Sombath Somphone, pictured here with Desmond Tutu. Wikimedia Commons
The Diplomat talks with Ng Shui Meng, the wife of disappeared Lao activist Sombath Somphone.
Today marks the third year anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Sombath Somphone, an internationally-renowned civil society leader in Laos.
Despite the availability of CCTV footage showing Sombath’s abduction in the early evening of December 15, 2012 at a police checkpoint in Vientiane, no progress has been made in locating him and returning him to his family. Rights groups say the fact that the police officers who witnessed the abduction failed to intervene suggests some level of complicity by Lao authorities.
Ng Shui Meng, Sombath’s wife, continues to campaign for his release. Ahead of the third anniversary and Laos prepares to officially take over as chair of ASEAN in 2016, she spoke with John Quinley III. An edited version of that interview follows.
Can you tell us your personal feelings on the third anniversary of the disappearance of your husband Sombath?
His enforced disappearance took place three years ago. I am still confused why someone like Sombath who has worked for 30 years openly in Laos in a very non-confrontational manner would experience enforced disappearance at that time of his life. Continue reading “Interview: Remembering the Disappearance of Sombath Somphone”
The enforced disappearance of Sombath Somphone, a Lao activist who disappeared in December 2012, will be probed until there is an answer, a forum was told.
“We will never stop asking questions about the enforced disappearance of Sombath,” according to his wife, friends, and colleagues despite continued rebuttals by the Lao government which will assume the Asean chairmanship in the next two weeks.
Angkhana Neelapaijit, a National Human Rights Commissioner, read a message from Shui-Meng, Mr Sombath’s wife, at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok Monday on the eve of the third anniversary of his disappearance.
“The pain and burden have continued, not lessened with time. Nothing can take the pain away … but I’m exhausted by the search for an answer as the state refuses to come clean,” read the message.
“There are times when the burden and pain are too heavy, but families of other enforced disappearance victims have continued to stand with us. So it’s no longer a personal struggle, it is for the sake of humanity and it is our right to pursue answers and the truth.”
Ms Angkhana is a member of “The Sombath Initiative” which has been pushing for an answer from the Lao government. The 2005 Magsaysay laureate was last seen on the evening of Dec 15, 2012 in Vientiane.
Sam Zarifi, International Commission of Jurists’ (ICJ) Asia Pacific regional director, showed new CCTV camera footage which was obtained from the area near the police checkpoint on the day of the abduction. Continue reading “Lao activist case moving slowly”
Shui-Meng contempla un cartel en el que se solicita ayuda para encontrar a su marido, el líder comunitario Sombath Somphone, en Vientiane (Laos). | Foto: Carlos Hernández.
El líder social más influyente de Laos desapareció el 15 de diciembre de 2012. Las imágenes de las cámaras de tráfico revelan que fue la propia policía laosiana quien le secuestró en pleno centro de la capital. eldiario.es ha entrevistado en Vientiane a su esposa Ng Shui-Meng que, pese al terror impuesto por las autoridades comunistas, sigue luchando para conocer el paradero de Sombath Somphone.
La mujer, de aspecto frágil, irradia una tristeza infinita. Nada más entrar en una semivacía cafetería de Vientiane, se dedica a buscar el rincón más alejado de miradas y oídos indiscretos. Solo cuando se siente segura, aflora en ella la fuerza y la determinación que le han permitido seguir adelante durante estos durísimos tres años: “Nací en Singapur. Sombath y yo nos conocimos mientras estudiábamos en Estados Unidos, en Hawai. Él fue, probablemente, el único laosiano que regresó a su país. El resto de estudiantes se quedaron para siempre en Norteamérica, pero él quería trabajar por Laos. Era de una familia muy humilde y quería ayudar a sus vecinos a salir de la pobreza, a desarrollarse, a involucrarles en la preocupación por el medio ambiente”.
Esa decisión de volver a casa marcó para siempre sus vidas. Sombath Somphone aprovechó su extensa formación académica para trabajar, codo con codo, con los más humildes. Sus idas y venidas a Hawai le llevaron a una situación paradójica: el régimen comunista de Laos sospechaba que era un agente de la CIA mientras que en Estados Unidos le tachaban de marxista. Continue reading “Tres años del secuestro policial del ‘Mandela de Laos’”
The family of Sombath Somphone, a Laos civil society leader who went missing in the capital Vientiane three years ago, urged the government to do more to probe into his disappearance.
