burning issue: Fresh ideas needed in ties with Laos

BURNING ISSUE:

Fresh ideas needed in ties with Laos

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Fresh-ideas-needed-in-ties-with-Laos-30206697.html

Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation May 22, 2013 1:00 am

Relations between Thailand and Laos in the 21st century have already moved toward a new era, which requires not only trust and cooperation, but also a new vision to make the links mutually beneficial to people of both countries.

The joint cabinet meeting between the two governments jointly chaired by Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and Laotian Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong over the weekend in Chiang Mai reflected no clear vision for their ties in a new era. It simply followed up work which previous governments had initiated.

Many visionary and capable Thai leaders in the past were able to open new chapters in relations with Laos. Former Prime Minister Kriangsak Chamanant, together with Laotian leader Kraisone Pomvihan, managed to end mistrust in 1979 and brought the two brotherly countries into close relations, despite their different political ideologies.

Conservative forces in Bangkok halted the good ties with two military clashes in 1984 and 1987 due to boundary conflicts during Prem Tinsulanonda’s years – but such sour relations lasted for only a short time.

Visionary leader Chatichai Choonhavan dramatically led relations between Thailand and Laos into a genuine new era as he declared the policy to transform Indochina’s battle zone into a market zone at the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s. Such a policy has been fundamental for the relationship until now.

Anand Panyarachun and Chuan Leekpai during their time guided relations with Laos to regionalism and regional integration when they introduced economic liberalisation, connection and integration with Asean to the two countries.

Thaksin Shinawatra might have his problems domestically but he was famous in many neighbouring countries for his brainchild projects linking them in the Mekong basin. His initiative, the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), is still active in developing infrastructure as well as providing assistance to Laos. The latest summit of ACMECS took place with participation by Yingluck in Vientiane in March this year.

However, there has been no new policy initiative in relation to Laos since the 2006 military coup, as many governments over the years since then have been busy with domestic conflicts.

This government under Yingluck is no exception. Although the current government is relatively free from domestic political tension, it offers no policy initiative for ties with Laos. The joint statement signed by foreign ministers of the two countries reflected no new vision for future relations.

One part of the statement is even locked into relations of the 1980s. It stated that Thailand would not allow any dissidents to use Thailand as their shelter or as a launching PAD against the government in Vientiane. The anti-communist movement in Thailand has not been active since the beginning of this century, but Laos continued to worry over dissidents and mistrusted Thailand.

This government was supposed to have a policy initiative on economic relations with Laos, but it was not to be. Projects on economic and transportation links were mostly created after Chatichai, Chuan and Thaksin’s administrations.

The two countries have learned already that many road links and bridges were under-utilised due to fewer economic activities in the area. Border-crossing transportation was obstructed by bureaucracy, but ideas to liberate it have never been translated into tangible projects. The schedule to implement single-stop inspection services has been repeatedly delayed.

Laos government silent on abduction

Officials of one-party state likely behind disappearance although it’s unclear when Sombath Somphone became a threat

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Laos+government+silent+abduction/8320002/story.html

By Jonathan Manthorpe, Vancouver Sun May 1, 2013 2:10 AM

It’s hard to guess when Som-bath Somphone crossed the line from being an accepted and cherished champion of rural development in Laos, to becoming a perceived threat to the one-party Communist state.

But that’s what happened.

Early in the evening of Dec. 15 as Sombath was driving home in his Jeep from his office in the Lao capital Vientiane he was stopped at a police checkpoint on Thadeua Road, which runs by the Mekong River.

A few minutes later a man rode up on a motorcycle, parked it and drove off in Som-bath’s jeep.

Then a pickup truck arrived at the checkpoint, Sombath got in, the truck drove off and he has not been seen or heard from since.

Others have disappeared in questionable circumstances in Laos, which, after the moves to civilian rule in Burma and economic reforms in Vietnam, remains the most recalcitrant one-party state in Southeast Asia.

The government of Prime Minister Thongsing Thamma-vong was particularly alarmed by the part played by civil society organizations in the Arab Spring revolutions which rolled across the Middle East in 2011 and which continue to reverberate.

