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Dear Sombath…from Mary Aileen Bacalso

Dear Sombath,

AFAD ConferenceI heard about your enforced disappearance six days before the passing into law of the Philippine Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act of 2012, the first ever anti-enforced disappearance law in Asia. I have worked on the issue of enforced disappearance for a couple of decades. Each case means a life stolen from the disappeared and his or her family. It means that a part of society has been forcibly taken from it, thus tearing apart its very fabric and causing devastating consequences to the disappeared that you are, your loved ones and the society where you belong. When the most-awaited enactment of the then draft anti-disappearance law came after more than 16 years of struggle for it to see the light of day, I had the ambivalent feeling of joy that we finally have this law in the Philippines, but mixed with pain because the list of desaparecidos of the world was lengthened further by your enforced disappearance.

afad-logoA few weeks before the 2013 International Day of the Disappeared, I wrote to your wife, Shui Meng about our campaign for your return, which she readily responded with an open heart.   We demonstrated in front of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the country that bestowed upon you the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award. We conducted a signature campaign and personally gave the signatures to the Lao Embassy in Manila. We wrote statements demanding for your return.  We sent messages to the Permanent Missions of Laos to the UN in Geneva and New York.  We heard a deafening silence. Continue reading “Dear Sombath…from Mary Aileen Bacalso”

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On human capacity in Laos

…the Lao have certain capacities that we don’t put as much value on as we should: The capacity to share; the capacity to care. It’s very high here. But we don’t see that as capacity.

On Economics and DevelopmentThis video is one of a series from an interview by Ore Huiying with Sombath in August, 2010.

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Dear Sombath…from Shui Meng (4)

My dearest Sombath,

Angkhana, Shuimeng & EditaI am writing you to let you know that I recently participated in the “Third International Conference on Psychosocial Support in the Search for Truth and Justice for Victims of Enforced Disappearance, Torture and Extrajudicial Execution” organized by AFAD in Manila.

I had at first hesitated about participating at this conference. Some of your friends and relatives advised me that I should not attend and not speak about your disappearance because they are worried that it might harm you more, or it would make it more difficult for you to be returned safely.

However, I decided to attend the conference anyway because I believe that I am not doing anything wrong. Also I want to meet other victims and family members from Asia and Latin American who have also suffered the disappearances of their loved ones.

Sombath, at the conference, when I spoke about my feelings of pain, helplessness and despair over the last 19 months since you disappeared, I learned that these are the same feelings other victims faced. Some have to bear the pain for many more years than I have. At the conference, I also met some very brave women, for example, Edith (Edita) Burgos of the Philippines and Angkana Neelapaijit of Thailand. Edith’s son, Jonas, was disappeared 7 years ago, and Angkana’s husband, Somchai, was forcedly taken 10 years ago.

Sombath, you have been disappeared 19 months, and I already could not bear it anymore. So I asked Edith and Angkana how do they cope; how do they go on? Both women advised me that I should never give in to despair. Edith told me to take pride and be comforted that the people who are disappeared are always those who are doing good for their community and for their country, just like you, Jonas, and Somchai. It’s the people who ordered and conducted the enforced disappearances who are the bad people and the criminals. The bad people are always afraid of the good people, and they use enforced disappearance as a tool to intimidate and keep people silent. Angkana also told me her husband’s disappearance made her even stronger to work for other women who suffered the same fate. She founded the “Justice for Peace Foundation” to continue her struggle to get to the truth of what happened to Somchai and to the husbands and sons of other poor women in Thailand. Lastly Edith also reminded me we must find peace from inside us, and believe that there is a higher justice that we should place our trust in, whether we call it the justice of “God”, “Allah” or “Karma”.

So Sombath, I am writing you to let you know that thanks to Edith, Angkana and all the participants I met at the AFAD Conference in Manila, I no longer feel so isolated or desperate anymore. I share a strong sense of solidarity with all of them, and I promise you that I will continue the struggle to seek your safe return.

Sombath, please be strong and stay safe.

Love, Shui Meng

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2 women share a wound that never heals, disappears

The Philippine Inquirer: 20 July 2014

By Tarra Quismundo

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TWO OF A KIND Edita Burgos and Ng Shui Meng cross paths in a global conference here against forced disappearances. JOAN BONDOC

They are two hearts missing a part, brought together by the same goal: That someday, no mother, wife, friend or family member would experience the same uncertainty and “torture” they continue to endure for losing a loved one.

Edita Burgos, mother of missing activist Jonas Burgos, and Singaporean Ng Shui Meng, wife of disappeared Lao development worker, economist and Magsaysay laureate Sombath Somphone, met for the first time on Thursday in Manila, incidentally roommates for a four-day conference aimed at drumming up support for families of the world’s desaparecidos.

The moment seemed like a culmination, a fated crossing of paths between the two women who have made it their life’s mission to search for the missing, raise awareness about the families who miss them and call for global action against enforced disappearances.

“We were brought together. I do not believe in accidents or coincidences. I believe everything is providence. God puts you there because there’s something you can do and something good will come out of it. That’s how I look at it,” Burgos told the Inquirer.

