It’s an ordinary Friday morning. You leave your office on Rachadapisek Road at 9 a.m. to meet a client at Robinson Department Store, Bangrak. Accompanied by your assistant, you drive along the expressway and park your car at the South Bangkok Civil Court where you instruct your assistant to deliver some documents to another client. On arriving at the nearby Robinson Bangrak Store you telephone your client and find out that due to a misunderstanding he is waiting for you at the Robinson Silom Store. You take a taxi to the store and talk with your client for two hours, then take another taxi to the Central Bankruptcy Court where you meet up with your assistant again.
Unknown to you, five mobile phone users are recorded as being close to you throughout the day.
It’s 2.30 p.m. You drive back to your office on Rachadapisek Soi 32 accompanied by your assistant. You stop at a gas station on Chan Road before getting on the expressway. After spending two hours at the office, you drive to the Chaleena Hotel on Ramkamhaeng Soi 65 to meet a friend. Your assistant goes with you. On the way you stop to pray at a mosque near to the hotel and have a meal at a nearby restaurant. You arrive at the Chaleena Hotel around 7 p.m. and wait for your friend for well over an hour before deciding to leave. You phone your daughter to tell her you are tired and will be staying the night at your brother’s home nearby.
At 8.30 p.m. you say goodbye to your assistant at the Chaleena Hotel and drive across the Saen Saab Canal to Ramkamhaeng road, where you turn left and drive towards the Lum Salee Intersection.
Suddenly your car is bumped from behind. You get out and see some men seated in a black Toyota Sedan which has bumped into the rear of your car. You recognise one of them as a police officer accused of torturing one of your clients. He asks you to accompany the group for some discussions.
You refuse. He gets out and pushes you towards the rear door of the black Toyota. You shout for help and struggle with the policeman. Some bystanders look on as you are helplessly pushed into the car which drives away…
This is what happened to Lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit on March 12th 2004, just over four years ago. He was never seen again.
On Sunday March 30th of this year I travelled with a small group led by his wife (and presumed widow), Mrs. Angkhana Neelapaijit and their son and daughters to retrace the steps of Lawyer Somchai on that fateful day. Despite being fully familiar with the events relating to Lawyer Somchai’s abduction and disappearance, this was the first time I really felt the horror of the abduction which took place in a crowded street of Bangkok in front of bystanders.
I could imagine the feelings of lawyer Somchai as he gradually realised what was happening to him. I could easily imagine a similar event happening to anyone else in Thailand who dared to challenge the illegal actions of the police as Lawyer Somchai did by publicising the police torture of Muslim suspects who were his clients.
Five policemen were arrested and tried in connection with the abduction of Lawyer Somchai, but eventually only one of them, Police Major Ngern Tongsuk, was convicted of physical coercion and sentenced to three years imprisonment. He is presently appealing the conviction. The other defendants including his immediate superior were found not guilty due to insufficient evidence.
Unfortunately the defendants could not be charged with kidnapping under Thai law as they had not demanded any ransom. They could not be charged with murder because no body or remains were ever recovered. Both the investigation and the prosecution were carried out so poorly that links to higher ranking officers were never fully explored.
It is widely believed, however, that a number of top ranking police officers and very possibly some individuals closely linked to the Thaksin Shinawatra administration were aware of, or involved in the abduction and presumed murder of Lawyer Somchai.
What happened to lawyer Somchai is particularly shocking because he was a prominent middle-class human rights lawyer abducted in the streets of Bangkok. However abductions, torture and killings of Muslim separatist suspects are common in the southern border provinces, and are rarely reported in the media.
One exception is the widely reported case of Imam Yapa Kaseng who died in Narathiwat province between March 19th and March 21st of this year while in military custody.
Taking these events together with the more than two thousand extrajudicial killings that took place during the 2003 official war on drugs, the mass killings in mysterious circumstances of the entire Sabayoi Youth football team on April 28th 2004, and the deaths of 78 demonstrators taken into military custody at Takbai on October 25th 2004, it is obvious that we live in a country where the military and the police are ready to abduct, torture and kill people who they perceive as enemies with complete disregard to lawful procedures.
While Thai society allows the military, the police and their political masters to remain immune from accountability with regard to state violence and murder, we are all responsible for these crimes.
Jon Ungphakorn is a former elected senator for Bangkok and a Thai NGO activist. Comments are welcome at: [email protected]
First Publish in Bangkok Post
