{"id":15188,"date":"2013-03-25T03:03:20","date_gmt":"2013-03-25T03:03:20","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-03-25T03:03:20","modified_gmt":"2013-03-25T03:03:20","slug":"US-wants--immediate--return-of-missing-Lao-activist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=15188","title":{"rendered":"US wants “immediate” return of missing Lao activist"},"content":{"rendered":"

US Secretary of State John Kerry urged Lao authorities on Sunday to step up their investigation “without further delay” into the disappearance of a prominent Lao activist 100 days ago.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sombath Somphone<\/strong> was last seen being taken away from a police post by two unidentified individuals in December.<\/p>\n

The United States has sought more information from Laos on its investigation into Sombath’s disappearance<\/strong>, which has sent jitters through the activist network in the secretive one-party communist state.<\/p>\n

Lao authorities have suggested he might have been abducted over a personal dispute but have denied having any information about his whereabouts.<\/p>\n

The top US diplomat noted that despite Laos’s growing integration into the community of nations<\/strong>, “Mr Sombath’s disappearance resurrects memories of an earlier era when unexplained disappearances were common.”<\/p>\n

The campaigner won the 2005 Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership for his work in poverty reduction and sustainable development in a country that remains one of Southeast Asia’s poorest nations.<\/p>\n

The secretive one-party communist state — which exerts total control over the media and does not tolerate criticism — has in recent years gradually given local civil society groups more room to operate.<\/p>\n

Source AFP<\/em>
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