Tag: Sombath’s Family

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2015 Gwangju Special Award for Sombath

SB in Japan 2008bToday I stand before you humbled and also a little sad that it is I who is here to receive this Special Award for Human Rights on behalf of my husband, Sombath Somphone. It would have been such a happy occasion, and such an honor, if Sombath could be here to receive this award himself. Unfortunately, circumstances do not allow it. Sombath was disappeared…

…Sombath always says that development and progress cannot be guided only by technical knowledge and science alone. Development and progress must be underpinned by spiritual values – values of compassion, kindness, respect of all life (human and animal) and respect for nature.

From remarks by Shui Meng Ng in accepting the 2015 Special Award from the May 15 Memorial Foundation.

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광주인권상 ‘솜폰’ 부인 "실종 남편 구출에 동참해달라"

Yonhap News Agency: 18 May 2015

Shumeng-Gwangju
실종된 ‘솜바스 솜폰’ 구출 서명 동참 호소하는 부인 (광주=연합뉴스) 장아름 기자 = 2015 광주인권상 특별상 수상자인 솜바스 솜폰(Sombath Somphone·라오스)의 부인 수이 멩(Shui Meng)여사가 18일 광주 5·18 기념문화센터에서 열린 기자회견에서 실종 상태인 남편을 구출하기 위한 라오스 정부의 조속한 수사를 촉구하는 청원 운동에 보다 많은 한국인이 동참해줄 것을 호소하고 있다. 2015.5.18 [email protected]

(광주=연합뉴스) 장아름 기자 “실종된 남편 솜바스 솜폰 구출을 위한 라오스 정부의 수사를 촉구하는 서명에 더 많이 참여해 주시길 간절히 호소합니다.”

2015 광주인권상 특별상 수상자인 솜바스 솜폰(Sombath Somphone·라오스)의 부인 수이 멩(Shui Meng)여사는 18일 실종 상태인 남편을 구출하기 위한 라오스 정부의 조속한 수사를 촉구하는 청원 운동에 많은 한국인이 동참해줄 것을 호소했다.

이날 광주인권상 시상식을 앞두고 광주 5·18 기념문화센터에서 열린 기자회견에서 수이 멩 여사는 “누가 솜폰의 유괴에 대한 책임이 있는 지는 모른다”며 “다만 라오스 정부는 자국민이 자국에서 유괴된 데 대해, 무사히 돌아오게 하는데 대해 책임을 느끼고 수사에 착수해야 한다”고 말했다.

수이 멩 여사는 “남편은 수십년간 가난한 지역민을 위해 활동을 해왔다”며 “최근 라오스 정부가 외국자본을 투자해 광산이나 댐 등을 개발하는 사업에 관심을 많이 가지면서 외국 자본과 지역민 간 갈등이 커졌고 남편의 활동도 정부와 갈등을 겪기도 했다”고 설명했다. Continue reading “광주인권상 ‘솜폰’ 부인 "실종 남편 구출에 동참해달라"”

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Dear Sombath…from Somchit (2)

Dear Uncle Sombath,

Today we made merits for you as well to blessed us all for the fresh Lao new year. Wherever you are i wish you received our pray and the food we offer in spirits. We did the ceremony at the wooden house that you bought just couple months before someone disappeared you. I remember very well this house and the rice hut, you said you were very very proud you found it, they are old that the owner wanted to tear it down and you want to preserve it. I never thought before that I will have to work on this house for you, moving them in pieces all the way from Savannakhet province and rebuild in Vientiane capital. It was my very first time in my life to build a house, and I always wish that you could come back and tell me what I should do with these old pieces of woods.

I sometimes thought whether it’s worth to work on them, but I manage to finished them at last, with some adaptation. For nearly 2 years that it’s done, we never use it, and not many people see the house attractive because it’s typical Lao house. But to me, I always say to myself that this house is lovely. I love looking at it and it make me smile inside. For me it’s symbol of you, your taste and happiness. Hope you will get to come back to see it by yourself soon. Jit

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Dear Sombath…from Shui Meng (7)

My dearest Sombath,

Today, 17 February, is your birthday. This is the third year that you have not celebrated your birthday with me. Not having you with me is already very difficult; but not having you with me on this special day is even harder to bear.

