Category: Statements & Appeals

Statements and appeals, etc. in English

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Amnesty International in Canberra keeps up pressure

As posted on December 10th, Amnesty International’s chapter in Canberra, Australia held an action at the Lao embassy on 15 December, the two-year mark since Sombath’s enforced disappearance. Canberra-AI-2014-12-15

Members had also raised awareness in the diplomatic areas on the preceding Thursday and Friday, and will be lobbying various missions in the lead up to Laos’ Universal Periodic Review on January 20th.

The group’s letter to Mr Phomma Khammanichan, Lao Ambassador to Australia, reads in part:

Phoumma KhammanichanhWe are disappointed that the Lao PDR investigation into Sombath’s disappearance has seemingly not commenced in any substantial manner even after 2 years.

We know, you know, the representatives at the UN Universal Periodic Review know and the investigation team knows that the person who parked his motor bike at the police post and who then drove off in Sombath’s vehicle can be identified because the motor bike was identifiable.

We all know that the officer in charge of the police post and therefore in control of events on that on that fateful day can be identified and interviewed. This officer would normally know the identities of persons who entered the police post during the course of Sombath’s apprehension and disappearance.

We know that the licence number of the vehicle that took Sombath away is identifiable through CCTV footage taken at the time. Yet there is no evidence that these simple elements of an investigation have been made.

We all know that the Lao PDR Penal Code prohibits arbitrary arrest and detention and abduction. We also know as you would, that no one in Laos can be detained for more than 12 months without trial.

 

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Dear Sombath…from Amnesty International

Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International: 12 December 2012

Ref: ASA 26/002/2014

Sombath Somphone

UNKNOWN ADDRESS

Dear Sombath,

Two years after you disappeared on the evening of 15 December 2012, we, directors from across the global Amnesty International movement, write to express our deepest hopes for your safe return.

We have all seen the CCTV footage of your disappearance outside a police post on Thadeua Road in Vientiane. This evidence strongly indicates involvement of agents of the Lao state, whether through direct perpetration, or through support or complicity.

Yet for two years, the Lao government has denied arresting you and denies any responsibility for your disappearance. They have failed to conduct a prompt, thorough, competent and impartial investigation. They have refused other countries’ offers of external assistance, including analysis of the original CCTV footage.

We are deeply disappointed that the Lao authorities have not lived up to their human rights obligations. Laos signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CPED) in September 2008. It has not yet ratified the Convention, but it is expected to act according to the letter and spirit of its provisions. Laos is also a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which provides that governments must provide an ‘effective remedy’ for violations of rights guaranteed by the Covenant, including the rights to liberty and security of person. Continue reading “Dear Sombath…from Amnesty International”

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Magsaysay is asking: Where is Sombath?

Ramon Magsaysay Foundation: 12 December 2014

#WhereIsSombath: RMAF marks 2 years of RM Awardees’ disappearance

Magsaysay-LogoWhere is Sombath?

The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) and the community of Magsaysay Awardees had been asking this question for two years now, since RM Awardee Sombath Somphone disappeared in his native Laos.

Somphone received the Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 2005 in recognition of “his hopeful efforts to promote sustainable development in Laos by training and motivating its young people to become a generation of leaders.”

He was last seen at around 5:00 p. m. on December 15, 2012 when he left the offices of the Participatory Development Learning Center in Vientiane to go home. He was in his own car; his wife Shui Meng was in another. Footage from CCTV cameras showed that Somphone’s car was stopped at a police outpost, with the Magsaysay awardee leaving his vehicle and another person driving his jeep away. Later, a pick-up truck arrived, Somphone got in, and he and two other men drove off. He did not reach his home, and his family has had no news of him since then.

A few days after the disappearance, the Magsaysay Awards community began sending emails and messages to support Somphone’s family and to ask: “Where is Sombath?” Continue reading “Magsaysay is asking: Where is Sombath?”

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Missed Opportunities: Recommendations for Investigating the Disappearance of Sombath Somphone

International Commission of Jurists: 11 December 2014

Lao PDR: properly investigate Sombath’s “disappearance”, ICJ report says

ICJTwo years after prominent Laotian activist Sombath Somphone was last seen at a police checkpoint, the Laotian government must do more to investigate his suspected enforced disappearance, said the ICJ in a new report released today.

In the report, Missed Opportunities: Recommendations for Investigating the Disappearance of Sombath Somphone, which was co-authored by Michael Taylor QPM, a leading international investigator, the ICJ noted that despite the passage of two years since Sombath Somphone’s apparent enforced disappearance on December 15, 2012, very little information about the progress of investigation has been released to the public or his family.

“The fact that the Lao PDR government’s last report on the progress of the investigation was released over 18 months ago raises serious concerns as to whether the Laotian authorities are in fact carrying out an effective investigation into this case as they are required to do under international law,” said Sam Zarifi, ICJ’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific.

“It is not enough for the Laotian government simply to assert it is investigating this case. International law obliges Lao PDR authorities to conduct an investigation that is credible and effective, along the lines suggested in ICJ’s report.” Continue reading “Missed Opportunities: Recommendations for Investigating the Disappearance of Sombath Somphone”

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EU: No progress on investigation

European UnionAt last year’s RTM we raised the issue of the unexplained disappearance of Mr Sombath Somphone. We were re-assured by the government that it had taken all steps to continue the investigation and to bring the perpetrators to justice. One year later (and almost two years after the disappearance occurred), we note with grave concern that no progress has been made and Mr Sombath has still not returned to his family. Once again, we urge the government to resolve this case urgently.

