Over 50 people have gone missing in ten years
A total of 59 people, many of them Malay Muslims, have disappeared without traces in the past ten years, according to a research paper prepared by the Justice for Peace Foundation.
In presenting the paper at Chulalongkorn University on May 28 in remembrance of the missing people, Mrs Angkana Nilapaichit, the chair of the foundation, said that there were altogether 59 cases of enforced disappearance with the highest numbers, 33, in the southern region.
According to the study, 94 percent of the enforced disappearance cases were male and 86 percent of them were ethnic minorities.
Mrs Angkana whose husband, human rights lawyer Somchai, has disappeared with out traces for several years now, identified two factors for contributing to the enforced disappearance cases.
- Firstly, the suppression operations against insurgents in the deep South. She said that the military operations had contributed to 55 percent of the enforced disappearance cases. She noted that the numbers shot up in 2005 when the emergency decree was imposed in the deep South and in 2007 after the coup in September 2006 to overthrow the Thaksin regime.
- Secondly, the drug suppression campaign launched in 2003 by then Thaksin government.
Mrs Angkana said her study also showed four groups of people were more vulnerable than the others to enforced disappearance. They are people who have close connection with or who are in conflict with unscrupulous officials involved in illegal activities such as illegal gambling and drug dealing; human rights, political or environmental activists; key witnesses in serious crime cases; and aliens without any legal status.
Abduction was identified as the most popular method of enforced disappearance. This incidence often occurred in places faraway from the office or home of the victims and this could be done by officials in uniform or in plain clothes. In most cases, the victims were forced into a car and driven away to unknown destinations. This method accounted for 68 percent of the enforced disappearance cases.
The victims could be arrested at home and in their office by officials without any arrest warrants. This method alone accounted for 22 percent of the disappearance cases.
The last method used was to invite the victims to meet with officials at designated places. This accounted for two percent of the missing cases.
Ms Prathapchit Nilapaichit, a researcher responsible for preparing the study, said that all the 33 people listed in the enforced disappearance cases in the deep South were Malay Muslims. These were broken down into: 16 people in Yala, 11 in Narathiwat and six in Pattani. 54 percent of the cases were abductions and 33 percent were arrests from homes or offices.
Associate Professor Pokpong Srisanit of Thammasat University who commented on the research paper suggested that the government should make enforced disappearance a criminal offence in the Criminal Code in compliance with Thailand’s signing of the protocol on enforced disappearance cases last year.
He noted that the maximum penalty for people accountable for enforced disappearance under the current law is three years imprisonment or a fine of 6,000 baht which is regarded as too lenient.