A cry for help

All circumstantial evidence since 2002 - including a photo of Anocha said to have been taken in North Korea and eye-witness accounts by Charles Robert Jenkins, who, from 1983, spent nine years living near her in Pyongyang - shows that she is indeed inside the country.

What is interesting is that Anocha was born in the same district as former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. His own birthplace is not far from Anocha's. During Thaksin's premiership, he failed to mention the abduction issue at all.

"But no one cares," Banchong said.

It has been exactly three years this month since Jenkins' news of Anocha was disclosed. To be fair, attempts were made by the Thai government, from 2005 to the end of 2006, to obtain information from the North Korean government on her whereabouts. But Pyongyang has repeatedly dismissed Anocha's story as bogus.

At Anocha's house, a cupboard still contains ironed colourful dresses and skirts waiting for their rightful owner - but they are dusty now. It was Anocha's father, Som, who ordered Banchong to keep the cupboard that way, so that one day when she returns, she will have clothes to wear. But Som passed away in July 2005 at the age of 93, three months before the news of his daughter was known. Som had no idea of Anocha's whereabouts. He last saw her in 1978.

Banchong says, "To me, she is still alive. Her house registration in Sankhampaeng remains unchanged. She is still alive."

Banchong's hometown recently witnessed an election victory by local politician, Chinichai Wongsawat, daughter of current Prime Minister Sompong Wongsawat.

"It is difficult to see her. I want to raise the issue [of Anocha] with her and her father, but I cannot," he said.

Although there are visits from relatives and friends and sympathy over the Panchoy family's plight, none of them know what to do next.

It has been left to a Thai-speaking Japanese language instructor, Tomoharu Ebihara, of Payap University, to provide moral support and news about Anocha's case. Ebihara works voluntarily to help the Panchoy family cope with the trauma. Over the past three years, he has helped the Thai family to contact the families of other victims of (alleged North Korean) kidnapping, from Japan and Romania.

"It is important to share information and give moral support to each other," he said.

Banchong has visited Tokyo to meet with the families of abductees and with Jenkins and his wife, Soga Hitomi, also a kidnap victim. At their meeting, Banchong said that Soga recognizes photos of Anocha that he brought from Thailand for them to identify.

Ebihara has formed a local support group, the Association for the Rescue of North Korean Abductees, to assist victims of abductions and to raise awareness of this issue among Thai people. He said Anocha's abduction was carried out by the North Korean state, and was a serious crime. The group has already filed a request to meet with Somchai and Foreign Minister Sompong Amornwiwat during the Asean Summit, scheduled for 15-17 December in Chiang Mai.

"We hope that the government will hear directly from the Panchoy family," he said.

In Japan, he said, it has taken over two decades of persistence and constant pressure from people's organisations that assist the families of abductees to make any progress. "It is a bottom-up process. But in Thailand, it is a top-down process," the lecturer said.

The Japanese government took up the abduction issue as one of its top priorities, and this eventually led to a confession from Pyongyang in September 2002 about the abduction of Japanese citizens. As a result, five victims were released. US President George W Bush also met with family members of abductees in Washington DC in 2004 to highlight these state-sanctioned crimes.

Thai-North Korean relations have thawed since November 2000, when North Korean agents stationed in Bangkok were involved in the abduction of a North Korean diplomat who had defected. Thailand's imports from North Korea include jewellery, chemicals, scrap iron, raw silk, frozen marine products, synthetic fibres and computer parts. Thai exports comprise rubber, tin, furniture, and computers. The North Korean Embassy in Bangkok is considered one of the country's most important diplomatic missions.