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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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Listening to the youth

sombath_fishing_skills

Mr Sombath said our greatest hope is listening to the youth and listening to the children. He said the children in Laos are very smart and they have great ideas and want to be a part of the change in Laos.

“Laos kids express hope for the future through images” MindaNews: 07 September 2013

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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

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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。

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An accidental activist

Bangkok Post: 06 September 2013

Pratubjit Neelapaijit is coping with the uncertain fate of her father by speaking out for the disappeared

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PHOTO: PORNPROM SATRABHAYA

Pratubjit Neelapaijit considers herself part of Bangkok’s middle class through and through. Growing up listening to her father, the disappeared lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, and mother Angkhana discussing human rights violations and social issues, the young Pratubjit felt compassionate yet detached.

But life is a series of unexpected incidents – despite her lack of inclination at a younger age, Pratubjit has found herself engaging in activism.

“I was not into human rights issues much when I was a kid,” she said. “Partly I always thought that I was in the middle class in Bangkok and human rights violations happened with ethnic minorities, like hilltribe people and farmers. I believed I was middle class, so this type of problem would not happen to me.” Continue reading “An accidental activist”

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จับผิดจากกล้อง-Caught on Camera

Caught on Camera-Thaiรายงานองค์การแอมเนสตี้อินเตอร์เนชั่นแนล “จับผิดจากกล้อง: การบังคับบุคคลให้สูญหาย กรณีสมบัด สมพอน” มีเป็นภาษาไทยดว้ย. กรุณาคลิกที่ภาพ.

The Amnesty International Report, “Caught on Camera: The Enforced Disappearance of Sombath Somphone” is now available in Thai Language. Please click the picture.

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261 Days and Counting

Lao govt asked to ‘enable safe return’ of Magsaysay awardee Sombath

Interaksyon: 03 September 2013

interphoto_1378173467MANILA – Members of an international civil society on Tuesday asked the Lao leadership to “use its extensive resources to enable the safe return of Sombath Somphone to his family.” A development worker, Sombath received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership in 2005.

Tina Ebro, co-coordinator of the Asia-Europe People’s Forum (AEPF), headed a small delegation to the Lao embassy in Makati to deliver a letter expressing the group’s “concern” over Sombath’s disappearance on December 2012. Aileen Bacalso, head of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, was part of the delegation.

“Sombath’s continuing disappearance is a matter of regional and international concern. We emphasize that an enforced disappearance constitutes a crime under international law. The Lao authorities’ handling of this case and their sincerity and success in ensuring the safe return of Sombath is the test by which their commitment to upholding human rights will be judged,” AEPF said in the letter. Continue reading “261 Days and Counting”

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Restraining Leviathan

The Inquirer: 02 September 2013

By Walden Bello

The state is a Janus-faced creature.  On the one hand, there is its “soft face.”  This is the set of institutions that provide representation and justice. Then there is the “hard face” of the state, the most important institutions of which are the executive, the internal security forces, and the armed forces.

This “deep state” is a highly contradictory institutional complex. On the one hand, it provides security and order.  On the other, it poses the greatest threat to the human, political, and civil rights of citizens.  For it is so easy to cross the very thin line separating the provision of public order and the violation of the rights of citizens in the name of order.

This is why it is important to hem in and envelop the security institutions with laws and rules that severely limit or prevent the use of force against citizens.   This is the reason laws like Republic Act 10353, the Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act of 2012, are extremely important, for they restrain the constant institutional temptation of Leviathan to cross the line between the legitimate provision of public security and the illegitimate use of the power of the deep state to repress citizens.   Republic Act 10353 was one of the historic triad of human rights bills passed by the 15th Congress.  The other two were the Marcos Compensation Bill and the Bill on the Rights of Internally Displaced People.  (Unfortunately, the last was vetoed by President Aquino on very specious grounds.) Continue reading “Restraining Leviathan”

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Justice Elusive for Asia's Victims of Enforced Disappearances

Radio Free Asia: 02 September 2013

A European parliamentary delegation at a press conference in Bangkok on Lao activist Sombath Somphone's disappearance, Aug. 28, 2013.
A European parliamentary delegation at a press conference in Bangkok on Lao activist Sombath Somphone’s disappearance, Aug. 28, 2013.

Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama’s designated successor the Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, has been missing for nearly two decades.

In Thailand, Somchai Neelapaijit, the chairman of the Thai Muslim Lawyers Association, disappeared nine years ago while providing legal assistance to Muslims accused of involvement in violence against security forces in the country’s troubled south.

More recently, a prominent Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone, who has been critical of the government’s policies for the poor, vanished after being stopped at a police checkpoint.

In all three cases, governments are believed to be behind the disappearances.

Enforced disappearances—the detention of persons by the state, usually the military or police, followed by a refusal to reveal their fate or whereabouts—has become a major human rights concern in Asia. Continue reading “Justice Elusive for Asia's Victims of Enforced Disappearances”