Top Thai rights defender has fought other people’s battles for years. She never gave up her own.

It’s been 17 years since her husband’s disappearance catapulted her into a premier human rights fighter, and, today, she hasn’t given up on finding him.

Angkhana Neelapaijit, the former human rights commissioner who’s campaigned on behalf of countless others, today petitioned the Department of Special Investigation, or DSI, to reopen the case of her missing husband, Somchai Neelapaijit, a rights lawyer who went missing exactly 17 years ago today in 2004.

She said that despite feeling defeated and pained by the lack of progress, Angkhana still believes there will come a time the truth is known. 

“The culprits will no longer have their hiding places, and justice will return,” she said today. “I can only say that, throughout my life, I did my best as a mother and friend to society.”

Angkhana, a 64-year-old former nurse, served on the National Human Rights Commission until the ruling junta remade it and other bodies more to its liking in 2017. 

Somchai Neelapaijit was representing five southern Thai men accused of attacking an army base in the south, prompting a government and military overreaction that kicked off what have now been 16 years of unending violence. He was last seen being forced into a car in Bangkok’s Ramkhamhaeng area.

Since his abduction, she never gave up legal pursuits both to find what happened to him and hold officials accountable. Angkhana, whose tireless campaigning for all manner of social issues has won numerous awards, has reported being harrassed by the authorities and anonymous threats over the years.

The DSI, Thailand’s most professional law enforcement agency sometimes compared to the American FBI, closed the case in 2016. Two years ago it was credited with locating the remains of Porlajee “Billy” Rakchongcharoen, a Karen activist who was abducted and murdered for protesting his people’s eviction from their land.

Bones of ‘disappeared’ Karen activist ‘Billy’ found after 5 years

Today, Amnesty Thailand marked Somchai’s disappearance by fielding 17 tuk-tuks in Bangkok with posters reading “Where is lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit?” The campaign will run until the end of March.