Families of the disappeared, Wanchalearm-Siam-Chatchan, send open letters to Joe Biden

Families of the disappeared, Wanchalearm-Siam-Chatchan, send open letters to US president, Joe Biden, on the upcoming US-ASEAN summit and the East Asia Summit urges the Thai, Vietnamese and Cambodian governments to expedite investigations and clarify progress.

On November 12-13, 2022, Joe Biden, President of the United States of America will travel to Phnom Penh, Cambodia to attend the US-ASEAN summit to straightening relationship between the United States and Southeast Asia

After the 2014 coup d’etat in Thailand, various enforced disappearance cases of Thai political exiles in neighboring countries become a concerning situation, including the case of Wanchalearm Satsaksit a political activist who was forced to disappear while in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in 2020, the case of Siam Theerawut, disappeared in Vietnam in 2019, and the murder of Chatchan Buppawan whose body was found at the Mekong River in Nakhon Phanom province in 2018. The three families of the victims: Sitanan Satsaksit, sister of Wanchalerm, Kanya Theerawut, mother of Siam and Gorgarn Buppawath, son of Chatchan continue to seek justice from many agencies in Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam, on a case-by-case basis. However, the three families have not seen any kind of progress from any government agencies and the process is often delayed and additional information is often not obtained at all.

On the occasion of Joe Biden, President of the United States, participation to the US-ASEAN Summit on November 12-13, 2022 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Sitanan Satsaksit, Kanya Theerawut and Gorgarn Buppawath will send open letter to the President to urge him to remind the governments of Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam to expedite the investigation of the enforced disappearance and murder of the three Thai political exiles – including the victims involved in these cases – as well as to keep the families informed about each step of the process and all the facts related to the case in a regularly and fairly basis.