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Laos human rights chill a year after activist's disappearance

Reuters: 14 December 2013

By Aubrey Belford

Dec 14 (Reuters) – The last sign of Sombath Somphone, the most famous social activist in Laos, is a blurry video taken on a Vientiane street.

The video shows Sombath, 61, being stopped at a police post on Dec. 15 last year. He is seen being led into a pickup truck, which then drives off screen and disappears.

A year on, rights groups and Western governments are calling for Laos to fully investigate Sombath’s disappearance, which Amnesty International says reeks of an official cover-up. The case has become a headache for the Communist country as it seeks international respectability and to open its economy.

The landlocked, impoverished country has experienced economic growth of more than 8 percent in recent years.

It is seeking to become the “battery of Southeast Asia” by exporting electricity from hydropower plants, but it has come under criticism for environmental destruction, land grabs and wasteful resource exploitation.

Now a deep freeze has descended on a tiny civil society that has tried to bring more openness to the tightly controlled state that has little tolerance for dissent. Continue reading “Laos human rights chill a year after activist's disappearance”

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Nhà hoạt động Lào, Sombath Somphone mất tích đã một năm

Radio Free Asia: 14 Tháng 12 năm 2013

Hôm nay (15/12) là đúng một năm ngày nhà hoạt động nổi tiếng Lào, Sombath Somphone, bị mất tích. Dấu tích được ghi lại là một băng video cho thấy cảnh mờ mờ ông này bị bắt trên một đường phố ở thủ đô Vientiane của Lào.

Theo video đó thì ông Sombath Somphone, 61 tuổi, khi đang trên đường về nhà vào khoảng 6 giờ chiều bị buộc dừng lại tại một trạm cảnh sát, có hai người kèm đưa ông này đưa lên xe tải nhỏ và xe chạy đi. Từ đó đến nay ông này hoàn toàn mất tích.

Trong thời gian một năm qua, các tổ chức theo dõi nhân quyền và nhiều chính quyền Phương Tây kêu gọi chính phủ Lào phải tiến hành điều tra đầy đủ về sự mất tích của nhà hoạt động nổi tiếng này tại Lào. Cơ quan chức năng Lào vẫn im tiếng trước yêu cầu đó.

Phó giám đốc khu vực Châu Á của tổ chức theo dõi nhân quyền Human Rights Watch, ông Phil Robertson, lên tiếng cho rằng những chế độ đàn áp có cách thức riêng để đối phó với những nhà bất đồng chính kiến. Tại Lào, họ bị mất tích mà không để lại dấu vết gì.

Lào là một trong năm quốc gia độc đảng còn sót lại trên toàn thế giới. Bản thân ông Sombath Somphone không phải là một nhà bất đồng chính kiến cực đoan, ông là một chuyên gia về nông nghiệp được nhiều người biết đến về những hoạt động thúc đẩy phát triển bền vững tại những vùng nông thôn nghèo khó của đất nước Lào.

Hoạt động cuối cùng trước khi bị bắt mất tích của ông Sombath Somphone là giúp tổ chức Diễn đàn Nhân dân Á- Âu hồi tháng 10 vừa qua.

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The Sombath crisis has implications for Asean

Bangkok Post: 14 December 2103

International groups say Laos is struggling to explain the disappearance of the civil rights activist.

It reads like fiction straight from a Colin Cotterill novel. The setting is Vientiane, capital city of the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos.

Sombath Somphone is a gentle and unassuming man aged 63. Married to a Singaporean, Dr Ng Shui Meng, a former senior Unicef official, Mr Sombath was conferred the prestigious Magsaysay Award for Community Development – the region’s equivalent of the Nobel Peace Prize – in 2005. He spent the majority of his career in Laos, his native home, working with farmers and youths to promote a form of development that was mindful of the country’s values.

