2009-11-09 06:11:50 - Currently, 1123 Laotians suspected of seeking to peacefully assemble in opposition to the LPDR government or its policies, or suspected of involvement with dissident political and religious groups, are being held and abused by the secret police in the notorious Sam Khe prison and elsewhere in Laos without charge or due process.

Bangkok, Thailand and Washington, D.C., November 9, 2009

Over 1100 Laotian citizens have been arrested by the Lao government for suspected roles in organizing, or participating in, rallies in opposition to the Lao government. Arrests directed against Lao and Hmong people have intensified in Laos as military and police units intervene in Vientiane, Luang Prabang and elsewhere.

“Many Laotians suspected of seeking

to peacefully assemble in opposition to the LPDR government or its policies, or suspected of involvement with dissident political and religious groups, are being held and abused by the secret police in the notorious Sam Khe prison and elsewhere in Laos without charge or due process. Unfortunately, the Lao LPDR military junta does not have an independent judiciary,” said Mr. Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis from Washington, D.C.

“Since the start of efforts to organize anti-government pro-democracy demonstrations on November 2, in Vientiane, 1123 people have been arrested by police and LPA army units of the LPDR backed by addition troops and advisers from Hanoi. Over 300 Laotians were victimized by the LPDR regime in mass arrests on the first day alone of the planned protests, which is significant,” Smith explained.

“With the Lao government increasing discredited in the eyes of many Lao people because of corruption and systemic human rights violations, senior army and politburo officials in Hanoi have launched a renewed campaign to assisting the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR), and Lao Peoples Army (LPA) in seeking to suppress and eliminate political and religious opposition groups and dissidents who oppose the one-party military regime,” said Mr. Smith

“Because of the civil unrest against the LPDR regime, Hanoi, through state and army controlled telecommunications companies in Vietnam and Laos, has ordered the Vietnamese military to carefully monitoring all cell phone and telephone communications in Laos as a result of the crackdown and arrests,” Smith noted. “Electronics and telecommunications signal intelligence and intercept units have been deployed to Laos by the Vietnamese Army to assist the LPDR regime’s crackdown, arrests and domestic surveillance of the Laotian people.”

“Presently, a new round of arrests by secret police and army units in Laos have swelled the numbers of Laotians caught up in the government’s effort to try to stop peaceful anti-government, pro-democracy protests in Vientiane and elsewhere in Laos, Smith observed.

“Laotians seeking to assemble freely and organized peaceful protests demanding political and economic reforms and an end to one-party Communist rule in Laos prior to the start of the Southeast Asia Games ( SEA Games ) next month have been the subject to arrest and detention. The Lao military has intensified institutional violence against Lao and Hmong dissident and minority groups seeking change and reform in Laos,” Smith concluded.

“Currently, today, we are very concerned that the new Laotian protesters and pro-democracy activists in Laos are being jailed in terrible and harsh conditions in Sam Khe prison where they are suffering in horribly from the abuses of communist authorities,” observed Mr. Oudong Saysana and Ms. Nouamkham Khamphylavong of the Lao Students Movement for Democracy (LSMD) of October 26, 1999.

“By the 5th of November we received reports and confirmation from Lao student movement members inside Laos that the arrests of over 300 Laotian people had indeed occurred, ” Mr. Saysana and Ms. Nouamkham said. www.media-newswire.com/release_1105004.html

Nouamkham Khamphylavong, along with other Lao students, participated in the October 26, 1999 peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in Vientiane, Laos seeking political freedoms and change in Laos. Many of her colleagues and fellow students have been imprisoned in Laos for over 10 years by the Lao military junta.
asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA260042000?open&of=EN ..

Mr. Saysana stated further: “The Lao people and protesters have this right to assemble peacefully to demonstrate and organize, and the right of freedom of speech, under the Lao constitution and law. We urge the Lao people from around the world and Diaspora community to unite in support of the new peaceful protests and work to free these brave pro-democracy demonstrators, activists and students. The LPDR regime is in violation of international law and its own constitution in arresting these Laotian people.”
www.media-newswire.com/release_1103896.html

“At the present time, we encourage the Lao people inside Laos to have courage and not be afraid in seeking democracy and human rights for the suffering people of Laos who are enduring the corruption and abuses of the LPDR communist military regime,” stated Mr. Oudong Saysana. www.media-newswire.com/release_1096784.html


“More that eleven hundred Lao people, currently 1123 Laotians, from North to South in Laos, from Hua Phan Province to Phakse Province in Laos, have been arrested for protesting or seeking to protest against the Lao regime and the increased deployment and intervention of communist Vietnamese military and soldiers from Hanoi,” said Bounthanh Rathigna of the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. (ULDL) in Washington, D.C. and Virginia.

Rathigna explained and questioned: “U.S. President Obama has told the Lao communist regime that they are not Marxists, but they will not listen to President Obama or the United States and continue to kill and imprison their own people for exercising freedom of speech and fundamental political and religious freedoms, such as seeking to assemble in opposition to government policies and corruption. Why will the LPDR communist leaders not listen to President Obama’s hopeful statement that Laos is not Marxist Leninist ? ” www.pr-inside.com/president-obama-to-communist-laos-you-r1569506 ..

“The Lao people and students are increasing frustrated and angry with the Lao military’s, and LPDR communist party’s, corruption and Stalinist dictatorship,” said Mr. Rathigna.
. www.media-newswire.com/release_1103896.html

“The new Lao protesters, which include many ordinary Laotian citizens and their families, as well as students, must be immediately released from Sam Khe prison and other prisons in Laos,” continued Mr. Rathigna

Bounthanth Rathigna explained further: “More and more freedom-loving Laotian people are also seeking to demonstrate against the LPDR regime because they are tired and angry about the intervention of new battalions of combat troops and secret police from Hanoi and the economic exploitation of Laos by corrupt communist LPDR officials backed by VPA military leaders in Hanoi and Vietnam.

Mr. Rathigna continued: “The LPDR authorities, backed by the VPA troops from Vietnam and more secret police from Hanoi, are also brutally persecuting and jailing peaceful Lao student protesters and independent Christians and Animists believers, including the Hmong and other Laotians.”

“From Hanoi, communist generals of the Vietnam Peoples Army have continued to engage in ordering the military’s abuse the human rights of the Laotian people and to take and confiscate more and more of the Laotian peoples’ private property, including their land, their farms, their assets and businesses, and are involved in ordering VPA military owned companies to engage in illegal logging, illegal mining and exploiting and stealing much of the Lao peoples land and resources in violation of international law,” concluded Rathigna.

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