GENERAL APPEAL (Thailand): Slow progress to investigate over 400 unidentified bodies in south 

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is greatly concerned about the apparent lack of progress in investigating over 400 unidentified bodies found in southern Thailand. Despite the months that have elapsed since news of the bodies became public, government authorities appear unwilling to allow for them to be properly exhumed and identified as it may lead to questions about the role of state agents in alleged extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances. The AHRC is calling for the government to make clear the current status of the process and give full support to independent investigators, including the Central Institute of Forensic Science. It is also urging continued strong public attention to the case to ensure that attempts are not made to tamper with the remains and destroy the possibility of proper identification in the future.

The existence of hundreds of unidentified bodies in the southern three provinces, buried in a number of graveyards, has been known to various authorities since 2005. In 2006 Dr Porntip Rojanasunant, acting director-general of the Central Institute of Forensic Science (CIFS), reported on the bodies in a number of meetings with police, soldiers and administrative officers. She also reported on the case to the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand and was accompanied in subsequent preliminary investigations by a member of the commission, Vasant Panich, who on June 28 was the target of a suspected abduction attempt due to his work on this issue (UA-210-2006).

However, the authorities, including the justice and interior ministers, played down the accounts of the bodies and said that they were probably those of migrant workers, as a way to diminish public interest. When Dr Porntip said that she would seek international assistance with the project, she was told that it would not be necessary to involve any foreigners (see comments in AS-133-2006). Then at the end of May, an outgoing senator, the former head of the foreign affairs subcommittee Kraisak Choonhavan, said in a television interview that there were many more bodies than earlier reported and he didn’t think that they were of migrants. He was roundly attacked by members of the government.

According to information available to the AHRC, there are 389 confirmed unidentified bodies that need to be exhumed. However, there are other sites with remaining bodies that have not yet been properly examined. Therefore the total number of bodies can be reliably estimated at over 400.

The first exhumation of some bodies was on June 5, after earlier plans were postponed repeatedly due to lack of funding and impetus. Although Dr Porntip was expected to have control of the investigation, she was deputed to a senior bureaucrat in the justice ministry, who is answerable to the minister: a former police officer who as noted has himself expressed scepticism about the need for the search. The AHRC is not aware of any significant progress in the investigation since, and meanwhile media and public interest in the dead bodies has dropped off.?

There has been a great deal of speculation about the identities of the bodies, and from the government side most of it has been directed at trying to dismiss the need for full investigations. Whatever their identities, it is clear that the bodies need to be exhumed and full tests conducted to answer the serious questions that are hanging over them.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

More than 1300 people are estimated to have been killed in the south since 2004 when the government launched a crackdown in the region following a raid on an ammunitions depot by suspected insurgents. There are also believed to have been significant numbers of disappearances, extrajudicial killings and other abuses committed by police, soldiers and government officers in the area. (See for instance UA-186-2006). However, it has not been possible to reliably document human rights abuses in the area due to overwhelming fear and serious security concerns. It is believed that resistance by the authorities to the planned exhumation of bodies is because they would provide evidence of atrocities committed by state officers stationed in the region, who have been operating with guaranteed impunity under special emergency regulations.

The resistance of government and investigation authorities to open inquiries that may lead to criminal cases involving state officials is not new to Thailand. The AHRC has recently joined with local human rights defenders and groups in strongly criticising the Department of Special Investigation for its failed inquiries in human rights cases (see petition: Need to reform the DSI for human rights in Thailand). For a wider discussion of the obstacles to due process and effective criminal investigation in Thailand see: Rule of law versus rule of lords in Thailand, article 2, vol. 4, no. 2, April 2005.?

The police and other state authorities in Thailand also deeply resent the work of Dr Porntip at the helm of the CIFS, and typically try to undermine the efforts of both she and her staff in public and through other channels. For instance, Dr Porntip has been made the target of spurious criminal defamation charges by the police (see UA-107-2005; AS-65-2005; and UP-038-2006). Dr Porntip’s repeated attempts to get a full missing persons centre established also have been repeatedly thwarted by powerful persons in government (see AS-62-2005).

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write a letter to the Caretaker Minister of Justice to request immediate clarification of the status of the inquiries into the unidentified corpses in the south of Thailand. Please urge him to give full public support for the investigation organs, including the CIFS, and for a missing-persons centre to be established to properly address cases of disappearance in Thailand. A sample letter and contact details are given below.

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