More than 10,000 people have signed up in support of a change.org campaign for the removal of the mummified body of Mr. Si Quey sae Oeng, Thailand’s only alleged cannibal, from the museum of Siriraj hospital, in order to restore his human dignity.
The online campaign was a follow-up to a twitter message by @ChangeSiam who raised the issue, about Si Quey’s mummified body being in a glass display case at the museum of Siriraj hospital for the last six decades, saying that the man didn’t kill or eat children’s organs but he was, in fact, framed and falsely charged.
The twitter message was re-tweeted over 80,000 times before the launch of the signature collection campaign.
The campaign’s initiator, Pharaoh Chakpatranon, said he believed few people do not know the name “Si Quey” as it if often mentioned by parents in a classic rebuke by parents to stop children crying “If you do not stop crying, Si Quey will come to eat your liver.”
Pharaoh added that Si Quey’s cannibalism was distorted and blown out of proportion by the media over six decades ago and there was no hard evidence to prove that he ate the internal organs of a child that he had murdered.
The Appeals Court found him guilty of killing a boy, identified as Somboon Bunyakarn, and sentenced him to death, but didn’t mention anything about his alleged cannibalism.
However, Si Quey’s alleged cannibalism has been the subject of several movies, books and plays.
“Almost 60 years since he was executed, his body is still displayed at the forensic science museum of Siriraj hospital with a small sign which reads “Si Quey (a cannibal)” attached to the display cabinet. For Thai society to learn from past mistakes, when one man became a victim of society because of the unfounded rumors whipped up by the media, this should serve as a step to realizing and respecting the human dignity of oneself and others,” said Pharaoh in his webpage.
