Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders Annual Report 2006 - Thailand

Status of the proceedings against the authors of Mr. Somchai Neelaphaijit's enforced disappearance¹¹⁶

Although the Prime Minister committed to ensure that the inquiry into the enforced disappearance of Mr. Somchai Neelaphaijit, president of the Muslim Lawyers' Association and vice president of the Committee on the Defence of Human Rights of the Lawyers' Association of Thailand, would be completed in February 2006, the identity of the people behind the attack remained unknown as of the end of 2006.

Mr. Somchai disappeared on the night of March 12 to 13, 2004. He was last seen in the Bang Kapi district. Shortly before his disappearance, he had received threatening anonymous phone calls and was informed that security forces had put his name on a list of members of terrorist groups.

Mr. Somchai had campaigned for the martial law to be lifted in the southern provinces and for justice for Muslims suspected of terrorist activities and treason. He had also denounced the fact that some Muslims accused of terrorism had been tortured during police investigations. His various activities had raised tension between him and the security forces, which were most likely involved in his enforced disappearance.

Five policemen were charged for "coercion" and "gang robbery" (Articles 309 and 340 of the Criminal Code), since enforced disappearance is not recognised as an offence in Thailand.

On January 12, 2006, the Bangkok Criminal Court found one of the policemen guilty of forcing Mr. Somchai into a car and sentenced him to three years' imprisonment under Article 309 of the Criminal Code. The four other accused were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

As of the end of 2006, Mr. Somchai's wife, Mrs. Angkana Wongrachen, nevertheless continued to be the victim of acts of intimidation. In particular, she regularly received telephone calls from people who "advise" her to drop the charges.

Status of the inquiry into the murder of Mr. Charoen Wat-aksorn¹¹⁷

By the end of 2006, the investigation into the murder of Mr. Charoen Wat-aksorn, an environmentalist and president of the group Love Bo Nok who was killed upon his return from Bangkok to Prachuap Khiri Khan province on the night of June 24, 2004, seemed to be at a standstill. Indeed, two of the suspects, Mr. Saneh Lekluan and Mr. Prachub Hinkaew, who had been arrested and had rapidly admitted that they were guilty of the murder, died under suspicious circumstances in prison.

The group Love Bo Nok, a local environmental protection organisation, became well-known following its mobilisation campaigns against the opening of a coal electricity plant on public land.

On the day of his murder, Mr. Wat-aksorn had met with the House Committee on Corruption Investigation, in order to encourage them to open investigations into the accusations of corruption against local leaders, following the election of people opposed to the project within the local administration. Mr. Wat-aksorn had also lodged several complaints with the Minister of the Interior, the National Counter-Corruption Commission and with different committees of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

On June 21, 2005, following an interview with Mrs. Wat-aksorn, the Minister for Justice and the director of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) agreed to "reopen" the investigation under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice.

Mr. Saneh Lekluan and Mr. Prachub Hinkaew always denied that they acted on the orders of influential people. They claimed that the murder was the result of a personal conflict and that they were drunk at the time of the events. They were remanded in custody although three other people, who were suspected of instigating the murder, were released on bail: Mr. Tanu Hinkaew, a lawyer and a former candidate to the general elections, Mr. Manoh Hinkaew, a member of a provincial council, and their father, Mr. Jua Hinkaew.

The proceedings against all five people began on June 29, 2006 before the Bangkok Criminal Court and were due to go on until March 2007. However, Mr. Prachub Hinkaew died in prison on March 21, 2006, supposedly of a bacterial infection. On August 3, 2006, Mr. Saneh Lekluan also died, officially of bad blood irrigation due to malaria. The director of DSI reportedly ordered an inquiry into both deaths, without any results to this date.

As of the end of 2006, the case was still pending before the Prosecutor, but the police still had no evidence against the three other suspects. Four hearings took place in December 2006, during which the prosecution presented its witnesses, mostly members of DSI. The next hearing was scheduled for February 28, 2007.

Acquittal of Ms. Supinya Klangnarong¹¹⁸

On March 15, 2006, Ms. Supinya Klangnarong, secretary general of the Campaign for Popular Media Reform (CPMR), a coalition which gathers 45 NGOs, and the newspaper Thai Post were acquitted by the Bangkok Criminal Court in a lawsuit brought against them by the Shin Corporation, a media conglomerate founded by the Prime Minister.

Ms. Supinya Klangnarong was prosecuted for "criminal defamation" (Article 328 of the Criminal Code) since August 2003 after having revealed, in an article published by the Thai Post on July 16, 2003, that Shin Corp's profits had significantly risen since Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra had become Prime Minister. Ms. Supinya was facing a fine of 200,000 baht (4,000 euros) and a two years' prison sentence.