S17 February 2015o, to mark the day, members of your family and I went to offer food for the monks in the forest temple, Wat Na Khoune Noi, the temple that you have been so closely associated with. This is the temple where you first started the Buddhist Development Program (BDP), under the protective endorsement from Phra Arjan Sali, the Vice Partriarch of the Buddhist Sangha. Through the BDP you were able to introduce to some monks the concepts of Engaged Buddhism, a system of Buddhist teachings and practice that encourage the monastics to step outside the confines of their temples and be more engaged in issues that affected the wider community and society. Continue reading “Dear Sombath…from Shui Meng (7)”

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PADETC marks two years

Remembering the 2nd Anniversary of the Disappearance of PADETC’s Founder, Sombath Somphone and Celebrating the progress of PADETC’s Vision of Education for Sustainable Development was held at the PADETC’s office on December 15th, and attended by over 100 people. A summary description is available here, and more pictures here.

PADETC-2014-12-15-001

PADETC-2014-12-15-002

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Dear Sombath…from Shui Meng (6)

My dearest Sombath,

It is already two years since you were so rudely taken away from me on that fateful night of 15 December 2012. I can tell you that over the past two years, I don’t know how many times my mind went back to that moment when you walked into Saoban Shop where I was and said, “Let’s go home”. I remembered answering “OK”, picked up my things, and we got into our respective cars and headed for home, except you never arrived home.

Sombath, over the last two years, I kept wondering, could things have been different, if I had not taken our family car that day to go out first, leaving you to drive your beaten-old jeep to go for your usual evening ping-pong game with your ping-pong teacher? Then we would have been riding in the same car, and even if we were to be captured that night, we would at least be together. Or, what would have happened, if we had gone out for a beer together before going home, as we so often did on weekend nights. Then, maybe, just maybe, the people who laid in wait for you would tire of waiting and leave the police post before you drove by. After all it was a Saturday evening and most police on duty would leave for home early. Then you would have escaped your cruel fate.

Sombath, I know these are futile thoughts, but I cannot help it that they keep coming back again and again. Maybe, these senseless thoughts will continue to haunt me for the rest of my life.

Frankly, Sombath, I sometimes wonder how I manage to hold myself together through the 730 days that you have been disappeared. When people complement me for being strong, I could only smile a mirthless smile – for what else could I do but to go on? I cannot possibly accept that you have been taken from me without doing anything. I need to find out what happened to you, where you are now, and how to get you returned safely to our family. So I keep urging the Lao leaders to give me answers, and to mobilize all the help I can to persuade the Lao Government to expedite the investigation and resolve your case. I used to think that with the evidence of your capture recorded in the police’s own surveillance camera, it would not be so difficult to trace you and bring you home. But, to my utter disappointment and despair, you are still missing after two years.

Sombath dearest, I often worry that as time passes even your most faithful friends and supporters will tire of pleading your case. Well, at least for now the momentum of support for your return has not diminished. In fact, two years on, more and more people from across the globe are petitioning for you, and more and more concerned governments and human rights groups are calling upon the Lao Government to investigate your disappearance quickly, honestly and openly and bring the perpetrators to justice. Continue reading “Dear Sombath…from Shui Meng (6)”

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Wife of missing Laos activist keeps his case alive

Straits Times: 12 December 2014

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Mr Sombath Somphone with his Singaporean wife Ng Shui Meng. Dr Ng has launched the Sombath Initiative to “seek resolution” to her husband’s disappearance and to carry forward his ideas. — PHOTO: COURTESY OF NG SHUI MENG

By Nirmal Ghosh, Indochina Bureau Chief In Bangkok

ALMOST two years after the disappearance of prominent Lao civil society figure Sombath Somphone in Vientiane, his Singaporean wife Ng Shui Meng, 67, says “the anxiety and despair grows with each passing day”.

