol. Lt. Col. Chadchai Leiamsa-ngoun, the fifth defendant acquitted in a criminal case that concluded on January 12, resumed his duties at a higher posting in June 2005.

One of the five defendants, Pol. Maj. Ngern Tongsuk, was found guilty in connection with the abduction and sentenced to three years in jail.

The ALRC also informed the U.N. officials that persons close to the Somchai case "have expressed serious doubts about the role of the director general of the DSI, Pol. Gen. Sombat Amornwiwat".

It accused Sombat of frustrating the case and said that the work of the DSI had been "patently negligent".

"The search for Mr Somchai is now on in earnest... however, the DSI is failing to perform its investigation to an acceptable minimum standard, and this failure can be attributed to its director general," Fernando said.

The DSI, which is under the Ministry of Justice, has been charged with continuing the investigation.

The prime minister of Thailand, Pol. Lt. Col. Dr Thaksin Shinawatra, said in January that it would conclude its investigation and lay murder charges by the end of February. However, it has failed to do so.

"We have pointed out time and again that the DSI has ample powers with which to conduct inquiries and collect evidence," Michael Anthony, Asia-Europe programme coordinator with the ALRC, said.

"The DSI has failed to perform according to its mandate--a point we shall make very clear in discussions with U.N. officials and representatives of other governments in Geneva next week," Anthony said.

"Its failure, despite having the resources and authority to solve this case, amounts to a breach of Thailand's obligations under international law, specifically the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," he said.

The ALRC told the U.N. that the search for Somchai's body was being advanced by human rights defenders and the Central Institute of Forensic Science, not the DSI.

The DSI had also limited its inquiries to a section of the Mae Klong River in Ratchaburi, when more than one possible site for the remains had been identified, and had done nothing to protect the sites from persons seeking to destroy any remaining evidence, the ALRC added.

It had been reported on Thursday that Sombat would visit the site on the Mae Klong River during the day, but he failed to do so.

Special equipment that had been promised for the search also was not brought to the scene.

The U.N. working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances formally took up Somchai's case with the government of Thailand in mid-2005.

Both the chairperson of the working group, Professor Stephen Toope, and the special representative on human rights defenders, Hina Jilani, sent messages of support on the occasion of the Asian Human Rights Commission presenting Somchai with its 2nd Asian Human Rights Defender award in Bangkok on March 11, to mark the second anniversary of the lawyer's abduction.

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About ALRC The Asian Legal Resource Centre holds general consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. The Hong Kong-based group seeks to strengthen and encourage positive action on legal and human rights issues at local and national levels throughout Asia.