Laos has ordered a Chinese-owned potash mine believed responsible for two massive sinkholes in Khammouane province to cease operations until further notice, and to fill the sinkholes in, an official told Radio Free Asia.
On Dec. 4, a sinkhole measuring 20 meters (65 feet) wide and 10 meters (33 feet) deep opened up on farmland in Thakhaek district’s Pak Peng village. On Dec. 21, another sinkhole — about half the size of the first — formed nearby.
Residents suspect the sinkholes are a result of excavation at a potash mine in neighboring Nong Bok district, operated by Sino-Agri International Potash Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Asia Potash International Investment (Guangzhou) Co., Ltd., which is linked to entities directed by China’s governing State Council.
After a month of central government inspections of the mine, the cause remains unclear.
However, the company has been ordered to fill both sinkholes, a government official said Monday, speaking to RFA Lao on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“The two sinkholes will be filled up with dirt. The company will carry out this task,” the official said, adding that after meeting with central government officials, a cause has not yet been determined.
Because fault has not been determined, the company may not have to pay compensation, the official said.
A Pak Peng resident told RFA that those who live near the sinkholes are terrified of further collapses.
“They are scared. The sinkholes are right in the middle of the rice fields,” the villager said.
Filling in the holes is only a temporary fix, a Lao expert told RFA.
“Underground extraction is very dangerous. One day the mine will collapse,” he said. “Dirt is excavated and water flushes will cause more sinkholes over the next 20 years. It won’t be long before we start seeing the consequences.”
Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Eugene Whong.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
A Vietnamese Buddhist monk who became an internet sensation earlier this year has crossed from Laos into Thailand on his way to India.
Thich Minh Tue, who gained fame in Vietnam after his ascetic lifestyle attracted a following as he traveled by foot across Vietnam, began a pilgrimage to Buddhist sites in India in late November.
Tue, 43, lives as a monk though he does not belong to Vietnam’s state-approved Buddhist monastic order.
(Amanda Weisbrod/RFA)
At about 10:30 am on Tuesday, he and five other mendicant monks left the Vang Tao border crossing in Laos and passed through the Chong Mek border crossing in Thailand after spending 19 days in Laos.
People knelt in front of the border crossing and scattered flowers and sprinkled water on the road as signs of respect for the monks.
At the Chong Mek border crossing in Thailand’s Ubon Ratchathani province, about 100 people, mainly small traders and tuk-tuk drivers from Thailand and Laos, gathered to welcome the monks. About 20 Vietnamese YouTubers were also there early to report the news.
Accompanying the monks on the walking journey through Laos were two well-know Vietnamese YouTubers — Doan Van Bau and Le Kha Giap. They were joined by four Thai volunteers handling logistics and two police officers from Ubon Ratchathani province who were dispatched to ensure order.
Live video from YouTuber Doan Van Bau, who escorted the monks from Vietnam, shows Tue and monks Minh Tang, Minh Tri, Chon Tri, An Lac and Vo Sanh left Laos and entered Thailand without any problem when volunteers took care of the immigration procedures.
Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue walks through Chong Mek, Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand, on his way to India., Dec. 31, 2024.(RFA)
Long pilgrimage
The group will walk 1,300 kilometers (800 miles) in two months in Thailand before entering Myanmar to continue their journey to India, Doan Van Bau said.
Tue and the other monks left from the Bo Y border crossing in Vietnam’s Gia Lai province on Dec. 12 and passed through the Lao provinces of Attapeu, Sekong and Champassak, before arriving at the Vang Tao border crossing.
Vietnamese monk Thich Minh Tue, center, arrives in Chong Mek, Ubon Ratchathani Province, Thailand, Dec. 31, 2024, on his way to India.(RFA)
Bau said one of the people accompanying the group will take care of procedural issues as they walk to Thailand’s Mae Sot province en route to Myanmar.
Tue became known to many people when he walked from the south to north Vietnam in May.
When arriving in the city of Hue in early June, Tue and a group of more than 70 people who followed him were suppressed and dispersed by the police during a midnight raid. They took Tue to his hometown in Gia Lai province to scan his fingerprints for citizenship identification.
On Nov. 25, Tue wrote a letter expressing his desire to travel to India and visit Buddhist relics, and asked for advice on directions and procedures.
Translated by Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Vietnamese.
Plans to proceed with a benefits-and-risks review of a proposed hydropower dam on the Mekong River has sparked concern in both Laos and Thailand about the impact on communities and the ecosystem.
The US$2-billion, 12-turbine Sanakham hydropower dam will be built about 155 kilometers (100 miles) west of the Lao capital of Vientiane, and 25 km (15 miles) upstream from Sanakham district of Vientiane province, near the Thai-Lao border.
More than 62,500 people in Thailand and Laos will be forced to relocate due to rising waters, according to submitted documents.
Lao residents say they have hardly had a chance to give feedback on the project.
“I’m so concerned that we’ll have to move to another village,” a Sanakham district resident told Radio Free Asia. “They [the government] did not clearly explain it to us at all.”
Dozens of hydropower dams have already been built on the Mekong and its tributaries, and there are plans to build scores more in the coming years. The Lao government wants to harness their power generation to boost the economy, which has been battered by soaring inflation and a weakening currency.
Electricity generated by the dam, to be built by China-owned Datang (Lao) Sanakham Hydropower Co. Ltd. and Thailand’s Gulf Energy Development Public Co. Ltd., will mainly be exported to Thailand.
Thailand’s Office of National Water Resources said on Dec. 17 that it would begin the consultation process during which Mekong River Commission member countries and other stakeholders review proposed projects to try to reach a consensus on whether or not they should proceed.
The Thai National Mekong Commission is holding four public information forums about the dam for residents living in the eight Thai provinces along the Mekong River during the coming weeks.
‘Rushed ahead’
International Rivers, a group acting to protect rivers and the communities that depend on them, said there there has been little up-to-date information publicly available about the project.
“It appears this process is being rushed ahead, with little regard for the needs of local residents to be able to make arrangements to attend the forums, let alone prepare and develop informed opinions about the project specifics,” the group said in a Dec. 21 statement.
Villagers who will be affected by the dam don’t want to move, a resident of Kenethao district in Xayaburi province said.
“They don’t want to relocate at all [because] here they have their livelihoods,” he said. “If they moved somewhere far away, what would happen to their lives? If they have no choice but to move, then they should get more compensation.”
Phonepaseuth Phouliphanh, secretary general of theLao National Mekong Committee, told Radio Free Asia that the project developer will take into consideration concerns raised about the dam.
“All project developments have both good and bad impacts which we cannot avoid,” he told Radio Free Asia. “We have done research to ensure the impact is as little as possible.”
After hearing the concerns from people in areas to be affected by the dam, the Lao government or the project developer will review and correct issues that may occur, he added.
Thai concerns
Meanwhile, some Thai residents and advocacy groups also oppose the construction of the dam.
Channarong Wongla, a member of the Chiang Khan Conservation Group and Local Fisheries Group in Chiang Khan, a district in Thailand that will be affected by the dam, said other hydropower projects have already altered water routes and islands and caused erosion.
With hydropower projects in the past, including Laos’ Xayaburi Dam, developers moved ahead with their projects regardless of the concerns raised by residents, he told International Rivers.
“Most importantly, for the Sanakham Dam project, the [Thai] ombudsman and the National Human Rights Commission have already provided a clear basis for a more precautionary approach recognizing the serious impacts on local people and ecosystems,” he was quoted as saying.
A report by the ombudsman said there “was still a serious lack of information on the transboundary impacts of the dam project and that clear commitments of accountability are required from both the developers and government agencies in Thailand,” he said.
Construction of the Sanakham Dam was expected to begin in 2020, but was put on hold when government officials from Thailand’s National Mekong Commission raised questions about the impacts of the project and called for comprehensive technical studies on its environmental, social and transboundary effects, according to International Rivers.
The “snap decision” to schedule expedited public information sessions for the Sanakham Dam marked a distinct shift in the Thai government’s approach to the project, the group said.
Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
Vietnam’s barefoot monk has arrived in southern Laos’ Champasak province and could cross into Thailand later this weekend on his way to India, two eyewitnesses told Radio Free Asia on Friday.
Vietnam’s ‘barefoot monk,’ Thich Minh Tue, was spotted in Paksong district, southern Laos, receiving alms from supporters as he passed through.
Thich Minh Tue became an internet sensation earlier this year after his ascetic lifestyle attracted a following as he traveled by foot across Vietnam.
In late November, he began a walking pilgrimage to Buddhist sites in India. He crossed from Vietnam into Laos on Dec. 12.
Tue is walking with two other followers and a camera man, one of the eyewitnesses said. He traveled through the provincial capital, Pakse, and crossed the Mekong river on Friday.
“Villagers pop their heads out of the windows to look at them,” the eyewitness said.
The route of Thich Man Tue, the “barefoot monk”(RFA)
Tue and the others set up camp near Phu Salao, where a golden statue of Buddha sits atop a mountain, another eyewitness said.
“There are villagers greeting him wherever he goes,” the eyewitness said. “Residents laid pads on the path as he was walking by and offered him alms, but he did not accept money or food. So we sit and pay respect to him.”
Previous pilgrimage
In early June, authorities in Vietnam dispersed Tue and a group of followers while they were on another cross-country pilgrimage in Thua Thien Hue province.
At the time, several social media influencers documented his pilgrimage on TikTok and other platforms. He amassed legions of supporters who were drawn to his simple lifestyle and humble attitude.
Tue sports a shaved head, patched robe and a rice cooker as an alms bowl. He isn’t officially a monk because he’s not recognized by the state-sanctioned Vietnam Buddhist Sangha.
