14 SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2020
NBANGKOK — Three Thai dissidents
went missing in Laos for months. Then,
last year, two of their bodies turned up on
the banks of the Mekong River, their
limbs bound and bellies filled with con-
crete.
Another three Thai activists who fled
to Vietnam have not been seen for more
than a year, ever since they were deliv-
ered into the hands of the Thai authori-
ties by the Vietnamese government, ac-
cording to their political allies.
This month, Wanchalerm Satsaksit, a
Thai pro-democracy campaigner in
Cambodia, was bundled into a black se-
dan by armed men, according to wit-
nesses. His last words, caught by his sis-
ter, with whom he was on a call: “Can’t
breathe.”
All these Thais living in exile since a
military coup in Thailand in 2014 have
two things in common: They had criti-
cized Thailand’s most influential institu-
tions, the monarchy and the military.
Then they disappeared.
At least nine prominent critics of the
Thai government have vanished over
the past two years, according to human
rights groups. It is a pattern of disap-
pearances that the Thai public is having
a hard time ignoring, despite legislation
that criminalizes some dissent and a
state of emergency that has been ex-
tended because of the coronavirus pan-
demic.
“The people are more aware that there
are abnormalities in this country,” said
Nuttaa Mahattana, a democracy activist
in Bangkok. “This should be the point
where people start questioning the au-
thorities about what’s going on: Why
have the nice people been abducted?”
As face-mask-wearing crowds gath-
ered across Thailand on Wednesday to
commemorate the anniversary of the
1932 revolution that ended absolute mon-
archy, some people held up pictures of
Mr. Wanchalerm.
Earlier this month, a Thai former
beauty queen expressed solidarity with
those who wanted to know his fate.
“I am standing together with the Thai
people in saying that what is happening
is wrong and we want answers,” Maria
Poonlertlarp, a former Miss Universe
Thailand, wrote on Instagram.
Even as it has cultivated a reputation
as a tropical wonderland for tourists,
Thailand has been roiled by a long his-
tory of military coups, upended elections
and violently crushed street protests.
The spate of forcible disappearances,
which evoke the tactics of military rulers
in places like Argentina and Chile, are a
more recent phenomenon, rights groups
say.
“Since the May 2014 coup, Thai au-
thorities have aggressively pursued the
apprehension of pro-democracy activ-
ists who took refuge in neighboring
countries,” Human Rights Watch said in
a statement.
But without clarity in most of the cases
— neither the activists’ whereabouts nor
the plotters of the disappearances are
certain — their relatives are suspended
in a terrible limbo.
“We don’t know if he is dead or still
alive,” said Sitanan Satsaksit, Mr. Wan-
chalerm’s sister. “We know nothing at
all.”
Mr. Wanchalerm, 37, grew up in the ru-
ral northeast of Thailand, where opposi-
tion to the country’s entrenched elites is
strongest. He was the head of his high
school student council and after college
worked for grass-roots civil society
groups.
For much of the 21st century, most
Thais have voted for populist parties,
only for those governments to be un-
seated either by coups or by judicial
means. The 2014 putsch scattered some
of the most forceful critics of the political
establishment, many of whom sought
refuge in other Southeast Asian nations.
Mr. Wanchalerm fled Thailand six
years ago after he was ordered to attend
a so-called attitude adjustment camp, in-
doctrination sessions at army bases for
those who publicly opposed the coup.
Thousands of Thais were forced into
these camps, some for weeks at a time.
For the first couple of years, he rarely
contacted his relatives, worried about
their safety and his own, his sister said.
But even from self-imposed exile, he con-
tinued to post critiques of the military-
linked government on social media.
The day before his disappearance on
June 4, Mr. Wanchalerm wrote a post on
Facebook criticizing Prime Minister
Prayuth Chan-ocha of Thailand, who was
the architect of the last coup.
Ms. Sitanan was on the phone with her
brother as he left his apartment in
Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital, to
buy supplies at a nearby minimart. Sud-
denly, she heard the urgent voices of
Cambodian men and sharp sounds that
she described as “pang, pang, pang.”
“I heard it all,” Ms. Sitanan said.
An employee of the minimart, who
spoke on the condition of anonymity be-
cause she was afraid of retribution by the
authorities, said that she had seen Mr.
Wanchalerm almost every day. For a few
days before his kidnapping, a black car
had idled outside the store, she said.
Mr. Wanchalerm was surrounded and
then bundled into the vehicle, the min-
imart employee said. Bystanders
wanted to help him, but the men were
armed.
