Rights Groups Call on ASEAN to Address Disappearance of Lao Activist: HRW

Eighty-two human rights organizations asked the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to break the silence on the enforced disappearance of Lao civil society activist Sombath Somphone.

MOSCOW, December 15 (Sputnik) — Eighty-two human rights organizations have signed a petition calling on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to “break silence” on the enforced disappearance of Lao civil society activist Sombath Somphone, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Monday.

"ASEAN member states have remained conspicuously silent on the issue of Sombath's disappearance. Our organizations believe that ASEAN member states, as well as the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR), must break the silence on this matter," a statement published on the watchdog's website read.

HRW has urged ASEAN member states "to raise the issue of Sombath's disappearance with the Lao government," which has been deliberately ignoring the problem and refuses to provide any information on the activist's whereabouts.

"ASEAN member states must act as responsible members of the international community and uphold the 10-nation bloc's key tenets enshrined in the ASEAN Charter, which recognizes the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms among the bloc's purposes and principles," the statement said.

Sombath Somphone, a social activist known for empowering the rural poor in Laos, was reportedly stopped by police on December 2012 in Vientiane. Several minutes later, he was apprehended by unidentified individuals, forced into a car and driven away. According to public surveillance footage, police were present while Sombath was abducted, but did not intervene.

HRW claims that Sombath's case is not an isolated issue. Another nine activists who were planning peaceful rallies in support of democratic rule and human rights were reportedly detained by Lao police in 2009. Their whereabouts are still unknown.