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THAILAND: Call for observers in the hearing of missing person case of Pol. Maj. Ngern Thongsuk

February 11, 2011

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal Update: AHRC-UAU-007-2011

11 February 2011

[RE: AHRC-UAU-005-2011: Threats to family follow continued denial of justice in Somchai Neelaphaijit case]
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THAILAND: Call for observers in the hearing of missing person case of Pol. Maj. Ngern Thongsuk

ISSUES: Enforced disappearances & abductions, human rights defenders, impunity, threats & intimidation, victims' assistance and protection
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AHRC 2010 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT: THAILAND

THE INTERNAL SECURITY STATE DIGS IN

http://www.humanrights.asia/resources/hrreport/2010/

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Dear friends,

Further to our previous appeal, the reading of verdict on the case of Somchai Neelaphaijit was again postponed. The court issued an arrest warrant, as required by the criminal procedure, to compel one the five defendants to appear in court to hear the verdict. But at the same time a petition to declare him a missing person is also pending in court, which would further delay the reading of verdict on technical grounds.

UPDATED INFORMATION :

 In our previous appeal (AHRC-UAU-007-2011 ), we mentioned that the threats and intimidation on Angkhana Neelaphaijit have increased while the reading of verdict from the Appeal Court on the disappearance of her husband, Somchai Neelaphaijit, is being repeatedly postponed.

AHRC-UAU-007-2011On 7 February 2011, Angkhana and her family again appeared at the Criminal Court in Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok to hear the verdict but left the court without hearing anything as it was postponed, again. The postponement was again due to the absence of one of the defendants, Police Major Ngern Thongsuk, in court to hear the verdict.

This is the third time that Angkhana Neelaphaijit and her family have appeared at the Criminal Court to hear the verdict on the case of Somchai (Black case no.1952/2547; Red case no. 48/2549). Somchai, a human rights lawyer, had been forcibly disappeared in 12 March 2004. Please read our earlier statements: AHRC-STM-020-2010; AHRC-STM-029-2011. 

As already expected, the verdict was not read because the Criminal Procedure Code (article 182, paragraph 3) requires that the defendants in criminal cases must either be present, or that a series of steps must be undertaken to confirm that they have been properly notified.

The reading is expected to be delayed further due to the pending petition to declare Police Major Ngern a missing person. His missing person case is set to be heard on 14 February 2011 at 1 pm in the Prathumthani Provincial Court. If he is ruled to be a missing person, then his family can again submit a request to the Criminal Court that his name should be removed as a defendant from the case.

On February 7, however, the court issued an arrest warrant for Police Major Ngern. The reading of the verdict on Somchai's case would have to be postponed for at least thirty days to allow the execution of the warrant. The new schedule for reading of the verdict has now been set for 11 March 2011 at 9am at the Criminal Court in Bangkok.

The AHRC is concerned that even with the issuance of the arrest warrant on Pol. Maj. Ngern, he would not appear in court to hear the reading of verdict and the reading may again be delayed further. The end result could be that the reading of the verdict in the case of the disappearance of Somchai Neelaphaijit will be further delayed long into 2011, and perhaps even beyond.

On the same day all parties involved in the criminal proceedings in the case have gathered expecting to hear the verdict of the Appeal Court concerning the conviction of one out of the five accused, Pol. Maj. Ngern. One Thai and two international observers from the AHRC joined other observers from Thai nongovernmental organizations, international nongovernmental organizations, and several embassies who monitored the hearing.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

The first scheduled reading of the verdict was on 24 September 2010, but the Criminal Court postponed the reading and sent the verdict back to the Appeal Court because Pol. Maj. Ngern's lawyer submitted a motion to remove his name from the case. At the second scheduled reading of the verdict on 21 January 2011, the defendant did not appear again, despite a warrant requesting his appearance having been sent by registered mail.

The AHRC is deeply concerned about the further delays in the reading of the verdict in the Somchai Neelaphaijit case and is concerned that what seems like a series of legal technicalities may be masking a broader, deeper strain of impunity. After the delay in late January, the AHRC observed that , "Although the procedural technicalities that keep forcing postponements in the reading of the verdict can individually be waved aside ….The unavoidable conclusion is indeed that they are part of a concerted strategy by powerful persons in and behind the scenes to demonstrate once and for all that it is not only pointless but also dangerous and impertinent to demand justice for gross abuses of human rights by the police and other security officials in Thailand."

The attempt to declare Pol. Maj. Ngern a missing person is the latest manifestation of this concerted strategy. The timing of this attempt – one day before the reading of the appeal verdict and the sharp finish of the two years term after he allegedly went missing following a natural disaster – immediately raises a question of the veracity of the claim. Further, many actors involved in the case have expressed concern over the alleged details and evidence surrounding his missing person's case.

There is a simultaneous judicial process taking place in relation to Pol. Maj. Ngern's alleged status as a missing person Ngern has been allegedly missing following a mudslide in 2008 and his family submitted a motion to the Prathumthani Provincial Court to have him officially declared a missing person in 23 September 2010, one day before the scheduled reading of the appeal court verdict.

Finally, the AHRC finds the use of laws surrounding missing persons to attempt to evade accountability in the case of the victim of forced disappearance to be a cynical action which fosters impunity. It is aware of at least one other case where a police officer implicated in wrongdoing was declared a missing person under the law and changed his appearance rather than accept responsibility, despite these efforts this police officer was later apprehended and tried.

Given the concern that the missing person case of Pol. Maj. Ngern Thongsuk may be an attempt to curtail the possibility of justice in the case of the disappearance of Somchai Neelaphaijit, the AHRC urges all concerned persons and organizations to observe the hearing in the missing person case of Pol. Maj. Ngern Thongsuk.

The details are:

On the Missing Persons case of Pol. Maj. Ngern Thongsuk
Date and time: 14 February 2011 at 1pm
Venue: Prathumthani Provincial Court

And also the new schedule on the reading of verdict on Somchai's case;

Date and time: 11 March 2011 at 9am

Venue: Criminal Court, Ratchadaphisek Road in Bangkok

 

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Thank you.
Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrc.asia)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
AHRC-UAU-007-2011
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.