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NGOs urge search for Lao activist Sombath Somphone

Bangkok Post: 15 December 2015

Human rights groups have renewed calls for a full investigation into the disappearance of a well-known community organiser four years ago at a police checkpoint in Vientiane.

More than 130 rights organisations from around the world issued a statement on Thursday calling on the Lao government to provide information about the fate of Sombath Somphone and 10 other activists who were detained or simply disappeared over the past decade.

Laos is a secretive one-party state whose Communist leaders have quashed political dissent since taking power in 1975.

Sombath went missing in the evening of Dec 15, 2012 on the busy streets of Vientiane. He was last seen getting into a police vehicle on that night.

Lao authorities have not re-examined the case despite a newly discovered security camera video of Sombath’s car on the day he disappeared and US pressure during a visit by President Barack Obama to the country in September.

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Wives of missing Thai, Lao activists seek action over disappearances

Thomson Reuters Foundation: 20 December 2016

(L-R) Rights activists Shui Meng Ng, Angkhana Neelapaijit, Pinnipa Preuksapan and Angkhana’s daughter Pratubjit Neelapaijit at a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand, December 19, 2017. Thomson Reuters Foundation/Alisa Tang

By Alisa Tang

BANGKOK, Dec 20 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – The wives of three prominent Southeast Asian human rights campaigners who went missing after being detained by the authorities have united to urge Laos and Thailand to end impunity over forced disappearances.

All three women have become vocal critics of forced disappearances in a region where activists highlighting abuses over human, labour and land rights routinely face threats and violence. Some are gunned down, harassed through lawsuits, or simply “disappeared”.

“The biggest struggle is to get answers,” said Shui Meng Ng, whose husband Sombath Somphone, a Lao activist campaigning for rural development, went missing in December 2012.

The internationally acclaimed activist was last seen at a police checkpoint in the Lao capital Vientiane. Continue reading “Wives of missing Thai, Lao activists seek action over disappearances”

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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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Face à l’impunité du régime laotien, ne nous taisons pas !

Libération: 15 Décembre 2016

Anne-Sophie Gindroz, ancienne directrice de Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation au Laos

Sombath Somphone en 2005. Il avait fondé l’ONG Padetc. Photo Bullit Marquez. AP

Fondateur d’une ONG de soutien aux paysans, le leader communautaire Sombath Somphone est porté disparu depuis quatre ans. Les autorités du Laos sont pointées du doigt pour leur autoritarisme et leur politique répressive.

Il y a quatre ans, le leader communautaire Sombath Somphone était enlevé devant un poste de police à Vientiane au Laos. C’était le 15 décembre 2012. Dans d’autres pays, la police lance généralement un appel au public pour rechercher la personne disparue. Pas au Laos où l’on vous intime de ne pas poser de questions. Dans d’autres pays, la police accueille favorablement toute aide. Pas au Laos où les offres d’assistance ont été systématiquement refusées. Dans d’autres pays, la population et les médias sont encouragés à diffuser l’information. Pas au Laos où les avis de recherche affichés ont été déchirés et la publication dans les journaux est soumise à autorisation spéciale. Continue reading “Face à l’impunité du régime laotien, ne nous taisons pas !”

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Four years since Laos activist Sombath Somphone’s ‘disappearance’

SE Asia Globe: 15 December 2016

On 15 December 2012, Laos activist Sombath Somphone was abducted in Vientiane. Four years later, his family and human rights groups are still searching for answers.

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Lao national and 2005 Magsaysay Award recipient Sombath Somphone stands beside a poster of fellow awardee V. Shanta during a press conference in Manila, Philippines on Monday 29 August 2005. Photo: EPA/ROLEX DELA PENA

Today marks four years since the forced disappearance of Sombath Somphone, an internationally recognised Laos civil society leader who spent three decades advocating for the environment, civic engagement and democracy in his home country.

Sombath was forcibly disappeared after being stopped at a police checkpoint in Vientiane. Police closed-circuit television shows officers stopping Sombath’s jeep and bringing him into the checkpoint. Within minutes, Sombath reappears and is taken away in another vehicle. His jeep is later driven away by another individual. Last December, Sombath’s family released new footage showing the vehicle being driven to the centre of Vientiane.

There has been no government investigation into Sombath’s disappearance and Laos authorities have not held a briefing on the status of his case since June 2013. Continue reading “Four years since Laos activist Sombath Somphone’s ‘disappearance’”

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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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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

sombath-shuimeng-07
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’”