Murder of an ethnic Karen environmentalist
Kaeng Krachan National Park
A Thai court in Bangkok has issued arrest warrants for the former head of a major national park and three park rangers. They are accused of killing an ethnic Karen environmentalist.
A special commission of inquiry is investigating Porlajee Rakchongcharoen, who was last seen captured by four officials in Kaeng Krachan National Park in April 2014. These four suspects now face the illegal detention of the person, theft and concealment of the corpse.
Porlajee had helped the Karen community in a lawsuit against park chief Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, because Chaiwat tried to drive residents out of the park by burning their houses. These people had lived in the area for generations. According to Chaiwat, Porlajee was arrested for illegally collecting wild honey. However, he would have been released after a warning.
However, this year, Porlajee's burnt remains were found in an oil drum. His identity was established through DNA testing.
The case is on a list drawn up by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of 82 victims who have disappeared in Thailand since the XNUMXs, including activists critical of state policies or officials. So far none of these cases has been solved and no one has been prosecuted.
An important reason for this is that the criminal code of Thailand does not recognize the disappearances as a criminal offense. Now that Thailand has signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons, this will also have consequences for further investigations in Thailand, such as the case of Porlajee Rakchongcharoen.
Porlajee, who was thirty years old when he disappeared, is survived by his wife Phinnapha Phrueksaphan and five children.
Source: Pattaya Mail
It remains bizarre that disappearances go unpunished, without a corpse one does nothing. See is the disappearance of lawyer Somchai despite there being good indications who the perpetrators were (police officers!). Now in the case of this activist Billy, the DSI has found evidence that the police could not find (on purpose?), thanks to a piece of bone it is now clear that Billy is dead and they can do something. Will those responsible actually end up behind bars? It would be unique. In the long term, human rights will be fine, which I would like to see as a break with how things have been going in these kinds of cases up to now.
Unfortunately, it is no different in the Netherlands with so-called unresolved cases. Some examples. The fires at Makro and Shell in the 80s, the attack on Janmaat's wife, the burglaries at Economic Affairs, Van Traa's car accident, bomb attacks at BASF in Arnhem, the loner? behind the murder of Fortuyn, the list is too long to write it all down here. It is striking, everything from a certain angle (Duyvendak and friends?) where things were covered by a higher power.
That is not a comparison, dear Brabantman, is it? In Thailand, it concerns systematic disappearances, murders, imprisonments, home visits and similar forms of oppression and intimidation by officials against annoying Thai citizens who were waving their fingers. That is something different from, among other things, a conspiracy theory behind a murder by a left-wing extremist madman here in the Netherlands.
- https://www.thailandblog.nl/achtergrond/gedwongen-verdwijningen-in-thailand-worden-nooit-bestraft/
- https://www.thailandblog.nl/achtergrond/straffeloosheid-en-mensenrechten-in-thailand/