Vientiane. Die laotische Regierung hat einen Bericht der Vereinten Nationen zurückgewiesen, wonach der unter mysteriösen Umständen verschwundene Aktivist Sombath Somphone in der Gewalt der Sicherheitskräfte gesehen worden sein soll. Vor Weihnachten hatte eine Gruppe von UN-Experten berichtet, Sombath (61) sei nach seinem Verschwinden im Dezember 2012 in Militärgewahrsam gesehen worden. Dies sei falsch, schrieb der laotische UN-Botschafter Thongphane Savanphet. Sombath hatte kurz vor seinem Verschwinden ein Bürgerforum organisiert, bei dem es unter anderem um die Rechte von Bauern ging, die sich gegen die Konfiszierung ihres Landes für Großprojekte wehren. dpa/nd
Remembering Sombath Somphone outside the Lao embassy in Bangkok on Sunday Dec 15 – one year after his disappearance. — ST PHOTO: NIRMAL GHOSH
By Nirmal Ghosh, Indochina Bureau Chief In Bangkok
It has been a year, but Ms Ng Shui Meng still momentarily tenses whenever the phone rings. Twelve months have passed, yet there is still no trace of or information on her husband Sombath Somphone, who disappeared in Laos on Dec 15 last year. The incident was recorded on a CCTV camera but to date remains unsolved.
Given that Mr Sombath, internationally recognised for his work with farming communities, was pulled over by police that evening, Laos is under pressure from foreign governments to give an explanation. On the first anniversary of the disappearance last Sunday, the civil society organisation Mr Sombath founded held its annual fair in Vientiane. If the practice continues, it will be an annual reminder of that fateful evening.
Hours later, a US State Department statement said Washington remained “deeply concerned over the fate of Sombath Somphone, one of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic’s most respected civil society figures, on the one-year anniversary of his abduction”.
“Sombath was abducted on the evening of Dec 15, 2012, from a Lao police checkpoint in Vientiane. This deplorable event was recorded on Lao government surveillance cameras,” the statement said. Continue reading “One year on, still no trace of prominent Lao”
(AFP) UN human rights experts demanded today that Laos do more to reveal the fate a prominent activist who went missing a year ago, warning his disappearance could have a “chilling effect”.
Sombath Somphone, 62, went missing on December 15, 2012, when he was seen being led away by police in Vientiane after his car was stopped at a checkpoint.
CCTV images later emerged appearing to show him being driven away with two unidentified people.
“We are deeply concerned about his safety and security,” the UN working group on enforced or involuntary disappearances said in a statement.
It urged the Laos government to “do its utmost to locate Mr Somphone, to establish his fate and whereabouts, and to hold the perpetrators accountable.”
Scrutiny from human rights groups and charges from the ICC likely if officials don’t come clean.
Image Credit: Twitter @Sumana_Raja
Just over a year ago, community development worker Sombath Somphone was plucked from the streets of Vientiane by police. He has not been heard of since, despite overwhelming evidence linking his disappearance to the government and its dictatorial internal security apparatus.
But even the Laos government has its friends. One spin doctor went so far as to describe Sombath’s disappearance as a “piffling affair,” which somehow seemed like not so much of a big deal when compared with the extraordinary renditions of the United States.
And in rebuffing Human Rights Watch (HRW) the scribe of sorts described the Sombath issue as “like those poor Guantanamo-bound wretches.”
Comparing Sombath’s plight to people like Hambali – the mastermind of the 2002 Bali bombings which left more than 200 people dead and who apparently still resides in Gitmo – beggars belief. Continue reading “Missing Sombath Still Dogging Laos”
Sombath Somphone was probably the most effective and best-known NGO representative in Laos. One year and one day ago, on his way home for dinner, Mr Sombath was pulled from his car by several unknown men just outside Vientiane. He was bundled into a police vehicle and driven away. He has not been seen since, and his government has not just ignored the case, it has actively worked to cover it up.