Tue disappeared from public view for extended periods after the June raid. Last month, a letter purported to be written by Tue said he had renounced his vow of poverty, although supporters questioned its authenticity.
Authorities in Vietnam are almost always wary of social movements outside of the control of the ruling Communist Party.
Allowing Tue to leave for India was a win-win situation for Vietnam, Buddhist scholar Nguyen Thanh Huy told RFA earlier this month.
It “alleviates the challenges in ensuring security and reduces societal pressure stemming from waves of public opinion.”
In Laos, Tu didn’t give advance notice of the journey to the Buddhist Fellowship Organization, the governing body of the country’s Buddhist community, according to a monk from the organization.
So, he hasn’t received accommodation from other religious fellows, but Lao police and other security officers have been following him “to make sure he is safe and so on,” the monk said.
Translated by Khamsao Civilize. Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
The communist apparatchiks who run Laos must appease China if they are to stop their national debt crisis from worsening and avoid an outright default.
The IMF’s latest report on Laos, released last month, was particularly damning about the country’s future. Real GDP growth likely peaked this year, at around 4.1 percent, and will slide from 3.5 percent next year down to 2.5 percent by 2029.
In other words, Laos isn’t going to be able to grow itself out of debt anytime soon.
Moreover, debt servicing costs, spending that is not actually paying off the principal on its monumental debt, will rise from around $1.1 billion this year to $1.5 billion next year and peak at $1.8 billion in 2026, the equivalent of a fifth of exports.
Laos cannot even start to comprehend paying off its debt, which because of the country’s inflation crisis fluctuates as a percentage of GDP ratio. It was 131 percent of GDP in 2022, down to 108 percent this year but potentially up to 118 percent in 2025.
The IMF politely suggested that “alternative options to bring debt toward a sustainable level could also be considered,” yet noted that “the authorities’ financing plan…critically relies on the continued extension of debt relief from China.”
Debt deferrals
All that matters for Vientiane, at least for the short term, is that Beijing continues offering debt deferrals.
In 2023, these amounted to $770 million, about 5 percent of Laos’s GDP, according to the IMF. They were worth $222 million in 2020, $454 million in 2021, and $608 million in 2022.
What other options has Laos got?
It won’t turn to the IMF for a bailout, since that will come with political conditions – and half of national debt is owed to China, which doesn’t do debt write-offs.
The money Vientiane owes Beijing is vast for Laos, but peanuts for Beijing.
The International Monetary Fund headquarters in Washington, D.C, Dec. 19, 2016.(Cliff Owen/AP)
Laos’s debts could be completely forgiven tomorrow and nobody in Beijing would notice. But Chinese lenders don’t like having their pockets pinched and no superpower wants to be seen as a dog being wagged by its tail.
Some people think Vientiane could offer more debt-for-equity swaps, whereby China reduces the debt in exchange for land or mineral rights or a stake in a state company.
However, for all the cries of “debt traps,” it is noticeable that there hasn’t been any major debt-for-equity swap since a Chinese state-owned firm was given majority control of a joint venture (EDL-T) with Electricite du Laos, which effectively handed Beijing Laos’ power grid, including its electricity exports. But that was in 2021!
Few desirable assets
Beijing has presumably browsed and doesn’t fancy anything it sees. As one source told me, “there aren’t enough saleable assets” in Laos for equity swaps to touch the sides of the country’s debt.
Even for natural resources or land, usually a Chinese company will get a multi-decade concession for very low rent. So it makes little sense for Chinese state firms to buy, in the form of a debt swap, what they essentially get for free, since the revenue the Lao government collects will eventually be paid back to the Chinese state.
Nor are swaps all too appealing when it comes to state-run companies.
There’s one reason why Laos’s nationalized companies are so indebted and it isn’t because they’re so well run. Électricité du Laos, the state utility, accounts for perhaps a third of all the state’s debts, for instance.
Laos’ Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone attends the 27th ASEAN-Japan Summit in Vientiane, Laos, Oct. 10, 2024.(Nhac Nguyen/AFP)
That leaves only debt deferrals, which allow Vientiane to pay back other private creditors and facilitate future loans, all the while avoiding what it must eventually do: massively increase state revenue.
According to the IMF, Laos needs a primary surplus of around 17 percent each year to bring its debt-to-GDP ratio down to a sustainable threshold (35 percent) by 2029.
Next year, Laos will likely run a primary surplus of around 3 percent, per the IMF report. In other words, Vientiane needs to boost revenue or cut expenditure (or both) by more than five-fold.
Austerity is unpopular
But the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party (LPRP) clearly doesn’t think now is the time to dig deeper into the pockets of ordinary people and businesses, especially as economic growth is set to slow in the coming years and the inflation crisis won’t be curbed anytime soon.
It would be politically suicidal for Vientiane to considerably raise taxes while the ordinary Loatian has seen his wealth decimated in recent years. In fact, the party has recently committed to higher state spending.
At first blush, Vientiane’s immobility might appear problematic for the current rulers of the communist party whose jobs are in the line ahead of a reshuffle at the National Congress in early 2026.
That’s especially the case for Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, who naturally gets the most flak. Party grandees will retreat into conclaves most of next year to make these decisions, and appeasing China will be a key consideration.
Yet, while the Lao public is incensed by just how appallingly their rulers have managed the economy, the powers that be understand no-one has any real idea of how to get out of this mess other than austerity during a devastating economic crisis.
This isn’t something to be admitted publicly in a one-party state. Neither is admitting that the task of austerity is essentially being kicked to the next generation of party apparatchiks, who will have to suffer the consequences.
George Orwell once remarked that “it is a feeling of relief, almost of pleasure, at knowing yourself at last genuinely down and out…It takes off a lot of anxiety.”
Likewise, the current LPRP leadership must feel a certain freedom from knowing that there’s only one way out of its predicament: Keep appeasing Beijing and keep up the debt deferrals.
David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. He writes theWatching Europe In Southeast Asianewsletter. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by David Hutt.
A 19-year-old Lao girl who was forced to work at a Chinese-run online scam center in Myanmar for two years is safe at a rehabilitation facility for human trafficking victims in Thailand, two Thai officials told Radio Free Asia.
On Wednesday, an official at a rehabilitation center in Thailand’s Phitsanulok province confirmed to RFA that the woman was sent to the facility on Dec. 13 after Thai authorities identified her as a human trafficking victim.
Under an agreement with Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam, Thailand must provide physical and mental treatment for trafficking victims before sending them back to their home country, the rehabilitation official said.
“After she arrived here, we had to process her case,” he said. “Firstly, she will go through all steps for physical and mental treatment.”
The young woman spoke with RFA on Wednesday.
“I am in Pissanulok province now, at the rehabilitation center,” she said. “As soon as I left, I informed my mom on Dec. 3. I left Burma near the end of November.”
Another official at the rehabilitation center told RFA that they are interviewing her for a report that will be sent to the Thai and Lao governments.
After that, Lao officials will visit her family to make sure that she will be safe when she returns, the official said.
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
Authorities in southwestern Laos’ Champassak province are forcing migrants from other parts of the country to hand over “staying fees,” according to residents who say they are a form of exploitation by corrupt officials.
Last week, residents of other provinces living in Champassak took to social media to complain that local authorities are making them pay nearly 55,000 kip (US$2.50) per month — a substantial amount in a nation in the midst of an economic downturn with a minimum wage of 1.6 million kip (US$73) per month — to live in their villages.
When asked about the payments, a village-level official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA Lao that such “staying fees” are “part of local rules to ensure authorities can provide security” in their communities.
But a migrant from another province living in Champassak, who also declined to be named, told RFA that “there should be no staying fee collection” for Lao nationals, suggesting that “authorities just want to make some extra money” to pad their salaries.
“If they collect a staying fee from foreigners or visitors from other countries, that is something justified,” he said. “What I’ve observed is that authorities try to collect as much as they can for this fee … but residents can only afford to pay around US$2.50 per month.”
Power distribution lines originating from a hydro power plant that runs through Pak Se district, Champassak province, Laos, July 25, 2018.(Ye Aung Thu/AFP)
The migrant said that while authorities have no right to collect such high fees, people end up paying them because they want to avoid trouble and have no way to lodge a formal complaint.
“Residents can’t say anything and simply have to pay the fee as ordered,” he said.
An official from Champassak’s Pakse district told RFA that she believes public frustration with the staying fees is due to some corrupt officials asking for more than what local laws allow.
According to the law, she said, officials can only collect staying fees of 40,000 kip (US$1.80) per month for up to three consecutive months, and are required to provide documentation certifying temporary residency.
But government salaries start at 1.85 million kip (US$84.50) per month, or only slightly above minimum wage, so many officials are looking for ways to supplement their pay, she said.
“Not all officials perform their duties as prescribed in the policy,” she said. “It’s because their salaries are so low — that’s why they want to earn extra money.“
The official said that provincial police “are investigating this issue,” as it falls under their jurisdiction.
“If authorities are found to have abused their power to take money from residents, they will … face punishment according to the law,” she added.
Village-level officials in other provinces told RFA that they do not charge Lao migrants a staying fee to reside in their communities.
“There is no such policy for us to do so,” said one official from a village in Savannakhet province. “We only collect money from businesses in the amount they are comfortable to donate when we need funds to build roads, schools, and small hospitals.”
Attempts by local officials to collect staying fees from Lao migrants have been shut down by central authorities in the past.
In 2018, authorities in some villages in Vientiane’s Sikhottabong district required residents from other provinces to pay 55,000 kip per family or 48,000 kip (US$2.20) per individual for three months to live there.
Shortly after the staying fees were announced, the central government ordered local authorities to end the policy.
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Phouvong for RFA Laos.