Speaking in Bangkok yesterday at the announcement of the Sombath Initiative, she said: “Today marks 726 days, four days short of two years that Sombath has been taken away.

“Some people sometimes ask me, do you think Sombath Somphone is still alive? My answer is, I can only hope that he is still alive, for without that hope I will not have the strength to get up each day.”

The initiative had been formed in the “desperate hope that the Lao and other governments continue to show interest and pressure Lao authorities not to forget but employ all available resources” to probe the case, she said.

The group behind it includes Dr Ng, Philippine lawmaker Walden Bello, Malaysian MP Charles Santiago and Australian senator Lee Rhiannon.

The goal is to “seek resolution” to Mr Sombath’s disappearance and to carry forward his ideas. Continue reading “Wife of missing Laos activist keeps his case alive”

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Wife of Missing Lao Civil Society Leader Vows to Keep Pushing For Answers

Radio Free Asia: 12 December 2014

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Ng Shui-Meng, wife of Sombath Somphone, talks about her husband’s disappearance at a press conference in Bangkok, Dec. 11, 2014.

The wife of a missing prominent civil society leader in Laos vowed to continue pushing the authorities for answers over the disappearance of her husband, who vanished under mysterious circumstances in the capital Vientiane two years ago. Ng Shui-Meng, the wife of Sombath Somphone, said she would continue to highlight her husband’s case “until the end of my life.” “I will not give up asking, looking for and requesting the Lao government, officials and police to please give our family sympathy and give us answers soon, because after Sombath’s disappearance, we felt pain and our lives became difficult,” she said at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok on Thursday. “However, I am committed to looking for Sombath until the end of my life if I don’t get the answers.” Continue reading “Wife of Missing Lao Civil Society Leader Vows to Keep Pushing For Answers”

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Press Conference at FCCT in Thailand

  • FCCT logoDate: December 11, 2014
  • Time: 10:30 to 12:00
  •  Venue: Foreign Correspondents Club (FCCT)
  • Penthouse, Maneeya Bldg., 518/5 Phloen Chit Rd., Beside Amarin Plaza, Bangrak, Bangkok, 10500; Thailand, 10330
  • Phone: 02 652 0581

Sombath Somphone Missing for Two Years– and the Launch of the Sombath Initiative

On December 15, 2012, leading rural development practitioner, grass-roots educator, and Magsaysay award laureate Sombath Somphone was stopped at a roadblock by Vientiane police while on his way home to have dinner with his wife, Shui-Meng Ng. Video footage from a police CCTV camera showed him enter with police, and later exit and be taken away in another car. Since that day, the Lao government has consistently denied knowing where he is – despite clear indications that government officials were involved in the enforced disappearance of Sombath. Despite repeated high profile efforts by Sombath’s family and friends around the region and the world, and high level interventions by various governments with top-level Lao PDR government officials, there has been no progress in investigations to find out what happened to Sombath.

Approaching the second anniversary of his disappearance, a group of legislators, civil society leaders, and activists demanding to know “Where is Sombath?” are holding a press conference to launch The Sombath Initiative, an international campaign to intensify efforts to demand justice and accountability for Sombath. Philippines Congressman Walden Bello will be joined by Sombath’s wife, Shui-Meng, to explain this new initiative and update the latest information on efforts to find Sombath.

Sam Zarifi, the regional head of the International Commission of Jurists, will also release a report written by international investigation experts, pointing out issues and areas that need thorough investigation that the Lao authorities have failed to do, and making recommendations for next steps urgently needed in the investigation.

Speakers will be:

  • Shui-Meng Ng, wife of Sombath Somphone
  • Congressman Walden Bello, Akbayan Party Philippines; founder, Focus on the Global South
  • Sam Zarifi, Director for the Asia-Pacific, International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)

 

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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.