A substantial number of concerned Lao and foreign citizens held a vigil at the Laos embassy on Pracha-Uthit Road yesterday. There was no surprise that diplomats showed no interest. That has been the response from all Vientiane ministries and departments since the evening that Mr Sombath failed to show up for dinner with his wife. The grainy closed-circuit TV video showing the actual abduction has roused no concern of any kind from authorities, even though it was a government CCTV camera.
One of the most puzzling facts about the Sombath case is that the victim posed no known threat to the government, the ruling Marxist party or any official. He was 60 when he was taken. He did not take part in, let alone lead, any political group. Continue reading “Editorial: Sombath case needs pressure”
Human rights groups on Sunday gathered outside the Lao embassy in Bangkok to mark the disappearance of Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone in Vientiane a year ago.
In the Laotian capital itself, a market fair was planned Sunday by Sombath’s wife, Singaporean Ng Shui Meng, to commemorate her husband’s disappearance, Focus Global South officer Shalmali Guttal said at the Bangkok protest.
Protests are strictly prohibited in communist Laos.
Ng on Sunday issued a letter to Sombath, which was read out in front of the Lao Embassy in Bangkok, where about 20 representatives of the Asia-Europe People’s Forum, Mekong Youth Network and Japan-based civil society organizations had gathered.
The Lao government should immediately disclose the fate of prominent social activist Sombath Somphone, who was apprehended at a police checkpoint in Vientiane one year ago, Human Rights Watch said today.
(Bangkok) – The Lao government should immediately disclose the fate of prominent social activist Sombath Somphone, who was apprehended at a police checkpoint in Vientiane one year ago. The official investigation of his enforced disappearance on December 15, 2012 was inadequate, and the government has yet to offer a credible explanation of Sombath’s whereabouts.
“One year since Sombath Somphone ‘disappeared,’ the Lao government clearly hopes the world will just forget about what happened to one of its most prominent citizens,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Foreign donors to the Lao government should make Sombath’s enforced disappearance a priority until he can return home.”
Security camera footage shows police stopping Sombath’s jeep at 6:03 p.m. on December 15, and unidentified men taking him into the Thadeua police post. Shortly after, an unidentified motorcyclist stopped at the police post and drove off with Sombath’s jeep, leaving his own motorcycle by the roadside. A few minutes later, a truck with flashing lights stopped at the police post. Two people got out of the truck, took Sombath into the vehicle, then drove off. Continue reading “Laos: Anniversary of ‘Disappearance' Demands Action”
Sombath Somphone was abducted from police checkpoint a year ago, but Laos’s government is silent on the matter.
The US said diplomats raised Somphone’s abduction case with Lao president following a donor meeting [AP]The United States has said it is “deeply concerned” that the fate of one of Laos’ most prominent social activists is still unknown, one year after he was abducted from a police checkpoint in Vientiane.
The abduction of Sombath Somphone, 61, at a busy traffic junction in the Laotian capital on December 15 last year was recorded on government surveillance cameras.
Despite calls by foreign governments and rights groups for information on Sambath’s disappearance, the Laos communist-led government has maintained almost complete silence on the matter.
“Laos has taken steps in recent years to become a responsible partner in the community of nations. Sombath’s abduction threatens to undermine those efforts,” the US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a statement on Sunday.
A 2005 photo of Sombath Somphone in the Philippines. AFP/Sombath family
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned Laos Sunday that the unresolved case of a missing local civil society leader could undermine the authoritarian state’s aspirations of becoming a responsible member of the international community.
Kerry, who is visiting Southeast Asia, said the United States “remains deeply concerned” over the fate of Sombath Somphone, one of the most respected civil society figures in Laos, on the one-year anniversary of his disappearance.
Sombath has been missing since Dec. 15, 2012, when he was stopped in his vehicle at a police checkpoint in the Lao capital Vientiane. He was then transferred into another vehicle, according to surveillance video. No one has seen him since.
Lao officials say they are investigating the case but have offered little information on Sombath’s whereabouts, prompting human rights groups to suspect that he may have been abducted by government-linked groups.
