Sombath Somphone

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sombath Somphone ( Laotian : ສົມ ບັດ ສົມ ພອນ , pronunciation: [ sǒmbǎt sǒmpʰɔ́ːn ]) (born February 17, 1952 in the province of Khammuan in the Kingdom of Laos ) is a trained farmer and civil rights activist .

Life

Sombath Somphone (right) with Desmond tutu 2006

Somphone was born as the eldest of eight siblings in a poor farming family. He received part of his school education at a high school in Wisconsin in the USA as part of the AFS Intercultural Encounters exchange program . In the early 1970s, he received a scholarship to study at the University of Hawaii . There he passed the bachelor's degree in education in 1974 and graduated in 1978 with a master's degree in agriculture.

After the founding of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos in 1975, Sombath returned to his homeland and taught the methods of sustainable agriculture so that the country could achieve a secure food situation. Other undertakings were the evaluation of local rural working methods on a community basis. The Laotian government approved him in 1996 to set up the Participatory Development Training Center (PADETC), teaching young people and lower-level government officials the principles of developing community-based projects. For a long time, the center was the only non-governmental organization in Laos with this objective.

Sombath is married to Shui-Meng Ng, who is from Singapore .

kidnapping

On the evening of December 15, 2012, Sombath was kidnapped in the country's capital, Vientiane . A video surveillance system recorded that he was stopped by police officers and then taken away with a pickup truck . The government declines all responsibility for the incident and cannot provide any information about the whereabouts of the civil rights activist. The European Union , the German Embassy in Vientiane, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights ( UNHCHR ) and many others raised protests against the kidnapping . US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Amnesty International urged a clear investigation into the incident and a quick and safe return of Sombath to his family. A delegation from the EU Parliament asked again in Laos in August 2013 about the progress of the investigation. MEP Søren Bo Søndergaard was extremely concerned about the lack of clarification on the part of the Laotian government and announced that it would continue to raise the case until it was resolved.

At the end of 2013, on the anniversary of the kidnapping of Sombath , the representative of the UN Human Rights Council approached the Laotian authorities with a renewed request for a quick clarification, also with regard to the country's membership in the UN Human Rights Council in 2015.

Prizes and awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Setbacks in the boom country in the FAZ of January 11, 2013, page 10
  2. ↑ It happened in front of the police in FAZ of May 22, 2013, page 6
  3. ↑ BBC News : " Laos accused of lying over Sombath Somphone abduction " (August 28, 2013, English)
  4. ↑ europe online magazine: " Disappeared activist Sombath: EU parliamentarians criticize Laos " (August 28, 2013)
personal data
SURNAME Somphone, Sombath
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Laotian farmer and civil rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH 17th February 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Khammuan Province , Kingdom of Laos