“We have grave fears for his safety
and are concerned that his reported ab-
duction in Phnom Penh on 4 June 2020
may now comprise an enforced disap-
pearance,” said Jeremy Laurence, a me-
dia officer for the United Nations human
rights agency in Geneva.
Don Pramudwinai, Thailand’s min-ister of foreign affairs, told Parliament
that it was up to the Cambodians to in-
vestigate the case.
Chhay Kimkhoeun, a spokesman for
the Cambodian National Police, said that
the Cambodian government had not or-
dered Mr. Wanchalerm’s arrest. An ini-
tial police inquiry found that the Thai ex-
ile did not live in the building where his
friends and colleagues said he did, Mr.
Chhay Kimkhoeun said. The owner of the
building stated that he did not know Mr.
Wanchalerm. And the license plate of the
black car was a fake one, Mr. Chhay
Kimkhoeun said.He also noted that Mr. Wanchalerm’s
visa had expired three years ago.
“If he lives in Cambodia,” he said, “it
means it is illegal.”
Governed by Asia’s longest-serving
autocrat, Cambodia has crushed its own
opposition movement, outlawing politi-
cal parties and imprisoning activists.
Back in Thailand, news of Mr. Wan-
chalerm’s abduction radiated from pro-
democracy groups to the broader public.
In a country where various laws, includ-
ing a Computer Crimes Act and lèse-ma-
jesté legislation, make speaking out a po-
tentially criminal offense, some promi-nent individuals kept quiet.
Praya Lundberg, a Thai actress and
model who is a good-will ambassador for
the United Nations refugee agency,
posted on Instagram that “the situation
is highly sensitive and complicated.”
“I promote peace and nonpolitical
agendas,” she wrote, adding that the
case was “not my fight.”
The United Nations refugee agency in
Geneva said that it did not comment on
individual cases.
But others, like the former Miss Uni-
verse Thailand, did express their con-
cern. And opposition lawmakers have re-
newed an effort to push through a draft
law on torture and enforced disappear-
ances. Late last year, the draft was
abruptly shelved and officials working
on it reassigned.
Still, even those campaigning on be-
half of Mr. Wanchalerm were measured
about their efforts.
“There is no progress at all,” said
Rangsiman Rome, an opposition poli-
tician who is on the parliamentary Com-
mittee on Legal Affairs, Justice and Hu-
man Rights that handled the draft law on
enforced disappearances. “The police
have not questioned any witnesses or
conducted any investigation on the
case.”
Kanya Theerawut, the mother of Siam
Theerawut, one of the activists who dis-
appeared in Vietnam last year, has writ-
ten letter after letter to the Thai police,
the Thai government and the Vietnam-
ese authorities, all to no avail.
“Everybody gives a similar answer,
that there’s no evidence,” she said. “I still
don’t know where to look, but I’ll keep
looking.”
“I still miss him every single day,” Ms.
Kanya said of her son, who fled Thailand
after he received a summons for insult-
ing the monarchy.
In Bangkok, Ms. Sitanan, Mr. Wan-
chalerm’s sister, said she was vigilant
about strangers who might be loitering
near her home. She makes sure not to go
out alone. Over the past two years,
around a dozen Thai activists in the
country have been beaten up by mysteri-
ous attackers.
Her family, Ms. Sitanan said, has held
off on conducting funeral services for Mr.
Wanchalerm.
“Our hope is very thin,” she said. “But
if there is nothing to confirm that he is
dead, we, the family, think there is still a
chance.”They Go Into Exile. Then They Disappear.
ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA/REUTERSSOE ZEYA TUN/REUTERSTop, Thai activists with placards
showing the pro-democracy cam-
paigner Wanchalerm Satsaksit in
Bangkok. Left, an annual Thai mili-
tary parade in January. Mr. Wan-
chalerm, above in a Facebook photo,
fled Thailand six years ago. He had
been living in Cambodia, where he
was abducted this month.Kanya Theerawut, mother of the Thai dissident Siam Theerawut, who, along with two other Thai activists, disap-
peared in Vietnam last year. He fled Thailand six years ago after he received a summons for insulting the monarchy.DIEGO AZUBEL/EPA, VIA SHUTTERSTOCKAt least nine prominent
critics of the government
of Thailand have vanished.
By HANNAH BEECHMuktita Suhartono contributed reporting
from Bangkok, and Sun Narin from
Phnom Penh, Cambodia.