Sombath Somphone, an award-winning campaigner for sustainable development in Laos, pictured in 2005.
Sombath Somphone, an award-winning campaigner for sustainable development in Laos, pictured in 2005. (Photo: AFP)
Within days after his disappearance, the Laos government released footage showing his Jeep had been driven out of the capital Vientiane.
However, a new piece of evidence released on Monday (Dec 14) by an advocacy group, the Sombath Initiative, revealed his car had been turned around and driven back towards the city centre.
Presented at a press conference entitled “Three Years On: Demanding Answers for the Enforced Disappearance of Sombath Somphone in Laos” in Bangkok was new footage his family retrieved from closed circuit TV cameras (CCTV) along the road where he is believed to have disappeared.
His family claimed they had presented state investigators the new evidence, adding the authorities have yet to examine it.
Mr Sombath Somphone, an award-winning Laos civil society activist, with his Singaporean wife Ng Shui-Meng. Mr Sombath was driving his jeep near a busy intersection in Vientiane when he went missing on Dec 15, 2012. COPYRIGHT: NG SHUI-MENG
There was an awkward silence at this week’s press conference on the now three-year-long disappearance of Laotian civil society activist Sombath Somphone.
The roomful of journalists at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand – who traditionally compete for their turn at the microphone – had no more question after the first was asked and answered on Monday (Dec 14).
Like so many other incidents of enforced disappearances around the region, the case of Mr Sombath was one that has drawn many queries and yielded little answers since he vanished after being stopped at a police checkpoint on Dec 15, 2012.
Human rights activists allege that key individuals or groups in the landlocked communist state have been intimidated against talking about the case.
The Laotian authorities, say human rights activists, have stopped providing updates about the investigation and have shown little inclination to pursue a case that according to the International Commission of Jurists’ representative Sam Zarifi is “eminently solvable”.
Mr Sombath is a well-respected advocate for sustainable development who received a Magsaysay Award in 2005 for his community leadership. But his work was thought to have upset powerful interests in the country.
His disappearance has left his wife, Singaporean-born Ng Shui Meng, in a limbo. She was not present at the press conference. Poignantly, her reflections were voiced by one of Thailand’s national human rights commissioners, Ms Angkhana Neelapaijit, whose own husband “disappeared” 11 years ago.
“It is like a knife that is permanently embedded in my heart,” she read.
The spouse of someone who is neither officially dead nor missing fights a constant battle against fading public memory.
Speaking via Skype from Jakarta on Monday – Dr Ng said that the district office that oversees the couple’s neighbourhood in Laos last year (2014) sent a family registration book that did not include Mr Sombath’s name.
After Dr Ng went to the police to query it, the police stamped the old family registration book to keep it valid.
“You hope that he won’t be forgotten. You hope that the case remains in the public consciousness, you hope that the government which has promised that it would continue the investigation lives up to its promise,” says Dr Ng.
“How can you forget a person who has lived with you for so many years? A person that is the most important or precious person in your life? … Time cannot erase that person from your memory. So even though everybody else may forget, I cannot forget.”
The couple first met in the 1970s as students in Hawaii. These days, Dr Ng spends most of her time running a handicraft social enterprise in Laos, as well as advocating against enforced disappearances.
People around her “try to be as helpful as possible”. “But everybody has his or her own life to lead. And you just have to cope with this very painful situation,” she says.
“You always feel alone even though other people reassure you that they are with you, that they are thinking about you and they are thinking about Sombath.”
Mr Sombath was a kind, caring husband whose sense of humour made “life a pleasure”. His last words to her, before he disappeared that day in 2012, was “let’s go home for dinner.”
Three years have passed, and Dr Ng clings on to the hope that he is still alive.
A 2005 photo of Sombath Somphone in the Philippines.
Friends and supporters of missing Lao civil society activist Sombath Somphone marked the third anniversary of his disappearance on Tuesday with celebrations of his life and work and renewed calls for an investigation into his fate.
