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Lao Police Link to Missing Activist
DECEMBER 19, 2012— A respected Lao social activist who went missing this weekend was last seen in police custody before being taken away by unidentified men in a truck, according to surveillance video provided to his family by police.
Based on the closed-circuit television footage, Sombath Somphone, the former head of a development agency in Vientiane, was taken to a roadside police station in the capital city on Saturday night after the car he was driving was stopped by traffic police, a relative who wished to remain anonymous told RFA’s Lao Service.
He was then seen leaving the police post and entering a pickup truck accompanied by a few men, she said.
“We know that he was taken,” she said. “We are searching for him using the CCTV and looking for his car.”
She said police had shown the family the footage on Monday, but did not provide any explanation of who took him away or why he had been allowed to leave the station.
The footage, which relatives posted online on Wednesday, shows—according to the relative—a man arriving on a motorbike at the police station while Somphone is inside, then leaving and coming back with other men in a truck to pick him up.
“He was driving and was stopped by traffic police. They talked and he came out of the car. They went to a police station,” she said.
“They went in, and we don’t know what happened inside the police station. But later on there was a man who came on a motorbike, stopped it in front of Sombath’s car, and walked into the police station.”
“Then [the man] came back, this time driving a pickup truck with a few men. They went into the police station, and came out with Sombath,” she said.
“He was not handcuffed or coerced, he just walked on his own with those men and got into the car in a hurry, and the car took off even before the door was closed.”
Concern
The activist’s wife last saw Somphone, the former director of the Participatory Development Training Centre (PADETC) in Vientiane, when they both left group’s office around 5:00 pm on Saturday.
The case has drawn concern from the U.S., where State Department Spokesman Victoria Nuland asked the Lao government to work to find him.
"We have registered our concern with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Laos and encouraged them to make every effort to locate him and figure out what's happened here," she told reporters.
A group of 61 Thai NGOs have also issued a statement expressing concern about Somphone, who was the 2005 recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, a prestigious award for Asian civil society groups.
Family members were not aware of Somphone being embroiled in any disagreements with other people, the relative said.
"Family members including his wife discussed whether he had any problems with anybody, and we could not find any,” she said.
She said that according to his wife, Shui Meng, there was “no way” Somphone had been involved in problems over money because he had not lent or borrowed money.
She said the police told the relatives they will try their best to search and look for him, and that colleagues and relatives were following up with their own efforts.
The chief of the police investigation department in Vientiane confirmed with RFA’s Lao Service Tuesday that they had begun investigating the case after family members reported the case to them on Monday.
Somphone, 60, who had studied in the U.S. before returning to Laos to found PADETC’s precursor in 1980, recently retired as director of the organization after over a decade as its director.
Since then Somphone had been involved with the Asia-Europe People’s Forum, representing local civil society groups as a member of Laos’s national committee at the October forum in Vientiane on the sidelines of an international summit.
PADETC, which receives funding from the Dutch-based Novib/Oxfam and the EU, among other agencies, works on poverty prevention and sustainability projects such as fuel-efficient stoves, fish farming promotion, recycling, media, school volunteers, and teacher training.
Reported by RFA’s Lao Service. Translated by Viengsay Luangkhot, Bounchanh Mouangkham, and Somnet Inthapannha. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink.
View this story online at: http://www.rfa.org/english/news/laos/sombath-somphone-12192012200655.html
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news, information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
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Two Young Tibetans Burn
Dec. 8, 2012 — Two Tibetan men self-immolated Saturday in separate protests against Chinese rule in Tibet, one of whom was a monk who called for the return of exiled spiritual leaders to the region, Tibetan sources said.
Kunchok Phelgyal, 24, a monk from Ngaba (in Chinese, Aba) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in China’s Sichuan province, and Pema Dorjee, a 23-year-old layman from Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in Gansu province perished in the acts.
The new burnings were the 93rd and 94th Tibetan self-immolations since February 2009, when the fiery protests began.
“Today [Saturday], Kunchok Phelgyal, a monk of Sumdo Monastery in Dzoege (Ruo'ergai) county in Ngaba self-immolated around 5:20 p.m. against Chinese policy [in Tibet] and died,” two sources based in India's Dharamsala hill town told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
They said the young monk had shouted out slogans while he sat with his hands folded in prayer after setting himself alight.