The government began looking at civil society groups with suspicion.

Sombath, 61, is a champion of grassroots development organizations, but he is no radical or wild-eyed activist.

In the early 1970s, Sombath won a scholarship to the University of Hawaii where he got a master’s degree in agriculture.

He chose to return to Laos in 1980 and began work promoting methods of sustainable agricultural development in this country of 6.5 million people that was devastated more than anywhere else during the Vietnam War.

Sombath’s first objective was to establish food security by persuading villagers to use a sustainable cycle of farming based on rice cultivation.

In 1996, he expanded his vision by founding the Participatory Development Training Centre. This was licensed by the Ministry of Education in 1996 and was the country’s first civil society organization.

Again the emphasis was on sustainable, organic agriculture, and rural development. But he expanded the mandate to include using new processing techniques and adopting marketing strategies for small businesses.

The success of PADETC won Sombath many awards and much international recognition for his work.

Sombath never tried to confront the government and he negotiated the labyrinthian corridors of power of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party with consummate, but quiet skill.

But admiration for his success also brought emulation, and this may have been the cause of Sombath’s abduction and disappearance.

Many civil society groups have sprung up in Laos and the country has become a favourite focus for international nongovernmental organizations.

In general, the Lao government does not see these groups as partners in the quest to develop one of the world’s most impoverished countries.

It sees them as adversaries and rivals for power. Civil society organizations are closely monitored and restricted by government security officials.

Occasionally, the government lashes out at one of the NGOs to remind the others that tolerance of their activities has narrow limits.

In December, just a week before Sombath’s abduction, the country head of the Swiss agricultural NGO Helvetas, Anne-Sophie Gindoz, was expelled by the government.

Her sin appears to have been sending emails to colleagues complaining about the lack of freedom of speech in Laos.

The common factor with Som-bath is that Gindoz was heavily involved in a forum for local and international civil society organizations held in Vientiane in October.

Sombath was one of the prime movers for this meeting. To the one-party state fanatics in the government, it may well have looked like the emergence of a rival power base.

That can only be speculation. But had it not been for closed circuit television cameras on Thadeua Road it would not be possible to say with reasonable certainty that government elements were involved in his abduction. Sombath would simply have disappeared.

Members of his family persuaded police to show them the video footage from the crucial time that evening.

Most important, they secretly copied the police video using a cellphone camera. The footage is easily accessible on YouTube.

Lao refugees in the U.S., especially from the Hmong ethnic group who make up 40 per cent of the population, are a vocal and effective lobby group in Washington.

They have successfully pressed Secretary of State John Kerry and his predecessor, Hillary Clinton, to urge the Laos government to investigate the disappearance.

The Lao Americans have also urged Washington to stall aid projects in Laos until Vientiane comes clean about what happened to Sombath.

Many others, including the European Union and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, have put similar pressure on Vientiane.

But so far the Laos government has said only that it doesn’t have enough information to launch an investigation.

jmanthorpe@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Laos+government+silent+abduction/8320002/story.html#ixzz2S2chtTgl

 

Laos: Coalition Opposes U.S. Taxpayers’ Funding of Bomb Removal From Vietnam War

Laos: Coalition Opposes U.S. Taxpayers’ Funding of Bomb Removal From Vietnam War

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2013/04/12/2616010/laos-coalition-opposes-us-taxpayers.html

Published: Friday, Apr. 12, 2013 / Updated: Friday, Apr. 12, 2013 01:26 PM

WASHINGTON & VIENTIANE, Laos — The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) and a coalition of Lao and Hmong non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are opposing a controversial multi-million dollar U.S. Department of State project to remove unexploded Vietnam War-era ordnance and bombs from Laos.

In opposition to the project, which the State Department is presently promoting with a U.S. tour, the NGOs are citing increased human rights abuses as well as religious and minority persecution in Laos. The organizations are also raising concerns about the recent arrest and abduction of Laotian civic activist Sombath Somphone, widespread government corruption in Laos and illegal logging by Lao and Vietnamese military-owned companies.

