15 December 2023 - On the 11-year anniversary of the enforced
disappearance of Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone, we, the
undersigned civil society organisations and individuals, strongly
condemn the Lao government’s continued failure to provide necessary
information as to his fate and whereabouts and reiterate our calls to
the authorities to deliver truth, justice and reparations to his
family.
International concerns over Sombath Somphone’s case, expressed by
international civil society, United Nations (UN) human rights
experts, and UN member states on last year’s anniversary of
Sombath’s enforced disappearance, have been ignored by the Lao
government.
On 25 September 2023, in a submission to the UN Human Rights
Committee as part of its follow-up review of Laos under the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Lao
government repeated previous misleading statements and miserably
failed to provide any additional information on the steps it said it
had taken to find Sombath. The government claimed it “never stopped
trying to find the truth” about Sombath’s fate “in order to
bring the offender(s) to justice.” In reality, the Lao authorities
have continued to disregard Sombath’s wife, Shui Meng Ng, and have
not provided her with any updates on her husband’s case since 2017.
The government then made the extraordinary assertion that its Task
Force’s investigation had been “carried out on the basis of
transparency, impartiality and accountability, including the use of
modern investigative techniques consistent with international
standards by the capable inquiry officials.” It concluded that the
case of Sombath needed “more time for investigation” and added
that the Task Force was “still active in the investigation” and
had “not yet closed the case.”
These government statements are unequivocally false in suggesting any
degree of transparency. Existing evidence is clear that the Lao
government has been engaged in a continuous cover-up of the facts of
Sombath’s case since he was forcibly disappeared in 2012, including
providing misleading information about its actions to his family, the
Lao public, and the international community, as stated above.
We deplore the unmistakable pattern of inaction, negligence, and
obfuscation that various Lao authorities have repeatedly engaged in
for more than a decade and we continue to resolutely stand in
solidarity with Sombath’s family and all other victims of enforced
disappearances in Laos.
We reiterate our calls on the Lao authorities to take real and
effective measures to establish the fate or whereabouts of Sombath
and all other victims of enforced disappearances in the country,
identify the perpetrators of such serious crimes, and provide victims
with an effective remedy and full reparations. We also urge the
government to immediately ratify without reservations the
International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from
Enforced Disappearance, which it signed in 2008, and to fully
implement it into national law, policies, and practices.
As upcoming chair for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN), Laos will be placed in a strategic position to lead the
regional efforts to strengthen, promote, and protect human rights.
However, its continued failure to act on Sombath’s enforced
disappearance sends a message of inadequacy to head the regional bloc
and to fulfill ASEAN’s purpose under Article 1(7) of the ASEAN
Charter, which is to strengthen democracy, enhance good governance,
and the rule of law and to promote and protect human rights and
fundamental freedoms.
We will continue to seek justice and accountability for Sombath.
Until the truth is found and justice is delivered to his family, we
will not stop demanding answers from the Lao government to the same
question we have been asking for the past 11 years: “Where is
Sombath?”
Background
Sombath Somphone, a pioneer in community-based development and youth
empowerment, was last seen at a police checkpoint on a busy street of
Vientiane on the evening of 15 December 2012. Footage from a traffic
CCTV camera showed that police stopped Sombath’s vehicle at the
checkpoint and that, within minutes, unknown individuals forced him
into another vehicle and drove him away in the presence of police
officers. CCTV footage also showed an unknown individual arriving and
driving Sombath’s vehicle away from the city center. In December
2015, Sombath’s family obtained new CCTV footage from the same area
and made it public. The video shows Sombath’s car being driven back
towards the city by an unknown individual.
For further information, please visit: https://www.sombath.org/en/
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