Wanchalearm Satsaksit is a Thai pro-democracy activist and political exile. He was an activist for human rights in Thailand and HIV protection in various countries. Wanchalearm is an alleged lèse majesté offender according to a report released in 2015, which claimed that he took refuge in Laos. Wanchalerm was abducted by armed men outside his home in Phnom Penh on 4 June 2020. After the news and the CCTV footage was published by Prachatai, Thai netizens and various Thais prodded the Thai and Cambodian government to take action on his disappearance.
Prachathai, a non-profit online newspaper in Thailand, reported that Wanchalerm was abducted in front of his condominium in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 4 June 2020 at 17:54 ICT. A security guard attempted to help him but was dissuaded by the armed assailants. Wanchalerm was speaking on his phone when he was abducted and uttered the words "Ouch! I can't breathe" before the line was cut. Cambodian police initially declined to probe the incident and claimed to know nothing of it. They dismissed it as "fake news".
Activism
Most thought that this was a case of forced disappearance committed by either the Thai or Cambodian government, given that Wanchalearm has been highly critical of PM Prayut on his Facebook page since the 2014 Thai coup d'état. Some noted the similarity to the death of African-American George Floyd, killed by the Minneapolis police, whose last words were "I can't breathe", exactly what Wanchalearm said before his phone was cut off during the abduction. Floyd's case, however, gained worldwide media attention and sparked widespread protests while Wanchalearm's case received little attention in Thai and world media, although the hashtag, #saveวันเฉลิม, rose to the top of Thai Twitter's trending hashtags. Public concern has grown since the disappearance. The United Nations Human Rights Committee told the BBC that it was following the case and was trying to force an investigation. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International both demanded the Cambodian government investigate Wanchalearm's disappearance. Cambodian authorities, on 9 June, finally relented and announced that they would investigate the disappearance. Other groups that have raised concerns about the matter are The Mirror Foundation and a number of student associations have made announcements calling for the governments to take action. On 11 June 2020, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances submitted a request to the Cambodian government to take urgent action on the case. The petition was submitted in accordance with the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, a convention ratified by Cambodia. The committee requested that Cambodia, as a state actor, submit a list of actions taken in the case by 24 June 2020.
Thai government reaction
Thirty uniformed and undercover officers arrested four Thai university students at the Democracy Monument on 9 June 2020. The students, protesting the abduction of Wanchalearm, were tying white ribbons at public places in Bangkok to call for justice in the case. The students were charged with violation of Section 12 of the 1992 Act on the Maintenance of the Cleanliness and Orderliness of the Country, which states, "no one shall scrape, chip, scratch, write, spray paint or make appear by any means" messages in public places. Violators may be fined up to 5,000 baht. They were also cited for failure to present identification as required by the 1983 National Identity Card Act. Stopped in front of the Ministry of Defence by 10 soldiers, the activists were told that their campaign was prohibited as "it was symbolic". The Bangkok Post immediately posed the question, "...why police had to crack down on the symbolic activity as it was causing no damage to public property and was unlikely to cause trouble among the general public....That would appear to be a disproportionate price to pay to maintain cleanliness in the city, especially if the outcome is increased public scrutiny of government attempts to stifle freedom of speech." Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai said on 10 June that Wanchalearm did not have political refugee status, so Thailand can do nothing but wait for Cambodia to finish its investigation. He said that Thailand could only ask Cambodia to follow up on the case. "We cannot speculate as to his whereabouts until we receive an answer ," the minister said.
