On the second anniversary of the enforced disappearance of prominent Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone, we, the undersigned regional and international organizations, firmly condemn the Lao government’s ongoing refusal to provide any information regarding Sombath’s fate or whereabouts.
15 December 2014
On the second anniversary of the enforced disappearance of prominent Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone, we, the undersigned regional and international organizations, firmly condemn the Lao government’s ongoing refusal to provide any information regarding Sombath’s fate or whereabouts.
The Lao government’s deliberate silence on Sombath is part of a strategy that aims at consigning to oblivion the heinous crime of enforced disappearance. Regrettably, all other ASEAN member states have remained conspicuously silent on the issue of Sombath’s disappearance. Our organizations believe that ASEAN member states, as well as the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), must break the silence on this matter.
Instead of invoking the principle of non-interference into one another’s internal affairs, ASEAN member states must act as responsible members of the international community and uphold the 10-nation bloc’s key tenets enshrined in the ASEAN Charter, which recognizes the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms among the bloc’s purposes and principles.
As a result, we, the undersigned organizations, call on ASEAN member states to raise the issue of Sombath’s disappearance with the Lao government in all bilateral and multilateral fora. We also urge AICHR to exercise its power to “obtain information from ASEAN member states on the promotion and protection of human rights” in order to shed light on the disappearance of Sombath.
Sombath was last seen on the evening of 15 December 2012 in Vientiane. Lao public surveillance CCTV footage revealed that police stopped Sombath’s car at a police post. Within minutes after being stopped, unknown individuals forced him into another vehicle and drove away. Analysis of the CCTV footage shows that Sombath was taken away in the presence of police officers who witnessed the abduction and failed to intervene – a fact that strongly suggests government complicity.
Sombath’s enforced disappearance is not an isolated incident. To this day, the whereabouts of nine people arbitrarily detained by Lao security forces in November 2009 in various locations across the country remain unknown. The nine had planned peaceful demonstrations calling for democracy and respect of human rights. The whereabouts of Somphone Khantisouk are also unknown. Somphone, the owner of an ecotourism guesthouse, was an outspoken critic of Chinese-sponsored agricultural projects that were damaging the environment in the northern province of Luang Namtha. He disappeared after uniformed men abducted him in January 2007.
Our organizations urge ASEAN member states and the AICHR to call on the Lao government to immediately conduct competent, impartial, effective, and thorough investigations into all cases of enforced disappearances, hold the perpetrators accountable, and provide reparations to the victims and their families.
Information Source : www.forum-asia.org
Organisation/s Involved
Signed by:
- Adventist Development and Relief Agency Lao PDR
- Ain O Salish Kendra
- Alternative ASEAN Network on Burma (ALTSEAN-Burma)
- Amnesty International
- ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights
- ASEAN SOGIE Caucus
- Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact
- Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances
- Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)
- Asia-Pacific Solidarity Coalition
- Association of Human Rights Defenders and Promoters
- Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM)
- Boat People SOS
- Burma Partnership
- Cambodian Civil Society Working Group on ASEAN
- Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC)
- Cambodian League for the Promotion and Defense of Human Rights (LICADHO)
- Cambodian Volunteers for Society
- Center for Human Rights and Development
- China Labour Bulletin
- Coalition to Abolish Modern-day Slavery in Asia
- Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence (KontraS)
- Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
- East Timor and Indonesia Action Network
- Equality Myanmar
- Equitable Cambodia
- FIDH – International Federation for Human Rights
- Finnish Asiatic Society
- Focus on the Global South
- Forum for Democracy in Burma
- Fresh Eyes – People to People Travel, UK
- Gender and Development Initiative-Myanmar
- Globe International
- Hawaii Center for Human Rights Research & Action
- Human Rights and Development Foundation
- Human Rights Commission of Pakistan
- Human Rights Watch
- Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation
- Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (IMPARSIAL)
- INFORM Human Rights Documentation Centre
- Initiatives for International Dialogue
- Interfaith Youth Coalition on Aid in Myanmar
- International Rivers
- Judicial System Monitoring Programme
- Justice and Peace Network of Myanmar
- Justice for Peace Foundation
- Justice for Women
- Kachin Peace Network
- Kachin Women Peace Network
- Khmer Kampuchea Krom for Human Rights and Development Association
- Korean House for International Solidarity
- Lao Movement for Human Rights
- Law and Society Trust
- League for the Defence of Human Rights in Iran
- LICADHO Canada
- LILAK (Purple Action for Indigenous Women’s Rights)
- Madaripur Legal Aid Association
- MARUAH
- National Commission for Justice and Peace
- Network for Democracy and Development
- Odhikar
- Olive Branch Human Rights Initiative
- People’s Empowerment Foundation
- People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy
- People’s Vigilance Committee on Human Rights
- People’s Watch
- Philippine Alliance of Human Rights Advocates
- Potahar Organization for Development Advocacy
- RTCC Research and Translation Consultancy Cluster
- Sehjira Foundation for Persons with Disabilities
- SILAKA
- Social Action for Change
- STAR Kampuchea
- Suara Rakyat Malaysia (SUARAM)
- Taiwan Association for Human Rights
- Task Force Detainees of the Philippines
- Think Centre
- Transnational Institute
- United Sisterhood Alliance – Cambodia
- Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
- Women Peace Network Arakan
- World Rainforest Movement
