Please stay focus and pursue the main mission and objective in this forum. How can we work together and reunited as one Lao group of people from various background, political party, believes, and education? If we cannot do that yet, I don't think this will get us anywhere farther except back to a drawing board.
Let me see Laos history trend:
Laos was under SIAM (THAI) Colonization for more than 200 years. Laos was under French Colonization for almost 63 years. Laos will be under Vietnamese communist power for how long?
Laos will still be under someone else power and she will never get her very own independent. I think there's much more for all of us to learn from our past history so that we do not make the same or worse mistakes again. Freedom is not cheap and we must earn it. if we are not doing anything about it and I am sure this history trend will be repeating for sure...
How come we like to criticize our our people and put each other down? It's good if you can use a positive criticism by supporting and helping promote our very own people? It all start with you and it can grows outward. No one is perfect nor expect to be a perfect leader to lead our Lao people. Moreover, we can all make it happen and believe in our dreams and vision that Laos will be free at last. No body will help us not unless we are helping ourselves.
Where do we start? It all starts with you and me and everyone else in this forum or group. We must work together in harmony and peace. We must learn how to forgive and forget and moving on with the same common goals and practice. If we cannot return to our beloved country then start helping your community that you are living at today. I see so many wonderful talents people and some are very well educated people in this forum that can lead and have the full potential to make thing happen for Laos. Please don't be afraid to share your feeling, motion, and opinions with these people in this group.
We should be proud of our own personal achievement, family, rich culture, and wonderful heritage that we have.
-- Giles Ji Ungpakorn UK mobile:+44-(0)7817034432 UK landline +44(0) 1865-422117 http://wdpress.blog.co.uk/ http://redsiam.wordpress.com/ see YOUTUBE videos by Giles53
From: lxenexai@hotmail.com To: laosnetworkroom@googlegroups.com
I agree with and support Ms. Stieglitz's statement - categorizing, profiling...won' bring us to anywhere. I encourage all of us to be objective and rational; notwithstanding our difference [in many ways] we are Lao - now let's start with the common ground and common interests. We may not agree certain points, and yet we can work together for the good, the best of Laos and the Lao People. Beware that a categoric and systematic rejection won't bring any thing at all - only cooperation and collaboration will open doors and windows and pave the way to a better tomorrow for Laos and the Lao People.
We talk 'Democracy' - we want Laos to be free from Vietnam's domination - but we only deal with our own feelings without daring to work together; external ennemies can be repelled, but inner ennemies are deadly and suicidal.
We are good at categorizing, can we get all of us to see each individual as a human being with rights first? Also please see below. I appreciate very much those who have communicated in English.
The world wide recognises 3 main groups of Lao people: 1/ Lao PDR is people living in the country. There are 2 groups: a) Lao - communist b) Lao - non communist. 2/ Lao oversea. There are 2 groups: a) Lao refugees or Lao overseas. big font: this is two groups. I am Lao overseas b) Spy or Communist members on the refugee status. Sigh, I have a big sigh on this because seeing and interacting with Lao NY NJ PA CT, many of us were roped to communism out of ignorance, came over when we recognized the injustices and still have family and friends in Laos in govt positions. When can we let go of "communist?" as a word? One is a spy = ultimate goal is to do harm. Good spy = action for the highest good? Possible. 3/ Lao people workers in Thailand. There are 3 groups. a) Good job as migration workers. b) Bad job, hard work get less wages. c) No luck, human trafficking, sex slaves, working under drug gang.
How can we help Lao people in the 3 ( c ). ? Who will respond them ? If you can help, what way can you do ?
Le monde entier reconnaît 3 principaux groupes de personnes Lao: 1 / République démocratique populaire lao sont les gens vivant dans le pays. Il ya 2 groupes: a) Lao - communiste b) Lao - non communiste. 2 / d'outre-mer Lao. Il ya 2 groupes: de réfugiés) ou Lao Lao à l'étranger. b) Spy ou des membres communiste sur le statut de réfugié. 3 / peuple lao travailleurs en Thaïlande. Il ya 3 groupes. un emploi) Bon comme les travailleurs migrants. b) d'emploi Bad, le travail acharné obtenir moins de salaires. c) Pas de chance, traite des êtres humains, esclavage sexuel, de travail en vertu des gangs de drogue.
