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[justinm at ucr.edu]

Forwarded from Dr. Charnvit Kasetsiri.
Thanks,
justin

ref :
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/search/page.arcview.php?clid=26&id=79335

Relatives unwilling to come forward

Published on May 26, 2003

The inability of Thai society to deal with the disappearances
of political dissidents reflects the immaturity of Thai
democracy, said Wipa Daomanee, coordinator of the Committee
for the Interrogation of the October 6, 1976 massacre.

She said that nearly three decades after the killing of
students who were branded as communists at Thammasat
University many of the relatives of those missing still dare
not come out in public to search for their loved ones.

Although it is officially acknowledged that 41 people were
killed that day, estimates of the missing ranges from 70 to 300.

Wipa said that at least seven families said that their loved
ones were missing, but none of them dare reveal their identities.

"If Thai society is truly democratic, these people would have
come out," said Wipa, herself a former student activist.

Wipa said that in Vietnam and South Korea, searches for those
missing during political upheavals are conducted seriously. In
Thailand, she said, generals and others involved in killings
granted themselves amnesty and no real searches ever took place.

While relatives of those who went missing in the May 1992
revolt did form a group to press the government, the same
cannot be said of the October 1976 massacre, because the
victims missing carry the stigma of being communists.

"There were reports of bullet-ridden bodies turning up at
hospitals, but these bodies subsequently went missing," said
Wipa. "I rode a cab to Thammasat once and the cab driver told
me he lost a relative on that day and when I asked why he
didn't report it to the police he said he was afraid."

Wipa does not expect the government to begin the search 27
years after the tragic event as long as there is no great
pressure to compel it to do so. Wipa said other cases such as
the disappearance of labour leader Thinning Bhodhi-arn in the
early 1990s was also an indication of the real state of Thai
democracy. "Different sectors of society must join hands to
demand action. But Thai society is weak when it comes to human
rights issues as many claim it to be 'un-Thai'."

Pravit Rojanaphruk

THE NATION 

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu