Author: rsbtws

ABC Radio Australia: 23 July 2013 (Please click link for audio version)

(Bahasa Indonesia)

More than 40 scholars from Australia’s leading universities have banded together to call on Canberra to take a tougher stand with authorities in Laos over the disappearance of the country’s best known community leader.

Presenter: Sen Lam

Speaker: Keith Barney, Australian National University’s Crawford School of Public Policy.

BARNEY: No there is no new information, the families and those closest to the case indicate that there’s no new details with the investigation. Sombath’s family have called the police investigation superficial, and the Lao government has refused international offers of technical assistance with the investigation, for example with examining the original camera footage. So there does not seem to be the political will within Laos to seriously investigate the abduction.

LAM: And Keith Barney you and of course with your colleagues, you’re all calling on the Australian government to do more. What exactly do you expect of Canberra?

BARNEY: Well in relation to our concerned scholars letter, we received a reply from Senator Carr on June 21st and Bob Carr responded to questions raised by Senator Lee Rhiannon in the June senate estimate hearing, and in his letter Carr explained that he had personally raised Sombath’s case with his Lao counterparts, particularly the Lao Prime Minister and the Foreign Affairs Minister. And he mentioned the human rights dialogues with Laos that Australia engages in the latest being in April 2012. However in response to our request for a more formal public statement by the Australian government, in his letter Carr referred back to the senate estimate transcripts and in the transcripts it was stated that the request to issue a formal statement at the highest level would be taken on notice. So it seems as though the department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is being a bit circular in their response to date to our letter. Continue reading “Scholars voice support for missing Lao activist”

The Age: 22 July 2013   Marika Dobin

He was considered Laos’ most famous community leader before his apparent abduction by the side of a busy Vientiane road was caught on film seven months ago.

Bootlegged CCTV footage appears to show sustainability activist Sombath Somphone being dragged away by several men when he stopped for what authorities claim was a routine traffic check.

Sombath, 61, has not been seen or heard of since but Amnesty International has claimed it may have been an ”enforced disappearance” by authorities.

Global leaders, including Hillary Clinton, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and United States Secretary of State John Kerry, have called for Laos to either release Sombath or launch an official investigation.

Now a group of scholars from Australia’s leading universities are calling on the Rudd government to get tough with its Lao counterpart over the human rights issue. Forty-two academics from institutions such as ANU, the University of Sydney, Macquarie University and University of Queensland wrote to Foreign Minster Bob Carr last month asking him to take a stronger stance. Continue reading “Scholars call for Sombath probe”