Comment pouvons-nous aider les gens à Lao dans le 3 (c). ? Qui va les répondre? Si vous pouvez aider, quoi pouvez-vous faire?
ສນັ້ນຂໍໃຫ້ທ່ານທັ້ງຫລາຍທີ່ອ່ານຄຳເຫັນນີ້ແລ້ວຈົ່ງໃຫ້ຄຳຕອບໄປຍັງສູນ Moderator ໂດຍດ່ວນ.ທີ່ ຜຂ ກ່າວມານີ້ມີສ່ວນຖືກບໍ່? ຂອບໃຈຫລາຍໆ
Best regards Specom
-
Sabaidee members,
from the moderator. I would like to seek the advise from members: If we cannot unify to speak up as a voice so moderator is happy to close all forums and stay in silence. We cannot work with out destination and no clue. It is very very hard to form a big group but moderator can delete this group in 5 seconds. If our group fail, Mr Phom Laosnet Group will fail too.
So I would like you to make the consideration to support this task and the fighting for democracy will have a leader to talk on behalf of us, a Lao Nork group and Lao people who have no voice in the country. Please choose 5 people to be our leaders.
A leader is chosen by many people and does not specific the knowledge, the title, the ethics but a group accepts him to represent them. A group is recognised by the international organisation and worldwide so that group is the real representative of Lao people who have no voice in the country.
That group is acted as an opponent of Lao PDR. This is an international stage.
Now there are China town in Vientiane next to the new sport stadium and the autonomy Boten and Ton Pheung - Houi Sai. ( Golden triangle - North ) . Hanoi town in Savannakhet, Nongtha Vientiane and the autonomy of Three southern province -Attopeu, Sekong and Saravanh. ( Triangle - South )
We use the Voice of Laotians Overseas to the international worldwide about the neo-colonizing Laos.
Phongsavanh n'est plus là mais je vois que nous continuons allègrement à mal connaitre notre histoire, Tiao Yo* était le fils de Tiao Anou, il était roi du royaume de Champassack depuis 1818 et son armée se battait vaillamment contre les siamois 1826-29 et lui même à la fin de la guerre perdit la vie comme son roi et ses sept femmes envoyées dans le harem de Rama III.
China has scolded the US over its "addiction to debt" after rating agency Standard & Poor's downgraded the US' top-notch AAA rating to AA+.
State news agency Xinhua said unless the US cut its "gigantic military expenditure and bloated welfare costs," another downgrade would be inevitable.
But other countries, such as Australia, France and Japan, said they retained their faith in US bonds.
The downgrade ended a week of growing uncertainty for the world economy.
Fears that the US might be headed for a double-dip recession and the eurozone's debt problems were set to spread to Italy and Spain saw stock market sell-offs around the world.
The downgrade is a major embarrassment for the administration of President Barack Obama and could raise the cost of US government borrowing.
This in turn could trickle down to higher interest rates for local governments and individuals.
Continue reading the main story Analysis Robert Peston Business editor, BBC News The US losing its AAA rating matters. It is a very loud statement that there has been an appreciable increase in the risk - which might still be tiny, but it exists - that the US might one day struggle to pay back all it owes. Another important certainty in the world of finance has gone.
Of course many will argue - and already have - that the record of ratings agencies such as Standard & Poor's of getting these things right in recent years has been lamentably poor. Think of all the subprime CDO products rated AAA by S&P that turned out to be garbage.
But S&P, Moody's and Fitch (and particularly the first two) still have a privileged official position in the world of finance: they determine what collateral can be taken by central banks from commercial banks, when those central banks lend to commercial banks.
One initial estimate says that could add an extra $75bn (£46bn) to the US annual interest rate bill at a time when its debt levels are already high.
The other two major credit rating agencies, Moody's and Fitch, said they had no immediate plans to follow S&P in taking the US off their lists of risk-free borrowers.
'Held hostage'
Xinhua called for the printing of US dollars to be supervised internationally and repeated China's contention that a new global reserve currency might be needed.
