Somchai Neelaphaijit

Court declares Muslim lawyer legally missing

Wife is convinced Somchai was killed

By: POST REPORTERS

Published: 19/05/2009 at 12:00 AM

The Civil Court has declared Muslim lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit a missing person.

Angkhana Neelaphaijit, wife of missing human rights lawyer Somchai, examines documents with her lawyer Nitithorn Lamlhueaas they prepare to file a petition with the Civil Court seeking to have Mr Somchai officially declared a missing person. CHANATKATANYU

Mr Somchai's wife petitioned the court asking that her husband be declared missing so she could legally take control of his assets.

Mrs Angkhana, a human rights campaigner in Pattani, is convinced her husband was killed after being abducted by police on Ramkhamhaeng Road in Bangkok on March 12, 2004.

The law provides that a person can be considered a missing person if he or she has been missing for five years, the court said yesterday.

The verdict will pave the way for Mrs Angkhana to ask the Civil Court to allow her to oversee her husband's assets.

The Criminal Court in 2006 sentenced Pol Maj Ngern Thongsuk of the Crime Suppression Division to three years in jail in connection with the lawyer's disappearance.

The officer is believed to have fled the country after being released on bail while appealing the verdict.

Mr Somchai disappeared after volunteering as a defence lawyer in a case brought against three suspected Muslim separatists in the deep South. All three were later found innocent.

At one stage during the trial, Mr Somchai accused officers of torturing the suspects to force them to confess.

Meanwhile, two military rangers were injured in a bomb attack yesterday as they patrolled a road in Yala's Bannang Sata district.

The roadside bomb went off about a kilometre from the Ban Bannang Kuwae school. It was detonated when a unit of nine military rangers was passing.

The blast injured defence volunteers Kariya Hami, 32, and his colleague Damrongrit Kaewrung, 30.

In Narathiwat's Bacho district, a bomb exploded as eight soldiers were patrolling the Bacho-Ban Thon Road. No one was injured.

Police arrested two men acting suspiciously near the scene of the blast.

The attack followed Sunday night's bomb attack at a karaoke bar in downtown Narathiwat. Police said two bombs exploded at around 11.20pm on the second floor of the building housing the Fifa Karaoke.

The explosion damaged the VIP room where police found the remains of two 2kg home-made bombs which were planted under a sofa. No one was injured.

The bombers also placed a 5kg bomb next to a motorcycle parked in front of the bar which bomb disposal experts managed to defuse just seconds before it was timed to go off at 11.32pm.

Paipan Siripan, the karaoke bar owner, said the bombs exploded shortly after five of his male clients, all teenagers, left the VIP room.

Violent attacks continued in the region yesterday even with extra tight security on the first day of the new school semester.

Insurgents had threatened to launch violent attacks to disrupt classes if schools reopened.

The rebels have frequently targeted schools and teachers in the past, delivering a serious blow to education in the three Muslim-dominated border provinces.

Military officers yesterday were ordered to escort teachers to school and increase the frequency of patrols in areas prone to attacks, including Highway 410 linking Yala and Pattani provinces.

In Narathiwat alone, 369 schools reopened in 13 districts amid tight security.

Si Sakhon, Rueso, Cho Airong, Chanae, and Rangae districts are among the high-risk areas.

KC-The case of Somchai Neelaphaijit is riddled with themes of police corruption and injustice. It is also a result of the messy politics of the Deep South during the Thaksin administration and the political context of the US-led War on Terror. The three suspects Somchai was defending were accused of being Jamaah Islamiyah operatives at a time when Thailand was berated by the US for its lack of cooperation in the War on Terror. The arrest of the three suspects was used by many to justify the argument that a globally interconnected rise in Jihadism was occurring and that local Muslim separatist movements were part of this emerging global threat. This overly-simplistic and dangerous discourse was espoused by the neo-conservative Bush administration in addition to a league of academics, 'terrorism analysts', governments and other groups with vested interests in the US-led war. Thus, Somchai was not only a victim of police corruption and brutality but also of the new political context which pervaded Southeast Asia following its designation as the 'second front' in the War on Terror.-

Some links to help understand the complexity and background to this story:

http://campaigns.ahrchk.net/somchai/

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2007/thailand0307/