UPDATE (Thailand): Repeated failed commitment to assign Department of Special Investigation to Somchai case 

[RE: FA-06-2004: THAILAND: A human rights lawyer Mr. Somchai Neelaphaijit missing; UA-94-2004: Severe torture victims still in custody while police torturers remain in posts; UP-14-2004: Mr. Somchai Neelaphaijit is still missing and the police may be involved in his disappearance; UP-26-2004: 5 suspects in the alleged abduction of missing human rights lawyer Mr. Somchai Neelaphaijit bailed out; UP-20-2005: Human rights lawyer still missing after nearly one year; Action needed today to have case transferred; UP-24-2005: 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-49-2005: THAILAND: Government commits to giving witness protection to missing lawyer’s family]

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding the disappearance of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit and the Thai government’s announcement that the case is being taken over by the Department of Special Investigation (DSI). On 19 July 2005, Deputy Prime Minister Chidchai Wannasathit said that DSI had decided to take over the Somchai case because people suspected official involvement in his disappearance.

While the AHRC welcomes this news, and hopes that it will lead to arrests against those responsible for Somchai’s disappearance, we are most skeptical of this latest announcement as it is the third of its kind by the Thai government. In August 2004, former Minister of Justice Pongthep Thepkanjana wrote to AHRC that, “An ad hoc committee under the responsibility of the Special Investigation Department has been set up to work on information gathering, forensic evidence as well as other investigation for the case”. The committee, he added, had made “a lot of progress”. By September, however, it was evident that there was no committee and no progress.

Then, in May this year, the AHRC received a second written statement from the Ministry of Justice that the DSI was acting on this case; “The Ministry of Justice,” the letter stated, “Has assigned the Department of Rights and Liberties Protection, Central Institute of Forensic Science and the Department of Special Investigation to co-proceed in related issues” on the case. It has also “given an order to the Department of Special Investigation to take further investigation, but the whereabouts of Mr Somchai are still undiscovered.”

Because of these previous hollow commitments to assign the DSI to investigate Somchai’s case, we welcome this latest news with hesitation. At this time we are also forced to question the relevance and effectiveness of the DSI in properly investigating serious criminal cases. Several other cases that the AHRC has also reported on, in addition to Somchai’s, reveal the inability of the DSI to fully investigate such cases.

Take the complaint of Ekkawat Srimanta, who was brutally tortured by police in Ayutthaya province, which was supposedly taken up by the DSI. Given the mounds of evidence in that case, where the victim was taken straight to hospital with hundreds of electrical burns all over his genitals and other body parts, the DSI should have been able to lodge criminal charges against the perpetrators without delay. Yet one of the alleged perpetrators, Police Lieutenant Colonel Seubsak Pinsaeng turned up in court last week to testify against another person who has accused him of torture, and told the court that he was back at duty as Ekkawat’s case had ‘gone quiet’.

The killing of environmentalist Charoen Wat-aksorn has also reportedly been handled by the DSI. More than a year has passed since his murder and only the hired gunmen have been indicted. His widow has insisted that the investigators can identify the persons behind the killing, but as they are influential people they too have enjoyed impunity. The DSI has sat on the case for a year without result, and Charoen’s widow says that it has excluded a great deal of evidence from its investigation. After meeting with her on June 21, when she led protesters to the front of their offices, the Minister of Justice and the Director of the DSI agreed to ‘reopen’ the investigation. What this means in practice remains to be seen.

The DSI has proven unable to bring justice in the two example cases provided above. How the Thai government proposes for it to be more successful in the case of Somchai remains unknown. Whether it will even actually assign the DSI to Somchai’s case, given its past promises to do so, also remains unclear. It is for these reasons that we write to you now calling for your intervention.

Given its repeated written commitment to assign the DSI to investigate Somchai’s disappearance, the Thai government must follow through on this promise. A year and a half has now passed since Somchai was forcibly disappeared and more must be done to bring to justice those responsible for this. Impartiality should be applied at all times, and impunity to those involved should not be accepted under any circumstances whatsoever.

In the meantime, an overhaul of the DSI itself should be seriously considered by the Thai government. An increase in budget, personnel and training is the minimum required if the DSI is to become a stronger, faster and more transparent body in investigating criminal matters.

SUGGESTED LETTER:

Please write to the Thai Minister of Justice voicing your concern over the government’s repeated failed commitment to assign the DSI to Somchai’s case and the current relevance of the DSI in investigation criminal cases.

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