For the commemoration of the International Day of Enforced Disappearances, Cross Cultural Foundation invited family members of some missing activists to engage in an exhibition on 30 August 2024. They were asked to bring the favourite dishes of their loved ones, to share with visitors. Many among over 200 visitors said the exhibition and the families’ stories helped them understand more about enforced disappearances and the impact on the families.
Among the family members was Kanya Teerawut, the mother of missing activist Siam Teerawut. He was among nine political activists who fled charges and sought refuge in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, from 2017 to 2021, according to Thailand’s National Human Rights Commission. Another family member was the son of Chatcharn Bupphawan, who was one of two murdered victims among the missing activists. Both were found dead in the Mekong river bordering Laos in late 2018, their bodies stuffed with concrete.
At the event, Kanya Teerawut remarked, “I remember very well that my son loves to eat stir-fried beans and chili. He asked me to cook it for him every day.” Her son went missing on May 8, 2019. In 2023 Kanya and the wife of another missing prominent activist, Surachai Sae Dan, filed a complaint with the public prosecutor demanding an inquiry into the disappearances, under the new 2022 Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance.
Gogarn, the son of Bupphawan, recalled the family’s last meal with him. “My dad loves to eat various things. If we talk about his favourite dish, he likes to cook bamboo shoot curry and dried squid. The year that he died, I went to see him in Laos and brought him dried squid. That was the last time that we had a meal together.” The exhibit reminded the public of too many unresolved cases of torture, enforced disappearances, arbitrary detention, and extra-judicial killings in Thailand.