| DSI under fire for lack of progress |
| By Ismail Wolff, with additional reporting by Tonghathai Suddee |
27 March 2006 22:16 |
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The wife of missing human rights lawyer Somchai Neelaphaijit yesterday called on the director-general of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to relinquish control of her husbands case after investigators called off a search for his remains in Ratchaburi.
Angkhana Neelaphaijit said Pol Gen Sombat Amornwiwat alone is privilege to information that the government says includes eye-witness testimony that proves Somchai was murdered. She called on DSI to share that information.
I have asked the deputy [chief] of DSI to let me know the evidence that DSI has, since DSI said it has a witness who attests Khun Somchai is dead, but who is that witness? Angkhana asked. I think it would be better to have all of the officials hold a conference with Khunying Pornthip and allow her to know who the witnesses are and what the evidence is.
She said many other DSI officials below the director and his deputy also do not have access to the information.
DSI and forensic officials last week dredged the Mae Klong river in Ban Pong, Ratchaburi for the remains of Somchai, who they believe was burned and dumped in the river by his killers.
However, Khunying Pornthip Rojanasunan, Director of the Central Institute of Forensic Science (CIFS), said the search, which included the use of ex-marine divers and state-of-the-art sonar scanning equipment from the Navy, was called off when no new evidence was unearthed.
We found nothing in the last week. I think the search along the river will have to stop, and we have to find more information about the place were he may have been killed, she said.
Despite eye-witness testimony and mobile-phone records that point to Somchais suspected abductors bringing him to the Mae Klong river in Ban Pong district, the search, which began on March 17, failed to uncover new evidence. Pornthip said she was now waiting for more information from DSI before any further search can be undertaken.
Somchai, a prominent human rights lawyer who defended southern Muslims accused of separatist violence, was last seen being bundled into a car in Bangkoks Ramkhamhaeng area in March 2004. His friends and relatives believe he may have been killed as a result of his efforts to expose alleged police torture of suspects.
After two years of investigations, only one policeman has been found guilty of minor charges related to Somchais abduction.
The Hong-Kong based Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) yesterday also questioned Pol Gen Sombats ability to lead the key investigation into Somchais abduction.
Pol Gen Sombat started his job a few months before Somchai was abducted. He has been in authority throughout. If, in fact, DSI has been unable to solve this case, despite its ample resources, powers and repeated assurances by one official or another, then it can only be attributed to sheer incompetence or wilful interference, AHRCs statement said.
Sheer incompetence alone should be sufficient cause for the director-general to be dismissed from his post. But there is reason to believe that the failure has been deliberate.
AHRC called for serious inquiries into allegations that the police force has exerted pressure on Pol Gen Sombat and DSI not to solve the case, and to mislead the public.
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