The Lao government’s support for North Korean (DPRK) is also being cited.

“We oppose U.S. funding for bomb removal in Laos, given the Lao regime’s ongoing persecution and killing of the Laotian and Hmong people,” said Vaughn Vang, Director of the Lao Human Rights Council (LHRC).

“Before any further funds are given for bomb removal efforts in Laos by U.S. taxpayers, the Lao regime must release Sombath Somphone, and jailed Lao Students for Democracy (LSFD) protest leaders, as well as information about the three Lao-Americans from Minnesota who disappearance in Laos at the hands of the Lao police and military in January,” stated Bounthanh Rathigna, President of the United League for Democracy in Laos (ULDL).

“Many Laotian and Hmong-Americans advocate cutting all U.S. foreign aid to Laos given the Lao government’s recent arrest of Sombath Somphone and its role in the disappearance of three Lao-Americans from Minnesota,” said Khampoua Naovarangsy, President of the Laos Institute for Democracy (LIFD).

The coalition of NGOs opposed to U.S. funding for the bomb removal program in Laos include the CPPA, ULDL, LIFD, LSFD, United Lao for Human Rights and Democracy, Hmong Advance, Inc., Hmong Advancement, Lao Veterans of America, Lao Veterans of America Institute and others.

“No U.S. taxpayers’ money should be used for the clean-up of bombs and unexploded ordnance in Laos from the Vietnam War-era, while corrupt Lao officials are engaged in brutal human rights violations, religious persecution, the abduction of civic activists, and ethnic cleansing waged against many of their own Lao and Hmong people,” said Philip Smith, Director of the CPPA in Washington, D.C.

“The Lao military continues to drop bombs and launch horrific and bloody attacks against peaceful civilian minority communities, including the Hmong people, in the mountains and jungles of Laos,” Smith stated. “The Lao Peoples Army (LPA) continues to attack and heavily shell and bomb its own freedom-loving people, with artillery and aircraft, and is engaged in widespread illegal logging in Laos in cooperation with Vietnam Peoples Army-owned companies.”

“Currently, the one-party communist regime in Laos is routinely engaged in machine-gunning, rocketing, bombing, and starving to death many innocent Laotian and Hmong civilians, and religious and dissident communities, in the mountains and jungles of Laos, including groups of Christian and Animist believers,” Smith observed. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130304006755/en/Laos-Attacks-Intensify-Lao-Hmong-People

“Given the U.S. budget crisis, there is growing opposition to this misguided and highly questionable bomb-removal project in Laos,” Smith commented. “Clearly, Laos should meet basic conditions, including the release of Sombath Somphone, and imprisoned Lao student and dissident leaders, before any further U.S. foreign aid is provided.”

“Moreover, the Lao military and politburo are closely allied with North Korea,” Smith stated. “No U.S. taxpayers’ money should go toward bomb removal programs in Laos until the Lao regime ends its cooperation with Stalinist North Korea.”

Laos: Opposition To U.S. Taxpayers’ Funding of Bomb Clearing From Vietnam War-Era

April 11, 2013, Washington, D.C., and Vientiane, Laos

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Maria Gomez, Tele. (202) 543-1444

CPPA – Center for Public Policy Analysis

info@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) and a coalition of Lao and Hmong non-governmental organizations  (NGOs) are opposing  a controversial  multi-million dollar U.S. State Department program to remove unexploded Vietnam-era ordinance and bombs from Laos.

In opposition to the program, which the State Department is promoting with a current national U.S. tour, the NGOs are citing increased human rights abuses and religious and minority persecution in Laos.  The organizations are also raising concerns about the recent arrest and abduction of Laotian civic activist Sombath Somphone, widespread government corruption in Laos, illegal logging, and religious persecution by the Lao government and military.   Concerns have also been raised about the Lao government’s ongoing solidarity and support for North Korean (DPRK).