Analysts say neither suggestion is likely to happen. But China - the world's largest holder of US debt - is clearly worried about its holding and also worried about criticism at home for having so much of the country's savings in US investments.
"The spluttering world economic recovery would be very likely to be undermined and fresh rounds of financial turmoil could come back to haunt us all," it said.
It said the US should stop "letting its domestic electoral politics take the global economy hostage".
Continue reading the main story S&P ratings (selected) AAA: UK, France, Germany, Canada, Australia AA+: USA, Belgium, New Zealand AA-: Japan, China Source: S&P In the wake of the downgrade, a European diplomatic source told Reuters news agency that the G7 group of major Western powers would confer by telephone in the coming days.
Francois Baroin, Finance Minister of France - which currently heads the G7 - said he had consulted his counterparts on Saturday morning and would closely monitor market reaction when they opened on Monday.
EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn, who cut short his summer holiday to return to Brussels, said the world's major economies should co-ordinate their policies to avoid a global crisis. S&P said in a report issued late on Friday that the US budget deficit reduction plan passed by Congress on Tuesday did not go far enough.
It also said "the political brinkmanship" over the debt reduction plan showed that "the effectiveness, stability, and predictability of American policymaking and political institutions have weakened".
S&P had threatened the downgrade if the US could not agree to cut its federal debt by at least $4tn over the next decade.
Instead, the bill passed by Congress on Tuesday plans $2.1tn in savings over 10 years.
S&P also said it might lower the US long-term rating another notch to AA within the next two years if its deficit reduction measures were deemed inadequate.
LAOS – L’armée vietnamienne serait impliquée dans la contrebande de bois 0 Commentaires Envoyer Imprimer
L’armée vietnamienne joue un rôle important dans la contrebande de bois en provenance des forêts du Laos, une activité qui rapporte plusieurs millions de dollars et menace des millions de vies, indiquait le rapport d'une ONG publié jeudi. Hanoi a nié les accusations de l’Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) basée à Londres qui a déclaré que ses opérations d’infiltration avaient révélé que l’un des plus gros exploitants forestiers au Laos est une société détenue par l’armée vietnamienne. Même si le Laos possède les dernières forêts tropicales intactes de la région du Mékong, l’interdiction d’exporter du bois brut “est souvent bafouée à grande échelle” pour alimenter les industries “voraces” du Vietnam, de Chine ou de Thaïlande, indique l’EIA. “Ce qui arrive ici est de la déforestation déplacée. Le Vietnam est presque en train d’annexer des pans entiers du Laos pour alimenter son industrie”, a déclaré Julian Newman, directeur de campagne de l’EIA, lors de la sortie du rapport à Bangkok. Les opérations d’infiltration du groupe se concentrent sur la société détenue par l’armée vietnamienne, Company of Economic Cooperation (COECCO), qui récupère la plupart du bois sur les sites de construction des barrages. La corruption "généralisée” dans le Département des forêts du gouvernement du Laos permet la contrebande de bois avec 500.000 mètres cubes valant au moins 150 millions de dollars qui traversent la frontière avec le Vietnam chaque année, indique l’EIA. Une porte-parole du ministère des Affaires étrangères à Hanoi a nié les accusations lors d’une conférence de presse. "Il n’y a pas de contrebande de bois au Laos par l’armée vietnamienne”, a expliqué Nguyen Phuoang Nga. "Toute exploitation inégale ou contrebande de bois sera rigoureusement traitée selon les lois vietnamiennes”. Newman a déclaré qu’il trouvait ironique que le Vietnam "reconnaisse le besoin de protéger ses propres forêts alors qu’il les prend à côté de chez lui”.
(http://www.lepetitjournal.com/bangkok.html avec AFP) lundi 1er août 2011
The United States' credit rating was cut for the first time when Standard and Poor's lowered it from triple-A to AA+, citing the country's looming deficit burden and weak policy-making process.
Standard and Poor's on Friday revised the nation's rating downwards to a AA+ with a negative outlook, despite a push back from the White House, which said its analysis of the US economy was deeply flawed.
It was the first time the US was downgraded since it first received a triple-AAA rating from Moody's in 1917; it has held the S&P rating since 1941.
