UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Update on Urgent Appeal

9 March 2007

[RE: UP-20-2005: THAILAND: Human rights lawyer still missing after nearly one year; Action needed today to have case transferred; UP-24-2005: THAILAND: Thai minister refuses to act on missing human rights lawyer case; UP-37-2005: Thai PM orders action on missing human rights lawyer, while court hears of torture; UP-45-2005: Wife of missing human rights lawyer intimidated; UP-77-2005: THAILAND: Department of Special Investigation fails to bring justice to Charoen Wat-aksorn case; UP-89-2005: THAILAND: Repeated failed commitment to assign Department of Special Investigation to Somchai case... UA-112-2005: THAILAND: Murder of Thai monk following an environmental and land dispute with local influential business figures; UP-028-2006: THAILAND: Protection withdrawn from monk who continues to receive death threats... UP-78-2004: THAILAND: Torture cases transferred to special investigators, but police still free; UP-157-2005: THAILAND: Alleged tortured victim withdraws his complaint against the police; UP-061-2006: THAILAND: First call for special investigation chief to resign over Somchai case; UP-107-2006: THAILAND: Second call for special investigation chief to resign; EU expresses concern in Somchai case; UP-124-2006: THAILAND: Important programme to commemorate human rights defenders and discuss failed investigations; UP-128-2006: THAILAND: Please sign petition to remove head of special investigation from post]
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UP-032-2007: THAILAND: Important programme for victims of forced disappearances on 3rd anniversary of Somchai Neelaphaijit abduction

THAILAND: Forced disappearances; impunity
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is forwarding an announcement about a programme to be held in Bangkok this Sunday, March 11, to mark the third anniversary of the abduction by the police of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit with a discussion on forced disappearances in Thailand. 

After three years, the forced disappearance of Somchai Neelaphaijit from a street in Bangkok on 12 March 2004 remains unresolved. This is despite the fact that a court found on 12 January 2006 that police were behind the abduction; a fact acknowledged by the then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra the following day. In November 2006, the head of the September 19 coup group, General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, said that there is information that persons close to the former prime minister were involved. Since that time, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) under the justice ministry, which is now headed by a former judge, rather than a police officer, is said to have "made progress" on the case; but the remains of Somchai are not yet identified and no further charges have been laid against any persons. Meanwhile, the former head of the DSI, who is alleged to have obstructed earlier inquiries into the case, has reportedly been reappointed to a senior post as acting deputy national police chief, despite the fact that he had been dismissed from his post at the head of the DSI for poor performance.

Meanwhile, forced disappearances persist in other parts of the country, notably in the southern provinces. The AHRC recently set up a webpage on the Emergency Decree which is being used to grant security forces extraordinary powers, under which they are alleged to have committed extrajudicial killings, disappearances, torture, illegal arrest and detention, and other gross abuses. It includes links to some of the cases of alleged forced disappearance in the region that have been documented by the AHRC: http://thailand.ahrchk.net/edecree

To see all the details on the case, visit the AHRC's Somchai Neelaphaijit homepage: http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/somchai/

To read about the trial process of the five police accused in connection with the abduction, open the AHRC's trial report: The disappearance of a person and the defects of a system

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COMMEMORATION ON 3RD YEAR OF SOMCHAI NEELAPHAIJIT ABDUCTION:
DISAPPEARANCES IN THE FAR SOUTH & PROGRESS TOWARDS COOPERATION WITH THE GLOBAL SOCIETY

Date: Sunday, 11 March 2007, 13:30 - 16:30
Place: Meeting Room of Chulalongkorn University

13.00-13.30 Registration
13.30-13.45 Opening remarks, by Surichai Wankaeow
13.45-14.00 Voices of families of victims of disappearances in the far south

14.20-16.00 Panel

Speakers:
Charnchao Chaiyanukij, Deputy Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice (to be confirmed)
Pol. Gen. Seripisuth Temiyawet, Acting National Police Chief (to be confirmed)  
Angkhana Neelaphaijit, Member, Constitution Drafting Committee
Sunai Phasuk, Human Rights Watch
Somchai Homlaor, Lawyers' Council of Thailand
Paul Green, International Committee of Jurists

Moderator: Pratupjit Neelaphaijit, Youth Network for Peace in the Southern Border Provinces

16.00-16.20 
Statement on the ongoing case and Royal Thai Police investigation of the abduction of Somchai Neelaphaijit, by the Working Group on Justice for Peace

Thank you for your attendance. 

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)