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Amnesty International Report 2005 - Laos

Covering events from January - December 2004

Serious human rights concerns persisted. The Lao military stepped up its offensive against the mainly ethnic Hmong rebel groups. Reports of torture and at least two deaths in custody lent weight to concerns about conditions of detention and the state of the judicial system. At least four prisoners of conscience remained in detention. Despite death sentences being handed down by the courts, there were no reports of executions. There was increased suppression of religious practice, especially of evangelical Christianity.

Background

The government made some efforts to increase transparency and its engagement with the international community on human rights issues.

Foreign journalists again covertly visited ethnic Hmong rebels, increasing international attention on the issue.

Laos played an increasingly active political role regionally. It became a member of the Asia-Europe Meeting and took on the rotating presidencies of both the Association of South East Asian Nations and the Mekong River Commission, with the Secretariat of this sub-regional grouping relocating to Vientiane in July.

Laos continued to delay ratification of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, both of which it signed in 2000.

Ethnic Hmong conflict

The ongoing internal armed conflict with predominantly ethnic Hmong minorities continued unabated. Covert visits by international journalists to some of the rebel groups highlighted concerns about access to food and medicine. Reports emerged that in May, five children aged between 13 and 16 – four of them girls – were mutilated and murdered by members of the Lao military. The girls were apparently raped before being killed. The Lao authorities strongly denied these allegations of war crimes, denouncing evidence provided, including video footage, as a fraud. An unknown number of rebels and their families reportedly "surrendered" during the year. The authorities continued to refuse unrestricted access by the international community, including humanitarian agencies of the UN, to those who had "surrendered" or to areas where the conflict continued. During 2004 small numbers of refugees from the conflict began to emerge in neighbouring Thailand.

• Thao Moua and Pa Fue Khang, sentenced to 12 and 15 years' imprisonment respectively in June 2003 for assisting foreign journalists reporting on the conflict, were transferred to Samkhe prison in Vientiane. Reports indicated that they, along with other prisoners in Samkhe, were given arduous tasks impossible to complete, resulting in harsh punishment. Va Char Yang, who was originally arrested along with the two but escaped from police custody, fled the country and was resettled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He reported that he was badly beaten in detention.

Political prisoners and conditions in detention

Prisoners of conscience Feng Sakchittaphong and Latsami Khamphoui, both 63-year-old former government officials jailed for advocating peaceful economic change, reached the end of their 14-year prison sentence in October. Both men were permitted to leave Laos for France in December to seek medical care and join family members.

During 2004 information emerged that Khamphouvieng Sisaath had died in custody in September 2001 as a result of punishment inflicted by prison guards. He had been among five members of the Lao Students' Movement for Democracy arrested after attempting to hold a peaceful demonstration in Vientiane in October 1999. He was reported to have been tied spread-eagle to a post in the prison grounds and left there for several hours in the hot sun. He died from heat exhaustion. The other confirmed members of the group – Thongpaseuth Keuakoun and Seng-Aloun Phengphanh – remained in Samkhe prison, where they were serving sentences for treason. The authorities continued to dispute the identity of Bouavanh Chanhmanivong and Keochay, two others reportedly detained with the group in 1999. The length of prison terms imposed on the group remained unclear.

• Sing Chanthakoummane and Pangtong Chokbengboun continued to be imprisoned at Prison Camp 7. They had been arrested in 1975 and detained without charge or trial for 17 years for "re-education" before being sentenced to life imprisonment after an unfair trial in 1992. They were believed to be the last two remaining prisoners detained at the end of the civil war after the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

A group of 16 Lao nationals were finally deported to Laos from Thailand in July. The men, members of an opposition group, were involved in an armed attack in Champassak province in 2000. They were tried and sentenced in October. Their place of detention was not known and concerns persisted about their health and treatment by the authorities.

African prisoners detained in Phonthong prison, Vientiane, were subjected to racism and particularly harsh treatment by prison guards. There was no African diplomatic presence in Laos to offer consular assistance.

• Information emerged that Ibrahim Kalin, of Liberian origin, was severely beaten by guards in Phonthong prison, reportedly in October 2002 after a conflict with another inmate. He was hospitalized two days later and subsequently died from his injuries.

Freedom of religious practice

Numerous incidents of religious repression of evangelical Christians were reported, including several cases of people being imprisoned or put into wooden "stocks" for not renouncing their faith. The majority of reports emanated from district level. Their number and consistency indicated that official government policy on freedom of religion, reported to have been relaxed in recent years, had not been implemented uniformly.

Death penalty

At least seven people, including one woman, were sentenced to death for drug-related offences. The total number of people on death row remained unclear. No executions were reported. A number of offences remained punishable by the death penalty, but no executions were known to have been carried out for over 11 years.

• Mohammed Abubakari, a Ghanaian national, was sentenced to death in August on drugs-related charges. While it was reported that he was defended by a local lawyer, he did not receive any consular assistance.

Economic, social and cultural rights

The Nam Theun 2 dam project, supported by the World Bank, received a boost when France agreed to become a major investor. However, the project continued to face international criticism from environmental and human rights groups. There were concerns over the future resettlement of up to 6,000 people in the area to be flooded and over the impact the dam would have on the economic, social and cultural rights of around 40,000 people downstream.

Concern also continued about the reported high mortality rates of "upland Lao" involved in a government resettlement programme to lowland areas. The controversial programme was part of efforts to eradicate opium poppy cultivation – which reportedly dropped significantly during 2004 – and to address the poor provision of basic health and education services to upland Lao.

Access for human rights organizations

AI made its first visit to the country in February and met representatives from the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Justice. Official access within the country for human rights organizations, including AI, remained severely limited, however, hampering the collection of independent and impartial information about human rights.

Topics: Hmong,