Tag: Sombath’s Family

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The Tragedy of Enforced Disappearances

Sombath Somphone and the Tragedy of Enforced Disappearances: A Press Conference and Interactive Dialogue was held at the FCCT in Bangkok, Thailand on 19 December 2016. Panelists included:

    • Pinnipa Preuksapan, wife of Pholachi “Billy” Rakchongcharoen, ethnic Karen land and rights activist
    • Angkhana Neelapaijit, Commissioner, National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, and wife of activist lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit
    • Shui-Meng Ng, wife of Sombath Somphone

The event was hosted by the Sombath Initiative moderated by Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch.

Video of the event can be seen in four parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.

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Thailand: Wives of 3 Missing Men Discuss Their Grief

Benar News: 19 December 2016

Shui-Meng Ng, left, Angkhana Neelapaijit and Pinnapa Preuksapan discuss details of their husbands’ disappearances, at a press conference in Bangkok, Dec. 19, 2016.

The wives of three men who disappeared under mysterious circumstances years ago – including a Thai lawyer who has been missing since March 2004 – appeared Monday before reporters in Bangkok to discuss their ongoing ordeals.

Angkhana Neelapaijit, the wife of lawyer Somchai Neelapaijit, joined Shui-Meng Ng and Pinnapa Preuksapan, the respective spouses of Laotian civil society leader Sombath Somphone and ethnic Karen activist Porlajee “Billy” Rakchongcharoen, for a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand.

Sombath, a winner of Asia’s Magsaysay Award, disappeared in Laos in December 2012. Billy vanished in Thailand’s Petchburi province in April 2014. The three wives believe their husbands were kidnapped. Continue reading “Thailand: Wives of 3 Missing Men Discuss Their Grief”

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NGOs urge search for Laos activist 4 years after he vanished

Washington Post: 15 December 2016

By Dake Kang | AP

BANGKOK — Ng Shui Meng hasn’t given up hope.

Thursday was the fourth anniversary of the day her husband, Laotian community organizer Sombath Somphone, vanished at a police checkpoint on the outskirts of Vientiane, the capital — a suspicious disappearance reflecting the repressive tactics of the country’s Communist rulers, who have quashed political dissent since taking power in 1975.

After Sombath vanished, Laotian authorities denied responsibility and promised investigations that never materialized, though video evidence showed that his last known location was in police custody.

“Nobody contacted me, I know nothing,” Singaporean native Ng said by phone from Vientiane, where she still lives, waiting for her husband. “The last update I heard was over two years ago.” Continue reading “NGOs urge search for Laos activist 4 years after he vanished”

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The Mystery of Sombath Somphone Still Resonates in Laos

Radio Free Asia: 15 December 2016

A 2005 photo of Sombath Somphone in the Philippines. AFP/Somphone family

The disappearance of Sombath Somphone remains one of the most enduring and heartbreaking mysteries of modern Laos as the abduction of the world-recognized rural development activist at a police checkpoint four years ago remains unsolved.

“As the fourth anniversary of Sombath’s disappearance approaches, my heart becomes heavier by the day,” his wife Shui Meng Ng told RFA’s Lao Service on Tuesday. “I never expected that I would still have no news of Sombath after so long.”

Video footage show’s Sombath’s Jeep being stopped at a police checkpoint on the evening of Dec. 15, 2012. In the video Sombath is herded into a white truck and taken away, and a man dressed in white returns and drives off in his Jeep. Continue reading “The Mystery of Sombath Somphone Still Resonates in Laos”

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Sombath Somphone: Son of the Soil

padect-fair-20162016 PADETC Fair

Thursday, 15th December 2016

PADETC Office, Vientiane, Lao PDR

15 December 2016 marks the fourth year of the disappearance of Sombath Somphone, Founder of PADETC.

To commemorate Ajarn Sombath Somphone, PADETC will organize its Annual Fair under the title ‘Sombath Somphone – Son of the Soil’.

 

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FÖRSVUNNEN SEDAN 2012

Amnesty Press: 2016

Den 15 deshuimeng-2016-amnesty-presscember 2012 stoppades Sombath Somphones bil av polis. Sedan dess har ingen sett honom. – Jag hoppas att han lever. Att inte veta är det allra svåraste, säger hustrun Ng Shui Meng. Text: Ivar Andersen

Ng Shui Meng vill inte trä as i sitt hem. Hon misstänker att det är övervakat.