The governments of Laos and Cambodia have stirred controversy after announcing awards for a casino magnate blacklisted by the U.S. for criminal activity and a scion of the country’s first family known for flaunting their wealth.
Residents told RFA that they fear awarding the two men will legitimize their bad behavior and lead to further problems for both countries.
On Dec. 6, Viengsavanh Siphandone, the governor of Laos’ Luang Namtha province, bestowed a national award on Zhao Wei, the head of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, which lies along the Mekong River in Bokeo province.
The governor presented Zhao, the Chinese founder of the Hong Kong-registered Kings Romans Group, with the “Third Class Development Medal” at an award ceremony inside his economic zone for donating materials and funds worth 1.3 billion kip (US$60,000) to the Luang Namtha police headquarters.
The award drew criticism from members of the public, who told RFA Lao that the government had no business celebrating an entrepreneur who is known for supporting criminal enterprises.
“Zhao Wei … opens loopholes for [gangs involved in] human trafficking and money scams,” one resident of the capital Vientiane said, speaking on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal. “He is not only notorious locally for his involvement in transnational crimes, but internationally as well.”
Kings Roman Group operates the Kings Romans Casino in the Golden Triangle SEZ, which Zhao is said to hold de facto control of, and which caters mainly to Chinese tourists.
The Blue Shield casino, operated by the Kings Romans Group, stands in the Golden Triangle special economic zone on the banks of the Mekong river in Laos, March 2, 2016.
In 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department declared the Zhao Wei network a “transnational criminal organization,” or TCO, and imposed sanctions on Zhao and three other individuals and three companies across Laos, Thailand and Hong Kong.
“Based in Laos within the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GTSEZ), the Zhao Wei TCO exploits this region by engaging in drug trafficking, human trafficking, money laundering, bribery, and wildlife trafficking, much of which is facilitated through the Kings Romans Casino located within the GTSEZ,” said a Treasury Department statement announcing the sanctions.
Legitimizing criminal activities
On Aug. 9 and 12, Lao and Chinese police raided and arrested more than 2,000 people on charges of committing crimes in the SEZ, where thousands have been lured through trafficking networks and forced to work as online scammers.
Many of the women lured to the SEZ have also been forced to become sex workers.
An official who took part in the rescue of three victims from the SEZ earlier this year told RFA he is worried that the award will legitimize Zhao’s activities and lead to more human trafficking there.
“By deciding to award Zhao Wei the medal, the government has opened more opportunities for him to trick women into prostitution,” he said.
Police raid a restaurant suspected of providing sex services to customers in Vientiane, capital of Laos, Jan. 2022.
This is the second time the Lao government has bestowed an award on Zhao. In 2022, the Bokeo Military Command presented him with a medal courage, saying it recognized his contributions to national defense and public security within the Golden Triangle SEZ.
The Lao government says it is cracking down on the cyber-scamming industry, which a United States Institute of Peace report earlier this year said could be worth as much as 40% of the country’s formal economy.
The think tank estimated that criminal gangs could be holding as many as 85,000 workers in slave-like conditions in compounds such as those in the Golden Triangle SEZ.
Hun family scion receives medal of honor
In Cambodia, King Norodom Sihamoni conferred the Royal Order of Monisaraphon to Hun Panhaboth — the grandson of Senate President Hun Sen’s elder brother — per the request of the Interior Ministry and Prime Minister Hun Manet, according to a royal decree dated Oct. 9.
The award is generally given to Cambodians who contribute to or support the fields of education, arts, literacy, science or social affairs.
Hun Panhaboth is the son of Hun Chanthou, who is the daughter of Hun Sen’s late elder brother Hun Neng. According to a report by Global Witness, Hun Chanthou and Hun Neng’s four other children own around 40 major companies.
Hun Panhaboth is known in Cambodia for flaunting his wealth both at home and abroad, and even for boasting about his illegal activities, such as selling weapons to private citizens, on his Facebook and Instagram pages.
Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen walks past an honor guard in Phnom Penh on April 3, 2024.
He owns luxury vehicles including a McLaren worth nearly US$1 million, a Bentley and an Audi worth more than US$200,000 each, and a private Airbus 72 helicopter. He is known to have given his girlfriend gifts worth nearly US$100,000 for her birthday and shuttled her on a private plane from Australia to Cambodia.
Hun Panhaboth‘s lavish lifestyle has also been widely reported in the foreign press, including by Thai newspaper MRG Online, which claimed that he has used his family ties to procure contracts for large development projects.
After facing criticism in the media, Hun Panhaboth assumed the role of a philanthropist, distributing gifts to the poor and posting the acts on social media.
Philanthropy dwarfed by negative impact
Sok Ey San, spokesperson for the ruling Cambodian People’s Party, told RFA that the government only confers the medal of honor on those who have “shown great achievements and contributions to the nation and the people,” although he refused to elaborate on what achievements or contributions Hun Panhaboth had made.
Sok Ey San also dismissed concerns about Hun Panhaboth writing posts to Facebook about selling firearms, saying he was “a minor [at the time] and not mature enough to think seriously.”
“He just posted that for fun — nobody thinks what he did on Facebook was serious,“ he told RFA.
Youth group leaders RFA Khmer spoke with said they believe the government awarded Hun Panhaboth the national medal of honor for his acts of philanthropy, but suggested that they were dwarfed by those that have had a negative impact on society.
Mat Vanny, chairman of the board of the South Korea-based Democratic Movement for National Unification, said that given Hun Panhaboth’s involvement in illegal activity and his penchant for flaunting his wealth, he is unqualified to receive such an honor.
He added that the conferment will “devalue the award,” as well as the reputations of the government and king who gave it to him.
Em Bunnarith, president of the Australia-based Global Cambodian Youth Network, said that in a country with a dynastic and corrupt leadership, such as Cambodia, decisions to award a medal of honor don’t go through proper assessment.
“What the government has done will make our youth feel hopeless,” he said. “It means that if they have no connections … they will have no opportunity to contribute to the nation.”
Regardless of what Hun Panhaboth has done, Em Bunnarith said, the Hun family will likely elevate his position within the armed forces to help protect the family name.
Translated by Ounkeo Souksavanh and Sovannarith Keo. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao and RFA Khmer.
In early August, the authorities in Laos delivered an ultimatum to scammers operating in the notorious Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone: Clear out or face the consequences.
On Aug. 12, the Lao police, supported by their Chinese counterparts, swooped in. Some 711 people were arrested during the first week. Another 60 Lao and Chinese nationals were arrested by the end of the month, and more arrests have been made since.
The way Vientiane frames it, Laos is now getting tough on the vast cyber-scamming industry that has infested much of mainland Southeast Asia.
In Laos, the sector could be worth as much as the equivalent of 40 percent of the formal economy, according to a United States Institute of Peace report earlier this year.
The think tank estimated that criminal gangs could be holding as many as 85,000 workers in slave-like conditions in compounds in Laos.
People in Laos tell me there is some truth to Vientiane’s assertions. This might have been why Laos was downgraded to Tier 2 on the U.S. State Department’s annual human trafficking ranking in July, while Myanmar and Cambodia were downgraded to the lower Tier 3.
According to one expert, “Laos is taking this issue more seriously than Cambodia and has more capacity to respond than Myanmar.”
A man stands on a small boat travelling along the Mekong river in front of the Kings Roman casino in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos, Jan. 14, 2012.
Admitting a problem is the first step, but Vientiane has been somewhat fortunate in how the scam industry has structured itself differently in Laos.
In Cambodia and Myanmar, for instance, scamming tends to be geographically dispersed with compounds across the country and controlled by different syndicates.
Zhao Wei’s empire
In Laos, however, the industry was, until very recently, almost entirely centered in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, an autonomous area long notorious for organized crime and run by the Chinese crime boss Zhao Wei and his Kings Roman Group, which has close ties to organized crime in China and Hong Kong.
The United Wa State Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, Myanmar-based militias with large stakes in Southeast Asia’s drug trade, are also active in criminal activity, including scam centers, within the SEZ.
Zhao We, left, a Chinese crime figure who is tied to the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Laos, is awarded a medal by the Bokeo Military Command, Oct. 1, 2022.
Initially, this centralization of criminality was a problem.
After the Golden Triangle SEZ was founded in 2007, on a 99-year concession awarded to Zhao, it essentially operated as a mini-fiefdom. The Lao authorities were not even allowed entrance to the economic zone, giving the criminals carte blanche.
This was a concern of a few nationalists within Laos’s communist party but tolerated by the majority, who regarded crime as a lesser evil, since Zhao and his associates were bringing in considerable foreign investment — and, of course, some cash to the political elites.
However, as the cyberscam problem has metastasized since 2022, this situation has made it somewhat easier for Laos to respond.
Because Zhao and his associates had established laundering trails to China and Myanmar years earlier, it meant that, unlike in Cambodia, most of the revenue from the scam industry immediately left Laos.
This limited the amount of money needing to be recycled or laundered through local conglomerates, thus reducing the sums needed to corrupt Laotian officials, politicians, and tycoons.
This meant that officials, especially those outside Bokeo province where the SEZ is located, weren’t contaminated by scam money, so they were not invested in protecting the racket.
Sovereignty over SEZ
By comparison, the scam industry is more geographically dispersed and controlled by more numerous players in Cambodia. This means much of the revenue stays within Cambodia where it is laundered through businesses run by some of the most prominent Cambodian oligarchs and politicians.
So well-connected has the industry become that even if a faction within Cambodia’s government favored a full-frontal assault on the scammers, they know they would have to take on most of the country’s political aristocracy and oligarchy, risking strife within the ruling party.
Scamming isn’t such an existential threat for the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party, or LPRP.
