Junio 25, 2007

Tha - UN panel to reconsider cases

ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT

A United Nations panel has decided to reconsider 12 cases involving missing people in the far South after complaints from the affected family members.

The decision was sparked by a plea from the Working Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP), which sent the UN panel a letter on Thursday after learning that it would stop pursuing the cases because they were settled through government compensation. The letter said the families of the 12 missing people had unanimously rejected the UN's decision to close the files on the cases on the grounds that the families received some money from the government.

''The families do not consider the money as compensation for the deaths and wish to receive answers to what happened and where their loved ones are,'' the human rights group said in the letter.

None of the family members considered their case closed and they were still hoping that the UN would help them obtain justice.

A source at the WGJP said the UN panel had responded by deciding to again study each of the 12 cases.

The 12 are among 18 cases of forced disappearances in Thailand that were submitted to the UN jointly by the WGJP and the Asian Legal Resource Centre last year. In every case, state officers are alleged to have been behind the abductions and disappearances.

The Thaksin Shinawatra government set up a committee, chaired by then minister to the prime minister's office Chaturon Chaisaeng, which approved a payment of 100,000 baht for each of the disappearances.

The WGJP was set up by Angkhana Neelaphaijit, whose husband Somchai was abducted by police in 2004 and never seen again.

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/25Jun2007_news12.php

Posted by marga at Junio 25, 2007 4:54 PM | TrackBack
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