On August 24, 2004, Shin Corp had also initiated a civil libel suit for 400 million baht (over 8 million euros) against Ms. Supinya and the Thai Post, following the approval of the Criminal Court. On October 11, 2004, the Civil Court decided that the trial would begin after the Criminal Court had handed down its ruling.

On May 9, 2006, Shin Corp withdrew its civil defamation claim.

Status of the inquiry into the assault on Mr. Wiwat Thamee¹¹⁹

As of the end of 2006, no progress had been reported in the inquiry into the aggression and acts of intimidation against Mr. Wiwat Thamee, coordinator of the Ethnic and Indigenous People's Network of Thailand, in Chiang Mai, in 2005, despite the 2006 request from the governor of Chiang Rai that the inquiry be successfully concluded by the police forces.

On August 18, 2005, a grenade was thrown at Mr. Wiwat Thamee's car. He had recently attended the United Nations Human Rights Committee in Geneva (Switzerland), during which he had criticised certain practices of the Thai government towards minorities in the north of the country.

Police officers present near the vehicle did not react and further advised witnesses not to lodge complaints.

On August 20, 2005, a complaint was filed with the district police station, and the matter was submitted to the National Human Rights Commission. This complaint had not been examined by the end of 2006.

Since these events, Mr. Thamee and his team have left the region in which they were working.

Extrajudicial execution of two village chiefs in the southern provinces¹²⁰

In October 2006, two village chiefs were murdered. They had helped villagers who had been subjected to acts of violence in the southern provinces to bring their case before the authorities.

On October 16, 2006, Mr. Asan Yamaleh, chief of village n° 3 in Talo, Raman district, Yala province, was shot soon after bringing a group of people to meet with representatives of the authorities in Yala 3. Before his murder, Mr. Yamaleh had attended a meeting with members of the National Human Rights Commission and local human rights groups in order to complain about the brutality of the security forces in an attack on the village on September 13, 2006. During the raid, five villagers were arrested and village houses were set on fire.

On October 20, 2006, Mr. Muhammad Dunai Tanyeeno, chief of Jaroh village, Narathiwat province, was shot near his house. He had just gone out to meet with a person who had phoned him earlier. It was not possible to trace the origin of the call. On October 3, 2006, Mr. Dunai Tanyeeno, together with the Network for the Affected Population in Relation to Southern Violence, had helped victims of violence by enabling them to meet with the newly-appointed Army Commander of Region 4. Mr. Dunai had also helped villagers harassed since the massacre of 84 people by soldiers and policemen on October 25, 2004.

By the end of 2006, the authors of these murders had not yet been identified.

Enforced disappearance of Mr. Thares Sodsri, an environmental rights defender¹²¹

On December 1, 2006, the cleaning lady of Mr. Thares Sodsri, an environmentalist in the Ban Kha district, Rachaburi province, went to the police station to report his disappearance. She had left him on the evening of November 30, 2006. The next day, he had disappeared and the lights were still on inside the house.

The policemen found several traces of blood, three bullet cartridges, two bullets and tire tracks on Mr. Thares' lawn.

On December 2, 2006, the police carried out a raid in several areas of the Ban Kha district and confiscated guns, a truck and blood-stained clothes, so that they could be examined by forensic services.

A few days earlier, Mr. Thares' three dogs had been poisoned.

Two weeks before these events, Mr. Thares had submitted a video to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, showing the illegal destruction of a forest by a local political leader in Ratchaburi, despite the fact that the forest was protected by a royal conservation project. Mr. Thares was also due to testify in proceedings against several people suspected in a forest encroachment case.

Over the past ten years, Mr. Thares had led a campaign against illegal forestry projects in the Ban Kha sub-district.

[Refworld note: This report as posted on the FIDH website (www.fidh.org) was in pdf format with country chapters run together by region. Footnote numbers have been retained here, so do not necessarily begin at 1.]

116. See Annual Report 2005, Report of the International Fact-Finding Mission of the Observatory, Somchai Abduction Trial: Justice Granted or Justice Denied, January 2006, and Urgent Appeal THA 001/0106/OBS 005.

117. See Annual Report 2005.

118. See Annual Report 2005 and Urgent Appeal THA 002/0306/OBS 032.

119. See Annual Report 2005.

120. See Urgent Appeal THA 003/1006/OBS 129.

121. See Urgent Appeal THA 004/1206/OBS 146.