Bangkok Post: 17 December 2022
On Thursday, activists gathered in front of the Lao Embassy in Bangkok to mark the 10th year of the disappearance of Sombath Somphone, the award-winning Lao social activist. Every year, activists have launched campaigns to keep the memory of his mysterious vanishing alive.
On Dec 15, 2012, Sombath, recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay award (known as Asia’s Nobel Prize), vanished from a busy street in Vientiane, the capital of Lao PDR.
Grainy footage from a police CCTV camera showed Sombath’s vehicle was stopped at a checkpoint before individuals whisked him into another vehicle and drove him away. CCTV footage also showed an individual arriving at the scene and driving Sombath’s vehicle away from the city centre.
Despite prima facie evidence of what happened, the Lao government has not explained his disappearance. Continue reading “Kidnap cases alive and well”