Moody's and a third ratings agency, Fitch, say they continue to study the defici plan to see if the US merits being kept in their ranks of AAA countries.
The blow came after the White House, Democratic and Republican legislator finally agreed on Tuesday to a deal to raise the nation's debt ceiling after months of wrangling that sent jitters rippling through the global economy still trying to recover from the 2008 recession.
A debt downgrade will be a symbolic embarrassment for President Barack Obama, his administration and the Americans, and could raise the cost of US government borrowing.
Since the dollar and US Treasury bonds are so central to world trade and finance, a downgrade theoretically could rock the global economy, which is already being battered by the eurozone crisis.
But some analysts have questioned whether a ratings cut would impact demand for US debt, have dismissed the raters as having low credibility, and questioned whether the markets would take much notice.
Ratings agencies Moody's and Fitch both reaffirmed their AAA rating of US debt shortly after Obama signed a bill raising the debt ceiling on Tuesday.
The downgrade technically signalled that it is more likely than before that the United States could renege on its debts.
There was no immediate comment from the White House or the Treasury on the reports.
But a source close to the discussions said: "There are deep and fundamental flaws with the S&P analysis."
S&P is considered the most influential of the three major rating agencies.
It has been the most aggressive in moving towards a US downgrade. On April 18, S&P lowered its outlook attached to the AAA rating from "stable" to "negative", citing the absence of a credible plan for reducing Washington's huge fiscal deficits.
In July, during the protracted standoff over raising the government's debt ceiling between Obama and Republicans, S&P placed the United States on credit watch and warned there was "at least" a one-in-two chance that it would cut the rating within 90 days.
S&P also suggested any deficit plan needed to trim about $US4 trillion ($A3.84 trillion) over 10 years; the plan that has passed only envisages cuts of up to $US2.4 trillion.
There are currently 17 nations boasting a AAA debt rating from S&P along with three other territories - Hong Kong, Guernsey and the Isle of Man.
Moody's, the oldest credit agency, placed the US on a downgrade watch on July 13 and upheld its rating on Tuesday after congress passed the last-minute deal which avoided a debt default.
But Moody's also added a "negative" outlook to its rating, warning it could still downgrade the United States if the deficit-slashing plan goes astray, if fiscal discipline weakens, or if growth deteriorates significantly.
Fitch opened a review of the US rating on June 8 and said it would be completed by the end of August.
After the debt deal was clinched, Fitch said the United States would keep its AAA rating but warned it was under review.
ASIA HAND The limits of Chinese expansionism By Shawn W Crispin
BOTEN, Laos - On a November evening in this northern Lao border town, a crowd gathered around a traffic accident between two Chinese drivers. As tempers flared, Chinese casino guards moved tentatively to keep the peace. But the absence of any uniformed Lao police officers underscored the authority gap in a growing number of areas in the country where Vientiane has effectively ceded sovereignty to Beijing.
Chinese investors have built and run a sprawling casino complexat Boten, one of two special economic zones dedicated to gambling where China maintains administrative autonomy. At Boten, front desk hotel staff speak only Chinese, the yuan is the required currency of settlement and Chinese prostitutes peddle
their services on business cards printed in Mandarin rather than Lao. At the other, outside the town of Huay Xai, Chinese carstravel without license plates.
The special concessions are quid pro quo for the official aid, grants and non-interest loans Beijing has given in recent years to Laos to finance badly needed and trade facilitating infrastructure.
But Chinese foreign investments now come with big strings attached, including allowances to import unskilled Chinese labor for Chinese-funded projects in countries often desperate to create jobs for their own. Nowhere is that more apparent than in Southeast Asia's less developed states, where China's generous financial aid has influenced government policies in Beijing's favor. It is significant that China has made its deepest investment inroads in states governed by similarly authoritarian regimes, namely Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.
Strong and unaccountable governments have allowed for state-sponsored land grabs and forced village relocations to pave the way for many Chinese investments, especially in extractive industries and plantation agriculture. An entire village was forcibly moved to a barren relocation site to make way for the Chinese special economic zone outside of Huay Xai. That's leading some in the region to associate Chinese investment with corrupt government practices, rising perceptions that are motivating the first nationalist stirrings against Chinese expansionism.
