Laos: Human rights activists arbitrarily arrested and detained incommunicado
Event- Country
- Lao People's Democratic Republic
- Initial Date
- Mar 5, 2016
- Event Description
Ms. Lodkham Thammavong, 30, and Messrs. Somphone Phimmasone, 29, and Soukan Chaithad, 32, were arrested in March 2016 after returning to Laos from Thailand on 18 February 2016. The three had returned to apply for passports in order to re-enter Thailand and obtain the necessary documents to work legally. On 5 March 2016, police arrested Lodkham and Somphone, who worked in Bangkok as a domestic worker and a security guard respectively, at Lodkham's family home in Ban Vang Tay Village, Nong Bok District, Khammuan Province. The two were initially held at the Khammuan provincial prison in Tha Khaek town. In early May 2016, they were both transferred to an unknown prison in Vientiane. It is believed Soukan, who worked in Bangkok as a delivery driver, was arrested on 22 March 2016 at the Ministry of Public Security head office ("'Ko Po So") in Savannakhet City, where he went to apply for a passport. On 25 May 2016, state-run TV showed Lodkham, Somphone, and Soukan in custody at police headquarters in Vientiane. The news report said the three had been arrested for threatening national security by using social media to tarnish the government's reputation. The date on which the video of Somphone, Lodkham, and Soukan was taken is not known and the fate or whereabouts of the three remain unknown. The arrest of Lodkham, Somphone, and Soukan was due to their repeated criticism of the Lao government while they were working in Thailand. The three had posted numerous messages on Facebook that criticized the government in relation to alleged corruption, deforestation, and human rights violations. On 2 December 2015, Lodkham, Somphone, and Soukan were among a group of about 30 people who protested against their government in front of the Lao embassy in Bangkok. "It is extremely troubling that Lodkham, Somphone, and Soukan are likely to face years of imprisonment in Laos' terrifying jails because they told the truth about the appalling human rights situation and the lack of good governance in the country. Authorities must disclose their fate or whereabouts and immediately and unconditionally release them." Vanida Thephsouvanh, LMHR President Arbitrary detention of peaceful dissidents is not a new phenomenon in Laos' recent past. On 26 October 1999, police in Vientiane arrested five members of the Lao Students Movement for Democracy (LSMD), Thongpaseuth Keuakoun, Sengaloun Phengphanh, Bouavanh Chanhmanivong, Khamphouvieng Sisa-at, and Keochay, for planning peaceful demonstrations that called for democracy, social justice, and respect for human rights. All five were sentenced to 20 years in prison for "generating social turmoil and endangering national security." Two of them, Thongpaseuth and Sengaloun, remain in solitary confinement in Vientiane's Samkhe prison. Khamphouvieng died in Samkhe prison from food deprivation and prolonged heat exposure in September 2001. To this day, the fate or whereabouts of Bouavanh and Keochay remain unknown despite the Lao government's claim that authorities released Keochay upon completion of his prison term in 2002 and transferred him "to guardians to further educate him to become a good citizen." Also unknown are the fate or whereabouts of nine other activists - two women, Kingkeo and Somchit, and seven men, Soubinh, Souane, Sinpasong, Khamsone, Nou, Somkhit, and Sourigna - who were detained in November 2009 for planning to participate in pro-democracy demonstrations in Vientiane. Many of the above-referenced cases amount to enforced disappearance. Article 2 of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) defines enforced disappearance as "the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person." Despite signing the ICPPED on 29 September 2008, Laos has not yet ratified the convention. FIDH and LMHR reiterate their call for the Lao government to conduct swift, thorough, and impartial investigations into all cases of enforced disappearances in the country and hold those responsible accountable. The two organizations also urge the Lao government to speed up the investigation into the enforced disappearance of prominent civil society leader Sombath Somphone, who was last seen at a police checkpoint on a busy street of Vientiane on the evening of 15 December 2012. On 23 June 2015, during its second Universal Periodic Review (UPR), Laos rejected all eight recommendations that called for investigations into all allegations of enforced disappearance in the country and dismissed such allegations as "not true." The government acknowledged Sombath's disappearance, but accepted only four of the 10 recommendations that called for an investigation into his disappearance. UPDATE: 21/7/2016 Three Lao citizens arrested in March for criticizing their government and ruling party via social media while working in Thailand are being held in a jail in the capital Vientiane, where they are denied family visits while waiting to be tried, sources said. Somphone Phimmasone, 29, his girlfriend Lod Thammavong, 30, and Soukane Chaithad, 32, disappeared after returning to Laos earlier this year to renew their passports, their family and friends told RFA's Lao Service in a previous report. Police acknowledged in May that the three had been taken into custody in Laos' Khammouane province and later transferred to Vientiane. They are now detained at the Phonethan jail in Vientiane's Sisatthanak district, Soukane's father told RFA's Lao Service. "They are being held there for sure, because we can bring food to them there, though we are not allowed to meet with them," Soukane's father said. "The police have told us that we will be able to see them sometime during the next few months after they have been tried and sentenced," he said. Reached by an RFA reporter for comment, Lt. Col. Phoumiphone Somsihapanya of the Ministry of Public Security's intelligence department refused to discuss the case. Media controls Lao journalists have been similarly discouraged from looking too closely into the matter, one local reporter told RFA. "In the case of the three detained workers, I once asked the police for an interview and they told me to send them a letter requesting permission," the reporter said. "But when I sent it to them, they never replied," he said. Media controls in Laos have meanwhile been tightened even more as talks get under way at the 49th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting, scheduled for July 21 through July 26 in Vientiane, one source working in the Lao media said. "We are being restricted in our reporting on the Foreign Ministers' Meeting, and all news must come from press releases issued by the press department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," RFA's source said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "A few days ago, a ministry official accused one reporter from a Lao news agency of editing the content in a press release, and his report was taken off of their website," he said.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Enforced Disappearance
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 17.9757058
Longitude: 102.6331035
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 5 and 22 March 2016, the three human rights activists Lodkham Thammavong, Somphone Phimmasone, and Soukan Chaithad, were arrested in Lao for allegedly being a threat to national security through social media postings. So far, they still remain in incommunicado detention, in circumstances that may constitute enforced disappearances. UPDATE: 21/07/2016 The three Lao workers are held in the Phonethan jail in Vientiane's Sisatthanak district, but family visits are still denied.