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Where is Sombath Somphone?

The Malay Mail: 10 October 2013

By Dr. Lim Teck Ghee

Today, Thursday, 10 Oct 2013, marks 300 days of the disappearance of Sombath Somphone, one of Lao PDR’s most prominent activists. Sombath is a long-time and good friend. In the late 1970s, he and I were part of a small group of human rights activists and social critics from the Southeast Asian region who met regularly to discuss the situation of our countries (at that time Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Laos, Vietnam and Singapore) and to see how we could support each other in work to advance peace and development in our part of the world.

The outcome of our efforts was a pioneering regional civil society organisation called the Asian Cultural Forum on Development or ACFOD which was set up in 1977. ACFOD’s mission can be seen in the summary below of the organisation’s alternative vision of development which contrasts strongly with the mainstream development thinking prevalent in the region.

ACFOD Mission Statement

  • Advocate Holistic Development and to Counter Destructive/ Dehumanised Development.
  • Promote Peace, Harmony, Human Rights and Gender Equality and the Conscientisation of People.
  • Promote Participatory Democracy and Sustainable Development.
  • Respect for Minority Rights and Cultures.
  • Foster Humanist and Moral Values as a Core Part of Development.
  • Provide the Platform for Grassroots and People-to-People Exchange and Action.

Although we were a small regional grouping with limited resources and hardly any support from our national governments, ACFOD’s member organisations, which included the Consumers Association of Penang of which I was the honorary secretary at that time, pushed hard for this alternative vision of development in our national and regional work.

Sombath’s work in PADTC

Among our group of 15 hard core members, perhaps no one was more committed to an alternative and decentralised vision of development than Sombath. He founded the Participatory Development Training Centre in Laos in 1997 and became a respected voice in his country against authoritarianism and anti-democratic development, winning the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership – one of the most prestigious awards for human development in Asia. Continue reading “Where is Sombath Somphone?”

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Lonely Vigil for Missing Laotian Activist

The Sentinel: 02 October 2013

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Sombath and Shui Meng

Government suspected of complicity in development expert’s disappearance

For Ng Shui-Meng, the past 10 months have been lonely, frustrating and frightening. She has been engaged in a vain struggle to discover what happened to her husband, Sombath Somphone, who almost certainly was kidnapped and murdered, possibly with the complicity of members of the Laotian government.

Shui-Meng refuses to give up, hoping that the 61-year-old Sombath, a popular and internationally known development expert who disappeared last Dec. 6 as he was on his way home to dinner, may still be alive. There are suspicions that Sombath had aroused the antagonism of major land interests over his attempts to protect the interests of the largely rural peasant population.

An estimated 40 percent of the country’s arable lands is now in the hands of foreign interests, studies say. However, his wife says Sombath has never been confrontational and had worked closely with the government to alleviate poverty.

Sombath, recipient of the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award and many other prestigious honors, simply vanished as he and Shui-Meng were driving home in separate cars in the Laotian capital of Vientiane. The disappearance has stirred criticism from the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and a wide range of human rights organizations for the government’s apparent refusal to come clean on the case. Continue reading “Lonely Vigil for Missing Laotian Activist”

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The Case of Sombath Somphone

New Mandala: 02 October 2013

By Kearrin Sims

Sombath-Somphone-at-workThis October marks the 4th anniversary of the founding of the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission of Human Rights (AICHR). Since AICHR was formed ASEAN has had a mixed track record with human rights. Although there have been some impressive political reforms across the region, particularly in Burma, some states appear to have grown increasingly confident in their ability to commit human rights abuses against their citizens. Nowhere has this been more so than in Laos.

Often presented as an idyllic Buddhist nation, the poor track record of human rights abuses in Laos has largely slipped under the radar of the international media. All this suddenly changed, however, following the enforced disappearance of Mr. Sombath Somphone in late 2012. A recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership – one of the most prestigious awards for human development in Asia, and the founder of the Participatory Development Training Centre (PADETC) in Laos, Sombath Somphone (61) amongst the most widely respected development workers in East Asia. In October 2012 Sombath play a key role in coordinating the Asia-Europe People’s Forum (APF), the largest civil society event ever held in Laos. Continue reading “The Case of Sombath Somphone”

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Laos : un militant fauché par le régime

Libération: 17 Septembre 2013

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A Vientiane, le 8 janvier. Les autorités laotiennes ont fait retirer depuis tous les avis de recherche. (Photo Gilles Sabrie pour Liberation.)

GRAND ANGLE: Fondateur d’une ONG de soutien aux paysans, le très respecté Sombath Somphone, 62 ans, a été enlevé il y a dix mois à Vientiane, dans des conditions troubles que les autorités laotiennes, vraisemblablement impliquées, ne cherchent pas à élucider, en dépit des pressions internationales.