“We oppose any U.S. funding for bomb removal in Laos, given the Lao government’s ongoing persecution and killing of the Laotian and Hmong people,” said Vaughn Vang, Executive Director for the Lao Human Rights Council. “This is absurd and immoral, given the Lao government’s role in abducting, persecuting and killing its own people.”

“Before any further funds are given for bomb removal efforts in Laos by the U.S. taxpayers, the Lao government must release Sombath Somphone, and jailed Lao Student for Democracy protest leaders,  as well as information about the three Lao-Americans from Minnesota who disappearance in Laos at the hands of the Lao military and secret police in January,” stated Bounthanh Rathigna, President of the United League for Democracy in Laos.

“ It  is deplorable, for the U.S. to contribute money to the clean-up of bombs and unexploded ordinance in Laos from the Vietnam War-era, while corrupt Lao military officials are engaged in brutal human rights violations,  the abduction of activists,  and ethnic cleansing against many of their own Lao and Hmong people,” said Philip Smith, Director of the CPPA in Washington, D.C.

“The Lao military and security forces continue to drop bombs and launch horrific and bloody attacks against peaceful civilian minority communities, including the Hmong people, in the mountains and jungles of Laos,” Smith stated.  “The Lao Peoples Army (LPA) continues to heavily bomb its own freedom-loving people;  Currently,  the one-party communist regime in Laos is often engaged in machine-gunning, rocketing, bombing, and starving to death many innocent Laotian and Hmong civilians, and religious and dissident communities, in the mountains and jungles of Laos. http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130304006755/en/Laos-Attacks-Intensify-Lao-Hmong-People

“Moreover, given the current U.S. Federal budget crisis, growing deficient, and serious economic problems in America, there is significant opposition at this time to the funding  of this misguided and highly questionable bomb-removal program in Laos,”   Smith commented.  “Clearly, Laos should  meet certain basic conditions, including the of release Sombath Somphone and imprisoned Lao student and dissident leaders before U.S. funds are provided for any such  bomb-removal e projects  in Laos.”

“It is also important to note that the Lao military and politburo are closely allied with the communist regime in North Korea, and no U.S. taxpayers’  money should go toward bomb removal programs in Laos until the Lao government renounces its relations with the Stalinist regime in North Korea,” Smith concluded.

The coalition of NGOs opposed to U.S. funding for the bomb removal program in Laos include the CPPA,  Lao Human Rights Council (LHRC), United League for Democracy in Laos (ULDL), Lao Institute for Democracy (LIFD), Lao Students for Democracy (LSFD), United Lao for Human Rights and Democracy (ULHRD),  Hmong Advance, Inc. (HAI), Hmong Advancement  (HA), Lao Veterans of America (LVA), Lao Veterans of America Institute (LVAI) and others.

###

For Immediate Release

Contact:  Maria Gomez or Philip Smith

Center for Public Policy Analysis

Tele. (202) 543-1444

info@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

http://www.cppa-dc.org

Q&A: Bombs remain threat in Laos

Q&A: Bombs remain threat in Laos

Click on the link to get more news and video from original source: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/04/08/5323692/bombs-remain-threat-in-laos.html

By Stephen Magagnini
smagagnini@sacbee.com

Doug Hartwick, U.S. Ambassador to Laos from 2001 to 2004

Published: Monday, Apr. 8, 2013 – 12:00 am | Page 1B

The last U.S. bombs fell on Laos 40 years ago, but thousands of tons of unexploded munitions are still claiming limbs and lives in the mountains, jungles and plains of Laos, said Doug Hartwick, U.S. ambassador to Laos from 2001 to 2004.

About 300 people a year continue to be killed, he said. Hartwick will visit West Sacramento on Thursday night as part of a nationwide tour helping the nonprofit Legacies of War publicize the devastating impact the unexploded ordnance is having on Laos.

Why did the United States bomb Laos?

During the Vietnam War, Laos was one of the most heavily bombed nations on Earth. We supported the Royal Lao government against the insurgency by the Communist Pathet Lao and the North Vietnamese army. The U.S. did a lot of bombing on the Plain of Jars, in the mountains of northern Laos and along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a series of trails from North Vietnam through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.

