Prominent Thai human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit disappeared on 12 March 2004 in Bangkok. He had been working diligently defending human rights and fighting for justice in the south of Thailand. He submitted petitions to many concerned organizations expressing his distress about the situation in the South, trying to stop police impunity and lifting martial law. He was defending 5 Muslims who were accused of having stolen 300 guns from an army base. They claimed that they were tortured during detention. Atty. Neelaphaijit was preparing to press the torture case before senior authorities when he disappeared. He was allegedly pulled from his car by five policemen. Evidence leaked to the media alleges that senior persons in the government and/or police were behind the forced disappearance.
The disappearance of lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit has stirred ample controversy and has turned into the most decisive high-profile impunity case in Thailand. The resolution of this case has major implications for the conflict waging on in the three southern-most provinces of Thailand. For many Muslims in the South, Atty Neelaphaijit was their only hope to go through a just legal process. The fact that he was disappeared has therefore directly contributed to the climate of impunity and violence in the South. Under the emergency decree, the police often use forced or fabricated evidence to set people up and detain them. People are increasingly arrested as being part of insurgency groups and more and more allegations of torture surface.
His wife, Mrs. Angkhana Neelaphaijit, has since launched a highly public campaign to get justice for her husband’s disappearance. After not having received any answers about her husband’s whereabouts from the police or government for over a year, Mrs. Neelaphaijit brought the case to the attention of the UN Human Rights Commission. She also filed a lawsuit against 5 police officers who were seen to have abducted Somchai. One of the officers was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment in January 2006 on charges of coercion while the other 4 were acquitted due to lack of evidence. This trial is the key impunity trial in Thailand as this has been the first time that police officers are on trial in connection with disappearance.
Angkhana Neelaphaijit has demonstrated incredible courage and determination bringing the issues of disappearance and torture into the public domain through press releases, public forums and meetings with the authorities. She has become an icon of strength in Thai society challenging the authorities in her quest for justice. Her case has served as an inspiration to many other victims of disappearance and police impunity in Thailand, and internationally. She is at the heart of a growing body of people whose loved ones have been abducted or disappeared. Despite several grave threats to her life due to her activism, she continues her campaign to hold the state accountable to its actions. As a leading human rights defender in her society, she is never afraid to ask uncomfortable questions of people in power, questions that break open the heavy silences hanging over the submerged but ever-present killings, disappearances and torture that go on in the South of Thailand.
It is hoped that through increased international awareness and pressure, the Thai government shows greater political will to solve the case of Somchai Neelapahijit and others who have suffered the same fate. Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has told Mrs. Neelaphaijit before in private that he knows the perpetrators of this crime, but that justice cannot be met in this case. He has never been made to answer for any statements he has made in connection to this case.
