ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME
7 December 2006
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UA-392-2006: THAILAND: A well-known environmental activist is missing
THAILAND: Abduction and forced disappearance; violation of right to life and security; persecution against human rights defenders; un-rule of law
Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission has been informed of the alleged abduction and subsequent forced disappearance of Mr. Thares Sodsri (53), a well known environmental activist in Baan Kha Distirct, Rachaburi province during the evening of 30 November 2006. Two weeks before his disappearance, Mr. Thares had reportedly submitted evidence to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment about widespread destruction of the forest in Ratchaburi and was due to testify in court against suspects in a forest encroachment case.
CASE DETAILS:
At around 10 am on 1 December 2006 Miss Sompit Jinnguy, 28 year-old house maid of Mr. Thares Sodsiri, made a complaint to Police Major Supot Thong-orn of the Bankha Police Station, Rachaburi that Mr. Thares was missing. She told Pol Maj Supot that she left Mr. Thares's house in Banbung sub-district, Ban Kha district, Ratchaburi in the evening of November 30 but when she came back to the house at 7:30am on the following day, she found that the spotlight in front of the house was still on and Mr. Thares was missing.
The police reportedly found traces of blood and three used 11mm handgun cartridges, two bullets and tire traces on the front lawn of Mr. Thares house. The police then searched the area of one square kilometre around the house but Mr. Thares was not found. Investigators suspect that Mr. Thares may have been shot dead in his house and his body taken removed.
Later, Pol Gen Maj Chaicharn Kitichan, Superintendent of the Ratchaburi Provincial Police went to investigate the area and ordered a check of Mr Thares's incoming and outgoing telephone calls and also ordered the Canine police to search for him.
On December 2, the police raided five different locations in Ban Kha district for clues to crack the case. They confiscated two pistols, a blood-strained pickup truck and clothes, which were all sent for forensic examination. Five people, including Amnart Romphoree, a village headman, have been question in the case so far but no arrest warrants have been sought to date.
According to the abducted activist's wife Mrs. Pongchit Sirirat, three dogs at their house had been killed by poisoning a few days before the abduction.
Mr. Thares is a well-known environmental activist in Ratchaburi who has been conducting a campaign against illegal forest encroachment projects in Ban Kha sub-district. He had led villagers to guard the forest from influential figures seeking to mine and plant palm on more than 1,000 rai of forest land. These influential figures are allegedly made up of the local political leadership; village heads, kamnan, chairmen and members of tambon administration organizations.
According to Mr. Thares' wife, just two weeks before the incident Mr. Thares had submitted a VCD showing widespread forest destruction in Ratchaburi by a local influential politician to the Natural Resources and Environment Minister Kasem Sanitwong as well as to the Minister of Interior, and requested them to sack the alleged politician. He was also due to testify in court against suspects in a forest encroachment case. The wife insists that local politicians behind illegal forest encroachment projects were behind her husband's abduction.
Mr. Thares' campaigning concentrated on an area of forest that stretches across 20,000 rai of land in Ratchaburi and Phetchaburi provinces. The area is under a royally-initiated project for forest protection and wildlife officials are preparing to declare the area a new national park.
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:
On 30 August 2006 the Asian Legal Resource Centre and Working Group on Justice for Peace, a new local human rights group chaired by Angkhana Neelaphaijit, wife of missing lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit (http://www.ahrchk.net/somchai), submitted the details of 12 disappearances in southern Thailand, arising from seven incidents between 2002 and 2005, to the United Nations (UA-286-2006; ALRC-PL-006-2006). They are among some 23 cases acknowledged by the government of Thailand in which the families have been paid compensation, but not given any information about what happened to their loved ones.
There is at present no reliable estimate of the total number of persons who have been forcibly disappeared in the south of Thailand since 2002, when hostilities steadily increased under the current administration. Informed persons put the number in the hundreds. Due to the lack of effective avenues for complaint and overwhelming fear, families of victims have not generally come forward to complain publicly (see AS-133-2006).
These cases all also speak to the patent lack of protection for witnesses and families of victims in the south. For related information see: Protecting witnesses or perverting justice in Thailand, article 2, vol. 5, no. 3, June 2006.
Mr. Thares' case should not be a repeat of unsolved disappearance of Somchai Neelaphaijit and other cases. Furthermore, to prevent such disappearances, the Thai government must join a new UN treaty to prohibit disappearances without delay.
To see the details of killings of 14 activists, please read the article, "Collusion and influence behind the assassinations of human rights defenders in Thailand" in Special Report: Rule of Law vs. Rule of Lords in Thailand published by the AHRC's sister organization the Asian Legal Resource Centre (Article 2, Vol. 4, No. 2. April 2005). Most of the cases remain unsolved.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the Interim Minister of Justice and other persons below to ask their urgent intervention into this matter to locate the whereabouts of the missing activist and speed up a probe into this case. Please also ask for Thailand to join a new UN treaty to prohibit disappearances.
