But in official parlance, he is still "disappeared". So, the perpetrators are still at large. They are not hiding but are out there walking and talking as if no law in the land can touch them.

But Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont and the Department of Special Investigation can, once and for all, turn the tables and put the known perpetrators behind bars. This is the best, perhaps the only, way the prime minister and his government can demonstrate sincerity regarding the protection and promotion of human rights.

In Thailand, enforced disappearance has two meanings. First, it refers to the deep-rooted culture of impunity within the security apparatus, especially the police. Any action or scheme linked to them seldom ends up with justice served. To date, no prosecutions have been brought against the culprits in forced disappearances. That helps explain why Thailand has the world's worst record on this.

Since 1992, the number of disappearances has remained unchanged. There has never been any progress made on 34 disappearances reported to the UN Human Rights Council, formerly the Commission on Human Rights. An additional two dozen confirmed disappearances, including Somchai's, occurred during Thaksin's six-year reign from 2001-2006.

Other countries with high rates of disappearances such as Sri Lanka or the Philippines have the decency to report on annual progress by providing the number of the "disappeared" who have been confirmed dead. But the Thai authorities do not even bother to do that.

Even if there were police investigations in the past 15 years, they have not yielded results. Why is that? Can the police themselves maintain impartiality in cases that implicate them? The answer is obvious. So, the time has come to begin independent investigations of disappearances. Better still, the government must accede to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly last December.

As long as the victims continue to be classed as "disappeared", nobody will be held accountable and everybody remains anxious. The well-known disappearance in 1991 of labour leader Thanong Pho-ard is a case in point. Evidence abounds for the prosecution of persons in uniform, but no one wants to proceed.

When General Surayud took over the premiership, he said the government would come clean on Somchai and other human rights-related cases. Army Chief Gen Sonthi Boonyaratglin, chairman of the Council for National Security, went even further, saying it was the work of the police.

Two weeks ago the prime minister signed an order for the Justice Ministry to set up a special committee to investigate the 2001-2006 human rights violations and extra-judicial killings.

That is welcome, but not sufficient. He must push further by giving the committee full authority to call on witnesses and investigate thoroughly. Otherwise, it will be another fiasco that the government cannot afford. In practice, bureaucrats and authorities may not heed his order because they know his interim government has only another seven months in office.

Extraordinary willpower is needed to solve Somchai's case because it is linked to the police's culture of impunity. When the Muslim human rights lawyer was abducted in March 2004, Thailand had one of the world's worst records for human rights violations - due to the extrajudicial killings of both drug and insurgent suspects.

A year earlier, the war on drugs had just started. Every drug suspect gunned down was reported. The media even praised the authorities. The tally kept rising. From February to April 2003, more than 2,500 were killed. Today, nobody knows the final death toll.

Rarer still is to find those who had knowledge of the second phase of the "war on drugs", which continued unabated from December 2003 to February 2004 with 5,000 deaths. Of course, the figure was high due to the rising number of casualties in the southern provinces.

Again, the statistics are extremely hard to substantiate as the authorities are not willing to talk. In the future, a figure of 7,500 will certainly be cited by international human rights experts when they review the Thai record.

Meanwhile, the Department of Special Investigation has almost completed the new investigation on Somchai; let's hope it is not as shoddy and sloppy as previous police work.

Surayud now has a window of opportunity. But he has to be succinct in his orders and make sure that all government agencies work together.

He can reverse the criticism aimed at his government from home and abroad.

Justice for Somchai and others would be the most effective means to silence Thaksin and destroy his political ambition.

Kavi Chongkittavorn