Police arrest scammers in Laos’ Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, Aug. 15, 2024.
Indeed, the normally sedate National Assembly has noisily pressed Vientiane to tackle the scam problem, even last year rejecting a proposed government bill to toughen up regulations on SEZs for being too weak.
In May, the Lao government reshuffled the leadership of Bokeo province, where the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone is located, ostensibly to clean out officials who had been bought off.
Vientiane has somewhat reasserted its sovereignty over the zone this year.
Through discussion and threats, it got Zhao and his Kings Roman Group to accept greater access for Laotian police and troops to the economic zone. That said, Zhao and associates can still limit what Lao authorities can do in the zone
Another advantage is that Zhao serves more at the whim of the Chinese Communist Party, which wants to crack down on parts of the scam industry in Southeast Asia, than some of the more independent operators in Cambodia and Myanmar.
And the Lao government is also more dependent on Beijing than Cambodia’s authoritarian government.
Pressure from China
That means Vientiane, which relies almost entirely on Chinese investment for economic growth and on Chinese debt relief so the state doesn’t go bust, cannot say no when Beijing orders it to move on the scammers.
The raids on the Golden Triangle SEZ in August came after a meeting earlier that month between the Lao Ministry of Public Security and Zhao – and just weeks after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi visited Vientiane.
However, we must also ask whether Laos’s cure is actually creating a worse disease.
According to a USIP report last month, the Aug. 6 meeting between government officials and Zhao Wei, weeks before the raid on his GTSEZ, “gave criminal kingpins and their senior [scam] compound managers ample time to relocate. Many of them shifted operations to Cambodia or the Myanmar border with Thailand.”
Simply scaring off some scammers to Cambodia might not be the best regional response, although Vientiane probably won’t give a fig about this.
An apparent call center in Laos is raided by authorities, Aug. 9, 2024.
However, Vientiane would care if scammers are now merely set up shop elsewhere in Laos. One source tells me that they are already embedding themselves in the capital and near the Laos-China border.
Depending on how things play out, Laos might end up with a diffuse scam industry that’s structured a lot more like Cambodia’s — and which is far harder to dismantle.
Dispersing the scam compounds means increasing contacts between the criminals and officials from other provinces. Less sophisticated syndicates mean more of the scamming profits stay in-country, laundered through the local economy, infecting everything.
Narco-states like Mexico and Colombia have learned the brutal lesson that it’s simpler to deal with an illegal industry run by one dominant cartel, even one you have to tolerate, rather than a scorched-earth free-for-all between many warring factions.
Possibly, a similar impulse may be why Vientiane seemingly wants to push Zhao and his associates enough for some smaller operators to flee the country, but not enough that the Golden Triangle SEZ collapses.
David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. He writes theWatching Europe In Southeast Asianewsletter. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by David Hutt.
At least 371 families displaced by the construction of the Laos-China Railway project, completed three years ago, have yet to receive full compensation after refusing to accept what they say are inadequate offers from the Lao government.
The families, who mostly live in the capital of Vientiane, were forced from their land by the project, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “Belt and Road Initiative” of infrastructure development linking China to its neighbors.
A bridge on the Laos-China railway in Luang Prabang province, Laos, Sept, 2023.
Khamphan Phommathat, the president of Laos’ State Inspection Authority, confirmed that the 371 families remain uncompensated at a meeting of the Lao National Assembly last week, noting that the government had already paid US$83 million to 6,504 of 6,875 families affected by the project.
“The reason why the issue remains unsolved is because the government and affected families still cannot agree on the calculation of a unit price for their houses, farmland, and trees lost to the project, while in other cases, some families simply can’t accept the unit price offered by the government,” he said.
In August last year, residents told RFA that they had been offered 80,000 kip (US$4.10) per meter, but were asking for 150,000 kip (US$7.70) per meter.
The US$6 billion railway connecting the two Communist neighbors opened in December 2021. The World Bank projected that it would boost tourism, freight transport and trade in agriculture.
The line runs from Vientiane into northern Laos, passing through 10 stations in the country, including the major tourist draw of Luang Prabang and the Chinese border town of Boten. It ends in Kunming in the southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan.
It’s the first railroad to penetrate any distance into Laos, a country whose transport infrastructure has long been constrained by poverty, mountainous terrain and sparse population.
Residents of a resettlement village for those affected by the construction of the Laos-China railway in Laung Prabang province, Laos, Sept, 2023.
But the project has been criticized for displacing several thousand farmers from their land. Many have faced long delays in getting reimbursement for their lost property, as others have been shortchanged in the payments they did receive.
Speaking to RFA, an official who is involved in compensation negotiations said that the primary reason for the delay is because the government is low-balling residents.
“There will be an increase to the previously offered unit price that [the government] agreed to,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the situation with the media. “However, many years have already passed and the economic situation [in Laos] has shifted, so it looks like the offered unit price is too low.”
The Chinese funded Nam Khan 3 dam in Luang Prabang province, Laos, Sept, 2023.
Another official working on the compensation issue, who also declined to be named, echoed the assessment that the government’s offering is too low.
“The National Assembly already approved the unit price for compensation, but in practice families affected see it as too low and won’t agree to accept it,” he said. “The government also cannot agree to the unit price that affected families proposed. The only thing the government can do is to push villagers to accept its offer.”
There is currently no projection for when the compensation scheme will be complete, but the State Inspection Authority’s Khamphan Phommathat told the National Assembly that the government will do its best to finalize the offer’s unit price.
“We will continue to push in order for people to get compensation from what they already lost to the Laos-China railway project,” he said.
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
A young woman who was forced to work at a Chinese-run scam center in Myanmar for two years is now in Thailand and expects to return to Laos soon.
Last week, Radio Free Asia reported that the woman, who withheld her name out of fear of reprisals, was one of several Laotians trafficked to work as scammers at a place called “Casino Kosai” in an isolated development near the town of Myawaddy in Kayin state.
Casino Kosai is in an area near the Thai border where ethnic Karen rebels have been engaged in intense fighting with military junta troops in recent months.
It was unclear exactly how the young woman, who just turned 19, had gained her release, but her mother said that scam center operators had agreed to let her go.
“It is the happiest moment in my life as soon as I heard from my daughter that the Chinese bosses would release her,” her mother said. “She was preparing to pack her belongings and the car would come to pick her up.”
The woman told Radio Free Asia that she faced beatings whenever she failed to scam potential victims.
“The Chinese bosses hit me and torture me every day,” she said in a text message. “Why isn’t anybody coming to help me?”
The woman’s mother said her daughter was initially promised a factory job in Thailand, but was later sold to the Chinese scam gang and brought to Myanmar.
She said her daughter told her about the abuse at the scam center and about working up to 19 hours a day.
“I have no idea what to do to bring my daughter back home,” said the mother. “The Chinese bosses use cattle prods to torture her if she doesn’t do her job well.”
The young woman told RFA Lao in a voice message that she arrived in Mae Sot on Wednesday, adding that she was unsure when she would continue on to Laos.
On Friday, the woman told RFA that she was staying at a police station in Thailand’s Mae Sot district.
RFA Lao spoke about the woman’s case with an official from the Lao Ministry of Public Security, who said that rescuing people from scam centers in areas in Myanmar that are not under junta control “is very difficult,” adding that there was little the Lao government could do about the situation.
RFA was unable to reach Thai police in Mae Sot to ask for more information.
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
A massive sinkhole that opened up in a rice paddy in central Laos’ Khammouane province was likely caused by excavation at a Chinese-owned potash mine, residents said Thursday.
Residents of Thakhaek district’s Pakpeng village discovered a 20-meter (65-foot) wide, 10-meter (33-foot) deep sinkhole on their farmland, located around 800 meters (half a mile) away from area residences, according to a report Tuesday by the Laophattana newspaper.
Residents reported hearing a loud boom at around 1 a.m. and found the depression later that morning.
In the two days since, the sinkhole has increased in size to 25 meters (82 feet) in width and 15 meters (49 feet) in depth, the Khammouane News Facebook page reported Thursday.
Photos posted to Facebook show a gaping hole that exposed several layers of substrate, containing a tree that was uprooted in the collapse.
Khammouane Province Governor Vanxay Phongsavanh, left, and his delegation inspect a sinkhole in Pakpeng village, Laos, Dec. 4, 2024.
Pakpeng villagers told RFA Laos they believe the hole was formed due to excavation at a nearby concession leased by China’s Sino-Agri Mining Development Company Limited, which operates a mine at the site.
“It happened near my rice paddy where I grow rice every year,” said one of the villagers, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisals. “I am not sure what caused this, but I know there is a potash mining operation [about 500 meters (1,640 feet)] from my rice paddy … It seems like they dug a ventilation shaft in the ground.”
On Wednesday, a delegation of officials from the Khammouane province Department of Energy and Mines, led by provincial governor Vanxay Phongsavanh, and Sino-Agri representatives visited the site for an initial investigation, but no conclusions were reached regarding what caused the pit to form, according to Khammouane News.
A Thakhaek district official, who also declined to be named, told RFA that an investigation is ongoing, but acknowledged that the nearby potash mine may have had a role in the collapse.
Khammouane Province Governor Vanxay Phongsavanh, center, and his delegation inspect a sinkhole in Pakpeng village, Laos, Dec. 4, 2024.
“The incident took place around 500 meters from an underground tunnel,” he said, confirming the villager’s suspicion that Sino-Agri had built a ventilation shaft for the potash mine. “The tunnel is around 300 meters (1,000) below the surface.”
Khammouane News reported that, after inspecting the sinkhole, officials ordered Sino-Agri to secure the site with a fence to prevent people and animals from falling into the pit.
