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UPDATE (Thailand): Senior police officer must be investigated

November 6, 2006

UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Update on Urgent Appeal

6 November 2006

[RE: UP-20-2005: THAILAND: Human rights lawyer still missing after nearly one year; Action needed today to have case transferred; UP-24-2005: THAILAND: Thai minister refuses to act on missing human rights lawyer case; UP-37-2005: Thai PM orders action on missing human rights lawyer, while court hears of torture; UP-45-2005: Wife of missing human rights lawyer intimidated; UP-77-2005: THAILAND: Department of Special Investigation fails to bring justice to Charoen Wat-aksorn case; UP-89-2005: THAILAND: Repeated failed commitment to assign Department of Special Investigation to Somchai case; UP-004-2006: THAILAND: Verdict in case of missing human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit due on January 12; UP-015-2006: THAILAND: Minister of Justice must clarify continued contradictions after verdict in Somchai Neelaphaijit case; UP-049-2006: THAILAND: Minister of Justice must address recent issues that have arisen concerning disappeared human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit; UA-112-2005: THAILAND: Murder of Thai monk following an environmental and land dispute with local influential business figures; UP-028-2006: THAILAND: Protection withdrawn from monk who continues to receive death threats; UA-153-2004: THAILAND: Two cases of extremely serious torture and cruel and inhuman treatment by Thai police officers; UP-71-2004: THAILAND: More serious allegations of police torture emerge in Thailand; UP-75-2004: THAILAND: Demand immediate criminal action against police torturers; UP-78-2004: THAILAND: Torture cases transferred to special investigators, but police still free; UP-157-2005: THAILAND: Alleged tortured victim withdraws his complaint against the police; UP-061-2006: THAILAND: First call for special investigation chief to resign over Somchai case; UP-107-2006: THAILAND: Second call for special investigation chief to resign; EU expresses concern in Somchai case; UP-124-2006: THAILAND: Important programme to commemorate human rights defenders and discuss failed investigations; UP-128-2006: THAILAND: Please sign petition to remove head of special investigation from post]
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UP-205-2006: THAILAND: Senior police officer must be investigated

THAILAND: Obstruction of justice; forced disappearance; extrajudicial killing; torture; attacks on human rights defenders; negligence; impunity; unaccountability
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is pleased to inform you that the head of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has been removed from his job over the failure to solve the March 2004 abduction by police of human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit. Police General Sombat Amornvivat was transferred to another part of the justice ministry on November 3. However, the AHRC and other rights defenders believe that the police general may have deliberately damaged the investigation to protect other police. Therefore, it is not enough that he is simply transferred. There must also be an investigation into his work as DSI director, and if necessary he must be prosecuted.

In recent days, the attorney general in Thailand has said that the DSI has enough evidence to prove that Somchai was murdered, with which to lay new charges. There are also suggestions that someone close to the former prime minister, Pol. Lt. Col. Dr. Thaksin Shinawatra, may have masterminded the abduction (see AS-269-2006). The AHRC has written to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and other UN rights experts to ask them to closely monitor the progress of the case (AHRC-OL-061-2006). Meanwhile, Pol. Gen. Sombat has been removed from his post as DSI director and an appeals court judge is due to take over the position (AHRC-PL-098-2006).

The recent developments in Somchai's case, which come as the agents of the September 19 military coup go after persons attached to the former government, speak to how politically controlled criminal investigation is in Thailand. The AHRC has maintained since mid-2005 that the investigation was being obstructed by the DSI director. In mid-2006 the wife of the missing lawyer, Angkhana Neelaphaijit, said that she also believed that he may have behaved illegally.

The AHRC also set up a petition calling for his dismissal, which attracted signatories from around the world: http://thailand.ahrchk.net/dsi_petition. The petition addressed not only the case of Somchai but other human rights cases that the DSI had failed to solve despite ample evidence, in particular, the killings of environmentalists Charoen Wat-aksorn and Phra Supoj Suwajo.

The allegations of wrongdoing of Pol. Gen. Sombat are serious and deserve to be investigated. It is not sufficient that he be removed from his post. By uncovering his wrongdoing it may be possible to better understand how investigating agencies in Thailand continue to serve as tools for persons with political power, in order to make the necessary changes to prevent more of the same in the future.

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

For more information on the alleged wrongdoing of the DSI former head and related issues, see:

AS-104-2006: DSI director must be sacked and investigated
AS-100-2006: Who should be boss of the Department of Special Investigation?
AS-077-2006: Department of Special Investigation or Department of Sporadic Interest?
AS-049-2006: No obligations, just public relations
AS-048-2006: Here is Angkhana, there is Porntip...where is Sombat?
AS-123-2005: DSI must promptly and assertively answer the question "Where is Somchai?"
AS-084-2005: What is the point of Thailand's Department of Special Investigation?
AHRC-PL-055-2006: Families of victims demand answers from DSI
AHRC-PL-051-2006: Ministry reviewing role of DSI chief in Somchai case
AHRC-PL-048-2006: Support from around world for call to reform DSI
AHRC-PL-043-2006: Remove DSI director, new petition demands
DSI fails to prove itself - Bangkok Post Editorial [10 August 2006]

Also visit the Somchai Neelaphaijit homepage:
http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/somchai

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please write to concerned persons in Thailand to request that the former DSI chief also be investigated. Please also request that the Somchai case be handled with great care, that all witnesses and the victim's family be protected, and that all human rights cases with the DSI be reviewed.