Une silhouette familière au volant d’une Jeep, aperçue furtivement dans un rétroviseur. C’est la dernière image que Shui Meng Ng a de son mari, le Laotien Sombath Somphone. Ce 15 décembre 2012 en début de soirée, rue Thadeua, dans l’est de la capitale laotienne, Vientiane, Shui Meng Ng, elle-même citoyenne de Singapour, conduisait sa voiture, précédant le véhicule de son mari de quelques dizaines de mètres. Elle n’a rien vu de spécial. Ce n’est qu’une fois rentrée au domicile familial qu’elle s’est inquiétée de son absence. Depuis, personne n’a revu Sombath Somphone, un directeur d’ONG âgé de 62 ans, unanimement respecté en Asie du Sud-Est pour ses décennies de dévouement dans le domaine du développement rural. Huit mois plus tard, l’impression initiale selon laquelle les autorités laotiennes sont impliquées dans cette disparition est devenue écrasante.

Vidéo et pick-up blanc

«Le Laos est un pays trompeur, nous n’avons pas d’image de répression car la répression n’est pas visible», dit Anne-Sophie Gindroz, qui a travaillé pour l’ONG Helvétas pendant plusieurs années au Laos avant d’en être expulsée en décembre. De fait, cet ancien protectorat français, enclavé entre la Thaïlande, le Vietnam et la Chine, a toujours bénéficié d’une image plus favorable que la Birmanie voisine. Les touristes apprécient l’apparente quiétude de ce pays, souvent décrit dans les guides comme un «havre tropical», riche de ses pagodes bouddhiques, de ses éléphants et de superbes sites historiques, comme le temple de style angkorien Vat Phou. Une image soigneusement entretenue par le régime communiste. Mais les Laotiens et les étrangers qui vivent ici savent que la réalité est tout autre. Continue reading “Laos : un militant fauché par le régime”

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ข่าวค่ำ DNN เสวนาพูดสันติภาพรำลึก 9 เดือน สมบัติถูกอุ้ม

นักเขียนดัง “นิ้วกลม” และโตมร ศุขปรีชาร่วมการพูดสันติภาพครั้งที่ 2 เพื่อเสนอมุมมอง ในประเด็นสันติภาพ เสรีภาพและการอุ้มหายสมบัด สมพอน นักกิจกรรมชาวลาวเมื่อ 9 เดือนที่แล้ว.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLIwhR8jfSM

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The land should feed the people first

Reuters Alternet: 16 September 2013

By Anne-Sophe Grindroz

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Anne-Sophie Gindroz, former Laos country director of HELVETAS Swiss Cooperation

In December 2012, Sombath Somphone was following his wife home for dinner in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, driving in a separate car. On Thadeua Road, he was pulled over by traffic police. That was the last time his wife or anyone else saw him.

While numerous foreign governments, global leaders, parliamentarians and civil society organisations have inquired about  Sombath’s whereabouts—to no avail—the land rights of Laos’s rural poor and indigenous communities that Sombath championed remain under the radar.

Large multinational corporations are swooping into Laos and other “underdeveloped” countries to acquire the land—or the rights to the resources that the land holds—from the local, regional and national governments. In many countries, the land’s potential has great value for large-scale agriculture or mining operations, for the timber in the rainforests that have grown there for hundreds of years, and governments are practically giving away this potential in the name of economic development.

In Laos, conservative estimates acknowledged by the national government place the amount of land in resource transactions at 1.1 million hectares at the end of 2012, more than the total amount of land allocated to growing Laos’s largest agricultural commodity: rice. Unofficial estimates of concession lands, however, reach more than three times this amount. Continue reading “The land should feed the people first”

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Why a Missing Lao Activist Should Concern Us All

New Matilda: 11 September 2013

By Kearrin Sims and James Arvanitakis

S-somphoneIf Australia wants to show leadership within Asia, drawing attention to the disappearance of activist Sombath Somphone is a good place to start, write Kearrin Sims and James Arvanitakis

In February 2013, there was much fanfare when Laos became the 158th member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). This was a big step for the  country, and the free trade model of economic development was again celebrated as providing a pathway to membership in the global community, improved living standards and a general decline in poverty. However, amidst these celebrations many both within and outside the country were pre-occupied with the disappearance of Sombath Somphone, an internationally recognised Laotian community rights activist. Just who Sombath was and why his disappearance is so important, both as an individual and as a representative of his country, goes to the core of the failings of neoliberalism as a model for development. It highlights that without a conscious effort to improve human rights and equality, economic development will make some very rich while leaving the majority of the population behind. This is not a model for long-term stability. Continue reading “Why a Missing Lao Activist Should Concern Us All”

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Laos Has Made Its Bed and Now Has to Lie in It

Radio Free Asia: 10 September 2013

by Viengsay Luangkhot

image
A 2005 photo of Sombath Somphone in the Philippines.