Translated by Phuovong. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
On Nov. 19, Sok Chenda Sophea, who was only brought in as Cambodia’s foreign minister last year, was given the heave-ho and replaced by his predecessor, Prak Sokhonn.
The previous day, the urbane and much-praised Saleumxay Kommasith was dismissed as the foreign minister of Laos and demoted upstairs to the Prime Minister’s Office.
It is unusual for foreign ministers in both countries to be reshuffled.
Sok Chenda Sophea was only the third foreign minister since the ruling Cambodian People’s Party cemented its power in 1998; Saleumxay was only the fourth foreign minister since the communist takeover in Laos in 1975.
In one interpretation, Saleumxay was merely a casualty of an ongoing carve-up of the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party by the Siphadones and Phomvihanes, the two most important political clans.
Laos’ Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith takes to the podium to speak during a press conference after the 57th Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (AFP Photo/Tang Chhin Sothy)
It is expected that 2025 will be a year of horse trading and in-fighting between grandees ahead of the National Congress in January 2026, when the party’s new five-year leadership is announced.
Saleumxay was replaced by Thongsavanh Phomvihane, previously head of the ruling communist party’s foreign policy commission and brother of the National Assembly chair, Saysomphone Phomvihane.
Saysomphone stands a good chance of becoming the next party chief, but there are still doubts about whether Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone, the scion of the Siphandone clan, will get a second term.
Uncertain geopolitics ahead
Once considered the party’s “crown prince,” Sonexay’s reputation has suffered badly because of his handling of Laos’s ongoing economic catastrophe, which shows no signs of improving.
Saleumxay was seen by some as a challenger to Sonexay, especially after impressing this year as the minister who guided Laos’s ASEAN chairmanship.
Yet, he was not universally popular within the ruling communist party. Many apparatchiks perceived him as an aloof, independent-minded upstart who rose too quickly.
Removing Saleumxay increases Sonexay’s chances of keeping his job. Putting a Phomvihane in the foreign ministry also increases that family’s influence, too.
Beyond domestic political concerns, the removal of the two foreign ministers comes as their governments prepare for more uncertain times internationally.
According to Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, Prak’s reappointment will increase the “government’s capabilities” amid intensifying geopolitical tensions.
Prak is an experienced diplomat accustomed to fighting Cambodia’s corner amid new Cold War rivalries, whereas Sok Chenda Sophea was principally an economics-minded functionary – appointed last year because he wasn’t geopolitically-minded.
The neophyte Hun Manet administration wanted a foreign minister who would focus entirely on increasing trade and investment, which was Sok Chenda Sophea’s sole remit as the former head of Cambodia’s investment council.
Cambodia Foreign Minister Sok Chenda Sophea, center, walks during the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Foreign Ministers meeting in Vientiane, Laos, July 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim)
Under Sok Chenda, the foreign ministry shifted many of its diplomatic duties, allowing it to concentrate on tapping foreign governments for more money.
That left other ruling party grandees like Hun Manet and his father, Hun Sen, still in power in Phnom Penh, to operate their own foreign policy – pursuing controversial issues, like the territorial disputes with neighboring Vietnam and Thailand, that could impair economic relations.
Trump tariffs
Phnom Penh presumably thinks this dual system is no longer workable. Donald Trump’s return as U.S. president in 2025 means Washington will no longer separate geopolitics from trade, so it makes little sense for Phnom Penh to do so, either.
Moreover, it knows it will face a much more hostile relationship with the incoming Trump administration, with its threatened blanket 10-20% tariff on global imports when the U.S. is the largest purchaser of Cambodian goods.
Trump also will bring Marco Rubio in as secretary of state. Washington’s leading China hawk is expected to take a much tougher stance on Beijing’s partners in Asia, such as Cambodia, and on mainland Southeast Asia’s vast scam industry that is increasingly victimizing U.S. citizens.
Unlike Sok Chenda Sophea, Prak is more of a ruling-party partisan who can push back against U.S. criticism. Presumably, Phnom Penh realizes it’ll soon have to wade into a new fight with Washington, making it even more important to be on the best terms with Beijing.
Beijing won’t be displeased by Prak’s return.
Attuned to Beijing
China is believed to have grown weary with some of the princelings installed in Hu Manet’s cabinet during last year’s vast generational succession process.
It has been lobbying for the return of Prak, an old-style politician who understands how Beijing prefers things to be done.
In Vientiane, Saleumxay did a good job in recent years of pitching Laos to the rest of the world, including the West, and as the only fluent English speaker in the Politburo was key to securing some important development assistance packages from Japan, the U.S., and European states.
Yet Laos’s dire economic situation, particularly its massive debts to China, isn’t improving, and only Beijing has the ability to assist meaningfully.
A damning report by the IMF published last week noted that Laos’s economy “critically relies on the continued extension of debt relief from China.” Vientiane knows it must narrow its foreign relations again to focus squarely on China.
Indeed, the communist party is eager to find a more senior role for pro-Beijing figures like Sommath Pholsena, currently a deputy president of the National Assembly and a childhood friend of Xi Jinping, China’s president. He’ll likely be the next National Assembly chair.
Thongsavanh Phomvihane, the new foreign minister, started his career at Laos’s embassy in Beijing, has closer ties to the Chinese Communist Party, and is more of a party loyalist than Saleumxay.
Like Prak, he’s an older, more traditional and safer pair of hands, someone who understands what Beijing wants and how to provide that.
David Hutt is a research fellow at the Central European Institute of Asian Studies (CEIAS) and the Southeast Asia Columnist at the Diplomat. He writes theWatching Europe In Southeast Asianewsletter. The views expressed here are his own and do not reflect the position of RFA.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by David Hutt.
A young Australian woman has died after drinking alcohol laced with methanol in Laos, her father said on Friday, the sixth victim of what should have been a fun night out in a tourist town on the Southeast Asian backpacker trail.
Shaun Bowles, said in a statement his “beautiful girl Holly is now at peace” after dying in a hospital in Bangkok, where she was taken last week after falling ill in neighboring Laos.
Her friend, Bianca Jones, died on Thursday in a hospital in the northeastern Thai town of Udon Thani, where she had been sent for treatment. They were both 19.
A British woman, two young Danish women and an American man have also died, and several more people are reported to be sick, after going out for drinks last week in the riverside town of Vang Vieng, which has for years been a laid-back stop for young Western travelers.
Media identified the British woman as Simone White, 28, a lawyer.
“We are supporting the family of a British woman who has died in Laos, and we are in contact with the local authorities,” Britain’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office said on Thursday.
It is believed White had been sent for treatment in the Lao capital, Vientiane, after falling ill last week. A member of staff at the Kasemrad International Hospital there told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday a British national was being treated in its intensive care unit. The hospital declined to comment on Friday.
The exterior of Bangkok Hospital, in Bangkok, Thailand, Nov. 21, 2024.
An official from the Lao Ministry of Public Security told RFA on Friday that at least seven foreign tourists have been sent from Vang Vieng to Kasemrad for treatment.
The Lao government has not confirmed the cause of the deaths but on Friday it cited Australian media as saying the victims had consumed drinks laced with methanol.
“The case is under extensive investigation now,” the ministry official said. “I think it will take sometimes to conclude the case, but I am not sure about the timeline.”
Thai authorities said an autopsy on Jones showed she died from brain swelling caused by methanol. The British, Australian and New Zealand embassies have issued updated travel advisories on the danger of methanol in Laos.
Methanol is a clear, tasteless liquid that can be used to boost the alcohol content of drinks, often with fatal consequences.
Some 1,200 people have fallen ill from drinking methanol-laced drinks in the past year, according to Doctors Without Borders, which said 394 people had died worldwide, many of them in Asia.
‘Severe condition’
Earlier on Friday, the Ministry of Public Security identified the two Danish women who died as Anne-Sofie Coyman, 20, and Freja Sorensen, 21, and the American man as James Hutson, 57. All three had been staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng, it said.
The ministry said no autopsies had been carried out so it couldn’t confirm the cause of death.
“On Nov. 12, Coyman and Sorensen went out drinking at bars in Vang Vieng before coming back at midnight,” the ministry said in a statement.
“At 6 p.m. on Nov. 13, a staff member at Nana Backpacker found them lying unconscious in their rooms so they carried them to Vang Vieng Hospital. They were in a coma and relied on a respirator due to their severe condition. They were transferred to the No. 103 Military Hospital at 8 p.m. but they died at 3:30 in the morning.
“The doctors concluded death was due to sudden heart failure.”
The ministry said hostel staff found Hutson on his bed just after 9 p.m. on Nov. 13 and took him to Vang Vieng Hospital but he was dead on arrival.
The U.S. State Department earlier confirmed the death of the U.S. citizen, while the Danish government confirmed two of its nationals had died in Laos.
‘Don’t accept free drinks’
Details of how the tourists came to drink tainted alcohol in Vang Vieng are sketchy and it is not clear if they were all drinking at the same bar. Residents told RFA no Lao people had fallen ill over the past week but cases of tainted alcohol were common in Vang Vieng.
A town police officer who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the case, said anyone found selling tainted drinks would face serious consequences.
“Methanol is basically prohibited to mix with alcohol for sales as it is listed as a life-harming chemical,” he told Radio Free Asia. “It is only allowed to be used for industrial purposes.”
A Lao tourism official told RFA that officers had checked all bars and entertainment venues in Vang Vieng but added he could not give details of their findings.
Bar staff and venue managers in the town said they only offered reputable brands of drinks, though one of them warned that customers should always be careful.
“The only thing that can prevent this kind of incident is to not accept any free drink offered by someone you don’t know in a bar,” said the man, who declined to be identified.