Since Laos wasn’t officially at war, the North Vietnamese thought it was much safer to move thousands of tons of supplies across the steep Annamite Mountains between Vietnam and Laos down the Ho Chi Minh Trail, so we began to bomb the trail.

What kind of bombs were dropped?

Along with other bombs, we dropped canisters filled with 200 to 300 anti-personnel bomblets the size of baseballs. They had modest fins on them that would spin and spray out. Even in Afghanistan, the rate of them not going off is very high.

At the U.S. Embassy, I had a bright young Lao aide trained as a lawyer. He said when he was a kid, they’d find them all around their school and throw them against the wall until one of his friends died in the explosion. In Laos they’re called “bombies” because they’re colorful, round grenades painted yellow.

What can Legacies of War and the U.S. government do about the bombs?

They can work with the State Department and Congress to make sure the U.S. keeps providing funds for medical assistance, education and bomb removal.

It’s a very expensive, slow-moving process. It’s not just defusing bombs. It’s getting resources to train the people who defuse bombs and educate people not to pick up and play with them. Laos is extremely poor. You can have children finding bomblets and playing with them until they go off, farmers triggering them while plowing rice fields, or poor people looking for scrap metal they can sell.

When I was ambassador, we gave around $2 million a year to mitigate the problem. Legacies got Congress to commit to around $10 million next year.

How have the bombs impacted the Hmong hill tribes in Laos?

A lot of the area that was bombed was the Hmong homeland. When the CIA was trying to support the Royal Lao government, they concluded the Hmong were very tenacious, excellent fighters so the CIA ended up recruiting thousands of Hmong. There are probably still 350,000 Hmong among the 6 million Laotian people. They’re the largest of Laos’ 60 ethnic groups.

What about the remnants of the Hmong resistance still hiding in the jungles?

I refer to them as Forest People, a band of Hmong who remained hidden in the mountains who were afraid the Laos government would arrest and abuse them. I tried to get the U.N. involved and toward the end of my tenure we had hundreds of of little groups who would come out on their own and get resettled.

We estimated about 5,000 people were up there hiding. Now we’re talking several hundred. Some of those groups in the mountains were being supported by Hmong groups in the U.S. who sent money. Every now and then a group would come out and attack a police station.

I worked hard with the Laos government, humanitarian groups and Hmong Americans to get them to come down. If the Laos government believed that someone had committed crimes, they could be pretty harsh. In my last year, about 700 came out. The Communist Laos government wouldn’t allow the U.S. Embassy to interview these people, but I believe they were treated humanely, given rudimentary cooking utensils and food. The provincial governments were looking for solutions, and that issue’s largely faded away.

What’s it like dealing with Laos today?

While the government’s still authoritarian, the communist aspects have largely fallen away. Human rights remains an issue, but it’s not as brutal as it might have been in the 1980s. Last July, Hillary Clinton became the first U.S. secretary of state to visit Laos since 1955, and she spent time with a bomb victim. We’ve normalized completely with Laos. But long after the war’s done, they’re still paying the price. We need to keep up U.S. assistance and humanitarian assistance to mitigate this problem.

IF YOU GO…

What: Doug Hartwick, a former U.S. ambassador to Laos, and Manixia Thor, a leader of an all-women bomb clearing team, will discuss the problems of unexploded cluster bombs in Laos. From 1964-1973, the United States dropped more than 2.5 million tons of bombs on Laos – more than was dropped on Germany and Japan combined during World War II, according to the U.S. State Department. U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, D-San Jose, has said that less than 1 percent of the 75 million cluster bombs that failed to detonate have been cleared.

When: 6:30 to 9 p.m. Thursday

Where: West Sacramento Community Center, 1075 West Capitol Ave.

Donations: Suggested donations for Legacies of War are $5 for students and $10 for others.

For more information: Call (209) 201-3662, or visit legaciesofwar.org

Call The Bee’s Stephen Magagnini, (916) 321-1072.

© Copyright The Sacramento Bee. All rights reserved.

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