Istället föreslår hon ett möte i den lilla butik för rättvisemärkta och lokalproducerade varor som hon driver i centrala Vientiane. Hon startade rörelsen som en extra inkomstkälla för att nansiera de landsbygdsutvecklingsprojekt hon drev tillsammans med maken och livskamraten Sombath Somphone. Det var också här hon såg honom sista gången – den 15 december 2012 – för nästan fyra år sedan. Continue reading “FÖRSVUNNEN SEDAN 2012”

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Singaporean wife of missing Laos man: ‘Time can never heal a wound like this’

Channel News Asia: 16 September 2016

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Ng and Sombath on a trip to Japan in 2010 (Photo courtesy of Ng Shui Meng)

Sombath Somphone’s high-profile disappearance in 2012 came into focus again during the ASEAN Summit in Vientiane. Although world leaders shied away from public mention of the Laotian civil society leader, his other half Ng Shui Meng vows to keep searching for her husband until her “dying day”.

For a moment, just one, Ng Shui Meng’s tough facade cracked as she appeared to contemplate giving up what has been an arduous four-year slog to locate her missing husband Sombath Somphone.

“You always break down. You always try and make sense of things. All kinds of thoughts come through your mind, like ‘Why don’t you jump off a cliff? Why do you bother to wake up?’” said the Singapore-born, Laos-based woman.

It was a departure from the otherwise calm, measured manner of the 69-year-old PhD-holder in sociology, who met with Channel NewsAsia in a muggy shophouse along Chanthabouly District in Vientiane. Continue reading “Singaporean wife of missing Laos man: ‘Time can never heal a wound like this’”

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Mystery surrounds disappearance of Laos man after traffic stop

USA Today: 11 September 2016

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Ng Shui Meng, the wife of disappeared Laotian activist Sombath Somphone, stands near a missing person flyer at her crafts shop in Vientiane, Laos. (Photo: Thomas Maresca)

The last time Ng Shui Meng saw her husband, he was driving his beloved vintage American jeep.

That was a December evening almost four years ago, after Sombath Somphone was stopped by traffic police. He never arrived home for dinner.

The disappearance of Sombath, 64, a prominent Lao activist who focused on rural development and reducing poverty, is a persistent reminder of human rights abuses by the communist government here. Continue reading “Mystery surrounds disappearance of Laos man after traffic stop”

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For disappeared man’s wife, Obama trip yields little

CNN: 08 September 2016

Shui Meng Ng, the wife of Sombath Somphone, who disappeared in Laos in 2012. She has appealed to President Barack Obama for help in finding out what happened to her husband.
Shui Meng Ng, the wife of Sombath Somphone, who disappeared in Laos in 2012. She has appealed to President Barack Obama for help in finding out what happened to her husband.

In 1975, 14-year-old Barack Obama and 23-year-old Sombath Somphone were both living in Oahu, the future US president starting high school and the Lao exchange student on his way toward a bachelor’s degree from the University of Hawaii.

Forty-one years later, their paths converged again, in a way. Obama this week became the first sitting US president to visit Laos. Sombath, meanwhile, has vanished — stopped on a street in this sleepy Mekong outpost in 2012, stuffed into a pick-up truck, and never heard from again. Continue reading “For disappeared man’s wife, Obama trip yields little”

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Obama aide to meet with wife of missing UH-educated Laotian activist

Honolulu Star Advisor: 06 September 2016

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In this June 25, 2008 photo provided by Shui Meng Ng, Sombath Somphone poses for a photograph in an unknown location in Japan. The disappearance of Sombath Somphone nearly four years ago is a reminder of the dismal human rights record of the authoritarian government of Laos.

A top aide of President Barack Obama said he will meet with the wife of a missing Laotian activist and East-West Center graduate, whose case has been repeatedly highlighted by human rights groups as an example of authoritarian excesses of Laos’ one-party Communist government.

Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters today he will meet with Shui Meng Ng on Thursday while Obama is visiting Laos. The president arrived on Monday to attend a regional summit.

Human rights activists were hoping that Obama would speak about Ng’s husband, Sombath Somphone, who was picked up apparently by security forces on Dec. 15, 2012. He has not been seen since.

Obama has not mentioned him so far in his public remarks, but Rhodes said that “we care very deeply about her case and her husband, and we believe she deserves to know what happened to her husband.” Continue reading “Obama aide to meet with wife of missing UH-educated Laotian activist”