Somchai Neelapaijit went missing 20 years ago but his wife continues to demand justice

Tomorrow marks the anniversary of the disappearance of the human rights activist, an ethnic Malay Muslim, who fought for his coethnics living in southern Thailand. His wife Angkhana was able to take his case to court, a first. Despite suspicions against law enforcement, no one has yet been convicted.

Bangkok (AsiaNews) – Twenty years after the disappearance of Muslim human rights activist Somchai Neelapaijit, many want to know what happened to him and who is responsible for his disappearance at a time when the Thai government was cracking down on ethnic Malay Muslims in the country's southern border region.

A member of two lawyers’ associations, Somchai Neelapaijit went missing in Bangkok on 12 March 2004 after defending people who had suffered indiscriminate violence by the government, then led by Prime Minister Thaksin Sinawatra.

Several people he defended had been subjected to torture in military detention, a practice allowed under martial law, which had been imposed on the region.

No one has yet been formally charged for the activist's disappearance, but suspicions have fallen on members of the security forces engaged in repressive activities at the time.

Five members of the police were arrested shortly after Somchai's disappearance, suspected of forcing him into their car, but the Supreme Court acquitted them in 2015.

Somchai's case is also the only one to have reached to court thanks to the courageous and tireless work of his wife Angkhana.

Overall, 82 enforced disappearances have been reported since 1980, but only the last year did this type of action become a criminal offence in Thailand, so all cases have ended in total impunity.

Despite lacking any legal training, Ankhana, a nurse and mother of five, has been seeking the truth since 2005, despite threats and reprisals, with increasing support from human rights groups, thus inspiring people involved in similar cases.

“Refusing to succumb to despair after her husband's enforced disappearance, Ms Angkhana Neelapaijit has undertaken a tireless quest for truth and justice as a human rights defender for the past 20 years," reads a statement by a group of independent UN experts, released by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

• thailand
• human rights
• disappearance
• anniversary
• somchai
• ankhana
• neelapaijit
• united nations
• thaksin sinawatra