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September 16, 2004

Can the world take the Lao Government at its words?

It is unbelievable to read the news recently from several media about the Lao soldiers killed and mutilated Hmong children in Xaysomboun special zone. Further, the Amnesty International also accused the acts of the Lao soldiers against these children as war crimes and urged the Lao Government to investigate and punish the culprits. As usual, the calls by the international communities have fallen into the deaf ears of the Lao authorities despite the evidences clearly shown the atrocities committed against these children. In fact, the Lao Government through its spoke person, Yong Chanthalangsy, also dismissed this atrocity as “fabrication” by the ill intend group of people. Mr. Chanthalangsy further stated “with modern technology these days you could do this anywhere. This is another groundless fabrication."

I am very disappointed by the act of carelessness of the LPDR Government through its spoke person, Mr. Chanthalangsy. I personally do not believe that the Lao Government have policies in place to kill and mutilate children that warrant war crimes against its own people as allege by the Amnesty International, but I do believe that certain individual soldiers or units may carried out this crime without the knowledge of their higher command.

As far as I know, the Regional Commander of this Xaysomboun Special Zone, Brigadier General Bounchanh Sengsavang, is a good soldier and decent human being. I don’t believe that he gave order to his soldiers to commit this war crime as allege by the Amnesty International. As an example, during 1977 when Gen. Bounchanh’s soldiers went rampage and killed villagers in one of the village in the area of Xaysomboun Special Zone, all of the villagers were killed except two boys. His soldiers were prepared to kill these two boys, but Gen. Bounchanh stopped the atrocities and he also adopted one of these two children as his son and named him Bounleua. Currently, Bounleua is working for Gen. Bounchanh as his personal driver in Xaysomboun Special Zone.

Historically, the Lao Government through its spoke person always denied the news that will give the Lao government and its Lao Revolutionary Party black eyes. Starting from the revolution, when the Royal Lao Government arrested the Vietnamese Prisoners of war who fought on Laos’ soil and presented these prisoners to the media, the Lao Government which back then known as the Pathet Lao, always denied that Vietnam never sent its soldiers fighting on Laos’ soil and these prisoners were “fabrication” by the Royal Lao Government to tarnish the Pathet Lao image. Later, Vietnam and Laos admitted that Vietnamese soldiers came and fought on Laos’ soil during the war since Vietnam has come and continue to come to collect its death soldiers in Laos soil and it is no different as Mr. Yong Chanthalangsy denied the atrocities against these Hmong children by the LPDR soldiers as “fabrication.” Further, when the bombs exploded times after times around Vientiane around 1999 & 2000, the Lao Government came up with many theories without substantial proof in supporting the justification of the Lao government official's position. The most bizarre explanation was the one that Mr. Somsavath Lengsavad, the Lao Foreign Minister, telling foreign media about the bomb that was exploded on the eve of the Asian and EU summit in Vientiane in 1999 that the bomb was caused by the left over bomb that was dropped by the American airplanes during the war while the world knows that American war planes never dropped one single bomb in Vientiane during the war. On the contrary, the Lao media English newspaper, Vientiane Times, gave a contradict explanation to the LPDR Foreign Minister. The Official Mouth Piece Media of the Lao Government, Vientiane Times, wrote that the bomb which exploded on the eve of the Asian and EU summit was caused by the can that contained chemical and it was burned during the clean up by the janitors while western diplomats who went to the site of the explosion said that it was caused by the bomb. Also, when the Lao Student Movement for Democracy staged the protest against the Laos' dictatorial regime, several members of the Lao students were arrested, and the Lao Government denied that no protest ever happened and no ones were arrested. Later, the world learned that the protest was happening on October 26, 1999 because some of the members of the Lao Students Movement for Democracy escaped the arrest and later were granted refugees status by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Thailand and later these students were accepted to settle in the Unites States.

