Author: rsbtws

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Three government critics arbitrarily arrested, detained incommunicado

FIDH/LMHR: 06 June 2016
FIDH-LMHR-June 2016

(Paris) Lao authorities must immediately and unconditionally release three individuals who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained incommunicado for criticizing the government, FIDH and its member organization Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) said today.

“The government’s systematic repression of all forms of peaceful dissent underscores the immense gap between Vientiane’s promises to the international community and its abusive behavior at home. It’s time for foreign governments and donors to raise their voices about human rights violations in Laos and demand Vientiane change its ways.” Karim Lahidji, FIDH President

Continue reading “Three government critics arbitrarily arrested, detained incommunicado”

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Is International Aid Complicit in the Repression in Laos?

LMHR logoThe Lao Movement for Human Rights has the honor of inviting you to a conference on:

”Is International assistance complicit in the repression in Laos?”

Tuesday, June 14 at 15:00
Regional Council of Ile-de-France, room 100
33 rue Barbet-de-Jouy, 75007 Paris

Speakers:

  • Anne-Sophie Gindroz, author of the book ”Laos: the Silent Repression”
  • Richard Werly, France correspondent of the Swiss newspaper ‘Le Temps’
  • Vanida Thephsouvanh, President of the Lao Movement for Human Rights

For safety reasons, events taking place in the regional council hall, require prior registration.

An ID will be requested at the entrance.

 

Le Mouvement Lao pour les Droits de l’Homme

A l’honneur de vous inviter à la conférence sur le thème

‘’L’aide internationale est-elle complice de la répression au Laos?’’

Mardi 14 juin à 15h00

Conseil régional d’Île-de-France, salle 100

33 rue Barbet-de-Jouy, 75007 Paris

Intervenants :

  • Anne-Sophie Gindroz, Auteur du livre ‘’ Laos : la répression silencieuse’’
  • Richard Werly, correspondant en France du journal suisse  ‘’Le Temps’’
  • Vanida Thephsouvanh, Présidente du Mouvement Lao pour les Droits de l’Homme

Pour des raisons de sécurité, les manifestations qui se déroulent dans les salles du Conseil régional sont sur inscription obligatoire.  

Une pièce d’identité vous sera demandée à l’entrée.

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Humanity and Nature: Traditional, Cultural & Alternative Perspectives

Humanity & Nature Publication CoverAn economy is often defined as “the wealth and resources of a country or region”. Few would contest that the greatest wealth and most fundamental resource for humanity is the earth on which we live; yet most do not see our environment as an economy in itself.  Conversely, nearly all contemporary economic and development models see the natural economy as a resource to be exploited (or at best managed) to serve the needs of the monetized economy.

While this perspective is certainly predominant, it is neither intrinsic nor universal. It is also increasingly proving to be unsustainable.

Focus on the Global South and The Sombath Initiative, in cooperation with the Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung, held the Sombath Symposium on February 15-17, 2016, to present and discuss knowledge and practice drawn from different cultures and traditions that can serve as an alternative foundation to the predominant growth-driven development model.

This publication, “Humanity and Nature: Traditional, Cultural and Alternative Perspectives”, compiles essays discussing these perspectives, as well as syntheses of the different parts of the symposium.  The Sombath Initiative and Focus on the Global South hope that this publication will serve as resource material, as well as a guide document for the ongoing and future work on alternative perspectives on humanity’s relationship with nature.

A short video of the symposium and videos of each presentation are available to view at The Sombath Initiative YouTube channel.

For more information about The Sombath Initiative and Sombath Somphone, please visit www.sombath.org

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Three Lao Nationals Are Latest Victims of Forced Disappearances

Radio Free Asia: 16 May 2016

Two Lao nationals have been arrested upon returning home from Thailand where they were working, while a third has vanished, because they criticized the Lao government while abroad, their friends and relatives said.

Somphone Phimmasone, 29, his girlfriend Lod Thammavong, 30, and Soukane Chaithad, 32, returned to Laos in February to renew their passports, the sources said.

Police arrested Somphone and Lod at her home at Navatai village of Nongbok district in central Laos’ Khammouane province on March 5, said a relative of the couple, who declined to be named.

“At first, the police told us they had been arrested for possession of drugs, but two weeks later the policeman in charge of the jail informed us that they had been arrested for political campaigning,” he said. “[He] told us not to get involved if we didn’t want to get into trouble.”

Somphone and Lod were being held in the province’s Khamkhikai jail as of April, but later the police told their families that they had transferred the pair to the capital Vientiane for detention, the relative said. Continue reading “Three Lao Nationals Are Latest Victims of Forced Disappearances”

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Dear Sombath…from Galileo

Dear Sombath,

GalileoI began meeting you only after they said you were gone, a victim of enforced disappearance.

I first met you in an email sent by my colleague at Focus on the Global South, Joseph Purugganan exactly one year ago, when I first joined the organization as a budding activist. He mentioned of the dramatic rise in the killing of environmentalists all over the world and the need to programmatically address the issue of extrajudicial killings and criminalization of dissent, as part of the Sombath Initiative and Focus’ broader Power and Democracy program. I was intrigued by your life so I began digging deeper and learning more about your ideas and ideals.

