The family of Sombath Somphone, a Laos civil society leader who went missing in the capital Vientiane three years ago, urged the government to do more to probe into his disappearance.
Sombath Somphone, an award-winning campaigner for sustainable development in Laos, pictured in 2005.
Sombath Somphone, an award-winning campaigner for sustainable development in Laos, pictured in 2005. (Photo: AFP)
Within days after his disappearance, the Laos government released footage showing his Jeep had been driven out of the capital Vientiane.
However, a new piece of evidence released on Monday (Dec 14) by an advocacy group, the Sombath Initiative, revealed his car had been turned around and driven back towards the city centre.
Presented at a press conference entitled “Three Years On: Demanding Answers for the Enforced Disappearance of Sombath Somphone in Laos” in Bangkok was new footage his family retrieved from closed circuit TV cameras (CCTV) along the road where he is believed to have disappeared.
His family claimed they had presented state investigators the new evidence, adding the authorities have yet to examine it.
Mr Sombath Somphone, an award-winning Laos civil society activist, with his Singaporean wife Ng Shui-Meng. Mr Sombath was driving his jeep near a busy intersection in Vientiane when he went missing on Dec 15, 2012. COPYRIGHT: NG SHUI-MENG
There was an awkward silence at this week’s press conference on the now three-year-long disappearance of Laotian civil society activist Sombath Somphone.
The roomful of journalists at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand – who traditionally compete for their turn at the microphone – had no more question after the first was asked and answered on Monday (Dec 14).
Like so many other incidents of enforced disappearances around the region, the case of Mr Sombath was one that has drawn many queries and yielded little answers since he vanished after being stopped at a police checkpoint on Dec 15, 2012.
Human rights activists allege that key individuals or groups in the landlocked communist state have been intimidated against talking about the case.
The Laotian authorities, say human rights activists, have stopped providing updates about the investigation and have shown little inclination to pursue a case that according to the International Commission of Jurists’ representative Sam Zarifi is “eminently solvable”.
Mr Sombath is a well-respected advocate for sustainable development who received a Magsaysay Award in 2005 for his community leadership. But his work was thought to have upset powerful interests in the country.
His disappearance has left his wife, Singaporean-born Ng Shui Meng, in a limbo. She was not present at the press conference. Poignantly, her reflections were voiced by one of Thailand’s national human rights commissioners, Ms Angkhana Neelapaijit, whose own husband “disappeared” 11 years ago.
“It is like a knife that is permanently embedded in my heart,” she read.
The spouse of someone who is neither officially dead nor missing fights a constant battle against fading public memory.
Speaking via Skype from Jakarta on Monday – Dr Ng said that the district office that oversees the couple’s neighbourhood in Laos last year (2014) sent a family registration book that did not include Mr Sombath’s name.
After Dr Ng went to the police to query it, the police stamped the old family registration book to keep it valid.
“You hope that he won’t be forgotten. You hope that the case remains in the public consciousness, you hope that the government which has promised that it would continue the investigation lives up to its promise,” says Dr Ng.
“How can you forget a person who has lived with you for so many years? A person that is the most important or precious person in your life? … Time cannot erase that person from your memory. So even though everybody else may forget, I cannot forget.”
The couple first met in the 1970s as students in Hawaii. These days, Dr Ng spends most of her time running a handicraft social enterprise in Laos, as well as advocating against enforced disappearances.
People around her “try to be as helpful as possible”. “But everybody has his or her own life to lead. And you just have to cope with this very painful situation,” she says.
“You always feel alone even though other people reassure you that they are with you, that they are thinking about you and they are thinking about Sombath.”
Mr Sombath was a kind, caring husband whose sense of humour made “life a pleasure”. His last words to her, before he disappeared that day in 2012, was “let’s go home for dinner.”
Three years have passed, and Dr Ng clings on to the hope that he is still alive.
A 2005 photo of Sombath Somphone in the Philippines.
Friends and supporters of missing Lao civil society activist Sombath Somphone marked the third anniversary of his disappearance on Tuesday with celebrations of his life and work and renewed calls for an investigation into his fate.
Sombath’s Dec. 15, 2012 abduction at a police checkpoint in the capital Vientiane is widely believed to have been carried out by police or some other government-linked group, though authorities in the one-party communist state have consistently denied playing a role in his disappearance.
On Dec. 11, a Vientiane-based civil society group founded by Sombath, PADETC (the Participatory Development Education Training Center), marked the anniversary with an event remembering his achievements.
The event was attended by over 100 people and included colleagues and friends, foreign diplomats, and representatives from other development agencies, sources said.
