PRESS RELEASE
AHRC-PL-056-2006

THAILAND: Families of victims demand answers from DSI

(Hong Kong, July 20, 2006) The families and colleagues of slain and abducted human rights defenders and community leaders have demanded that the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) tell them of what progress it has made in its investigations.

Angkhana Neelaphaijit, the wife of disappeared human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, together with the parents of environmentalist Buddhist monk Phra Supoj Suwajo on Thursday submitted letters to the head of the DSI asking what it has done to solve the cases, which it has failed to complete after one year.

"My family and the public had a great hope that the DSI would be able to reveal the truth of the case without delay. However, although it is already one year since the date that the DSI took the case there is no sign of further investigation," Angkhana said.

"Besides this, the progress of the investigation has not been revealed, in spite of huge attention from the public at both the national and international level," she said. 

"I am afraid that the slow speed of the DSI work will cause important evidence to be destroyed and bring more difficulty to finding out the fate of Mr. Somchai," Angkhana added.

Angkhana, who has herself been forced to follow leads and hunt for evidence to support the case, noted that her husband's disappearance had adversely affected Thailand's international reputation and the failure to uncover his whereabouts was only making matters worse.

"Therefore, Pol. Gen. Sombat Amornwiwat... who is the Director General of the DSI, has a direct responsibility to bring justice with special expertise and transparency in this case in order to build trust among the people," she concluded.

Phra Supoj's parents have said that they would like to lodge their own case against the alleged perpetrators of their son's murder, but they are unable to do so because the DSI investigation is still pending.

Angkhana and Phra Supoj's family were joined in their appeals by other human rights defenders and organisations, including representatives of the Thai Working Group on Human Rights Defenders and Amnesty International in Thailand, who also raised the case of slain environmentalist Charoen Wat-aksorn.

The Thai Working Group on Human Rights Defenders said in a statement that if Pol. Gen. Sombat was not capable of answering public doubts about the three cases then he should resign.

The Asian Human Rights Commission has called the DSI "a human rights failure" and demanded that Pol. Gen. Sombat be sacked and himself investigated for alleged obstructions of justice.

The Hong Kong-based regional rights group is hosting a petition online calling for his removal: http://thailand.ahrchk.net/dsi_petition

The petition has so far obtained over 500 signatures and many expressions of support from people all over Thailand and around the world, both in English and Thai.

"Anybody who is at all concerned about what is going on with the killings of human rights defenders in Thailand and the lack of government concern for them should read through the heartfelt comments on this petition and add their own expressions of frustration and hope," Basil Fernando, executive director of the AHRC, said.

"This is a really moving and remarkable testament to the growth of human rights defenders globally who share an interest in what is happening here in Asia," Fernando said.

The AHRC is hosting another petition calling for an end to extrajudicial killings in the Philippines, which has so far attracted some 1500 signatures and similar expressions of outrage: http://www.pinoyhr.net.

"There is a commonality to the voices in both petitions because there is a commonality to the problems," Fernando observed.

"People in both countries struggled hard in recent decades to throw off heavy historical repression and military dictatorships," he said.

"They came out of these periods thinking that the worst was behind them, and have been shocked to find that despite having new constitutions and governments that have been elected through formally democratic elections, people are still being killed and abducted with impunity and the state is refusing to act," Fernando said.

"This is where the human rights struggle must enter a new phase and be able to fight to change the deep internal defects in institutions and psychology in our countries," he added.

"It is a much more difficult and longer fight than removing a dictatorship, but one that is well-worth carrying on," Fernando concluded.

Staff of the AHRC on July 7 presented a 75-page dossier on failed human rights investigations by the DSI to the Royal Thai Consul General in Hong Kong and urged him to raise the matter with the foreign ministry for the sake of Thailand's international reputation.

On July 19 they presented the vice consul at the Consulate of the Philippines with the petition on killings in that country.

A translation of the full text of the letter submitted by Angkhana Neelaphaijit to the DSI follows.

LETTER OF ANGKHANA NEELAPHAIJIT TO THE DSI

20 July 2006

Issue: Request to be informed on the progress of Somchai Neelapaijit case
To: Director General, Department of Special Investigation

I, Mrs. Angkhana Neelapaijit, wife of Mr. Somchai Neelapaijit, a human rights lawyer who disappeared on 12 March 2004, request to be informed on the progress of the Somchai Neelapaijit case.

Mr. Somchai disappeared more than 2 years ago but until now his whereabouts are unknown. The DSI took the case as a special case on 19 July 2005 from the Royal Thai Police after the 5 policemen from the Crime Suppression Division were charged with committing coercion and robbery, but only one has been found guilty. My family and the public had a great hope that the DSI would be able to reveal the truth of the case without delay. However, although it is already one year since the date that the DSI took the case there is no sign of further investigation. Besides this, the progress of the investigation has not been revealed, in spite of huge attention from the public at both the national and international level.

I myself, as an injured party to the case, would like to be informed of the progress of the interrogation and investigation of the disappearance of Mr. Somchai Neelapaijit. I am afraid that the slow speed of the DSI work will cause important evidence to be destroyed and bring more difficulty to finding out the fate of Mr. Somchai. In principle, the DSI is meant to be an interdisciplinary agency that operates proactively in order to prevent and suppress crime. The case of Mr. Somchai has had a big negative impact on Thai society. It has also caused Thailand to be a country with a heinous human rights violation [record] in the international community. Therefore, Pol. Gen. Sombat Amornwiwat, the chief of the investigation in this case, who is the Director General of the DSI, has a direct responsibility to bring justice with special expertise and transparency in this case in order to build trust among the people.

For your consideration

Sincerely

(Mrs. Angkhana Neelapaijit)
Wife of Mr. Somchai Neelapaijit

# # #

About AHRC The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984.