Year: 2015

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Dear Sombath…from Shui Meng (10)

My dearest Sombath

SB & ShuimengToday, 15th December 2015 marks the third anniversary of your disappearance. Each year, I dread the dawning of this day, as I am once more reminded of that fateful evening when you were so abruptly taken away from my life. I remember that evening 3 years ago so well. You and I were supposed to meet back at home for dinner – except you never came home. And now dinner for me can never be the same! In fact life can never be the same!

The past three years have been one long struggle for the search for truth as to what happened to you; where have you been taken; are you well, or… I don’t know anymore. But I still hold on to the hope that you are still alive and will come back to me one day.

My dearest Sombath, I want you to know that you have not been forgotten, even though some of your close friends and colleagues within government and non-government circles are still so intimidated by your sudden disappearance that they do not even dare to speak your name, or acknowledge in public that they know you or have worked with you. I used to feel very angry and betrayed by their actions; but now I don’t even want to waste any energy by getting angry with them anymore. It is not for me to judge them; they are their own best judge. Continue reading “Dear Sombath…from Shui Meng (10)”

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Laos shows ‘no political will’ to solve activist’s disappearance, U.N. rights official says

Reuters: 14 December 2015

Communist Laos has shown “no political will to solve” the mystery of the abduction of a prominent social activist, a United Nations human rights official said on Monday, on the third anniversary of the kidnapping.

The United Nations and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said police in Laos refused to view new footage of the abduction of Sombath Somphone, a civil society leader who worked to promote sustainable development for the rural poor.

Laurent Meillan of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said the abduction had created “a culture of fear” among workers of non-government organizations in Laos, one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries.

“We are not aware of any progress since the government’s commitment at the U.N. Human Rights Council,” Meillan told a news conference in Bangkok, referring to an assurance by Laos to bring the perpetrators of the crime to justice.

In January, Laos was assessed on its rights record and accepted some recommendations made by the U.N. Human Rights Council, including a call for a transparent investigation into the disappearance of the internationally acclaimed activist.

The Lao foreign ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. Continue reading “Laos shows ‘no political will’ to solve activist’s disappearance, U.N. rights official says”

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Probe into missing Laos activist a ‘farce’: rights groups

Straights Times: 14 December 2015

Lao Embassy-Bangkok-2013
Supporters of community leader Sombath Somphone gathered outside the Lao embassy in Vientiane, Bangkok on Dec 15, 2013.

Bangkok (AFP) – An investigation into the disappearance of Laotian activist Sombath Somphone three years ago is “a farce” and has had a chilling effect on civil society, rights groups said Monday.

Sombath, an award-winning campaigner for sustainable development, vanished from the streets of Vientiane after he was pulled over at a police checkpoint on the evening of December 15, 2012.

CCTV cameras in the Laos capital captured the moment his battered jeep stopped at the checkpoint before he is later seen getting into an unknown vehicle.

His case has cast a dark cloud over civil society in Laos, an impoverished tightly-controlled communist country.

It has also raised the issue of impunity for powerful state and business interests held responsible for routinely killing or “disappearing” activists across the region.

Rights groups accuse local authorities of failing to carry out even the most cursory of investigations and withholding information.

“The official investigation so far has been a farce. It is a bad joke,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch Asia, told reporters in Thailand. Continue reading “Probe into missing Laos activist a ‘farce’: rights groups”

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Whose Vision? Whose Reality?

December 17th, 2015
Time: 14:00-17:00
DIPAK C.JAIN room, SASA International House, Chulalongkorn University

15-12-17-SI Panel2016 will be an important year for ASEAN, as it promises to turn its “vision” into a “reality”. Its chairmanship will be with the Lao PDR, where civil society organizations in the recent ACSC/APF agreed they will not hold their 2016 gathering. This forum aims to draw attention and give different perspectives to this so-called ASEAN “Reality” and “Vision” of a “Dynamic Community”.

Panelists:

  • Angkhana Neelapaijit, National Human Rights Commission of Thailand
  • Kraisak Choonhavan, ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
  • Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch
  • Supalak Ganjanakhundee, the Nation

Moderator: Shalmali Guttal, Focus on the Global South
For more information: Hamdee, 0890044117, [email protected]

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Press conference marks three years of Lao government complacency on investigation

A press conference entitled “Three Years On: Demanding Answers for the Enforced Disappearance of Sombath Somphone in Laos” was held at the Foreign Correspondent’s Club in Bangkok, Thailand on Monday, 14 December 2014.

A synthesis of new CCTV footage (above) was shared showing: 1) Sombath’s jeep after he was stopped at a police post, 2) being driven out of town by another person after Sombath was called to the police post, and 3) then returning toward the city centre shortly thereafter. The videos also show the pickup truck that took Sombath away.

Despite claims they are conducting a serious investigation, Lao authorities have shown no interest in reviewing this additional evidence.

Panelists sharing remarks at the event included:

  • Angkhana Neelaipaijit, Thai National Human Rights Commissioner, Justice for Peace Foundation and Sombath Initiative Advisory Board
  • Sam Zarifi, International Commission for Jurists
  • Laurent Meillan, UN Office of High Commissioner of Human Rights
  • Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch

A press release be seen here, and video of the conference itself is available here.

