Lese majeste vs. enforced disappearance and murder

A pattern of enforced disappearance and murder has emerged for anti-monarchists who have fled Thailand to near neighbor states.

Following bodies of anti-monarchists found floating in the Mekong River, another three activists have been “disappeared,” perhaps murdered or maybe  jailed in some secret prison.

There’s now a trail of disappearances and murders of anti-monarchist activists. It is clear that Thailand’s military junta is illegally hunting them down.

Human Rights Watch has issued a statement demanding that the military dictatorship “immediately disclose the whereabouts of three activists who were reportedly extradited from Hanoi to Bangkok…”.

HRW has “grave concerns that they have become victims of enforced disappearance.”

Chucheep Chivasut is “feared to have been forcibly disappeared along with two colleagues after they were extradited from Vietnam to Thailand in May 2019.”

Vietnamese authorities reportedly arrested Chucheep – known as Uncle Sanam Luang – in early 2019, along with “Siam Theerawut (known as Comrade Khaoneaw Mamuang), and Kritsana Thapthai (known as Comrade Young Blood) for illegal entry and using fake travel documents” as they fled an unsafe Laos via Vietnam.”

The military dictatorship has accused all three of anti-monarchy activism and lese majeste. Chucheep has been associated with the Organization for Thai Federation.

HRW states the military regime “should immediately disclose the whereabouts of Chucheep and his two colleagues, and permit their family members and lawyers to see them…”.

HRW reports that:

Chucheep and his two colleagues moved from Laos to Vietnam after the brutal murder of the prominent anti-monarchy activists Surachai Danwattananusorn, Kraidej Luelert, and Chatchan Buphawan, who had been abducted by unknown people in Laos in December. Previously, two other anti-monarchists – Itthipol Sukpaen and Wuthipong Kachathamakul – had been abducted in Laos, in June 2016 and July 2017, respectively. None of these cases have been successfully resolved.

There’s a fear they are being tortured or are dead.

Lese majeste cases have virtually disappeared since King Vajiralongkorn took the throne. Instead, murders and disappearances have been used, seemingly in an effort to silence critics who have fled Thailand.