Speaking to RFA’s Lao Service on the day before the event, a PADETC official said that Sombath “worked only for the betterment of society, and never for himself.”
“I am happy that I once had the opportunity to work with him and to witness his dedication to development,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Even though he is not here with us now, PADETC will definitely continue his work for [Lao] society.” Continue reading “Supporters Mark Third Anniversary of Lao Activist’s Disappearance”
Today, 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)”
Participants of the 10th anniversary of the Rotary Peace Centre in Chulalongkhorn University in Bangkok Thailand, expressed support for Sombath. The two-day event was entitled “Innovative Global Peace-building.” Opening remarks by Ng Shui Meng are available here.
In this file photo, Lao civil rights activist Sombath Somphone and his wife Shui-Meng are pictured during a 2005 holiday in Bali. The 2012 kidnapping of Mr Sombath, the country’s leading civil rights activist, has revealed the one-party communist Laos, one of the five such regimes in the world, as one of Asia’s most repressive societies. AP
One thousand days after civil society leader Sombath Somphone was abducted at a police checkpoint in Vientiane, Lao authorities say they still have no clues about what may have happened to him.
“It’s been 1,000 days of waiting, 1,000 days of anxiety — and 1,000 days of nothing,” Shui Meng Ng, Mr Sombath’s wife, told a panel held to mark the milestone.
Mr Sombath, a renowned community activist, was last seen on Dec 15, 2012, when he was stopped at a police checkpoint in Laos’ capital city. While his apparent abduction was caught on CCTV camera footage, the probe into the case has stalled.
The video footage shows Mr Sombath being stopped at the police checkpoint and several men forcing him into another vehicle and driving away.
Four days after the activist went missing, a statement from the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs acknowledged Mr Sombath was stopped at the checkpoint and his jeep was later driven away by another individual. Continue reading “Laos kidnap probe mired in suspicion”
Note: This event will be streamed live on: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/fcct-live
On the evening of December 15, 2015, police stopped prominent Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone at a police checkpoint on a busy street of Vientiane. Shortly after being stopped, CCTV footage showed that unknown individuals forced Sombath into another vehicle and drove away while police looked on. Sombath was never seen again. His fate or whereabouts remain unknown to this day.
September 11, 2015, marks 1,000 days since Sombath disappeared. During these 1,000 days, what has been done to safely return Sombath? What have been the domestic and regional implications of his disappearance? What are the next steps?
A panel of four distinguished speakers will answer these questions and provide an update on the quest for truth and justice for Sombath Somphone’s disappearance.
Ms. Shui-Meng Ng is the spouse of Sombath Somphone and a member of the Advisory Board of the Sombath Initiative.
Mr. Kingsley Abbott is the International Legal Advisor for Southeast Asia for the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and a former Senior Legal Officer with the United Nations at the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia.
Ms. Angkhana Neelapaijit is the founder and President of the Justice for Peace Foundation (JPF), a member of the Advisory Board of the Sombath Initiative, and a nominee to the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT).
Ms. Debbie Stothard is the Secretary-General of FIDH, the Coordinator of ALTSEAN-Burma, and the Co-Chair of the ASEAN Peoples’ Forum/ASEAN Civil Society Conference (APF/ACSC) Media Committee.
As ASEAN moves toward a single economic community, civil society groups have urged regional governments not to tolerate human rights violations and to address past abuses, including cases of forced disappearance.
In its efforts to become a democratic region, ASEAN still faces unresolved cases of involuntary disappearances. According to the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), some 800 cases of forced disappearances in ASEAN member countries have been reported to the UN.
The Philippines has the most cases filed at 625, followed by Indonesia with 163, Thailand with 71, Laos and Myanmar with two each and Cambodia with one case.
A 2005 photo of Sombath Somphone in the Philippines. AFP/Sombath Family
Human rights groups and the wife of a prominent civil rights leader who disappeared nearly three years ago have called on the Lao government to adequately investigate the incident and provide information about the case’s progress.
Sombath Somphone went missing on Dec. 15, 2012, when police stopped him in his vehicle at a checkpoint in the capital Vientiane. He was transferred to another vehicle, according to police surveillance video, and has not been heard from since.
Although authorities have denied any responsibility, Sombath’s abduction is widely acknowledged to be an enforced disappearance.
On Sunday — the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances — Sombath’s wife, Ng Shui-Meng, urged Lao authorities to inform her of their progress in the investigation.
“The authorities always say they are investigating, but always without clear answers,” she told RFA’s Lao Service. “I appeal to the government to have pity on my suffering and honestly give me the investigation results.”
She added that governments and state agencies should not commit enforced disappearances.