With the history of denying the truth and lying by the Lao Government, in order to clean up its bad image the Lao Government needs to investigate this atrocity and punished the culprits who committed this war crimes. I also urged the Lao Government to allow international human right organization and/or the International Red Cross to get involve in this investigation then the world will once and for all know for sure if this atrocity is a fact as alleged by western media and Amnesty international or a fabrication as stated by the Lao official, Mr. Yong Chanthalangsy.

Viengdalay Winslow

May 25, 2004

PRESS RELEASE

LAOS – ‘’MOVEMENT OF 26 OCTOBER ‘’ : Homage to Khamphouvieng SISA-AT, dead in prison from mistreatment.

The Lao Movement for Human Rights( LMHR) learned with sadness and emotion Khamphouvieng SISA-AT’s death in prison, one of the leaders of the ‘’Mouvement of 26 October ‘’, an attempt to launch a pacific march on 26 October 1999 in Vientiane to denounce social justice and to ask for the respect of human rights and democratic reforms in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic ( LPDR).

According to informations published by the medias, Khamphouvieng SISA-AT died of physical as well as moral sufferings, victim of mistreatment endured in a dark cell in Samkhe prison, a subburb of Vientiane. According to these same sources, it was tied up, put under ‘’prolonged heat exposure ‘’ that he endured his last hours of agony.

The death in prison of Khamphouvieng SISA-AT – since 2001, but voluntarily hidden by the leaders of the One Party State – shows, once more, the hideous and inhuman dictatorial régime that has been ruling Laos for nearly 30 years, sadly famous for its human rights abuses, expert in calculated manners to charm donator countries.

The LMHR pays homage to the memory of Khamphouvieng SISA-AT and honours this freedom and human rights defender, killed by the cruelty of the leaders of the LPDR.

Khamphouvieng SISA-AT was – with MM. Thongpaseuth KEUAKOUN, Sengaloun PHENGPHANH, Bouavanh CHANMANIVONG and KEOCHAY – the main leaders of the ‘’ Movement of 26 October ‘’. This pacific movement, composed of several hundreds students, teachers, public servants and simple citizens, calling for democratic reforms, social justice, human rights respects and national reconciliation in Laos, was immediatly suppressed by the secret police. Many were arrested, among whom the five leaders.

The Lao Movement for Human Rights expresses its deep indignation on this unacceptable attitude from the leaders of the LPDR who have consciously hidden Khamphouvieng SISA-AT’s death since 2001. The LMHR asks that his ashes be given to his family.

The LMHR calls for the immediate release of the four other leaders of the Movement of 26 October, MM. Thongpaseuth KEUAKOUN, Sengaloun PHENGPHANH, Bouavanh CHANMANIVONG and KEOCHAY, a request made several times already by the European Parliament and the American Congress.

The LMHR urges the international community – in particular the United Nations, the European Union, ASEAN, the United States, Australia and Japan – to take actions so that international commissions and representatives of humanitarian organizations can go into the LPDR to investigate conditions of detention in Lao prisons, especially the prison of Samkhe, and to observe, in all independency, the situation of human rights and of freedom in the country.

Click here to read====> Human Rights Report for LAOS 2003

January 8, 2004

Below is a letter from a person who has accessed to the Lao Gulag. This letter was sent to the activist who is working to improve the human rights around the world and Laos is one of them. Some information in this letter is deleted for security reason.

November 9, 2003

The Honorable Betty McCollum

United States House of Representatives

1029 Longworth House Office Building

Washington, D.C. 20515-2304

DC Phone: 202-225-6631

DC Fax: 202-225-1968

District Office:

165 Western Avenue N, #17

Saint Paul, MN 55102

(651) 224-9191/(651) 224-3056/fax

Honorable McCollum:

