Political activist Wanchalearm missing after kidnapping
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Another anti-government activist, Wanchalearm Satsakit (วันเฉลิม สัตย์ศักดิ์สิทธิ์), has disappeared. Last Thursday afternoon, June 4, a black SUV stopped in front of his home in Phnom Penh, armed men forcibly pulled 35-year-old Wanchalearm inside.
The activist had been in Cambodia since 2014 after the former NCPO called on him to report to them. Since the 2014 coup, more than 100 Thais have fled abroad and at least eight people have 'disappeared', some of whom have later been found dead.
Both the Thai and Cambodian authorities show little enthusiasm in launching an investigation into the disappearance. The Thai police and the minister of foreign affairs, Don Pramudwinai, said they could do nothing at this time and await a response from the authorities in Cambodia. Don rejected Human Rights Watch's accusations that these are 'enforced disappearances', according to the minister, the foreign organizations only use the disappearance to get attention themselves.
The human rights department of the United Nations, the UNHCR, is also reluctant to make a statement. According to an anonymous employee, the UN does not want to upset the authorities. Thai celebrity and UNCHR human rights ambassador Nataya Praya Lundberg said she regretted the case but would not comment further as it is a political matter.
Thai internet users are trying to draw attention to the disappearance online. The hashtag #saveวันเฉลิม (#Wanchalearm) went viral with over half a million retweets in a day. A hashtag about lese majesté also went viral. Activists pasted posters on walls and tied white ribbons around trees and other objects to draw attention to the disappearance of Wanchalearm and fellow sufferers. The police removed it and arrested the person responsible for 'polluting public objects' and 'inciting unrest'.
Wanchalearm's disappearance is part of a long history of disappearances of civilians who criticized military rulers or the royal family. These cases are almost never resolved.
Main sources:
- https://www.thaienquirer.com/14028/political-activist-in-exile-kidnapped-by-armed-men-after-posting-a-video-attacking-the-pm/
- https://www.thaienquirer.com/14069/foreign-rights-groups-question-wanchalearm-disappearance-groups-with-local-ties-stay-silent/
- https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2020/06/10/opposition-grills-govt-over-dissidents-abduction/
- https://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2020/06/09/security-officers-take-down-mural-posters-of-missing-activist/
- https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1929988/exiled-thai-activist-abducted-in-cambodia
- https://prachatai.com/english/node/8577
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Regular visitor to Thailand since 2008. Works in the accounting department of a Dutch wholesaler.
In his spare time he likes to go cycling, walking or reading a book. Mainly non-fiction, especially the history, politics, economy and society of the Netherlands, Thailand and countries in the region. Likes to listen to heavy metal and other noise
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It seems that regimes in the region give each other peace by rounding up and handing over each other's dissidents, at best. A Vietnamese dissident is suddenly no longer in Thailand but is in a cell in Hanoi. Thai dissidents disappear 'completely spontaneously' from Laos and are found with concrete in their stomachs in the Mekong near Nakhon Phanom. And now this person.
Thailand itself has still not solved the disappearance of Somchai who was pushed into a car in broad daylight. Stalin did that at the time and the person never came back or to a Gulag camp after a secret trial. China locks 1,5 million Uyghurs in camps while they have only one religion 'on their conscience', not to mention the Panchen Lama, who has disappeared for 30 years.
Something is very wrong in this part of the world.
Yes, the countries in the region turn a blind eye when articulate citizens have to be silenced.
“(…) It isn't just that, by themselves, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand are ruled by oppressive governments. They now also engage in reciprocity of repression, tracking down the dissidents of other regimes that have fled and, some claim, turning a blind eye as agents of other states enter their country to hunt down exiled activists. By doing so, the region's governments are making sure that if a dissident wants to find safety in exile, they must leave the region.(…)”
- https://thediplomat.com/2020/06/southeast-asias-desaparecidos/
Humanity is very wrong all over the world. So I haven't been surprised by messages like this for a long time. A large part of humanity has lost its way. Diseased souls who often also have a monopoly on power. As a body preservation, it is better to keep your head down and stay away from this kind of person and not think too much. But yes you should be able to do that and tomorrow the sun will rise again for most of us. I can't make it more beautiful.
Many Thai kept their mouths shut and the occasional foreigner was accused of waving the finger… but now we see a greater response than before. Several well-known Thai people have expressed their disgust, several Thai people who leave posters, graffiti, ribbons, etc. in public. Online, a large missing poster of 2,5 meters high is circulating along the side of the road. There right behind the portrait of someone else whom many see as a suspect. Multiple political parties asking questions. Or will it do anything? Well .. presumably this activist has already been killed. If a few in public disapprove of these things, you run the risk of being attacked yourself. If thousands or many thousands of Thai raise their disgust, it becomes more difficult to keep the people under control. I hope that the various media and organizations from home and abroad will not just let this pass by but keep their attention on it.
If people don't want to think about this, look away, shut up, then this will certainly continue. I can't, it would be your own child, family or friend. Unfortunately, there are plenty of people who quickly go to the next message after reading a disappearance and then grab a beer 'not my suit an'. I call that lack of empathy. The least anyone can do is talk about these crimes within their own circle.
Without any source attribution (which you love so much), that one person is again blamed for this kidnapping. Based on my information, I estimate that this person has nothing to do with it at all.
1. The Hun Sen government is not a real friend of the Prayut government (and I am using it weakly) and will not help Prayut. They do help the red leaders as Yingluck's supposedly miraculous escape has shown. That one person is also more friends with red than with yellow.
2. It is therefore highly unlikely that the Hun Sen government was responsible for the kidnapping. It is therefore not very likely that Thai (police) people have been allowed on Cambodian territory.
3. Someone may have hired the Cambodian mafia to kidnap Wanchalaerm. In theory, anyone who still has a bone to pick with him could have done that. As everyone will be aware, many Thais have a short fuse.
And because it is completely unclear who his enemies are (besides the Thai government), it is speculation who is responsible for the kidnapping. If the government had wanted to get rid of him, they could have done so years ago. Of course I think the Prayut government has an obligation to find out what happened to Wanchalearm. But to point accusing fingers right now when there is no evidence whatsoever… that is also a lack of empathy.
Chris, I can hardly refer to those sources article 112. But ask the Thai around you who they see as a possible (main) suspect. Oh and suspect does not make a proven guilty yet. We can't discuss more about why so many people see this person as the main suspect here. Is it possible that someone else is behind it for completely different reasons? Maybe, but it doesn't fit the pattern that the many disappeared people in the region had in common.
hello Rob,
He's not even a suspect, let alone guilty. I don't even know where you get that nonsense from. They are rumors and in my opinion false rumors. Yes, I am aware that he is not popular, but neither are others. I've already stated that it's highly unlikely that he's behind it for several reasons. Many people link the disappearance to a critical video he posted on Youtube about PRAYUT. And I have no idea what pattern you're talking about… a number of disappearances?
Do you know that about 40-45 foreigners disappear every year in the south of Thailand? Mostly foreigners who have broken with their family and are therefore alone? That is also a pattern. Who's behind it? Very different people.
Anyway, I assume you agree with me that this matter should be seriously investigated? Like those other disappearances? Because of justice and as a bonus to debunk all those annoying rumors? But why then do the Thai authorities have so little motivation to really dive into this?
I am curious about your statements about the disappearance of authority-critical persons and the unwillingness of the countries in the region to really make an issue of this.
The thing seriously stinks, and I can't say more about it…but if Jamal Khashoggi disappeared in Istanbul, it was in every European newspaper now hardly heard of in Europe…