An official from the Vang Vieng tourism office told RFA that it is widely understood that the deaths could have “negative impacts” on Laos’ tourism industry.
Police in Vang Vieng have detained but not charged several people in connection with their investigation, the AP reported. Staff at Nana Backpacker told the agency the hostel’s owner and manager had been taken away for questioning.
Duong Duc Toan, the manager of Nana Backpacker Hostel sits in the hostel’s bar in Vang Vieng, Laos, Nov. 19, 2024.
The British Foreign Office in its updated advisory said methanol was been used in the manufacture of counterfeit replicas of well-known alcohol brands or illegal local spirits, like vodka.
“You should take care if offered, particularly for free, or when buying spirit-based drinks. If labels, smell or taste seem wrong then do not drink,” it said
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This story has been updated to add comments from two Lao officials.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
Australian teenager Bianca Jones became the fourth person to die after drinking alcohol mixed with highly poisonous methanol at a tourist town in Laos, Australia’s prime minister said on Thursday.
The 19-year-old was being treated in the intensive care unit of a hospital in the northeastern Thai town of Udon Thani after falling ill following a drinking session on Nov. 12 in Van Vieng, a favorite backpacker haunt in Laos, 200 kilometers (125 miles) to the north.
Thai authorities said Jones died by “brain swelling due to high levels of methanol found in her system,” the Associated Press news agency reported.
“This is every parent’s very worst fear and a nightmare that no one should have to endure,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after informing parliament of Jones’ death.
He said his thoughts were also with Jones’ friend, 19-year-old Holly Bowles, who is critically ill at a hospital in Bangkok.
Jones’ parents released a statement confirming her death and asking for privacy.
“She was surrounded by love, and we are comforted by the knowledge that her incredible spirit touched so many lives during her time with us,” they said.
An American man, who remained in Van Vieng after falling ill last week, also died, according to the U.S. State Department.
A spokesperson declined to give details, saying the department was “closely monitoring” the situation but it was up to local authorities to determine the cause of death, Australia’s Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Two Danish women, both around 20 years old, were the first fatalities of what should have been a fun night out in the tourist town.
About a dozen people are ill in hospitals in Laos and Thailand, health sources have said.
Lao authorities have not confirmed the cause of death but there is little doubt the poisoning was caused by methanol, a clear liquid that is often illegally added to alcohol as a cheaper alternative to ethanol. Even a small amount of methanol can be fatal.
Australia and Britain both updated their travel advisories to warn of the danger of methanol poisoning in Laos
“Methanol has been used in the manufacture of counterfeit replicas of well-known alcohol brands or illegal local spirits, like vodka,” the British government said.
“You should take care if offered, particularly for free, or when buying spirit-based drinks. If labels, smell or taste seem wrong then do not drink.”
Suspected methanol poisoning has led to nearly 400 deaths in the past 12 months, according to Doctors Without Borders. Asia has the highest level of poisoning, with Indonesia, India, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines particularly hard hit, the group said.
Edited by Mike Firn.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.
BANGKOK – One British and two Australians tourists are seriously ill after drinking alcohol suspected of being tainted with poisonous methanol in a tourist town in Laos, after two young Danish women died, hospital sources told Radio Free Asia on Wednesday.
The British tourist is in intensive care in a hospital in the Lao capital, Vientiane, while the two Australians are in hospital in neighboring Thailand, the sources said. As many as nine other tourists were ill, media reported.
All of them were believed to have been in the Lao town of Vang Vieng, a favorite destination for backpackers in Southeast Asia.
The Lao government said it had not identified what killed the two Danish women and made the others sick.
“We acknowledged the incident but we do not have the autopsy and investigation results yet,” said an official at the Ministry of Public Security who declined to be identified, given the sensitivity of the matter.
RFA previously reported that tourists got sick after a late-night drinking session on Nov. 12, according to sources in Laos who declined to be identified.
A member of staff at the Kasemrad International Hospital Vientiane, said a tourist was admitted to the hospital last week.
“The British national is in ICU,” the female staff member told RFA, referring to the hospital’s intensive care unit. She declined to give further details about the condition or gender of the patient.
Two Australians, Holly Bowles and her friend, Bianca Jones, both 19, were in serious condition in Thailand – one in hospital in Bangkok and the other in the town of Udon Thani, near the border with Laos, Australian media reported.
A member of staff at the Bangkok hospital did not deny it was treating one of the tourists but declined to identify her or give details of her condition.
Australia’s 9News quoted Bowles’ father, Shaun, as saying his daughter was still fighting for her life.
“Our daughter remains in the intensive care unit, in a critical condition. She’s on life support,” he said.
Jones’ family said in a statement carried by Australian networks on Wednesday that she remained in intensive care in Udon Thani and they had received no update on her condition.
“This is every parent’s nightmare and we want to ensure no other family is forced to endure the anguish we are going through,” the family said.
The two best friends had been on a “dream getaway,” the family said in an earlier statement.
Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos, Nov. 19, 2024.
‘Profit over lives’
An official at the No. 103 Military Hospital in Vientiane told RFA on Wednesday the two unidentified Danish women had died of severe poisoning.
“The [first] woman passed away on the first day she was transferred from Vang Vieng, having breathing difficulties,” the official said. “The second woman was able to travel by herself in a car but finally succumbed.”
She said many other patients were referred to hospital elsewhere.
Most of the sick tourists – who included Danish and Swedish nationals – had been staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in the town, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, reported.
RFA spoke to Duong Van Huan, an owner of the hostel, who said that the poisoning did not occur at his bar.
“I don’t know much of what happened,” he said “They went to the bar and came back … I only sent them to the hospital … I don’t know which bar they went to – Vang Vieng has lots of them.”
A foreign businessman in Vang Vieng told RFA he thought there needed to be an international inquiry.
“From my opinion, this needs a lot of investigation by local and foreign officials,” he said. “The ones who are accountable will get what they deserve and send a very clear message to all bars and hostels that they should never make a small extra profit over lives.”
Police told RFA Lao they are investigating whether the source of the illness was methanol, a clear liquid that is often illegally added to alcohol as a cheaper alternative to ethanol. Even a small amount of methanol can be fatal.
A tourist took to a Laos Backpacker group on Facebook to post a warning.
“Urgent – please avoid all local spirits,” the tourist said. “Our group stayed in Vang Vieng and we drank free shots offered by one of the bars. Just avoid them as so not worth it. 6 of us who drank from the same place are in hospital currently with methanol poisoning.”
An official at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment.
Edited by Mike Firn
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
Two Danish citizens have died and as many as 10 other foreign nationals are severely ill after ingesting what is believed to be alcohol tainted with methanol in the Lao tourist town of Vang Vieng, according to sources and media reports.
The victims had been out drinking late into the night on Nov. 12 and began to feel ill early the next morning, at which point they were taken to a hospital in Vang Vieng for treatment, according to a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, or ABC.
Most of the tourists – who included Danish, Australian and Swedish nationals – had been staying at the Nana Backpacker Hostel in the town in Vientiane province, the report said.
Police told RFA Lao that they are investigating whether the source of the illness was methanol, a clear liquid that is often illegally added to alcohol as a cheaper alternative to ethanol. Even a small amount of methanol can be fatal if ingested.
Duong Duc Toan, the manager of Nana Backpacker Hostel sits in the hostel’s bar in Vang Vieng, Laos, Nov. 19, 2024.
They confirmed that one Danish tourist had died as a result of the poisoning and that “several other foreign tourists” were being treated at the No. 103 Military Hospital in in the capital Vientiane.
Other sources said two Danish women in their 20s had died from the poisoning.
ABC cited a statement from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirming that two Danish citizens “have passed away in Laos,” but said it provided no further details, citing reasons of confidentiality in personal matters.
ABC reported that two Australian women, aged 19, had been hospitalized in Vang Vieng, but were later transferred to a hospital in Vientiane, before being sent to another medical facility in Thailand. They were both listed in critical condition.
The report cited a spokesman for Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade as saying that the government was providing consular assistance to the two Australians and their families in Thailand.
Investigation underway
RFA spoke with Duong Van Huan, an owner of the Nana Backpacker Hostel, who said that the poisoning did not occur at his bar.
“They went out to the bars – lots of people,” he said, referring further questions to police.
“I don’t know much of what happened,” he added. “They went to the bar and came back … I only sent them to the hospital … I don’t know which bar they went to – Vang Vieng has lots of them.”
A paramedic in Vang Vieng told RFA Tuesday that early on Nov. 13, three tourists were taken to the No. 103 Military hospital in Vientiane, but one of them was already dead.
“It seems like she drank something mixed with poison in Vang Vieng,” said the paramedic, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation with the media. “The police are investigating this incident.”
A woman carries a baby as she walks by the Nana Backpacker Hostel in Vang Vieng, Laos, Nov. 19, 2024.
An official from the hospital in Vang Vieng confirmed that “many foreign tourists are being treated … due to an illness caused by poison.”
“But then most of them were transferred to other hospitals,” said the official, who also declined to be named. “Some of them were in a coma when they arrived here.”
A police officer in Vientiane told RFA on Tuesday that the case is “under investigation,” but he was unable to confirm how many tourists had been poisoned.
After the incident, a tourist took to a Laos Backpacker group on Facebook to post a warning.
“Urgent – please avoid all local spirits,” the post said. “Our group stayed in Vang Vieng and we drank free shots offered by one of the bars. Just avoid them as so not worth it. 6 of us who drank from the same place are in hospital currently with methanol poisoning.”
An official at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok declined to comment when asked for further details about the incident.
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
The Lao government is cracking down on a host of consumer goods, from bottled drinking water to fish sauce, that don’t have proper labels showing they are registered with the government.
