The bones cry out for justice

The discovery of mass-cremation sites in an Udon Thani forest has confirmed local suspicions that it was long a place to dispose of the bodies of murder victims. And the piles of charred human bones found there are proof that the practice of forced disappearance remains a horrifying problem for our country.

At least 23 separate piles of bones were found in the degraded forest area of the northeastern province’s Ban Phue district. The Institute of Forensic Medicine says the bones retrieved from 20 of the 23 sites are human. It estimates that the cremations date back more than 10 years and the newest remains are six months old. The residue is apparently from the makeshift cremation method known as nang yang, in which the body is burned on a pyre of car tyres. 

Family members of 20 missing persons have filed formal requests with the local police for DNA tests to determine whether the remains might be those of loved ones. One set of remains has already been found to belong to a local money-lender suspected to have been murdered by police with close ties to one or more of her debtors.

It is shocking enough to realise it was so easy for murderers to get rid of the bodies of so many victims. What is even more appalling is the suspicion that police officers and possibly government officials were responsible for the killing and burning of the victims.

Certainly the macabre site in the Udon Thani woods isn’t the only place in the country where murderous criminals can dispose of victims. Talk of nang yang killings has circulated for decades. It’s generally believed that, while some cases involve ordinary criminals or hired killers, others lead to law enforcers taking justice into their own hands – abducting and killing repeat offenders and burning their bodies in remote locations. 

Whether the victims were guilty or not, such “vigilantes” should under no circumstances be seen as delivering justice. Without due process under the law, this is not justice done but rather undone. 

Thailand has seen its share of people in power eliminating political rivals and perceived threats by having them simply disappear. In the decade during which bodies were being cremated in Ban Phue, at least two prominent figures vanished after publicly challenging the authorities. Union leader Thanong Pho-arn disappeared in 1991 and human-rights lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit in 2004.

The grisly discovery in Udon Thani is a further reminder that forced disappearances remain a serious issue in Thailand that has to date never been adequately addressed. Whether criminals or public servants are involved, it is the duty of honest authorities to end this despicable practice for the sake of the nation’s soul.

With revulsion, it is understood that officers of the state are among the perpetrators, from national party figures and high-ranking provincial politicians to police chiefs and low-level cops doing the bidding of their superiors. Our hierarchical structure – shielded and powerful at the same time – allows the killings and abductions to continue, and thus there is a fundamental flaw in the structure.

The pits dug up in the Udon Thani forest ought to be seen as representing an opportunity to begin correcting that flaw. Just possibly, if the culprits responsible for murdering and burning some or all of those 20-odd individuals can be tracked down, those who ordered the killings can also be found, and perhaps we will see the light of justice at the end of this ghastly tunnel.

The problem of forced disappearances in our country must be fully re-examined. Earlier this year the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights listed 82 known cases in Thailand and noted that causing someone to disappear isn’t even recognised as a crime here. In many ways that’s just as grievous as the half-burned bones unearthed from their premature graves.