A group of Thai and Lao activists rally in Bangkok in January to pressure Lao authorities to speed up their probe into the disappearance of Sombath Somphone. CHANAT KATANYU
A group of Thai and Lao activists rally in Bangkok in January to pressure Lao authorities to speed up their probe into the disappearance of Sombath Somphone. CHANAT KATANYU

On Dec 15, 2012, Mr Sombath disappeared into thin air. Alone in his jeep, he was driving to his home in Vientiane. His family were in the car in front of him. Mr Sombath was stopped at a police checkpoint.Shortly afterwards, he was escorted away in another vehicle. Then his jeep was driven away.

The events were captured on a grainy CCTV video but poor picture quality makes it difficult to ascertain exactly who was filmed. Mr Sombath’s “offence” has been neither revealed nor acknowledged, yet he has not been seen since. All his family wants to know is whether he is alive. Continue reading “The Sombath crisis has implications for Asean”

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Year-long silence on Sombath deafening

Bangkok Post: 14 December 2013

A year ago, Ng Shui-Meng watched a closed-circuit police video in disbelief as it revealed the moment her husband, the most prominent civil rights advocate in Laos, disappeared.

It shows Sombath Somphone being stopped by traffic police on his way home around 6pm on Dec 15, 2012. A man in a black windbreaker emerges from the police post and drives his car away. Two other men then escort the 61-year-old activist into a pickup truck.

Sombath Somphone and his wife Shui-Meng pose for a photograph during a holiday trip in Bali in 2005.

His wife, who obtained the video a day after his disappearance, still doesn’t know what happened next.

The apparent abduction has sent a chilling message to the country’s already fragile civil society, and exposed Laos as one of Asia’s most repressive societies rather than the languid land of smiles of backpacker blogs and tourism boosters.

The media in Laos are under total state control, security watchdogs operate down to the grassroots and foreign human-rights organisations are banned. The communist government responds to even the small and peaceful public protests which periodically surface with swift suppression and arrests.

The country of 6.5 million is not known to have gulags or a large number of political prisoners. Dissidents and rights activists say quiet but sharp injections of fear impose silence and self-censorship on a largely apolitical population.

“Every repressive regime has its own way of dealing with dissidents. In Laos, they disappear people without a trace,” said Phil Robertson, the Bangkok-based deputy director of Human Rights Watch Asia. Continue reading “Year-long silence on Sombath deafening”

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Interview: 'All That Matters Is Sombath Be Found Quickly And Returned Safely'

Radio Free Asia: 13 December 2013

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Ng Shui Meng at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok, Dec. 11, 2013. RFA

Ahead of the first anniversary of Lao NGO leader Sombath Somphone’s disappearance on Dec. 15, 2012, his wife Ng Shui Meng, in an interview with RFA’s Lao Service, looks back to the day he went missing and says that believing he will come home is what gives her the strength to go on:

Q: Can you share with us what progress has been made in the search for Sombath Somphone?

A: The police said the investigation is ongoing, but I have no knowledge of what they are doing to conduct the investigation. Nor have the police kept us informed. They just said to trust them.

Q: Could you walk us back to what happened on  Dec. 15? Start at the very beginning. What do you remember about that day? What were you doing? Where were you when you parted company? What was the last thing you said to one another? When did you start to get worried? What did you do? Who did you call for help? How did they respond?

A: Dec. 15, 2012 was a Saturday. I had a meeting with a friend earlier in the day and I took the car. Sombath had no appointment and said he did not need to go anywhere, except for his usual ping-pong game which he plays regularly with his ping-pong teacher at the PADETC [Participatory Development Training Centre] office. He said not to worry, as he could take his old jeep to go to play ping-pong later in the afternoon. Continue reading “Interview: 'All That Matters Is Sombath Be Found Quickly And Returned Safely'”

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Action in front of the Lao embassy in Tokyo

政府批判の許されないラオスで社会活動家が失踪〜大使館前で人権NGOが抗議のアピール

Independent Web Journal: 13 December 2013

(Please click on link above for article in Japanese, as well as a video.)