But residents say the warning isn’t likely to have any impact as corruption is rife amongst officials who are tasked with weeding the goods out at the border.
On Oct. 9, the Lao Ministry of Industry and Commerce issued a notice prohibiting the import and sale of food products that are not registered with the Ministry of Health’s Food and Drug Administration, beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
The notice requires importers to display FDA registration numbers and other relevant information in Lao on the labels of their products.
The reason appears to be to protect consumers against dangerous or questionable products.
“This [ban] can’t be enforced because it’s difficult in Laos,” said one resident who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity due to security concerns. “Everything can be imported if you deal with the right inspection official. If something is restricted, you just pay a little money – that’s how it is with the officials.”
Border officials, like other civil servants in Laos, earn a paltry salary, and many turn to graft to supplement their income and support their families.
Another resident noted that goods are regularly brought into the country from China, Vietnam and Thailand by smugglers who pay bribes to border checkpoint officials to look the other way.
“It can’t be done – they can’t restrict it at the border,” said the resident, who also declined to be named. “A lot of smuggled goods come in. These days it’s mostly Vietnamese, Chinese and Thai products coming into Laos.”
But the sources RFA spoke with said they agreed with the premise of the ban, as a wide variety of food supplement products are being sold throughout the country with no clear label of origin.
“Some could be fake products that cause side effects when consumed, so the government should strictly inspect importing companies and thoroughly investigate the source [of the products],” a third resident said. “If they can enforce it, that would be good. Things like cosmetics can be very dangerous, and food supplements too.”
‘Many products slip through’
An official with knowledge of the situation told RFA that the notice was intended to inform all import-export companies, wholesalers, retailers and domestic producers that they need to accurately label their goods, as part of a bid to build consumer confidence in Laos.
“Many food supplement products use exaggerated advertising claims and may contain chemical additives that could cause cancer or other side effects, which Lao authorities haven’t fully investigated,” said the official.
He acknowledged that “many products slip through” the border and authorities have little data on what impacts they have had on the people who consume them.
“If we find such products now, we will seize and detain them, and destroy them according to the law,” he said.
The official provided no details on the volume of goods believed to be smuggled into the country or why smuggling is rampant at the border.
According to the notice announcing the ban, labels detailing a product’s registration number and other relevant information in Lao must be affixed at the factory of the product’s origin, and will be required beginning Aug. 1, 2025.
During the transition period, importers, exporters, wholesalers, retailers and domestic producers can affix the information to their products with printed stickers.
Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Lao.
Illegal guns are pervasive in Laos as government measures to control them have been largely ineffective, a government official with knowledge of the situation said.
Under current law, Laotians must register weapons they own with authorities, but that is largely unheeded — leading to crimes committed with guns.
In September, for example, a group of unidentified armed men stormed a prison in Vientiane, fired at guards and escaped with five prisoners.
“Many wealthy Laotians buy weapons from the other side of the Mekong River,” said a Public Security Ministry official, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity so he could speak freely without retribution, referring to Thailand and Myanmar.
“They smuggle them into Laos,” he said. “There are too many guns in the country right now. It’s difficult to control the spread of weapons because they bought the guns, but they wouldn’t register them with us.”
It is difficult to determine just how many people have guns, he added.
The Ministry of Public Security issued an order on Aug. 16 notifying citizens that it would cancel authorizations to use firearms issued by all security departments that were not in compliance with a decree on registration and control of guns dated June 23, 2022.
An illegal rifle seized by police in Laos is seen in this undated photo. (Houaphanh province police)
‘Guns are everywhere’
The ministry also said it would set up a police force to implement a prime ministerial decree on confiscating and controlling weapons and explosives, and that this force should “invite” gun owners to hand over their firearms.
Those who fail to comply within 15 working days will be charged with illegal possession of firearms.
Still, a resident of the capital, Vientiane, said gun control was weak, noting that there have been more shootings there in the past several years.
“Guns are everywhere. Our community is not safe,” he said. “Our security department is not strict and not effective.”
Many local officials and residents have some kind of weapon despite the bans, said an official at the Houaphanh province police department in northeastern Laos.
The department has confiscated and destroyed many of the weapons, but he said many people own hunting rifles or air guns that they make from metal pipes or other materials.
On Oct. 11, authorities in the southern province of Savannakhet reported that police were able to register 3,140 guns from 2019 to 2023, including 1,870 short guns, such as pistols, and 1,270 rifles. They also confiscated 265 illegal guns and 1,113 bullets during this period.
Guns are rife in the north, in the Chinese-controlled Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo province, a resident told RFA Lao. In June 2023, authorities arrested a Lao national for shooting two Chinese men in the zone.
“They sell them to each other like they are selling cake,” he said. “Safety protection and controls in the zone are based on who has money and authority in the zone.”
Translated by Max Avary for RFA Lao. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.
Laos’ most-populous province is short more than 500 teachers for the new school year starting this month, even as the central government slashes jobs to reduce the country’s enormous debt.
The two problems can be traced to the economic crisis gripping Laos amid soaring inflation and living costs, a declining currency, poor job prospects and swelling debt from dams and other infrastructure projects.
More than 300 teachers in Savannakhet province recently retired, Gov. Bounhom Oubonpaseuth said at a Sept. 9 meeting with other high-ranking provincial officials. That number includes volunteer teachers who help staff many classrooms.
In Laos’ centrally planned economy, school staff are government employees, and many young people work as volunteer teachers in classrooms until there is an opening for salaried staff.
But rampant inflation has made it less likely that volunteers will be offered a full-time state teaching job, and more volunteer educators have been walking away from the profession.
A primary school in a rural area of Savannakhet province, Laos, in March 2023. (RFA)
Interior Minister Vilayvong Boutdakham told lawmakers in the capital Vientiane last week that the government must cut more than 3,000 positions for nurses, teachers and other state workers by the end of 2025.
The lack of teachers has been a growing issue in Savannakhet – with more than 1 million inhabitants – and elsewhere in the country since at least 2017, when the national government began reducing state employee quotas because of its shrinking budget.
One teacher for several classrooms
Earlier this year, the province began paying a living allowance of 1.5 million kip (US$68) a month to volunteer teachers. But that hasn’t been enough to keep enough volunteers in the schools.
In the province’s Xayphouthong district, so many have quit that most kindergartens have no teachers and some schools have no teachers at all, a district education official said.
In Sepon district, officials need to bring in 123 volunteer and salaried teachers, an education official there told Radio Free Asia. There are 109 schools in the district’s rural areas, where it’s especially hard to hire and keep teachers, he said.
“Only nine schools have enough teachers – the rest don’t,” he said. “One teacher has to teach many classes or grades at the same time.”
Other provinces are facing the same issues. Northern Oudomxay Province has a shortage of 273 teachers. Central Bolikhamxay province has openings for 413 teachers, according to Phophet Kounnavong, deputy director of the province’s Department of Education and Sports.
Lao primary school students gather in a classroom in March 2023. (RFA)
One teacher in Bolikhamxay who recently resigned said the salary of 1 million kip (US$45) a month wasn’t enough to meet living expenses.
“I quit to set up a small business,” she said. “Many volunteer teachers have also quit. They couldn’t wait. Those who continue will have to teach many classes at the same time – especially in rural areas.”
Nationwide, last year’s teacher shortage was 2,778, according to official statistics published by the Lao Ministry of Education and Sports.
Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.
Images from northern Laos and central Myanmar show the extent of flooding from torrential rains brought by Typhoon Yagi.
Asia’s biggest storm of the year has left scores of people dead or missing in several countries in Southeast Asia since roaring across northern Vietnam, northern Laos and Thailand last week, causing landslides and flooding, and destroying homes, bridges and roads.
People gather on a porch as buildings sit in floodwaters in Luang Prabang province, Laos, Sept. 12, 2024. (FB/Pouth Freedomman via Reuters)
Since Sept. 10, high water levels in Laos’ Luang Namtha province have forced residents in affected villages up to the second floors of their flooded homes as they wait for help.
Others have sought temporary shelter inside a provincial administration hall, a badminton court hall and Buddhist temples.
Vegetation and buildings are inundated by floodwaters in Luang Prabang province, Laos, Sept. 12, 2024. (FB/Pouth Freedomman via Reuters)
The waterlogged areas include 35 villages, according to a Sept. 11 provincial administration report submitted to Prime Minister Sonexay Siphandone’s office.
Authorities are busy rescuing people from the roofs of their homes, taking them to temporary shelter, and providing food and drinking water from donations by businesses and the wealthy, said a local official who declined to be identified so he could speak freely.
Vegetation and buildings are inundated by floodwaters in Luang Prabang province, Laos, Sept. 12, 2024. (FB/Pouth Freedomman via Reuters)
Heavy rains from the storm caused spillover from the Namtha 3 Dam that flowed down the Namtha River, a tributary of the Mekong and the largest river in the province, and contributed to the flooding of province’s Luang Namtha district.
Lake level rises 6 meters
In Myanmar, flooding from heavy rains has displaced more than 20,000 people from over 170 villages since Sept. 11 in the vicinity of Inle Lake, and residents urgently need aid, locals and volunteer aid workers said.
The flooding caused power outages and forced schools to close in communities near the freshwater lake in southern Shan state.
“We have never experienced such a severe flood before,” said a resident of Ma Gyi Seik village.
Homes are inundated by floodwaters at Inle Lake in Myanmar’s southern Shan state following Typhoon Yagi, Sept. 14, 2024. (STR/AFP)
The water level of the lake has risen more than six meters (20 feet) above normal because of heavy rainfall and water washing down from the mountains, inundating roughly 2,000 nearby homes.