As a Lao American, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and support of your leadership in sponsoring HR 402. A resolution calls for reform of human rights and religious freedom by the Lao government. While I am applauding you on your initiative in regard to this H.Res 402 expresses the sense of Congress that there is urgent need for freedom, democratic reform, and international monitoring of elections, human rights, and religious liberty in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. I am also very troublesome in regard to the legislation (HR 3195) to extend Normal Trade Relations (NTR) to Laos. I believe that this HR 3195 in granting NTR to Laos at the time of a gross human right abuse by this inhuman communist Laos Government is inappropriate as stated by the letter of U.S. Congressman Mark Green (R-WI) that sent to the President on September 9, 2003 and this letter is also signed by 22 members of the U.S. Congress opposing granting NTR to Laos Communist Government at this point in time. I am therefore asking you to withdraw sponsoring HR 3195 until the Laos Communist Government are ceasing its gross human rights abuse against its own people.

I also would like to urge you, the Ways and Means Committee and the Congress as a whole to call on the US Administration to press the Lao Communist Government for the immediate and unconditional release of all prisoners of conscience, especially the release of the two former high ranking Lao Government officers, Mr. Khamphoui Ratsmy and Mr. Feng Sackchittaphong, who advocate for peaceful political reform and who have been imprisoned since 1991 when they petitioned the Lao People's Revolutionary Party to allow more freedom for the Lao people and to implement a multi-political parties system. We also urge for the immediate and unconditional release of the five student leaders - Mr. Thongpaseuth Keuakoun, Mr. Khamphouvieng Sisaath, Mr. Seng Aloun Phengphanh, Mr. Bouavanh Chanhmanivong and Mr. Keochay. These five student leaders were arrested in October 1999 for attempting to hold a peaceful demonstration in Vientiane (the capital of Laos) on October 26, 1999. The demonstration's main objectives were (1) the respect of human rights, (2) the release of political prisoners, (3) fair and open election and (4) the implementation of a multi-political parties system to achieve true democracy in Laos.

These student leaders have been arrested for peacefully exercising their rights as guaranteed in Article 31 of the LPDR's own Constitution, promulgated in August 1991. Article 31 of the LPDR's Constitution stipulates: "Lao citizens have the right and freedom of speech, press and assembly; and have the right to set up associations and to stage demonstrations which are not contrary to the law."

The arrest and the continued incarceration of the student leaders also violate the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, particularly, Articles 2, 11, 19, and 20(1). Article 20(1) of the Declaration specifically stipulates: "Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association." Laos is a signatory of the Declaration.

True to its dictatorial principles and long tradition of deceptive and lying practices, the LPDR denied and deceived that there ever was a demonstration on October 26, 1999. According to Amnesty International's Public Statement of October 25, 2002 (AI Index: ASA 26/005/2002), a spokesman of the Lao Foreign Ministry was quoted, in November 1999, as saying: "I have checked the report thoroughly and stand firm that there was no protest or arrest of anyone in the past two weeks. There might have been some drunken people scuffling or making noise that caused outsiders visiting Vientiane to think they were protesting." These official lies of the LPDR were unmasked when a group of six students, who participated in the demonstration, were able to escape Laos immediately after the failed attempt demonstration and were granted asylum in Seattle, Washington in October 2000.

The Lao Communist Government would have continued its charade of deception if it were not for the strong pressure from the European Union parliamentarians to come clean regarding the arrest of the protesters. According to the same October 25, 2002 Amnesty International's Public Statement, Lao officials admitted in June 2002 during their talk with European parliamentarians that the five student leaders had been sentenced in June 2001. How could there have been a sentence if there were no arrests? Once again, the Lao Communist Government was caught lying.

Second, while applauding the US Government's policies of engagement with the Lao Communist Government, I strongly believes that granting NTR to the Lao Communist Government at this point would be counterproductive and lead to further abuse of human rights. It would also send a wrong and conflicting message to the Lao people and the freedom-loving people around the world that the US would reward a murderous and dictatorial government that violates basic human rights as stipulated in the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights without requiring significant changes or improvements of human rights and the rule of laws or even a small token gesture of goodwill, such as the unconditional and immediate release of political prisoners, such as the five democracy student leaders and the two former LPDR's reform-minded officers. The release of these seven political prisoners would not pose any threat to the Lao Communist Government's stability.On the contrary, it would indicate the Lao Government's gradual commitment to the rule of laws and its international obligations and it would shine a ray of hopes to its own people - the Lao people - that a new dawn of freedom would not be too long a dream.