“He called for the long life of the [Tibetan spiritual leader in exile] Dalai Lama, and his return to Tibet,” said Kanyak Tsering and Lobsang Yeshi of the Kirti Monastery in Dharamsala, citing a source inside Tibet.
“He also called for the return of Kirti Kyabgon Rinpoche [the exiled Head Lama of the Kirti Monastery in Ngaba],” they said.
The sources said Kunchok Phelgyal had also voiced hope for a “reunion of Tibetans both inside and outside of Tibet.”
“As he was being burnt in protest, the monks of the [Sumdo] Monastery gathered around his burning body and prayed,” they said.
“Thereafter, his body was moved to his room inside the monastery and several hundred monks conducted prayers for him.”
The young Kunchok Phelgyal had been studying Buddhist dialectics at the Taktsang Lhamo Kirti Monastery since 2010 as a visiting monk from the Sumdo Monastery.
“He is the son of Kunchok Kyab (father) and Dolma Tso (mother) of the Gonda Dewa nomadic village under Dringwa township, Dzoege county in Ngaba,” Kanyag Tsering and Lobsang Yeshi said.
“He has nine family members including his parents.”
Layman burning
Also on Saturday, layman Pema Dorjee self-immolated in front of the Shitsang Monastery in Kanlho’s Luchu (Luqu) county, a source inside of Tibet told RFA’s Tibetan Service, speaking on condition of anonymity.
“Pema Dorjee, who is just 23, set himself on fire and protested against the Chinese occupation of Tibet,” said the source.
“This happened around 4:35 p.m. [Saturay], right in front of the door to Shitsang Monastery in Luchu county in Gansu. He was reported dead following his act of self-immolation.”
The source said that Pema Dorjee had torched himself as several Tibetans were gathering at the monastery for Gaden Ngacho, a special lamp offering prayer session.
The layman was from Chokor village, located around 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Shitsang Monastery.
China policy
The two new burnings drew immediate condemnation from the London-based Free Tibet, with director Stephanie Brigden saying she had “grave concerns” for the welfare of Tibetans living in the townships where Saturday’s protests occurred.
“China has announced collective punishments it intends to mete out on communities where protests take place, and Free Tibet has documented, time and again, China’s flagrant violations of human rights, including the use of lethal force, during the uprising in Tibet,” she said in a statement.
“Tibetans continue to call for freedom, despite the cost. It is beyond time for the world to take decisive action for Tibet.”
The protests follow a statement earlier this week by Maria Otero, the U.S. State Department’s Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, who said Washington was “deeply concerned and saddened” by the increasing frequency of Tibetan self-immolations.
“Chinese authorities have responded to these tragic incidents with measures that tighten already strict controls on freedoms of religion, expression, assembly and association of Tibetans,” she said.
“Official rhetoric that denigrates the Tibetan language, the Dalai Lama, and those who have self-immolated has further exacerbated tensions.”
Otero said that Beijing must address policies causing discontent in Tibetan areas, including controls on Tibetan Buddhist religious practice, education practices that undermine the Tibetan language, and the surveillance, arbitrary detention and disappearances of Tibetans.
Since late October, officials have responded to the burning protests by punishing the families and communities of protestors, characterizing immolations as criminal offenses, arresting those associated with the self-immolators, and deploying paramilitary forces and restricting communications and travel in areas where the protests have occurred.
Reported by Lobsang Sherab, Guru Choegyi, and Lumbum Tashi for RFA’s Tibetan Service. Translated by Karma Dorjee. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
View this story online at : http://www.rfa.org/english/news/tibet/burning-12082012115142.html
Radio Free Asia is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting and publishing online news , information, and commentary in nine East Asian languages to listeners who do not have access to full and free news media. RFA ’s broadcasts seek to promote the rights of freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to “seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” RFA is funded by an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors.
If you no longer wish to receive RFA news releases, send an e-mail to engnews-leave(a)rfanews.org . To add your name to our mailing list, send an e-mail to engnews-join(a)rfanews.org .
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All media inquiries may be sent to Rohit Mahajan at mahajanr(a)rfa.org .