New gateways
As Southeast Asia's smallest and least-populated state, Laos is most vulnerable to China's growing economic might and Beijing's presence and influence is expected to grow, according to Martin Stuart-Fox, a renowned Laos expert. Indeed, Laos is fast emerging as a greenfield model for the form Chinese capital expansionism may take across the region and beyond as Beijing revs up its investment drive.
In a 2008 academic paper, Stuart-Fox argued that China expects three things in return for its aid, loans and grants to Laos, namely: backing for Chinese policy from everything to Taiwan to Tibet; access for Chinese companies to exploit Lao resources; and lines of communication though Laos to Thailand - all of which Laos has loyally provided.
More recently, however, its become clear that China expects more for its generosity, including exclusive economic enclaves and long term leases for projects - including a to-be-built new Chinatown in downtown Vientiane - that some analysts believe will pave the way for bigger waves of Chinese migration into Laos. As of 2007, the Lao government estimated there were 30,000 Chinese residents living in Laos, a human statistic Stuart-Fox described as a "gross underestimate" in his research. Nonetheless it represented a tripling of the 1997 estimated figure.
In an apparent move to forestall similar criticism in Laos, China has worked hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Communication and Transport to establish a new Lao National Internet Center, which will come on-line in 2011. The center's Lao staff have undergone extensive training in China, including members of a newly created "security emergency response" team, according to a source familiar with the situation. Beijing has also supplied the technological equipment that will be used to monitor and block web sites, the source said. Currently, Laos does not censor the Internet.
Because of the lack of free media in the Southeast Asian countries where China is most heavily invested, it's difficult to ascertain whether the still faint voices of dissent are marginal or representative of a genuine nationalist groundswell of anti-China sentiment. But if China is indeed involved in the suppression of these voices, as many suspect, then Beijing too must realize the risks and flaws in its fast-growing capital expansionism.
Shawn W Crispin is Asia Times Online's Southeast Asia Editor.
(Copyright 2010 Asia Times Online (Holdings) Ltd. All rights
1. Dams, Casinos and Concessions: Chinese Megaprojects in Laos and Cambodia Chris Lyttleton and Nyíri Pál Development is the only hard truth. - Deng Xiaoping
1.1 Dams In August 2008, we visited Cambodia’s most talked-about megaproject. The Kamchay hydropower station, scheduled for completion in 2010 with a capacity of 180 megawatt, is being built by Sinohydro, China’s largest, state-owned hydropower engineering company, under a BOT (build – operate – transfer) agreement as part of a $600 million aid package announced by China in 2006, the same amount as pledged by OECD donor countries in the same year.
1.2 Casinos
Unlike Kamchay, the Dork Niw Kham (Golden Niw Flower) tourist development project in the Lao part of the Golden Triangle has attracted no attention, either from Laos´ state controlled media or international organisations. The project, began by Myanmar Macao Lundun Co. on 867 hectares (2,170 acres) of leased land in 2007, will entail an investment of close to US $90 million. In January 2009, it is a hive of construction hastening to meet the scheduled opening of the casino/hotel complex in April. Land has been carefully graded down to the heaving banks of the Mekong, and one easily imagines the sloping lawns and gentle promenades designed to compete with the hotel strip on the Thai side of the river and a nearby Burmese casino, carving a slice from the huge tourist market of the Golden Triangle resort area. The zone will have its own border point and rules of entry so tourists might come with no visa or legal status to enter Laos itself. An international airport, golf and entertainment facilities are planned, and agro-industrial investment, linked to training facilities for Lao workers, has been promised.