Notes on the synthesis video include:

  • 0:08: Map showing location of original traffic CCTV camera (Camera #1) and locations of cameras from which new CCTV footage was obtained (Camera #2 & #3).
  • 0:20: Original CCTV footage (Camera #1) beginning just after Sombath was stopped in his jeep. This footage, as well as explanatory notes, is available here.
  • 1:10:  Sombath getting out of his jeep and going to police post.
  • 1:51:  Person arriving on motorcycle
  • 3:35: Jeep being driven away, going away from city centre.
  • 3:56: Jeep seen going away from city centre on Camera #2
  • 4:42: Jeep seen coming back toward city centre on Camera #2
  • 5:00: Jeep seen going away from city centre on Camera #3
  • 5:45: Jeep seen coming back toward city centre on Camera #3.
  • 6:40: Truck with Sombath seen leaving police post on Camera #1. Note truck is second vehicle behind van.
  • 7:04: Same truck seen heading away from city centre on Camera #2.
  • 7:20: Same truck seen heading away from city centre on Camera #3.
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Disappearance: Mystery of Laos

A commemoration on the third year of Sombath’s Enforced Disappearance

15-12-15-SSBP

Bridi Banomyong International College, Thammasart University, Bangkok

15 December 2015

  • 14:00-14:45: Exhibition on enforced disappearance
  • 14:45-15:00: Talk about Sombath
  • 15:00-16:00: Music for Peace
  • 16:00-17:00: Ted Talk by Mekong Youth
  • 17:00-18:00: “Laos Today” with video clips
  • 18:00-18:30: Open Letter from Amnesty International Thailand
  • 18:30-19:00: Message from Thai to Lao Friends by SSBP
  • 19:00-19:30: Drama for peace
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The Man, His Work and His Dream for Laos

2015-12-11-PADETC-02The Participatory Development and Training Center (PADETC), founded by Sombath, held its 2015 fair under the banner of “The Man, HIs Work, and His Dream for Laos,” on Friday, December 11th.

Approximatley one hundred friends, colleagues, CSO staff and diplomats attended the event, which included Buddhist prayers for Sombath, and comments from his spouse and colleagues.

2015-12-11-PADETC-01Some likened Sombath to a farmer nurturing a fruit tree. But rather than keeping the fruit for himself, he would spread it around so more trees would grow, and produce more fruit.

May the fruits of his vision continue to grow.

A Thai PBS report on the event.

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Lao government spurns ASEAN civil society

In Laos, which will chair the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year, the government refused to allow a meeting of Southeast Asian civil society groups on the sideline of an upcoming ASEAN summit, and has provided no new information on the whereabouts of Sombath Somphone. He was probably Laos’s best-known civil society activist when he vanished in 2012, shortly after being seen at a police checkpoint in Vientiane.

From The Year in Democracy in Southeast Asia in The Diplomat: 11 December 2015

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Three Years On: Demanding Answers for the Enforced Disappearance of Sombath Somphone in Laos

10:30 am, Monday, December 14, 2015

Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand (FCCT)

Three years ago, on December 15, Magsaysay award winner and acclaimed community development leader Sombath Somphone was detained at a police checkpoint in Vientiane, Laos, and then disappeared by state authorities. Since then, the Lao police and government authorities have consistently failed to seriously investigate the case, and continue to unpersuasively claim ignorance of Sombath’s whereabouts.

Yet evidence is still being uncovered, and on the 3rd anniversary of his enforced disappearance, new CCTV camera footage — obtained from the area where Sombath was abducted on the day that Sombath vanished into state custody – will be made public.

A panel of speakers will also provide the latest updates on Sombath’s case and the international campaign to demand answers from the Lao PDR government.

Speakers include:

  • Angkhana Neelaipaijit,Thai National Human Rights Commissioner, Justice for Peace Foundation and Sombath Initiative
  • Sam Zarifi, International Commission of Jurists
  • Laurent Meillan, UN Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights
  • Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch

For more information, please call +66-85-060-8406, or email: [email protected]

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Pro-democracy student leaders must be released after over 16 years of arbitrary detention

FIDH: 08 December 2015

FIDH-Logo(Paris, Geneva) The Lao government must immediately and unconditionally release two former pro-democracy student leaders who have been arbitrarily detained for more than 16 years and disclose the fate or whereabouts of two others, the Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders (a joint FIDH and OMCT program) and the Lao Movement for Human Rights (LMHR) said today.

Mr. Thongpaseuth Keuakoun and Mr. Sengaloun Phengphanh, two former student leaders with the Lao Students Movement for Democracy (LSMD), remain detained in Samkhe prison, located on the eastern outskirts of Vientiane. Thongpaseuth and Sengaloun were arrested in Vientiane on October 26, 1999, along with fellow LSMD members Mr. Bouavanh Chanhmanivong, Mr. Khamphouvieng Sisa-at, and Keochay, for planning peaceful demonstrations that called for democracy, social justice, and respect for human rights. All five were subsequently sentenced to 20 years in prison for “generating social turmoil and endangering national security.” The government, however, denied that it had detained Bouavanh, Khamphouvieng, and Keochay.

Thongpaseuth and Phengphanh are imprisoned in solitary confinement with their legs locked in wooden stocks at all times. Prison authorities allow them to go out of their cells once a week or once every two weeks to wash and empty their accumulated excrements. They are accompanied by police officers and not by prison guards. Witnesses described them as looking like “human skeletons.” Prison authorities do not allow them to receive visitors and have consistently prohibited them from receiving food and medication sent from family members. For many years, the Lao government refused to acknowledge the detention of Thongpaseuth and Phengphanh.

“The lengthy arbitrary detention of the two former student leaders as well as the prolonged torture inflicted upon them are gross and unacceptable human rights violations. The authorities must immediately and unconditionally release them, investigate allegations of torture and ill-treatment, and provide compensation for their wrongful detention.” Karim Lahidji, FIDH PresidentHumhu

Continue reading “Pro-democracy student leaders must be released after over 16 years of arbitrary detention”