A resident of affected He Yar village said only a few of some 800 single-story houses were not inundated with water, and that villagers must rely on food delivered by boat.
Rescue workers have evacuated the elderly to Buddhist monasteries, though they need water and medicine, while other families are staying with friends and relatives, said a volunteer rescue worker.
Homes are inundated by floodwaters at Inle Lake in Myanmar’s southern Shan state following Typhoon Yagi, Sept. 14, 2024. (STR/AFP)
As of Sept. 16, Myanmar state media said 226 people had died and 77 were still missing, according to the AFP news agency.
The death toll is double the previous figure of 113 reported on Sunday, with nearly 260,000 hectares (640,000 acres) of crops destroyed by floods.
Translated by Phouvong for RFA Lao and by Aung Naing for RFA Burmese. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
Updates Myanmar death toll to 226.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao and RFA Burmese.
Under cover of darkness, the 15 North Koreans – 13 women and two children – approached the river, where they expected to catch a speedboat out of China to Laos, bringing them one step closer to freedom.
They had traveled more than 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) across China to get to that point, hoping eventually to fly from Southeast Asia to Seoul.
Suddenly, Chinese police appeared and arrested all of them.
Instead, they will likely be repatriated – a fate that awaits nearly all North Korean escapees in Chinese police custody – and will likely be punished for fleeing.
The incident occurred on the night of Aug. 21, according to a South Korean human rights group, Korea Unification Solidarity, that had been helping the escapees.
The Chinese guide leading the group had sent a video clip to update their status to some of their family members who had already made the journey to South Korea. They were arrested moments later.
According to Korea Unification Solidarity, the escapees were on their way to South Korea – in a roundabout route.
After first fleeing North Korea to China, they were divided into two groups to avoid detection. Each group took a different route across China to the southern city of Kunming, and once reunited they planned to cross the border to a Southeast Asian country.
“The two groups arrived safely in Kunming and merged, but when they sent a video of their arrival at the riverside, the police raid started,” Jang Se-yul, a representative of Korea Unification Solidarity, told RFA Korean. “When I asked another guide, he said that they were all caught at the riverside.”
An escapee living in Seoul identified by the pseudonym Lee for safety reasons told Jang that his younger sister was among the group of 15 arrested escapees.
“Ten days ago, my younger sister and her group of 15 people left Yanji, Jilin Province, to go to Kunming and they were arrested by the Chinese police.” Lee said, according to Jang. “Their whereabouts became unknown after the video clip was sent by the Chinese guide.”
The three-second-long video clip provided to RFA by Lee via Jang shows several women, presumed to be among the 15 escapees, moving toward a river in pitch darkness to board a boat.
RFA has not been able to independently confirm which river is shown in the video or any of Jang’s statements about the incident.
According to Jang, the group consists of 13 North Korean women and two children who had lived temporarily in the northeastern Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang and Jilin.
Illegal migrants?
Although many in the international community are critical of China for forcibly repatriating North Korean escapees, Beijing maintains that they are not refugees, but illegal economic migrants, and that it must repatriate them because it is bound by two diplomatic agreements with Pyongyang.
The arrests come about a month after South Korea celebrated its first-ever North Korean Defectors’ Day, a new holiday that will henceforth fall on July 14 and celebrate the stories and struggles of North Koreans who have resettled in South Korea.
During the holiday events, South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol pledged to make “every diplomatic effort to prevent our compatriots who escaped North Korea and are living overseas from being forcibly repatriated.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, repatriations temporarily halted as the border between China and North Korea were closed down, but now that the border is open again, repatriations have resumed.
When RFA contacted South Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment on the arrests, the ministry’s spokesperson Lee Jae-woong said that there was nothing that could be confirmed.
But he said that South Korea maintains that North Koreans residing overseas should not be forcibly repatriated under any circumstances.
South Korea’s Ministry of Unification told RFA that it reiterated that position and that it is currently verifying the facts.
Translated by Jay Park. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Jung Young for RFA Korean.
Authorities in northern Laos have given illegal call centers operating in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone until the end of the month to clear out or face police action, according to officials and state media.
The murky Chinese-run special economic zone, or SEZ, along the Mekong River in Bokeo province is a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese visitors as well as a haven for online fraud, human trafficking, prostitution and illegal drug activities.
Scamming operations run by Chinese nationals who try to trick people into fake investments are rife in the zone and typically employ Laotians and other Asians trafficked to the area to work in the call centers. Many of the workers are mistreated and prevented from leaving the premises.
Lao-China Friendship Street in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo Province, Laos, July 25, 2019. (Slleong via Wikipedia)
While authorities have arrested and deported alleged operators, the scam centers persist, drawing condemnation from the international community.
Following an Aug. 9 meeting between the governor of Bokeo province, high-ranking officials from the Lao Ministry of Public Security, and Zhao Wei, the chairman of the Golden Triangle SEZ, Lao authorities ordered all scam centers to be “completely shut down by Aug. 25,” according to state media reports and an official from the public security ministry.
The official who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns, told RFA Lao on Monday that the centers were given the opportunity to “remove all of their belongings by the deadline.”
“After that, we’ll set up a special force to enforce the order,” he said.
In the first half of 2024, as many as 400 call centers were operating in the Golden Triangle SEZ, up from 305 a year earlier, the official said. The centers have mostly targeted Chinese, prompting authorities in China to team up with their counterparts in Laos to tackle the problem.
Arch at the northern entrance of the Lao-China Friendship Street in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo Province, Laos, July 25, 2019. (Slleong via Wikipedia)
As of Monday, Lao and Chinese authorities have carried out nine raids, arresting and deporting 1,389 scammers, he said, including 1,211 Chinese nationals, 145 Vietnamese, 16 Malaysians, 13 Ethiopians and four Burmese.
Amid the scrutiny, “some of them [the call centers] shifted into online gambling centers,” the official said. “Those that were arrested and deported were not big fish; they were small fish that were hired by Chinese to work as scammers.”
View of the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo Province, Laos, from Ban Sop Ruak in Thailand, July 25, 2019. (Slleong via Wikipedia)
Order welcomed
Residents of Bokeo welcomed the Lao government’s ultimatum.
“Getting rid of the crooks is a good move; my hat goes off to those authorities who follow the government’s policy,” said one man who lives near the SEZ. “A lot of people lost money by transferring it via their mobile phones to scammers.”
The owner of a guesthouse in SEZ said that getting rid of the scammers has been long overdue.
But he acknowledged that when the centers are shut down, “the SEZ will be empty – the hotels, guesthouses and restaurants will have no customers.”
Entrance into the Sam Liam Kham Checkpoint building in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo Province, Laos, July 25, 2019. (Slleong via Wikipedia)
The order to evacuate came a week after Lao authorities raided several call centers in the Golden Triangle SEZ, detaining and deporting 154 Vietnamese and 29 Chinese for their alleged involvement in the scams.
A raid of what appears to be a call center is shown in a still image captured from video broadcast by Lao Public Security Television, Aug. 9, 2024. (laopstv via Facebook)
And that September, the Lao Ministry of Public Security deported 164 Chinese arrested in Vientiane and other Lao provinces, including Bokeo. Nearly 50 of them were arrested in the Golden Triangle SEZ and believed to be involved in running call centers.
Translated by RFA Lao. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.
Sports fans in Laos have been watching the Paris Olympic games through online video platforms or through television broadcasts from neighboring Thailand.
Four athletes representing Laos competed in Paris, but there was little expectation they would bring home a medal. So viewers in Laos have also taken an interest in Thai athletes and other Southeast Asian competitors.
“I know well that Lao athletes have very little chance to win a medal,” a Vientiane resident told Radio Free Asia. “But I’m still closely following the Olympic games.”
She cheered on Panipak Wongpattanakit from Thailand, who won a gold medal in the taekwondo women’s flyweight division.
“I remember that she also won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics too,” she said, referring to the games held in 2021. “I would say ‘congratulations’ to her.”
Steven Insixiengmay of Laos competes in the Men’s 100m Breaststroke Heats on July 27, 2024 in Nanterre, France. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
Laos’ television channels didn’t have enough advertising sponsors to show a live broadcast of the Paris games, an official from Laos’ Olympic committee said.
Instead, committee officials who are in France have been posting results from Lao athletes on social media platforms and have also done a few Facebook Live broadcasts to talk about the events, he said.
Fans in Laos have also just been enjoying the track and field, soccer and gymnastic events no matter who is competing, another Lao citizen told RFA.
“I watch almost everything,” he said.
Laos hasn’t won a medal since it first sent athletes to the Olympics in 1980, when the games were held in Moscow.
Praewa Misato Philaphandeth of Laos performs a rhythmic gymnastics routine, Aug. 8, 2024 . (Mike Blake/Reuters)
Four athletes represented Laos in Paris: Silina Pha Aphay, a Lao-born 100-meter sprinter; Praewa Misato Philaphandeth, a rhythmic gymnast who is of Lao, Thai, and Japanese descent; and Ariana Southa Dirkzwager and Steven Insixiengmay, both of whom are Lao-American swimmers.
Pha Aphay was briefly in the spotlight during a preliminary heat of the women’s 100-meter race. She was seen helping another sprinter, Lucia Moris of South Sudan, who fell to the ground during the race after an apparent injury.
After crossing the finish line in sixth place, Pha Aphay ran back to Moris as she lay on the track in pain. She stayed with her as medics strapped her onto a stretcher.
“Once I saw her on the ground in pain, it was in my mind that I must finish my race first,” she told RFA. “Then I asked permission from the referee if I could help her. The referee said yes, then I rushed to help her.”
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Matt Reed.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.
(Amanda Weisbrod/RFA)
