Dear friends,
The Asian Legal Resource Centre has together with the Working Group on Justice for Peace (Thailand) have submitted details to the United Nations of five more persons who have disappeared from Narathiwat in southern Thailand. All five, including one child, allegedly disappeared together in October 2005 after collecting a new car. Like other similar cases in the south, to date nothing is known about what happened to them. The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) is reported to be working on the case, but the family has received no information from the authorities.
In late September 2005, Wilailak Mama had arranged the purchase of a car from a dealer in Songkhla, southern Thailand. On the morning of October 6, she set out to collect it together with her husband and 4-year-old son, and three friends. They stayed overnight together at a hotel in Hat Yai. The next day, October 7, one of the friends left early and the others went together to get the car, after which they planned to go home.
At 11am, having obtained the car one of the friends phoned his wife and said that he would be home in two hours. An hour later, his wife called back but the connection was lost. She tried to contact the others but also failed. By 8pm none of the five had returned home. Wilailak’s family checked the local hospital and then lodged reports with the police.
The next day, October 8, a family friend called and said that Crime Suppression Division police officers had arrested Wilailak and the others. After that, the family went to ask for more information from police officers in Songkhla and Hat Yai towns. An officer at Hat Yai told them that the group had disappeared due to a personal conflict.
The family has never received any further information about what happened to the five victims. Department of Special Investigation officers have visited to make further inquiries, but the outcome of their investigations, if any, has not been made known to the family. The disappearance of the five victims has not yet been acknowledged by the state and no compensation or otherwise is known to have been received from the government.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
?
On 30 August 2006 the Asian Legal Resource Centre and Working Group on Justice for Peace, a new local human rights group chaired by Angkhana Neelaphaijit, wife of missing lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit (http://www.ahrchk.net/somchai), submitted the details of 12 disappearances in southern Thailand, arising from seven incidents between 2002 and 2005, to the United Nations (UA-286-2006; ALRC-PL-006-2006). They are among some 23 cases acknowledged by the government of Thailand in which the families have been paid compensation, but not given any information about what happened to their loved ones. Angkhana Neelaphaijit has herself refused the payment of compensation for her husband, who was abducted by the police, saying that only full criminal justice will do (AHRC-PL-065-2006).
As noted then, since 2004, the conflict and attendant human rights abuses in the south of Thailand have steadily intensified. In its recent final report to the government, the National Reconciliation Commission, which was set up to resolve the violence in the south, put most of the blame on heavy-handed government policies and the growing militarisation of the region (http://thailand.ahrchk.net/docs/nrc_report_en.pdf).?
In June the AHRC reported on the alleged abduction of Wae-halem Guwaegama by military personnel (UA-186-2006). No further information has been available on his case since that time, and the local community is reported to be living in extreme fear.
There is at present no reliable estimate of the total number of persons who have been forcibly disappeared in the south of Thailand since 2002, when hostilities steadily increased under the current administration. Informed persons put the number in the hundreds. Due to the lack of effective avenues for complaint and overwhelming fear, families of victims have not generally come forward to complain publicly (see AS-133-2006).
The southern provinces remain under the use of an Emergency Decree which a UN rights expert has described as allowing “soldiers and police officers to get away with murder” (AHRC-PL-056-2006).
Attempts by the Central Institute of Forensic Science under the justice ministry to open and investigate some 400 unmarked graves in the affected provinces, which may contain the remains of any or all of the above five victims, among others, have been thwarted by the police and local officials: see further UG-010-2006.
These cases all also speak to the patent lack of protection for witnesses and families of victims in the south. For related information see: Protecting witnesses or perverting justice in Thailand, article 2, vol. 5, no. 3, June 2006.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Up until recently families of disappearances victims in the south of Thailand were unwilling to speak out because of the heavy fear hanging over their provinces. Due to the intervention of local rights groups and others they are now increasingly demanding answers from the authorities. Please support their calls by writing to the Caretaker Minister of Justice and other persons below to ask what progress has been made in this and other cases. Please also ask for Thailand to join a new UN treaty to prohibit disappearances.??lt;br />
To support this appeal please click here:
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
Dear ________,
THAILAND: Please provide answers to the families of five persons who disappeared in Songkhla on 7 October 2005
Names of alleged victims:
1. Mrs Wilailak Mama, 33, staff of the Genting Hotel in Sungai Kolok district, Narathiwat
2. Mr Mahamahazme Raya, husband of Wilailak
3. Chonlasit Raya, 4, son of Wilailak
4. Mr Udom Navee, friend
5. Mr Muhummudsaidee Mahama, friend
Date of incident: 7 October 2006 around 11am-12midday
Place of incident: In the vicinity of Hat Yai & Chana districts of Songkhla Province
I am writing to you to ask about the progress of investigations into the whereabouts of five persons, including one child, who disappeared in southern Thailand on 7 October 2005.