To accommodate all that, negotiations are underway for additional 200 riverside hectares to be included in the 50-year renewable lease. If consummated, this project will subsume five villages and an atoll in the Mekong currently popular with tourists on the Thai side who want to set foot in Laos. In the future, visitors can indeed set foot in Laos: except as 5the locals succinctly note, this is no longer Laos, it is China. In a soon-to-be relocated Tai-Lue village, locals make no bones of their dissatisfaction with the Lao decision to utilize Chinese money as the path to local area development: they shout abuse at Chinese laborers (who cannot understand what they say, but cannot mistake the tone) who come to buy everyday supplies (even as vendors seem happy to sell to them). Other villages will not be moved. They will be the ethnic drawcards: already pilot beauty contests of local ethnic women are being organized as the first concrete acknowledgement that this development is the undeniable and non-negotiable future they face
While discussions over further land annexation take place at the central government level, local provincial and district level authorities have little say or jurisdiction over what goes on within this sequestered zone. Although the original agreement, like at Kamchay, was to employ 90% Lao labor, the reality is quite different. The local authorities have little idea how many foreign workers there are, or where they come from (estimates range from 200 to 500 on-site at any given time). They have been denied access to this information by Chinese site managers; none of the workers are registered with the Lao labor office. As for Lao workers, those that were hired soon found they could not sustain the 12-hour shifts the Chinese overseers insisted upon. Storekeepers in neighbouring villages who furnish the migrants with food and supplies know precisely where the current laborers come from: Burma and China. Although local authorities might not control what goes on within the site, they do enforce what happens on its periphery. Residents of the village to be relocated have had no success protesting to the central government in Vientiane
“The most internationally modernized city” It is not hard to see how the locals (if not the central government) might view the rapid rise of the 1600-hectare (4000-acre) Golden Boten City “special zone” (Chinese tequ), opened in 2007 by the Chinese investment company Fu-Khing, as a salutary lesson in engagement with Chinese leaseholds. The developer’s brochure for investors asserts that Golden Boten City [as] a golden place hiding in the luxuriant jungles, just like Peter Pan’s city of never falling down, just like mysterious treasure island…, tempts the deepest desire in each tourist’s mind. As a golden port, her convenience, tolerance, prosperity and elegance will conquer every person who arrives at here. Traffic convenience will endow her with advantaged tourism, and Laos’s attractive natural landscape together with advantage of Boten will draw in numbers of international tourists. At the same time, the foreign living habits and their anxiety for Lao culture will bring infinite business chance
The casino is not mentioned. The Lao tourism office still plays to this dream: An advertisement on the back cover of the inaugural (1/2008) issue of the Luang Namtha Provincial Tourism Magazine describes Golden Boten City Co.’s, as the “most internationally modernized city in [L]ao.” Next to the new China-Thailand highway and on the site of the former village of Boten, whose inhabitants had been resettled farther away, its central feature is a hotel-casino complex, with a cluster of shops, small eating houses, staff dormitories, and apartments surrounding it. A conference center, a golf course, and villas are planned, and the developer’s brochure implores potential investors to believe that thousands of people will gather here in a beautiful morning or an autumn evening.
While it is true that there is little in Laos that runs 24 hours a day as does the casino, the current state of Golden Boten belies the vision of a cosmopolitan tropical paradise expressed in this passage and the accompanying images. The prominent presence of sex shops and prostitutes, combined with the warren of dirty alleys lined with ramshackle shops selling underwear and tobacco, and the dominance among tourists of middle-age 7men in cheap suits reminds one of a tourist destination in late-1990s in southern Chin
As two men from the northern Chinese city of Tangshan who run a stall selling oilcakes tell us, the proprietor of Golden Boten moved here from Burma, a few hundred miles west, where he ran a gambling hall in one of the Chinese-owned casinos along the border, after business declined following the Chinese government’s restrictions on its citizens travelling to these casinos. Like there, the clientele here is far from being international. Apart from an increasing (but still small) number of Thai and even fewer Lao tourists stopping by on their way to China, virtually everything and everyone in the place is Chinese, from some 3,000 employees and small business owners to the currency (only yuan are accepted), from electric sockets (electricity is also supplied from China) to beer. That this is a duty free zone does not explain why nearly all shops are Chinese. Surprisingly, considering the popularity of ethnic exoticism and eroticism in Chinese tourism (see e.g. Nyíri 2006a), no ethnic souvenirs or foods are available and no ethnic dance performances are held, although Luang Namtha Province is known for its diversity.