Both were participating in an international conference on psychosocial support for families of the disappeared, an event mounted in Manila by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances. The federation of regional human rights groups was founded in the Philippines in 1998.

“I have heard about that case and I have been praying for her …. When I came into the room, she was very gracious. I introduced myself, and then I saw her name and told her, ‘I’m sorry I didn’t recognize you right away,’” Burgos said, recounting her first meeting with Ng on Thursday morning at the Bayview Park Hotel Manila.

They were to stay in the same space together for the next four days. Continue reading “2 women share a wound that never heals, disappears”

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Stop enforced disappearances, says wife of Ramon Magsaysay awardee

The Manila Post: 17 July 2014

By Jaime R. Pilapil

Shui Meng Ng, wife of disappeared Ramon Magsaysay awardee Sombath Somphone of Laos, on Thursday urged the government to act on solving disappearances in the Philippines.

Ng was guest speaker at the Third Conference on Psychosocial Support Disappearances, Torture and Extra-judicial Execution held at Bayview Park Hotel in Manila.

Organized by Asian Federation Against Disappearances (AFAD), relatives of the disappeared, among them Editha Burgos, also attended the event. Burgos is the mother of Jonas who was forcibly taken by military agents on April 28, 2007. Jonas has since been missing.

Since martial law in 1972, records show that there were more than 2,000 disappearances, more than 1,000 torture victims and hundreds of killings, including the Maguindanao massacre in November 2009.

Sombath is a prominent civil society leader who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 2005.On December 15, 2012, Laotian police stopped his vehicle. His abduction was caught by CCTV. He has never been seen since.

Ng and the conference participants called on the Lao government to conduct a serious investigation and do its best to make sure that Sombath will be brought home safe. Continue reading “Stop enforced disappearances, says wife of Ramon Magsaysay awardee”

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We need answers, truth, and justice.

afad-logoThe Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) is holding its Third Conference on Psychosocial Support in the Search for Truth and Justice for Victims of Enforced Disappearance, Torture and Extrajudicial Execution in Manila on July 17-20.

Shui Meng Ng gave remarks during the first morning, sharing in part:

The reason why I am here with you today is that I still hang on to a glimmer of hope that Sombath will be found and will be returned. But, apart from the fact that this glimmer of hope drives me on and makes me get out of bed everyday, is that I know for a fact that the perpetrators of impunity and injustice and the systems and structures that sustain them, would not care whether we live or die. They would be glad to see us the victims go under and fade away. And that is why, we the victims and the family members of the victims, cannot accept to just fade away. We need answers, we need truth, and we need justice.

SM-AFAD

A live blog and more details of the conference are available here.

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Investigation Update: Yet more Backtracking

sombath-somphone-response-to-senate-20140616-1-1In a 21 May 2014 letter to the Honorable John Hogg, President of the Australian Senate, and in response to a motion passed by the Australian Senate, Phoumma Khammanichanh, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, states:

…since the incident unfolded the authorities concerned have conducted a series of thorough investigation and collected some information that may be relevant to the missing Mr. Sombath Somphone. …At present, the authorities concerned are continuing to seriously carry on the investigation. (Emphasis added)

The letter also asserts:

The CCTV footage obtained from the police and widely posted on the internet by Mr. Sombath’s wife, as a matter of fact, did not give any clear picture of who or what is what therein. Consequently, no one could confirm what really happened for all the persons and vehicles seen in the footage were unclear at all. Particularly Mr. Sombath himself could not be precisely identified. Therefore, many people can not but keep wondering if Mr. Sombath did actually disappear in the place captured by the CCTV. (Emphasis added)

This is not, however, what was reported to a group of Asean Parliamentarians during their visit to Vientiane on 16 January 2013.

We noted discrepancies in our hosts’ accounts of the circumstances of the abduction. Most of the officials we met said that there was no evidence that Sombath got into the pickup truck that appeared in the CCTV footage after his jeep was stopped. Yet Mr. Sakayane Sisouvong, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Sombath voluntarily boarded that vehicle. (Emphasis added) 

Continue reading “Investigation Update: Yet more Backtracking”

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Human Rights are not an Add-on

The world must hold the line of the UDHR, that human rights are not subject to government approval… Human rights are universal. …We must press Laos to help locate Sombath Somphone and to return him to safety. …These would be but beginnings in addressing the rights of the peoples in the region, but we must not delay any longer.

Universal human rights are just that, they belong to all the planet’s people and governments should stop pretending that it is in their authority to create exceptions to them. Human rights are not an add-on, or something to do after every other problem is solved; they are the ground from which to grow and measure our treatment of each other and our own selves.

Jack Healey, in the Huffington Post

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Gardening

SB-MOHe would be up early in the morning tending to our vegetables and he was very proud of our garden. I think that he got that from his mother. His mother is a fantastic gardener. Even in her old age she has a yard full of fruit trees and vegetables and he still goes to her for gardening advice. He spent a lot of time gardening in the last 6-7 months leading up to his abduction.

Ng Shui Meng, from an interview conducted by Kearrin Sims in April, 2014. Sombath’s mother passed away in June.