According to the information that I have received, around 10am on October 6, Wilailak Mama, her husband and son, together with three friends– Muhummudsaidee Mahama, Udom Navee and Pichet Suemae–travelled to Songkhla together in two cars and stayed overnight at the Sakura hotel in Hat Yai District. The next day Pichet went home at about 9am.?
The five remaining persons went to collect a new car from the Chukiet Honda Co. Ltd located at Kor Yor intersection in central district of Songkhla. After collecting the car, at 11am Muhummudsaidee Mahama phoned his wife and said that he was in Chana District and would be home in two hours. An hour later, his wife called back but the connection was lost. She tried to contact the others but also failed.
At 8pm none of the five victims had returned home. After checking the local hospital, relatives lodged complaints at the Songkhla Central District Police Station and Hat Yai District Police Station.
On October 8 a person known to Wilailak’s family told that Crime Suppression Division police officers had arrested the group. Relatives went to ask for more information from police officers at both stations where complaints had been lodged; an officer at Hat Yai told them that the group had disappeared due to a personal conflict.
Some four months later, officers of the Department of Special Investigation made further inquiries, but since then the relatives have had no information on the progress.
I urge you to heed the calls of the family members and do your utmost to answer their questions as to what happened to these five people. Involuntary disappearances are among the most heinous crimes under international law; they demand a strong response from your government, particularly in view of the growing numbers of reports of abductions in your country that have been linked to the police or other persons in authority.
In this respect, I also call upon your government to:
1. Withdraw the Emergency Decree over the southern provinces, which has been condemned worldwide as obnoxious to human rights and giving police and soldiers there a licence to kill;
2. Implement the recommendations of the National Reconciliation Commission to end the conflict there without further delay;
3. Permit uninhibited access to all unmarked graves in the south by independent forensic experts, including from the Central Institute of Forensic Science and abroad;
4. Allow free visits by all UN special experts on human rights to assess the situation in the south of Thailand, and the country as a whole; and,
5. Sign the new UN Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as soon as it comes into effect later this year.?
Finally, I wish to remind you of the recommendation of the UN Human Rights Committee to the government of Thailand, with reference to your country’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights:
“The Committee is concerned at the persistent allegations of serious human rights violations, including widespread instances of extrajudicial killings and ill-treatment by the police and members of armed forces… The Committee further notes with concern that this situation reflects a lack of effective remedies available to victims of human rights violations, which is incompatible with article 2, paragraph 3, of the Covenant (arts. 2, 6, 7). The State party [Thailand] should conduct full and impartial investigations into these and such other events and should, depending on the findings of the investigations, institute proceedings against the perpetrators. The State party should also ensure that victims and their families, including the relatives of missing and disappeared persons, receive adequate redress… [CCPR/CO/84/THA, 8 July 2005, para. 10]
I am waiting to assess the extent of your government’s compliance on this recommendation in regards to this and all other cases of involuntary disappearance in Thailand.
Yours sincerely,
—————-
PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER TO:
Pol. Gen. Chidchai Wanasatidya
Caretaker Minister of Justice
Office of the Ministry of Justice
Ministry of Justice Building
22nd Floor Software Park Building,
Chaeng Wattana Road
Pakkred, Nonthaburi
Bangkok 11120
THAILAND
Tel: +662 502 6776/ 8223
Fax: +662 502 6699/ 6734 / 6884
Email: ommoj@moj.go.th; chidchai@moj.go.th
PLEASE SEND COPIES TO:
1. Pol. Lt. Col. Dr Thaksin Shinawatra
Caretaker Prime Minister
Government House
Pitsanulok Road, Dusit District
Bangkok 10300
THAILAND
Tel: +662 280 1404/ 3000
Fax: +662 282 8631/ 280 1589/ 629 8213
E-mail: thaksin@thaigov.go.th or govspkman@mozart.inet.co.th
2. ACM Kongsak Wantana
Caretaker Minister of Interior
Office of the Ministry of Interior
Atsadang Road
Bangkok 10200
THAILAND
Tel: +662 224-6320/ 6341
Fax: +662 226 4371/ 222 8866
Email: ommoi@moi.go.th
3. Pracha Terat
Governor, Narathiwat
Narathiwat Provincial Office
Pichitbamrung Road
A. Muang, Narathiwat 96000
THAILAND
Tel: +66 73 514 320
Fax: +66 73 514 320
Email: pocnara@pocnara.go.th or narathiwat@moi.go.th
4. Somporn Chaibangyang
Governor, Songkhla
Songkhla Provincial Office
A. Muang, Songhkla 90000
THAILAND
Tel: +66 74 323 874
Fax: +66 74 313 126
Email: songkhla@moi.go.th
5. Prof. Saneh Chamarik
Chairperson
The National Human Rights Commission of Thailand
422 Phya Thai Road
Pathum Wan District
Bangkok 10300
THAILAND
Tel: +662 2219 2980
Fax: +66 2 219 2940
E-mail: commission@nhrc.or.th or saneh@nhrc.or.th
Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)?lt;br />