It appears that the environment simply feels too foreign for small Lao entrepreneurs, unfamiliar with Chinese business practices, to move in, and that both proprietors and visitors see the place as a kind of liminal Chinese space where forbidden pleasures are openly available (neither gambling nor prostitution are legal in mainland China, though both are widely practiced) rather than a foreign destination. When we ask a local Lao driver whether Golden Boten was China or Laos, he says in fluent Chinese: “Sure it’s China! China rented it.” The fact that the zone has been leased by its Chinese proprietors for thirty years, with the option of renewing the lease twice, is reinforced by the guards who march around in military formations in uniforms resembling those of Chinese police, emblazoned with “Special Zone Security.” Lao casino staff tell us that in the past, bodies of Chinese murder victims as well as Chinese citizens accused of the crime have been whisked quietly back over the border. In concession to Lao demands, Lao police also maintain an inconspicuous presence, but they seem to have little authority in cases involving Chinese staff or tourists. Figure 3 about here Local employees are a diminishing presence. Golden Boten opened amidst claims of preferential hiring of local Lao to make up the 900 required staff. Dealers’ wages are high by Lao and even Chinese standards, 1,200 yuan (roughly US$200) by the end of 2008 for a six-day work week, plus room, board and an additional 310 yuan if one chooses to work seven days. Yet the number of Lao employees has dropped from nearly 300 to a little over 100. New Lao dealers are hired only if they can speak Chinese. Lao workers occupy only one floor of one dormitory: the bottom one, and they have indicated a range of difficulties: an unfamiliar work environment, abuse from Chinese overseers, perceived discrimination in the food hall where they feel they receive smaller proportions of food than the Chinese and so forth. 8 By early 2009, the hotel still operates at nearly full capacity (and further hotels are under construction), but several of the casino’s gambling rooms have been closed. Golden Boten has not reached anything like the halcyon days of the owner’s previous casino on the China-Burma border where, until it closed in 2004, hundreds of tour buses would arrive each day to unload many thousand avid gamblers and sex tourists. 1.3 Concession
The current leaseholds are not of the same order of imposition as the treaty ports in China, “where the overlap between the law of power (gunboats) and the power of law (extraterritoriality) was palpable” (Scully 1995). But there are notable similarities. Trade 10 rights are clearly privileged, legal jurisdiction vague and de facto security is maintained by Chinese forces, while the external perimeter is sometimes protected by the local army (whose senior officers, in both Laos and Cambodia, are accused of having business interests in various Chinese concessions)
It is tempting to consider the current condition of Golden Boten City as replicating this description, albeit played out with different stakeholders. Despite the detailed publicity promotion of free-trade enclaves that aim to benefit the region, the very prominent presence of gambling and commodified sex implies a different evolution of market expansion, with markedly different outcomes for locals caught in the backwash of this form of “development” than at Kamchay
A master plan for the economic development of Northern Laos, prepared by Chinese specialists on behalf of the Yunnan Province Reform and Development Commission and presented to the Lao government at the end of 2008, envisages setting up new free trade zones along the country’s borders and developing 12 tourism concessions, operated and controlled by contractors (Northern Laos 2008). The two casinos described above provide foundational examples for this strategy.
that can help expand locals’ “capacity to aspire” (Appadurai 2004) in unexpected ways. The opening of the bilingual, private Lao-Chinese Friendship Primary School in Luang Namtha, catering principally to Lao children, is no doubt linked to the rise of Chinese investment in the area, but its teachers, from China, see themselves as providing a public service to local families by offering an education that is, here as in Cambodia, widely seen as a way out of poverty (even if it is as a dealer at Boten). 8 Some children, the teachers say, are too poor to pay the 200-300 yuan (US$ 35-50) yearly fee and study free of charge
1.3 Concessions The dam and the casinos are very different kinds of places. The former is classified as a development project, benefits from state-to-state aid, is being built by a large state corporation and has unclear prospects of profitability. The latter are private entertainment complexes clearly driven by profit. The former draws Khmer day laborers, the latter Chinese day trippers. But, apart, of course, from the fact that funds for all have come from China, they share two commonalities. First, the architects of all three projects justify them using the same narrative of helping a friendly neighboring country modernize. Second, both projects involve the removal of large chunks of land from the national 9territory and, to a degree, from under the sovereignty of the nation-state. Within the confines of both the Kamchay dam site and the casino leaseholds, the laws, the coercive apparatus and the basic symbols of Laos and Cambodia (flags, uniforms, language, currency) have only limited reach. To some degree, the operators and dwellers of these concessions enjoy extraterritoriality: a concept that seemed to have gone out of use in the postcolonial era, but deserves to be granted a new lease on life as a particular form, both physical and social, of “engineering the earth.” Extraterritoriality was central to China's experience of Western colonialism. Based on treaty stipulations, China was forced to surrender degrees of sovereign power: control of customs and security in treaty ports, legal jurisdiction over non-nationals, foreign concessions, privileged treatment of foreign business and missionary activity.