We are similar, in a way, in our preference of working in the field with the people rather than writing about it.

I met you for the second time, in Malaysia, in the ASEAN Civil Society Conference/ASEAN People’s Forum (ACSC/APF). People were talking about you. People spoke of how you pioneered the use of Participatory Rural Appraisal in Laos and how you helped the Lao people to come up with solutions by themselves. Continue reading “Dear Sombath…from Galileo”

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Asean civil society meet dodges Laos for E Timor

Bangkok Post: 25 April 2016

In the second decade of the Asean civil society and people’s forum, the civic groups will meet not in the host country for the first time, but in non-Asean member East Timor instead. Every year before the Asean Summit, a conference known as the Asean Civil Society Conference/Asean People’s Forum (ACSC/APF), where hundreds of civil society activists from the Asean region gather to represent the voice of civil society, is held parallel to the official Asean Summit.

This year the theme of the conference, to be held in in August, is “Expanding People’s Solidarity for a Just and Inclusive Asean Community”. It will be held in East Timor’s Dili, according to Atnike Sigiro, a steering committee member of the Asean NGO mechanism created in 2005.

“It’s an effort by Asean civil society to reach out to people in Timor Leste, which soon will join Asean. The title also represents an expansion of solidarity among the people in the Asean region,” said Ms Sigiro from Forum-Asia. Continue reading “Asean civil society meet dodges Laos for E Timor”

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Une dictature pas très dérangeante

Le Courrier: 18 avril 2016

Sombath & Youth-006
Sombath Somphone était la figure la plus visible de la société civile laotienne. Il avait 60 ans lorsqu’il a disparu après avoir été arrêté par la police laotienne en 2012. Son amie suisse Anne-Sophie Gindroz (médaillon) raconte.

La république populaire du Laos ne tolère aucune protestation face à ses projets de barrages ou miniers . La coopérante Anne-Sophie Gindroz en a fait les frais en 2012. Elle signe un livre poignant.

Géographiquement pris en sandwich entre la Thaïlande et le Vietnam, le Laos est un pays qui fait peu parler de lui. Cette discrétion sur le plan international semble convenir au régime autoritaire en place qui continue à réprimer toute opposition impunément – notamment par des disparitions forcées.

Les simulacres d’élections législatives du 20 mars dernier n’ont trompé personne mais n’ont guère suscité de protestations de la part de la communauté internationale. Une situation qui a le don d’irriter Anne-Sophie Gindroz, ex-coopérante de l’œuvre d’entraide suisse Helvetas, qui a été expulsée du Laos en 2012. Un peu plus de trois ans après les faits, elle publie un livre1 qui retrace son travail sur place auprès des communautés locales chassées de leurs terres par le gouvernement «communiste» et relate les circonstances de son éviction. Continue reading “Une dictature pas très dérangeante”

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Mrs Angkana launches signature collection campaign to demand revival of Somchai’s case

Thai Visa News: 22 April 2016

Angkana Neelaphaichit-22 April 2016

BANGKOK: — The widow of missing Muslim lawyer Somchai Nilapaichit has launched a signature collection campaign to demand the revival of the enforced disappearance case of her husband.

Mrs Angkana Nilapaichit, a member of the human rights committee of the Law Council of Thailand, told Post Today Online that the campaign through the social media, www.change.org, which started a month ago has already collected about 17,000 signatures against her demand of at least 25,000 signatures.

Once the required signatures are collected, she said she would submit a petition accompanied by the list of signatures to Justice Minister Paiboon Kumchaya and six other persons to demand the revival of Mr Somchai’s case in an independent and transparent manner.

Somchai has disappeared without any traces about 12 years ago while he served as a defence lawyers for some of the suspected southern separatists. All the police officers charged with involvement in the lawyer’s disappearance have been acquitted.

Mrs Angkana said, besides the demand for the revival of the case, the signature campaign was intended to create public awareness about human rights, rights to safety and protection from enforced disappearance.

Note: The petition can be found here.

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Is Laos’ ASEAN Chairmanship a Threat to Southeast Asian Regionalism?

The Diplomat: 15 April 2016

Sombath Somphone (d.) en compagnie de l'archevêque sud-africain Desmund Tutu en 2006. Wikimedia Commons / Shui-Meng Ng
Sombath Somphone, seen in 2006 with Desmond Tutu. Wikimedia Commons

Laos is a country that is usually described in accordance with one of two narratives.

The first portrays a Buddhist Shangri-La — the ‘real,’ ‘hidden,’ and ‘untouched’ Indochina dreamed of in Western backpacker fantasies — while the second depicts a highly impoverished country in desperate need of foreign aid and technical assistance.

Both depictions have some merit. Laos is rich in Buddhist history and it is predominantly an agrarian-based society where the average life expectancy is just 66 years and Gross National Income per capita is under $5,000. But there is much more to Laos than Buddhism and poverty.

In a recent article by The Diplomat, for example, Luke Hunt highlighted how the coupling of Laos’ draconian media monitoring laws with the country’s current role as the 2016 ASEAN Chair has the potential to constrain international reporting on important transnational issues discussed at ASEAN meetings and conferences. Continue reading “Is Laos’ ASEAN Chairmanship a Threat to Southeast Asian Regionalism?”