Tokyo EmbassyIn response to a call from Japanese rights groups, Human Rights Watch and the Amnesty International Japan, around 20 citizens gathered in front of the Laos Embassy in Tokyo on Friday, December 13, 2013. They called out “Return Sombath!” and read out a letter addressed to Lao’s Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, urging his government’s prompt, transparent, and thorough investigation on the abduction and disappearance of Sombath Somphone. The action was to anticipate the Japan-ASEAN Summit held in Tokyo on December 13-15, to which the Lao government had also been invited. Despite the prior notice of the action and bell rings at the door, there was no response from the embassy side. Hence, the letter was put in their mail box.

The same groups also sent a letter to Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, asking him to urge the Lao government to take an immediate action on the matter.

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Pendant le sommet de l'Asean, les ONG s'inquiètent du sort de l'activiste lao Sombath Somphone

Radio France Internationale: 13 December 2013

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

Les leaders de l’Association des nations de l’Asie du Sud-Est (Asean) se donnent rendez-vous ce vendredi 13 décembre à Tokyo pour discuter pendant deux jours de coopération économique et de sécurité. L’occasion pour plusieurs ONG d’attirer l’attention sur la situation des droits de l’homme dans de nombreux pays membres de cette association. Une lettre conjointe a été adressée à l’hôte du sommet, le Premier ministre Shinzo Abe. Parmi les nombreux sujets d’inquiétude, les ONG évoquent le sort d’un activiste au Laos, Sombath Somphone, disparu il y a un an dans des circonstances inquiétantes.

Figure respectée de la société civile, Sombath Somphone est connu pour son engagement en faveur des pauvres, des paysans et du développement durable. Il a été vu pour la dernière fois le soir du 15 décembre 2012 devant un poste de police de la capitale laotienne, Vientiane. Continue reading “Pendant le sommet de l'Asean, les ONG s'inquiètent du sort de l'activiste lao Sombath Somphone”

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Missing Lao NGO Leader's Wife Urges Pressure on Government

RFA: 12 December 2013

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Ng Shui Meng at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok, Dec. 11, 2013. RFA

The wife of missing Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone pleaded with the international community to pressure the Lao government to speed up an investigation of his case ahead of the one-year anniversary of his disappearance on Sunday.

Sombath’s wife, Ng Shui Meng, said the Lao government claims to be investigating the case but has offered little information on the whereabouts of the 61-year-old civil society leader, who was last seen on December 15, 2012 being stopped in his vehicle at a police checkpoint in the Lao capital Vientiane.

“I’m hoping that ASEAN, [other countries in] Asia and the U.N.—actors that work to protect human rights—will help pressure the Lao government to look for Sombath as urgently as possible,” Ng, a Singaporean, told members of the media at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand in Bangkok on Wednesday. Continue reading “Missing Lao NGO Leader's Wife Urges Pressure on Government”

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Wife's fears for missing Lao activist

Bangkok Post: 12 December 2013

The wife of a missing Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone has pleaded with the media to stop idolising him, saying the attention could be doing more harm than good.

“When you read what has been written in the press over the past 12 months, Mr Sombath is made to be like a super-Laotian,” Singaporean Ng Chui Meng said. “He’s not,” she told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand late Wednesday, ahead of the anniversary of her husband’s disappearance in Vientiane on Dec 15, 2012.

“We understand that Sombath is already in very dire circumstances if he is still alive, and this is why I appeal to our media friends to be a little more circumspect of the real situation in Laos,” Ms Ng said.

Mr Sombath, 61, went missing after being detained at a police checkpoint outside the Lao capital, where CCTV images captured him leaving his own vehicle, then getting into a pickup truck and being driven away.

Laos’ communist regime has offered no explanation for Mr Sombath’s disappearance, suggesting it may have resulted from a personal dispute. Continue reading “Wife's fears for missing Lao activist”