After discussions with the Central Institute of Forensic Science in March, Thailand’s new justice minister Suwat Liptapanlop announced that a missing-persons centre would be established with the institute’s guidance. Its deputy-director Porntip Rojanasunan has fought during the last eight years for an independent agency to oversee the collection of information on the thousands of persons who go missing in the country annually, and receive and investigate their remains. The announcement by the minister should have been warmly welcomed by all persons in Thailand concerned with the need to curb the excessive powers enjoyed by the police there, and accompanied by widespread public debate on the shape the proposed agency will take.
But what has happened since March? After the initial announcement, the missing-persons centre itself has been all but missing from public discussion. Apart from a passing reference or two on meetings held to further the proposal, nothing has been heard. Certainly, it has not yet excited much open debate in the media or in wider society. At a May 17 commemoration organised for the victims of the 1992 ‘Black May’ massacre, the director-general of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department, Charnchao Chaiyanukij, spoke of the need to establish the centre. He insisted that it will be independent, able to accept individual complaints from the public and initiate judicial proceedings, and has the backing of the prime minister. However, his comments did not even get a mention in the newspapers.
More disturbing are signs that the police force has set out to sabotage the whole initiative before it gets off the ground. After the justice minister accepted the need for the centre in principle, at a second meeting held to discuss the matter, the police–who had previously shown no interest in the idea–insisted that it would be their job to set it up. Having said that, they didn’t even bother to attend a third meeting on May 12. The apparent efforts by the police to thwart the centre’s creation are reminiscent of their actions after the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 2004. There too, the police set out to subvert the work of the Central Institute of Forensic Science, which arrived on the scene and began work on recovery and identification of remains within hours of the tragedy. The police turned up weeks later, demanded that they run the operation, and started all over again. They are also alleged to have kidnapped volunteers who worked with the forensic science institute in the affected areas and interrogated them on their work.
The police in Thailand will fight any serious efforts to establish a missing-persons centre that is outside of their authority because if properly managed it will open the door for independent official investigations into the many human rights abuses they commit. It is a publicly accepted fact that the police in Thailand have vast unchecked powers that are used for their own purposes and those of their political and business masters. In recent days there has again been reporting on the vast sums of money estimated taken by the police through various channels. Such enormous corruption is inevitably accompanied by gross human rights violations, including forced disappearances, torture and extrajudicial killings. Some of these incidents obtain public attention; many do not. Most of the time, the persons behind the abuses remain ‘unnamed’ due to the deep fear of powerful figures that still prevails in Thailand. The fear is well founded: these persons remain unnamed and unnamable because of the absolute impunity that they and the police who work for them continue to enjoy.
In a statement on the proposed missing-persons centre in March, the Asian Human Rights Commission observed that the minister’s announcement was most timely and welcome in view of the growing number of forced disappearances and attendant abuses in Thailand. It pointed to certain prerequisites for the centre to function effectively. First, a law is needed to make forced disappearance a crime, without which full prosecution of persons found by the centre to have caused abductions will be impossible. Secondly, the centre must deal with all aspects of disappearances, and not be limited to identifying remains without thoroughly examining the circumstances of death. To do this requires that it be equipped both with the necessary resources and mandate to do its job properly. The existing forensic science institute is itself already heavily restricted, and lacking in external support and means. As its area of work is limited to four provinces in central Thailand, if it goes outside that zone–such as in the aftermath of the tsunami–it can be forced to withdraw mid-investigation. It is under constant pressure from the police and other powerful hostile interests, and its few professional staff each has hundreds of cases to deal with at a time. Both the institute and the anticipated missing-persons centre deserve better than this. However, more support from the government will not be forthcoming without more support from the public.
Although the initiative to establish a missing-persons centre has come from professionals working in the field, it will be realised only through open and substantive national discussion. To date, the response of the media, professional bodies, non-governmental organisations and the wider public on this issue has been disappointing. Perhaps the significance of the proposed centre is not yet well understood. If the centre is properly established it will be an unprecedented body in a region that has over the past decades experienced some of the largest mass disappearances and related abuses in the world. The creation of this centre is not only an opportunity for Thailand to address its domestic problems relating to missing persons but also to take the lead on this important human rights concern among other Asian countries. It is an opportunity not to be lost.
The Asian Human Rights Commission again calls upon all concerned persons and organisations in Thailand–in the media, medical and legal fields, among victims’ families and support groups and all human rights organisations–to raise their voices loudly and engage with government agencies on the proposed centre for missing persons. Those individuals and groups involved in the discussion on Thailand’s compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights before the U.N. Human Rights Committee in July should also make this a key issue with the government delegation in Geneva. It is imperative that now the proposed centre has entered into official discussion it is accompanied by meaningful and extensive public debate, without which the missing-persons centre may itself very easily go missing.
