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Monday February 20, 2:48 PMAsian rights watchdog honours dead Thai lawyerHONG KONG (Reuters) - An Asian human rights watchdog on Monday honoured a prominent Thai lawyer who is presumed dead after disappearing nearly two years ago while representing Muslim suspects in a bloody separatist insurgency.The Asian Human Rights Commission named Somchai Neelaphaichit recipient of a Human Rights Defender Award "in recognition of his tireless efforts to bring justice to victims of human rights abuses in Thailand, for which he ultimately sacrificed his life", the group said. According to his wife Angkhana, Somchai, who was 53 when last seen alive 23 months ago, knew he was in danger and had been warned that his campaign against martial law in the three southern, Muslim-majority provinces would cost him his life. He disappeared after accusing police of forcing five men he was defending to drink urine to get them to confess to plotting attacks in the south, where more than 1,000 people have died in two years of unrest. "Out of respect for this occasion, the Asian Human Rights Commission calls upon the government of Thailand to honour its repeated commitments and at last address the as yet unanswered question, 'Where is Somchai?'," the rights group said. "The perpetrators of this abduction and murder must all be identified, prosecuted and punished, for the sake not only of Somchai, his family and friends, but for all victims of forced disappearance in Thailand -- and beyond -- for whom justice remains a distant dream," it said in a statement. In January, one of five policemen accused of "disappearing" Somchai was sentenced by a Bangkok court to three years in prison for his illegal detention. The four others were acquitted, sparking accusations of an official cover-up from government critics and Muslims. The next day, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he understood Somchai was dead, and said the five policemen were not charged with murder at their first court appearance in June 2004 because there was no evidence at the time the lawyer was dead. Special investigators, however, were working on murder charges based on circumstantial evidence gathered since then that showed Somchai was dead. The Justice Ministry's Department of Special Investigation (DSI), which took over the case from police after the five were formally charged with coercion and gang robbery, was due to wrap up its inquiries by February. "There has since been little evidence to suggest that this will be done," the rights group said. "However, as the case has received persistent public attention it has put an enormous responsibility on the government to explain what happened." Somchai was also representing four Thais accused of belonging to the Jemaah Islamiah militant network, often called the Southeast Asia branch of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda. The four were acquitted last June. |
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