The kidnapping of 61 year-old Sombath Somphone, a prominent activist and the winner of the 2005 Magsaysay Award, has put the Lao government in an inextricable position.

A closed-circuit police video clip shows Sombath being stopped by traffic police in front of the Lao-German Technical College on Thadeua Road in Vientiane’s Sisattanak district at around 6:00 p.m. on Dec. 15, 2012, while he was driving home. The video clip shows Sombath come out of the car and walk to the police post.

A little while later, a man wearing a black windbreaker arrives in a motorcycle, runs into the post, and re-emerges soon after to drive away in Sombath’s car, apparently indicating that the man went into the post to get Sombath’s car keys. Not long after, a silver-bronze pickup truck stops in front of the police post with emergency lights on while two men escort Sombath onto the truck and leave.

Sombath has not been seen or heard from since.

Pictures on the video clip show clearly that Sombath was kidnapped from a police post with police officers in the post witnessing the act.

The police officers are suspected to have been involved in the kidnapping, though neither they nor the men who escorted Sombath to the pickup truck can be identified. Nor can the license plate of the truck be read, as the only video now available was taken by Sombath’s coworkers with their cell phone as they viewed the original video clip in the headquarters of the Vientiane traffic police on the morning of Dec. 17, 2012. Continue reading “Laos Has Made Its Bed and Now Has to Lie in It”

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亚洲哀恸多位宗教领袖、爭取人权者和异见人士被「强迫失踪」

AsiaNews: 09 September 2013

“Asia’s sad record of ‘enforced disappearances’ of religious leaders , activists and opponents”

从西藏班禅至老挝人权人士，亚洲有几千人被当地政府拘留，他们被视为会威胁政府当局的管治。观察家认为，报告列举的案例只是冰山一角，实际情况更加恶劣。多国政府否认有此问题，只有四个国家已确认国际公约。

ASIA_-_PanchenLama_PLACARD曼谷（亚洲新闻/通讯社） – 在亚洲，西藏班禅、泰国穆斯林律师会主席和老挝争取农民权益人士的共通点，是他们成为所谓的「国家拘留」受害者，他们被限制自由和关押在不明地方，因为他 们都是「敏感」的政治和宗教人物，甚至因为他们的观点以人权为先。随着时间逝去，这些「国家囚犯」可以得到公平审讯及其家人想讨回公道的机会，变得越来越 微弱。这种打压异己的方法，却在整个亚洲大陆越来越普遍。

亚洲反对被迫失踪联会秘书长玛利·巴嘉素（Mary Aileen Bacalso）指出，这个现象很普遍。「亚洲的人口众多，是最多失踪案件的洲份。」此外，官方确证关闸的人数，却是远低于实际的数字，尤其是在政权专制国家，以及常有武装冲突的地区。

在亚洲，据争取人权人士说，有几万人处于「强迫失踪」，但只有一小部分有被记录，因为害怕当局报复。联合国工作组在2012年的报告中指出，在亚洲 国家中，斯里兰卡有5,676宗审查和未完案件、菲律宾621宗、尼泊尔458宗、东帝汶428宗、印度353宗、印尼162宗、巴基斯坦99宗、泰国 71宗、中国30宗及北韩20宗。联合国代表形容此为「冰山一角」。

在西藏，班禅于1995年当他只有6岁时被中国当局带走，一直没有消息，他是藏传佛教的第二位最重要的宗教领袖。然而，在该地区的激进组织，有数百 名僧侣及活动家在北京警方拘留，采用相同的方法来抑制国内持不同政见者，又如在新疆的穆斯林自治区。东南亚国家，如泰国、印尼、菲律宾和老挝，都是国际人 权组织所关注的国家。自1990年代在苏哈托将军的独裁统治期间的强迫失踪，以至亚洲诺贝尔奖得主老挝森巴（Sombath Somphone），他自去年12月被老挝万象当局带走。

对于人权人士或者组织争取释放「被迫失踪」者，往往遇到最大的问题是亚洲多国政府否认有这个问题，也不承认有任何强迫失踪案件。亚洲只有日本、哈萨 克斯坦、伊拉克和柬埔寨四个国家，有确认国际公约，保护所有的人不会被国家拘留。联合国呼吁设定一个有罪不罚的过渡期，政府要负起这责任，而家庭希望与他 们的亲属早日团聚。