The US on Wednesday called for Laos to immediately resolve the case of a prominent activist whose abduction three years ago sent a “chilling message” to the nation’s civic society.
The statement from the US Department of State came as the top US envoy for East Asia prepares to travel to communist-governed Laos, which next year is to chair ASEAN.
The activist, Sombath Somphone, was abducted from a police checkpoint in Vientiane on Dec. 15, 2012. Closed-circuit TV footage showed him being escorted by two men to a pickup truck and driven away.
State department spokesman John Kirby said the US is troubled that no progress has been made in locating Somphone and called on the Laotian government to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation.
“The United States remains deeply concerned over his fate and the chilling message his abduction sends to members of civil society and the people of Laos more broadly,” Kirby said.
Laos has denied its security apparatus was behind the disappearance and said an investigation continues, but has provided little information about it despite repeated appeals from the US and other Western nations.
Sombath championed young people’s participation in development and in 2005 won the Magsaysay Award.
He was not considered overtly political, but his advocacy for civic society might have been considered a threat by the authoritarian regime that has ruled Laos since 1975.
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