Sombath’s Dec. 15, 2012 abduction at a police checkpoint in the capital Vientiane is widely believed to have been carried out by police or some other government-linked group, though authorities in the one-party communist state have consistently denied playing a role in his disappearance.
On Dec. 11, a Vientiane-based civil society group founded by Sombath, PADETC (the Participatory Development Education Training Center), marked the anniversary with an event remembering his achievements.
The event was attended by over 100 people and included colleagues and friends, foreign diplomats, and representatives from other development agencies, sources said.
Speaking to RFA’s Lao Service on the day before the event, a PADETC official said that Sombath “worked only for the betterment of society, and never for himself.”
“I am happy that I once had the opportunity to work with him and to witness his dedication to development,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Even though he is not here with us now, PADETC will definitely continue his work for [Lao] society.” Continue reading “Supporters Mark Third Anniversary of Lao Activist’s Disappearance”
Today marks the third anniversary of the enforced disappearance of prominent Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone.
Sombath was last seen at a police checkpoint on a busy street in the Lao capital, Vientiane, on the evening of Dec 15, 2012. Sombath’s disappearance was captured on a CCTV camera placed near the police checkpoint. CCTV footage showed that police stopped Sombath’s car and, within minutes, individuals forced him into another vehicle and drove away. The CCTV footage clearly shows that Sombath was taken away in the presence of police officers.
After three years, there is little evidence that Lao authorities have undertaken a serious and competent investigation of Sombath’s disappearance. Instead, there has been near total silence, insinuations,and contradictory declarations regarding Sombath’s fate or whereabouts.
Lao authorities’ recent claim that authorities were still conducting and investigation and “trying their utmost efforts” is belied by the fact that last police report on the probe was issued on June 8, 2013. Continue reading “Laos must come clean on Sombath”
Human rights representatives speak at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT) in Bangkok, Monday.
By John Quinley III
ON the eve of the third anniversary of acclaimed community development leader Sombath Somphone’s forced disappearance, human rights groups on Monday in Bangkok urged the Lao government to provide information regarding Mr. Sombath’s whereabouts and fate.
Sombath was abducted in Vientiane Laos on the evening of December 15, 2012, at a police check-point where he was then transferred to another vehicle according to police surveillance video. At the press conference in Bangkok newly made public CCTV footage, found by Sombath’s family, showed the car further south on the road as the car traveled back into the capital.
A representative from the Sombath Initiative said in a written statement, that the police refused to look at the additional evidence from the family, which, “demonstrates the authorities have absolutely no interest in conducting a serious investigation, as they so often claim.” Continue reading “3 years on, rights groups demand answers on Sombath Somphone disappearance”
The Laos authorities must establish an independent commission to uncover the truth about the fate of civil society activist Sombath Somphone, Amnesty International said on the third anniversary of his disappearance.
In an open letter to the Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, 49 Directors of Amnesty International national offices around the world are highlighting the near complete lack of progress in the case despite a catalogue of evidence.
“Sombath Somphone’s disappearance remains a dark stain on Laos’ human rights record. The Laos authorities’ claim that they are investigating this crime is a lie – they are simply dodging questions and trying to silence civil society’s attempts to raise the case,” said Champa Patel, Amnesty International’s Southeast Asia and Pacific Regional Office Director.
“Three years is too long for Sombath’s family and his many supporters to wait for the truth. The Laos authorities must once and for all set up an independent commission to genuinely investigate Sombath’s disappearance.”
เมื่อวันที่ 15 ธ.ค. สำนักงานแอมเนสตี้ อินเตอร์เนชั่นแนล ออกแถลงการณ์ เนื่องในโอกาสครบรอบสามปีการหายตัวไปของนายสมบัด สมพอน เจ้าของรางวัลรามอน แมกไซไซ สาขาผู้นำชุมชน ในปีพ.ศ.2548 โดยเป็นจดหมายจ่าถึงรัฐบาลสปป.ลาว ระบุถึงความกังวลจากทุกมุมโลกต่อการหายตัวไป และการขาดการสืบสวนอย่างมีประสิทธิภาพในกรณีของนายสมบัด สมพอน มีใจความว่า