To support this appeal, please click:

Sample letter:

Dear __________,

THAILAND: Former DSI director must be investigated

I am pleased to hear that the director general of the Department of Special Investigation, Pol. Gen. Sombat Amornvivat, has been removed from his post over his failed leadership in the investigation of missing human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit.

However, I urge you to also see that an investigation of alleged wrongdoing by Pol. Gen. Sombat is begun and that he is not allowed to take up another official post.

In this respect, I remind you of a May 9 letter to the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Justice in Thailand by Angkhana Neelaphaijit, wife of the abducted lawyer, who at that time called for Pol. Gen. Sombat's removal on grounds of alleged wrongdoing. The allegations she made then went beyond suggestions of mere negligence to criminal obstruction of justice. They included that the DSI director had

1. Illegally helped the police accused of abducting her husband to get prosecution evidence with which to prepare their defence.

2. Deliberately led the investigation into dead-ends.

3. Failed to initiate a proper investigation into the telephone calls between the key accused and other police officers around the time of the abduction.

These allegations are serious, and deserve full investigation. I urge you to take the necessary steps to see that this is done without delay. I also wish to stress that whether simply negligent or criminally liable, I do not believe that Pol. Gen. Sombat is worthy of any official position. He should not be transferred but sacked from the ministry and police service.

I also take this opportunity to remind the government of Thailand of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as investigations in the Somchai Neelaphaijit case again move ahead, and in particular call for

1. Forensic and telecommunications experts to collect, study and analyse the evidence with which to secure convictions of the actual murderers of Somchai, and other persons complicit in his abduction, in order to avoid the problems of evidence that occurred in the trial of the five accused police in 2005.

2. The appointment of a senior public prosecutor to handle the case from start to finish, with guarantees of the necessary personnel and other resources needed to do the job properly, in order to prevent the debacle that occurred during the 2005 trial, when public prosecutors changed almost daily.

3. All necessary protection to be given to witnesses and the family of the victim in accordance with the provisions of the Witness Protection Act BE 2544 (2001), in order to avoid the spectacle of terrified eyewitnesses in the courtroom, as occurred during the first trial, and the making of death threats to the wife of the victim.

4. The reopening of other investigations related to the case, in particular, the allegations of torture of five of his clients accused in connection with the January 2004 armoury raid in the south, which have never been properly investigated. 

Finally, I take this opportunity to urge for all human rights cases handled by the DSI to be reviewed, among them, the 2005 murders of environmentalists Charoen Wat-aksorn and Phra Supoj Suwajo, in which police and local "influential persons" have been implicated, and other cases where state officers are among the accused parties, including torture cases. There are also many similar cases that fit the department's criteria which it nonetheless has declined to take up that should also be subject to review.

The case of Somchai Neelaphaijit is of immense importance to Thailand because it is at the nexus between gross human rights abuse and persistent impunity enjoyed by state officers there. These abuses and impunity extend across all parts of policing and military behaviour in all areas of the country. It is for this reason that the case will continue to obtain immense national and international attention until such a time as all of the real perpetrators are identified and convicted.

Yours truly,


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PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTER TO:

1. General Surayud Chulanont
Interim Prime Minister
c/o Government House
Pitsanulok Road, Dusit District
Bangkok 10300
THAILAND
Tel: +662 280 1404/ 3000
Fax: +662 282 8631/ 280 1589/ 629 8213
E-mail: spokesman@thaigov.go.th 

2. Mr. Charnchai Likitjitta
Interim 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

3. Mr. Pachara Yutidhammadamrong
Attorney General
Office of the Attorney General
Lukmuang Building
Nahuppei Road
Prabraromrachawang, Pranakorn
Bangkok 10200
THAILAND
Tel: +662 224 1563/ 222 8121-30
Fax: +662 224 0162/ 1448/ 221 0858
E-mail: ag@ago.go.th or oag@ago.go.th

4. Prof. Saneh Chamarik
Chairperson
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 

5. Ms. Hina Jilani
Special Representative of the Secretary General for human rights defenders
Att: Melinda Ching Simon
Room 1-040
C/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 93 88
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE HUMAN RIGHTS DEFENDERS)

6. Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Attn: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR EXECUTIONS)

7. Mr. Santiago Corcuera
Chairperson
UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Attn: Tanya Smith
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: + 41 22 917 9176
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (ATTN: WORKING GROUP EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTIONS)

Thank you. 

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ahrchk@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
UP-205-2006
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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.