To support this appeal, please click:
Sample letter:
Dear __________,
THAILAND: A well-known environmental activist is missing
Name of victim: Mr. Thares Sodsri, aged 54, environmental activist; resident of 77/2 Moo 2, Bangung sub-district, Ban Kha District, Ratchaburi province
Date and place of disappearance: At night of 30 November 2006 at his house in Bangung sub-district
I am writing to bring your urgent attention regarding another alleged abduction and subsequent disappearance of a well-known environmental activist in Ratchaburi province on 30 November 2006.
According to the information I have received, Mr. Thares Sodsri, 54, who has been conducting a campaign against illegal forest encroachment projects in Ban Kha sub-district, is missing since the evening of 30 November 2006.
I was informed that the police found traces of blood and three used 11mm handgun cartridges, two bullets and tire traces on the front lawn of Mr. Thares's house. I suspect that Mr. Thares may have been shot dead in his house and his murderers took the body to destroy it elsewhere.
I was also informed that on December 2, the police raided five different locations in Ban Kha district for clues to crack the case. They confiscated two pistols, a blood-strained pickup truck and clothes which were all sent for forensic examination. Five people, including Amnart Romphoree, a village headman, have been question in the case so far. However, no arrest warrants have been sought to date.
Over the last 10 years, Mr. Thares has been campaigning concentrated on an area of forest that stretches across 20,000 rai of land in Ratchaburi and Phetchaburi provinces. He had also led villagers to guard the forest from influential figures seeking to mine and plant palm on more than 1,000 rai of forest land. These influential figures are allegedly made up of the local political leadership; village heads, kamnan, chairmen and members of tambon administration organizations.
There is rational suspicion that local politicians behind illegal forest encroachment projects were behind Mr. Thares' disappearance.
Just two weeks before the incident Mr. Thares had submitted a VCD showing widespread forest destruction in Ratchaburi by a local influential politician to the Natural Resources and Environment Minister Kasem Sanitwong as well as to the Minister of Interior, and requested them to sack the alleged politician. He was also due to testify in court against suspects in a forest encroachment case.
Besides, according to Mr. Thares' wife, 3 dogs at their house had also been poisoned in suspicious circumstances before the abduction. I suspect that the alleged abductors did so to prevent from getting the neighbours' notice for the planned abduction.
The circumstances of the abduction indicate that it is well prepared incident. In fact, this is yet another incident of forced disappearances and killings of human rights defenders in Thailand. Most of the cases remain unsolved. Even in the most high profile case of the disappearance of the human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit, the Thai government has failed to find what really happened to him and where he is. Mr. Thares' case should not be a repeat of unsolved disappearance of Mr. Somchai.
I therefore strongly urge you to conduct an independent and thorough inquiry about this matter. The Government of Thailand should bear the responsibility of Mr. Thares's disappearance and must take speedy action to find his whereabouts. I also call upon your government to the Thai government to sign the new UN Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as soon as it comes into effect later this year. I also urge you to use your official capacity to ensure the free visits by all UN special experts on human rights, in particular the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances to the country as a whole to investigate the situation of disappearances and attacks on human rights defenders.
I look for your urgent intervention into this matter.
Yours sincerely,
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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)
Asian Human Rights Commission
19/F, Go-Up Commercial Building,
998 Canton Road, Kowloon, Hongkong S.A.R.
Tel: +(852) - 2698-6339 Fax: +(852) - 2698-6367
I am Sopit Sodsri, a sister of Thares Sodsri, the environmental activist who disappeared on the night of November 30, 2007, and whom you talk about in your article.
I thank you for the interest you take in this issue and would like to update you on the current situation as of January 24, 2007.
The police have been very active and have already achieved some results. After 17 days of investigation, they have found the remains of my brother on December 17, 2006. They have first been looking everywhere for the body, with up to 200 people taking part in the search, including divers who checked flooded areas.
Meanwhile, they had arrested four people, who are prime suspects. These persons eventually confessed having handled the body, but deny having shot Thares themselves. They named another person, the cousin of one of the suspects, who is currently on the run. They described how the murder had been planned and executed. They also took the police to the site (a mine belonging to the suspect) where they had taken the body, burned it and buried it. The police dug up the site and retrieved piece of burned tyres and pieces of bones, which are currently under forensic examination.
The key suspects belong to a family which controls several villages in the area, several of them being actually village headmen. They are very wealthy and influential. Most villagers are afraid of them and do not cooperate fully with the investigation because they fear for their own lives. My main concern is that although everybody knows who is behind this murder, they may still be able to get away with it. The legal process in Thailand takes a long time, and key witnesses may still be bought, intimidated or physically eliminated before a judgment takes place.