Economically, Laos has very few products and virtually no services that would benefit from gaining NTR status and thus, free or low tariff access to the US market, except for the garment industry. The Lao people would not enjoy any benefits as a result of the NTR status. Only the ruling elites and the foreign garment tycoons would fully reap the benefits. As experiences in other developing countries have shown that there have been frequent abuse of women and children in the garment industry in countries where transparency is not the norm, but rampant corruption at the highest level of government is. Laos, under the Communist regime, is no different, if not worse. True, there have been numerous decrees issued to "fight and eradicate" corruption; as a matter of fact, every prime minister since Kaysone Phomvihane, the first prime minister of LPDR, through Boungnang Vorachit, the current prime minister, has issued at least one such decree. One has to wonder why corruption today is more rampant. The answer is because in a dictatorial regime the people cannot scrutinize and question their government. This answer may seem simplistic and obvious, but that's the true nature of dictatorship.

It has been almost thirty years that the Lao people have suffered under the dictatorship of the Lao Communist Government. Although there appears to be some economic improvement after billion of dollars in direct foreign aids and loans and foreign investments, the vast majority of the Lao people still live in poverty today. Laos, as a country, has been driven further into one of the least developed countries. While the country and the people are in dire poverty, the ruling elites are enjoying all the luxuries that money can buy. Let's think for a moment: how can a person with a monthly salary of less than five hundred dollars (the official salary of a minister of the LPDR) afford to pay cash for luxury cars and mansions?

Another economic reality is that Laos is a landlocked country where all its exporting products have to go through its neighboring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam. The labor cost must be low enough to offset the high costs of in-land transit transportation. This condition, adding to the rampant corruption at the highest level of government, will lead to a slavery of the Lao women and children working in the exporting industries. What guarantee will they have for reasonable wages and working conditions when the Lao Communist Government has repeatedly ignored its own constitution and its international obligations under the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights? Politically, by granting NTR status at this point, the US Government would inadvertently send the wrong message to the Lao people that it rewards a dictatorial government, which consistently ignores its own constitution and its international obligations to uphold and comply with the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It would dash any hopes and dreams the Lao people may still have and hold dear to their hearts that some day their country, through the international pressure, would enjoy true liberty and democracy that we, Americans, have been taking for granted for so long. Any economic benefits from the NTR status would only further enhance and perpetuate the oppressive and persecutorial regime of the Lao Communist Government and the vast majority of the Lao people would continue to live in poverty and fear.

I personally believe that there will be a time when NTR status will benefit the vast majority of the Lao people. That time will come when the Lao people can freely and without fear, elect their own representative form of government that is not imposed upon them by a one dictatorial party-state government as they are currently forced to endure.Until then, NTR status would just enhance the bloody, oppressive hands of the Lao Communist Government.

By advocating for the denial of the granting of NTR status to Lao PDR, I do not advocate for the isolation of Lao PDR. On the contrary, we urge the US Administration to augment its engagement with the Lao Communist Government and I believe the current US support in narcotic control and the US assistance in the UXO program, to name a few, are more beneficial to the vast majority of the Lao people than the NTR status could provide.

In conclusion, I would once again urge you and the House Ways and Means Committee and the US Congress to reject the granting of the NTR Status to the Lao Communist Government, unless and until it indicates its strongest commitment to the improvement of human rights and its international obligations. The Lao Communist Government could signify such commitment by unconditionally and immediately release the two former reform-minded LPDR officers and the five-student democracy leaders- a simple and small token gesture of goodwill.

Thank you.

Respectfully yours,

Sou Maly

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