PRESS RELEASE
ALRC-PL-006-2006

THAILAND: Rights groups press UN, government on disappearances

(Hong Kong, August 30, 2006) Rights groups sent 12 cases of alleged "disappearance" in the south of Thailand to an expert UN body on Wednesday, the International Day of the Disappeared.

The Hong Kong-based Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) together with the Bangkok-based Working Group on Justice for Peace submitted a 45-page document detailing the 12 cases of persons who had gone missing, apparently due to police or military involvement, to the UN Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances.

The 12 cases date from 2002 to 2005 and are among some 23 forced disappearances in the south that have been acknowledged by the Thai government.

The families have been offered 100,000 Thai baht (USD 2500) each as compensation. However, they have been given no information about the whereabouts of their loved-ones.

The actual number of disappeared persons in the south is believed to be in the hundreds, but as yet most families of victims have been fearful to come forward.

"We have known about these cases for some time, but up until recently these families had been afraid even to submit their cases to the United Nations," Nick Cheesman, projects officer with the ALRC, said.

"Since the involvement of Angkhana Neelaphaijit and the Working Group on Justice for Peace, as well as interventions by other local rights defenders, that situation has changed," Cheesman said.

Angkhana, who is the chairperson of the Working Group on Justice for Peace, is the wife of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, who was abducted by the police in 2004 and is presumed dead. She has received international recognition for the role she is now playing in building up a movement of families of disappeared persons in Thailand.

The UN working group has already taken up the case of Somchai with the government.

On Wednesday afternoon Angkhana met with the director of the Department of Rights and Liberties Protection under the justice ministry.

She told Charnchao Chaiyanukij that on behalf of the victims of disappearances she and her family were urging the government to do more to address forced disappearances in Thailand.

"No matter what else, we want the bodies of our relatives back," Angkhana said.

She also rejected the notion of compensation as a way of solving disappearances, and said that only full justice would suffice.

On August 7 Angkhana submitted a letter to the justice ministry refusing compensation offered for her own husband.

In January one police officer was convicted in connection with his disappearance, but has been released from jail pending appeal.

In July a UN rights expert soundly condemned the government over the use of an emergency decree in the southern provinces.

Philip Alston, the special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, said that the decree "makes it possible for soldiers and police officers to get away with murder".

The ALRC has drawn connections between the patterns of killings and abductions in the south of Thailand.

"The victims in the cases that we have submitted today were variously taken from off the street or from their homes, at day and night," Cheesman said.

"Witnesses describe the accused as groups of men in 'military-style' clothing or similar travelling in pick-up trucks," he said.

"In one case submitted, two police officers have been directly implicated, but the public prosecutor failed to take up the case on the advice of the police themselves," Cheesman added.

"The distinctive characteristic of every case is that the victims were poor ordinary villagers," he noted.

The list of persons whose cases have been submitted and a summary of incidents follows.

On Wednesday the sister organisation of the ALRC, the Asian Human Rights Commission, called for the foreign minister of Japan to show special leadership in getting Asian countries to join a new international treaty to ban enforced disappearances.

Rights defenders in Thailand have urged the government to sign the Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Forced Disappearance once it is finalised this September.

The government of Japan strongly supported the new law.

"Thailand is a perfect example of a country where Japan could use its diplomacy and influence to have the government sign the new convention against disappearances and introduce domestic legislation and provisions to address disappearances," Cheesman noted.

"There are also certainly parts of the government, such as the justice ministry, that we believe would be receptive to working closely with the Japanese on this issue, if given the chance," he said.

The ALRC has criticised the government of Thailand for the failure to establish a long-proposed missing-persons centre under the guidance of the Central Institute of Forensic Science.

The police force is known to have repeatedly obstructed efforts to begin work on the centre.

LIST OF CASES SUBMITTED TO THE UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES ON 30 AUGUST 2006

1 & 2. Ya Jaodohlaoh (45) & Waeharong Rorhing (38), two villagers, disappeared in Yala town on 25 March 2002 after a lengthy meeting with two police officers

3. Sakariya Kajeh, a 51-year-old farmer, was reportedly abducted together with another man by men in two pick-up trucks on 29 June 2003, after his house in Kongpenang, Yala had earlier been searched

4 & 5. Budeman Woni, a 25-year-old rubber tapper was reportedly arrested by the police on 7 January 2004, while his friend Imrohim Gayo, a 30-year-old bus conductor, was taken from his house in Bannansata, Yala by a group of men in a pick-up truck in the early morning of January 8

6. Adduloh Hayimasaleh, a 43-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, was reportedly abducted in Yala town together with a passenger by men in two pick-up trucks during daytime on 5 June 2005?

7. Muhammadsimee Guna, a 22-year-old teacher training student, did not come home to Yarang in Pattani as usual on 15 July 2005; on July 17 his house was raided by a joint operations unit that took every document it could find on him and accused him of being a militant

8. Wae Addul Waheng Baning, a 24-year-old student, disappeared without a trace on 18 October 2005, somewhere between Yala and Pattani provinces

9, 10, 11 & 12. A group of young friends, Muhamad Senren (22), Adduloh Salam (21), Waesainun Waenawae (22) & Ku-amad Ahmeeden (21), disappeared together as they were travelling by car in Pakaharang, Pattani during the night of 1 November 2005, reportedly after being followed by the police

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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.