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Moving on, Fighting on
They don’t really stand up for their rights
as just trying to make sure the
family has enough to eat is difficult enough. But, if women don’t
fight for
their rights, I don’t know who will do it for them.”
30
- Angkhana Neelapaijit
Despite the tragic experience, there are families
of the disappeared who choose not to be confined to the four walls
of their homes but rather courageously come out into the open to
seek truth and justice. They are able to overcome the fear and defy
the odds and usually find solace and safety from each other’s
company, strength and unity from their common pain and hope. They
have also seen the need and importance of having an organization to
articulate their struggle against enforced disappearance, to seek
legal remedies and retribution, provide a support system and
assistance and collectively reconstruct the memory of their loved
ones.
In Thailand, organizations of families of victims
and human rights advocates are established to urge the government to
address the issue of enforced disappearances. One of these
organizations is the Relatives Committee of the May 1992 Heroes.
Since its establishment, the Relatives Committee
of the May 1992 Heroes has been working to force the Thai government
for the return of the remains of their disappeared loved ones, for
the rehabilitation and provision of services and assistance to the
survivors and the relatives of the disappeared, for the full
disclosure of the investigation and for the construction of a
memorial in honor of the May heroes.
They have repeatedly made pleas to the government
and have even organized a procession carrying coffins in front of
the Ministry of Defense to remind the public and the government of
the horrors of the Black May event. When the Thai government
repeatedly ignored their plea, they finally submitted the cases of
disappearances to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances in October 2001 wherein 31 of 34 cases of people who
disappeared during the May 1992 events were accepted. These are 33
cases that were taken to court. Although, more disappearances took
place during the Black May event, only 33 families had the means and
capacity to take the case to court. Many of the families of the
victims lived outside Bangkok and could not afford the time and cost
to attend court hearings.
The Relatives Committee of the May 1992 Heroes is
currently finalizing its plan to build a government-funded monument
in memory of the Black May 1992 victims in the same location where
the uprising occurred in Bangkok. The government funding and the
future monument shall serve as clear symbol and manifestation of an
implicit or explicit admission of guilt brought about by the brutal
and devastating massacre of May 1992.
The other group which was formed in 2006 as a
response of civil society to the increasing cases of disappearances
particularly in the southern provinces of Thailand is the Working
Group on Justice for Peace (WGJP), an organization of human rights
advocates working to promote justice and the rule of law to achieve
peace in the southernmost provinces. It specifically aims to promote
justice for families of disappeared persons in southern Thailand by
assisting them in the investigation of the whereabouts of the
missing, bringing perpetrators to justice and claiming adequate
remedies and compensation in order to prevent further abductions and
disappearances; protecting the rights of all detainees both under
the emergency decree and criminal procedures in respect to human
rights; and promoting the rule of law and due process by providing
legal aid to human rights victims or anyone outside the protection
of the law.
 It holds activities such as symposia, fora and
press conferences to disseminate information and educate the general
public about the issue of enforced disappearance. The group is also
lobbying the Thai government to sign and ratify the UN Convention
for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Through its incessant campaign and lobbying, WGJP was able to bring
the issue of enforced disappearance into public attention and to
make it as a subject of policy discussions. In fact, civil
protection against enforced disappearance has been stipulated for
the first time in the Constitution of Thailand as part of the rights
guaranteed by the state to its people. It also gains support from
the government particularly the Ministry of Justice and the National
Human Rights Commission for the need
to investigate past and present cases and to provide compensation to
families of victims. The Thai government appeared to have made a
shift from the policy of denial by the previous
administrations to reality-check approach of responding and
acknowledging the cases of disappearances brought before United
Nations bodies by human rights groups. This policy has certainly
contributed to the diminishing of the number of cases of
disappearances since 2006.
The WGJP is providing services and assistance to
victims’ families. In cooperation with the Asian Federation Against
Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), it recognizes the importance of
psycho-social rehabilitation for the families of the victims who are
deeply traumatized by the tragic incidents and provide educational
assistance to 40 children of low-income families of the disappeared.
The group conducts research and documentation of past and present
cases of disappearances in the country in order to assess the human
rights situation and to pressure the government to address it. In
August 2006, it had submitted to the UN Working Group on Enforced or
Involuntary Disappearances a 45-page documentation of the 12 cases
of disappeared persons in the south allegedly committed by state
security forces.
Both organizations are members of AFAD, a
federation of human rights organizations working directly on the
issue of enforced disappearances in Asia. It aims to highlight the
issue of enforced disappearances in Asia, lobby for signatures and
ratification of the Asian governments on the UN Convention for the
Protection of all Persons From Enforced Disappearance; to forge
solidarity among families of the disappeared and to establish
cooperation with organizations of victims’ families in other
continents. For already decade, it has been committing itself to the
struggle of building a world without desaparecidos. |
