[Tlc] Speech of Bounsang Khamkeo at the Conference of the International Committee for Democracy in Laos at the Belgian Parliament

[tphimvie at yahoo.com]

Speech of Bounsang Khamkeo at the Conference of the International Committee for Democracy in Laos at the Belgian Parliament

Brussels, May-29, 2009


Mister President Yvan de Wynter,
Madam Vice President Josette de Roland Peel,  
Lao Freedom Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It’s an honor for me to attend this meeting of the International Committee for Democracy in Laos, and I am delighted to see so many dedicated freedom fighters gathered in this room. While we sit and talk about human rights standards in this beautiful and comfortable conference room at the Belgian Parliament, thousands and thousands of miles very far from us, ordinary citizens are being imprisoned, tortured and maybe even murdered in Laos. Alas this horrible situation is not new; it has existed since the foundation of the
 so-called Lao People’s Democratic Republic thirty three years ago, and world public opinion has condemned the mistreatment of prisoners by Vientiane as a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions on Prisoners, the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the U.N. Convention Against Torture, and the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights.   

My name is Bounsang Khamkeo. I do not belong to any organizations, but I do support movements that fight for human rights by peaceful means. I am Lao with American citizenship. As a former political prisoner of the Pathet Lao, today I come before you to testify to human rights violations in Laos. In 1973, when I finished my doctoral degree in political science at the University of Toulouse in France, I returned to my homeland to serve after the signature of the Paris Peace Accord on Vietnam and the Vientiane Peace Accord. Two years later Phnom Penh fell into Khmer Rouge’s hands
 and Hanoi had liberated South Vietnam and helped the Pathet Lao overthrow the kingdom of Laos. Immediately, the Lao Marxist revolutionaries adopted a one party system, imposing a grim rule, including terrorism, mass arrests, torture and killing. The communists planned to end the exploitation, oppression, poverty and war characteristic of capitalist society and to install a classless society, using prison as an instrument of party-state policy. I witnessed the systematic brainwashing of the country’s entire population. As a result, the communist government sent tens of thousands of former civil servants and military officers of the old regime to re-education centers and prison camps. Unfortunately, a great number of them were worked to death, starved, tortured and executed. In addition to this national tragedy, half a million Lao fled communism to seek refuge in other countries around the world. 

I was incarcerated for crimes I never committed
 for more than seven years at Phadeng or Red Cliff and at Sop Hao 07 prisons in Houaphanh Province, from 1981 to 1988. I witnessed the scenes, which rendered Laos a cemetery, and moistened her soil with the tears and blood of her inhabitants. At the beginning of my incarceration I was handcuffed and had not one shower for a year and a half. I met many, many innocent civilians, including teenagers, who were locked up for just having worked for capitalist Europeans, being a member of the bourgeoisie, a trade man, a student who praised western values, a counter-revolutionary who had listened to the Voice of America, a retrograde who sang French love songs, a backward woman who had put makeup on her face, etc… The despotic one-party regime practiced summary trials that permitted no witnesses, no lawyers, no journalists, no cross-examinations, where the prosecutor was also the judge, and the public had no access. Prisoners had to provide forced confessions,
 and always admit to crimes they had not committed. In prison they had no mail, no health care, very little to eat, and they could not talk to their fellow inmates. 

I am lucky and happy to be alive. The day I received my release certificate, the People’s Court “advised” me: “saw nothing, heard nothing, and spoke nothing”, but today I have written a book called “I Little Slave: A Prison Memoir from Communist Laos,” which is published by Eastern Washington University Press and is aired in the Lao language by Radio Free Asia. So far, prison life is seldom heard of the communist dictatorship in Laos and its terrible history of slow death camps. 

I was able to survive my ordeal because of the freedom fighters in the world, particularly you in this room, who fought and continue to fight for human rights in Laos. That’s why I owe a debt of gratitude to you, especially to Mister Yvan de Wynter and Madam Josettte de Roland Peel who
 had the initiative to set up the International Committee for Democracy in Laos. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Montesqieu said, “Le tyran est mort mais la tyrannie reste.” Today in 2009, the first generation of revolutionaries is over; the second and the third generation are in power. Basic human rights violations in Laos are still a burning issue as evidenced by the U.S. State Department’s 2008 Human Rights Report on Laos and by different press released of Amnesty International. Lao people live in constant fear of being accused as “enemy of the Socialist State”.  However, under pressure from the western world that advocates for political reform, Laos has finally opened its doors to the outside world and has adopted some capitalist values, but the political power is still in the hands of the communist party, and no other parties can be organized legally. Laotian citizens are arrested and put in prison for having criticized the Party
 line and the government. Ethnic Hmong groups, forced to live in hiding in the jungles, are chased and killed by the government soldiers.  

Corruption is commonplace in the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party and the government that contributes to the poverty of the great depressed silent majority. International aid and non-government organizations are diverted from Laos’s hungry population in order to finance repression. The government infringes upon citizens’ rights to privacy and does not respect the right to freedom of speech, press, assembly, or association. Nine years after the government crushed the student-led peaceful demonstration in Vientiane and incarcerated five student leaders, one died and four are still in prison today. There is no freedom of religion and Christians are persecuted. There are no domestic non-governmental human rights organizations. Trafficking in persons is widespread, especially women and girls for
 prostitution.  Workers’ rights are restricted and workers cannot organize their own unions. Government employees’ salaries are blocked for months nationwide. Internet access is monitored by the authorities. The military arrests civilians, interferes in the civil justice system, and recruits child soldiers. 

Furthermore, the Lao Communist Party sow mistrust among Lao exiled by sending its agents to infiltrate Lao communities in the free world such as Europe, America, Australia and Canada, and manipulates a number of Lao social, economic, and cultural associations, opposition movements and Buddhist temples to support its outdated political regime. The party has made an art of dividing exiled Lao to rule at home. It also lobbies foreign governments to obtain loans for Laos, which benefits its corrupt leaders and perpetuate its survival. 

Whatever maneuvers the Lao Communist Party makes I am convinced that human rights violations in
 Laos cannot last forever because the international situation has changed with the fall of the Berlin Wall. Democracy is on the rise in many countries of the world where there is injustice and oppression.

In this spirit I salute you, those who have demonstrated your intellectual integrity and commitment, who fight for democracy and speak truth to oppression, and who help those suffering under the most difficult of circumstances in Laos.  I wish concrete actions will be taken in order to bring democracy, justice, transparency, basic human rights, independence, multiparty system, happiness, and dignity to the freedom-loving people of Laos.
    
Thank you for your attention! 


Warmest regards,  ----------oOo----------  Tutu Phimviengkham
   www.bakkamagazine.com   ----------oOo----------


      
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