From European Development Partners’ Statement at the 2014 Round Table Implementation Meeting. The statement further reads:

…we encourage the Lao government to consider shifting to a growth model that is more quality-based and in line with a sustainable management of natural resources, reducing the negative effects of climate change and ensuring food security. “Green growth” does have enormous potential in Laos if the right incentives and regularly frameworks are put in place. This would also support social inclusion including for the growing number of young people that enter the labour market.

…a more sustainable model of growth…better management of natural resources…more social inclusion, particularly for young people… Who had been advocating these things for years before being disappeared?

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International donors must press government on human rights issues

FIDH_pinar_selekInternational Federation for Human Rights/Lao Movement for Human Rights (13 November 2014)

Paris, 14 November 2014: International donors should make their future aid commitments to Laos contingent upon the government’s tangible progress in addressing key human rights issues, FIDH and its member organization, the Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR), said in a letter to foreign embassies and major aid agencies in Vientiane on 13 November.

LMHR-LogoOn 14 November, Lao government officials and international donors gather in Vientiane for the 2014 Round Table Implementation Meeting. The event is designed for participants to review implementation of the country’s 7th National Socio-Economic Development Plan (2011-2015) as well as other issues discussed during the 11th High-Level Round Table Meeting in November 2013. Today’s meeting also provides an opportunity for the Lao government and international donors to share information and ideas regarding development policies and strategies.

In recent years, official development assistance (ODA) to Laos has steadily increased. ODA rose by 23% from US$630 million in the 2010-11 fiscal year to US$777 million in 2012-13. Regrettably, the commitment shown by foreign donors to improving the lives of the Lao people has not been matched by a similar willingness by the Lao government to promote and protect its people’s fundamental rights, FIDH and LMHR said in the letter.

“In Laos, a foreign aid bonanza has not translated into greater respect for human rights. The time has finally come for international donors to use their leverage and push the government to live up to its human rights commitments and obligations,” said FIDH President Karim Lahidji. Continue reading “International donors must press government on human rights issues”

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How would you feel?

I am serious… I really want to know… If somebody in your family disappeared, how would you feel? How would you feel if you were just living your life, somebody took a member of your family, and you didn’t know the reason? And then everybody became afraid of him, even though they didn’t know heads or tails about why?

It is almost two years since Uncle Sombath disappeared, but there is still no news or information. On top of that, nobody dares to even mention his name. Even vendors still don’t dare to say the name Sombath Somphone.

Seriously, if it were you, how would you feel? It has been almost two years. The organisations who do the same work as him…who know the most about his work…who know it the best because they make a living doing the same work, they don’t even dare to say Uncle Sombath’s name. What is happening in our society?? Where has our heart gone??

We are all living our own lives, can we be forced to deny our very selves? Will we just let someone disappear, even though we know it is not right, to just snatch someone away out of the blue? Should someone disappearing like that just be accepted as normal, with everybody just looking out for themselves? Is it only for the family to deal with? We did nothing wrong against the police. The military has not said we did anything wrong. The courts have made no charges. So why is it we are afraid to say Sombath Somphone’s name? Think about that… If this is normal, then when other people disappear it will also be normal.

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Ai WeiWei Speaks Out for Sombath

ai-trace-sombath-710x710The Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is internationally renowned for work that defies the distinction between art and activism. In this exhibition of new works created specifically for Alcatraz, Ai responds to the island’s layered legacy as a 19th-century military fortress, a notorious federal penitentiary, a site of Native American heritage and protest, and now one of America’s most visited national parks. Revealing new perspectives on Alcatraz, the exhibition raises questions about freedom of expression and human rights that resonate far beyond this particular place. Fore-site Foundation

@Large: Ai WeiWei on Alcatraz contains images of 176 “Heroes of our time,” including three from Laos: Sombath (shown below), Seng-Aloun Phengphanh and Thongpaseuth Keuakounos.

sombath-ai-weiwei

 

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AEPF Participants call on ASEM

119 participants at the 10th Asia-Europe People’s forum signed a petition to the ASEM heads of states and government:

aepf10logoEnforced disappearance is never an internal matter in any country.  It is a contravention of international law and widely held to be a crime against humanity. Sombath’s family and friends and the people of Laos have the right to the truth, to know what happened to Sombath. Sombath and his family have the right to justice.

We remind all ASEM member states of their human rights obligations, both domestically and internationally. We sincerely demand that the Lao Government to complete their invesrigation on Sombath’s disappearance, make public the investigation report, and take forward legal process against the perpetrators of the crime.  We urge ASEM member states to monitor the fulfilment of these demands and ensure that Sombath and his family receive the justice that is surely their right.

The full statement and list of signatories can be seen here.

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EU Must Keep Human Rights at the Centre of the Regions’ Partnership At Asia – Europe Meeting

asem_logoMarking the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) currently underway, Amnesty International has issued a call on the European Union and its member states “to ensure that human rights remain at the centre of all bilateral and multilateral dialogue between Asia and the EU.”

The statement reads, in part:

This 10th ASEM marks almost two years since the disappearance of Sombath Somphone in Laos on 15 December 2012, shortly after organising a civil society event on development around the ASEM, work that may have made him a target of enforced disappearance. Amnesty_InternationalAmnesty International urges EU leaders to use the opportunity at the ASEM to call for his safe return. Leaders at the ASEM should also work to ensure all present ratify and implement the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

The full statement can be seen here.