Chaiyapoom case deserves truth, justice
Ashort-film producer, a song writer and an advocate of the rights of stateless people, Chaiyapoom Pasae was still an adolescent when he was killed by a soldier in Chiang Mai last Friday aged 17. But security officers described him as a suspected armed, illicit drug trafficker, and said that his extra-judicial killing was an act of “self-defence and unavoidable”.
For one thing, he is not the first adolescent casualty of extra-judicial killings carried out by the military in recent years. But he should be the last.
As ethnic minority groups call for a probe into his case, we can only hold our breath, hoping that a thorough and transparent investigation will take place and that impunity will not be the prevailing form of justice.
The circumstances around this extrajudicial killing are suspicious: Soldiers at a checkpoint in Chiang Mai’s Chiang Dao district claimed they had found 2,800 methamphetamine pills in a car Chaiyapoom and his friend, Pongnai Saengtala, 19, were driving. Chaiyapoom allegedly ran away and tried to throw a hand grenade at a soldier who had no choice but to open fire on him, they said.
What is even less convincing is that a teenager determined to bring about better opportunities for stateless ethnic minorities in Thailand would arm himself with a hand grenade while taking his favourite guitar with him in the car, and that he would be part of an alleged drug trafficking ring while leading a local antidrug campaign.
Maha Sarakham-based academic Chainarong Sretthachau, said on Facebook the permanent checkpoint is well-known by locals. Any drug traffickers would avoid passing through it, so it does not make sense that Chaiyapoom, if he were a drug dealer, would carry a grenade and traffic illicit drugs through the checkpoint as claimed.
The incident recalls the extra-judicial killing of a 14-year-old boy in Narathiwat by a soldier in August 2014.
At first, the soldier claimed the boy carried out a gun attack in front of a military base and so he shot back in selfdefence. But the military later admitted that the soldier made a false claim, and that he had set up false evidence at the crime scene by putting a gun in the dead boy’s hand, according to a report by Prachatai news agency.
The truth was revealed after the boy’s friends with whom he was travelling demanded an investigation. But in Chaiyapoom’s case, the only civilian witness was his 19-year-old friend who was charged with illicit drug trafficking and being held under police custody.
The police are “compiling evidence and examining the grenade”, so it is less likely this sole witness’s account will be sought or deemed reliable.
National Human Rights Commissioner Angkhana Neelapaijit yesterday said Lahu ethnic people have been held by authorities as drug trafficking suspects and became subjects of arbitrary arrest and detention, forced disappearance, torture or even extra-judicial killings. Most of the time, they do not receive the justice they deserved, she said, citing her own research carried out a few years ago.
Will the truth come out then in Chaiyapoom’s case?
It may be true that the soldier acted in self-defence. But facts will be questioned and doubted as long they are the findings of an investigation carried out solely by the police and the military.
The probe will only gain the public’s trust if it involves other groups, including an independent forensic team, civil society, including the Lahu ethic group, lawyers, and academics. Sufficient time should be allowed to gather evidence and witness testimonies. And reports need to be made public.
A culture of impunity is embedded in Thailand’s history. In past extra-judicial killings that took place, officials involved were either acquitted or simply got away with them. Families of the victims got a small amount of compensation, but not closure, which simply allows the pattern to repeat itself.
The use of excessive force against civilians without valid reason should not be tolerated. And it is worse when this is directed against children and adolescents.
We have heard of these incidents in the restive deep South and from other violent political protests in the past decade.
As a stateless person, Chaiyapoom, who was born on Thai soil, had called for the right to Thai citizenship for himself and his peers. Unfortunately, his right to live and complete this mission was denied. Let’s now see if the probe delivers anything other than a predictable affirmation that the killing was legitimate and justified.