Ramon Magsaysay awardee remains missing

MANILA, Philippines - Sixty-seven lawmakers from Asia and Europe have signed a letter to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic expressing deep concern over the disappearance of an internationally renowned development worker and Ramon Magsaysay awardee.

Sombath Somphone has been missing for almost two months now.

Media wire reports said Somphone, who received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Development in 2005, was last seen with Lao policemen on the afternoon of Dec. 15, 2012.

Security footage showed that he was stopped at a police checkpoint.

Soon after his disappearance, the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and European Union High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton urged the safe return of Somphone to his family.

The letter, addressed to Lao Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong, is still being circulated among the various parliaments in the two regions.

Various high-ranking Lao officials, as well as Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Le Luong Minh and EU Ambassador to Laos David Lipman, were furnished a copy of the letter with the subject heading: Request urgent investigation into the disappearance of Mr. Sombath Somphone.

Lawmakers from Austria, Australia, Belgium, Cambodia, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Philippines, Scotland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, and the European Parliament have signed the letter.

“We, members of parliament across Asia and Europe, write to you deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of Mr. Sombath Somphone. We are deeply concerned for Mr. Sombath’s safety and well-being and his disappearance is cause for great alarm,” the letter said.

“We urge the Lao government to immediately and urgently initiate an investigation into Mr. Sombath’s disappearance. And we call on the government to undertake all actions necessary to ensure his immediate safe return to his family,” the letter added.

Somphone, key organizer of the Asia-Europe People’s Forum 9 last October, was the founder and former director of Lao-based rural development and education group Participatory Development Training Centre. His brand of economic and social development – participatory, sustainable, and people-centered – has influenced many in Laos as well as throughout Asia.