Président de la République, M. Choummaly SAYASONE Vice-président de la République, M. Bounnhang VORACHITH Premier ministre, M. Thongsing THAMMAVONG Vice-Premier ministre, M. Asang LAOLY Vice-Premier ministre, Ministre des Affaires étrangères, M. Thongloun SISOULITH Vice-Premier ministre, Ministre de la Défense Lt-Général Douangchay PHICHITH Vice-Premier ministre permanant, M. Somsavat LENSAVAD
Trois conseils équivalents
1 Le cabinet gouvernemental 2 La Banque de la Républque démocratique Populaire du Laos 3 Le Comité d'Inspection de l’Etat et chef de l'Agence anti-corruption
Les 18 ministères
1 Ministre de l’Education et des Sports 2 Ministre de la Sécurité publique, 3 Ministre du Travail et des Affaires sociales, 4 Ministre de la Justice, 5 Ministre de l’Energie et des Mines, 6 Ministre de l’Agriculture et des Forêts, 7 Ministre du Plan et de l’Investissement, 8 Ministre des Finances, 9 Ministre de l’Information, de la Culture et du Tourisme 10 Ministre de la Santé, 11 Ministre des Affaires Intérieures 12 Ministre de l’Industrie et du Commerce, 13 Ministre des Travaux publiques et des Transports, 14 Ministre des Sciences et de la Technologie, 15 Ministre des Ressources naturelles et de l’Environnement, 16 Ministre des Postes, des Télécommunications et de la Communication, 17 Ministre de la Défense Lt-Général 18 Ministre des Affaires étrangères,
Le gouvernement
Président du Comité d'Inspection de l’Etat et chef de l'Agence anti-corruption, M. Bounthong CHITMANY
Ministres
1 Ministre de l’Education et des Sports Dr Phankham VIPHAVANH 2 Ministre de la Sécurité publique, M. Thongbanh SENG-APHONE 3 Ministre du Travail et des Affaires sociales, Mme Onechanh THAMMAVONG 4 Ministre de la Justice, M. Chaleun YIAPAOHEU 5 Ministre de l’Energie et des Mines, M. Soulivong DARAVONG 6 Ministre de l’Agriculture et des Forêts, M. Vilayvanh PHOMKHE 7 Ministre du Plan et de l’Investissement, M. Somdy DUANGDY, 8 Ministre des Finances, M. Phouphet KHAMPHOUVONG 9 Ministre de l’Information, de la Culture et du Tourisme M. Bosèngkham VONGDARA, 10Ministre de la Santé, Dr Eksavang VONGVICHITH 11 Ministre des Affaires Intérieures M. Khampanh PHILAVONG, 12 Ministre de l’Industrie et du Commerce, Dr. Nam VIGNAKET 13Ministre des Travaux publiques et des Transports, M. Sommad PHOLSENA 14 Ministre des Sciences et de la Technologie, M. Boviengkham VONGDARA, 15 Ministre des Ressources naturelles et de l’Environnement, M. Noulinh SINBANDITH 16 Ministre des Postes, des Télécommunications et de la Communication, M. Hième PHOMMACHANH 17 Ministre de la Défense Lt-Général Douangchay PHICHITH 18Ministre des Affaires étrangères, M. Thongloun SISOULITH
Ministres auprès du cabinet gouvernemental
1 Ministre auprès du cabinet gouvernemental le Dr Bountième PHITSAMAY, 2 Ministre auprès du cabinet gouvernemental, Mme Bounphéng OUNPHOSAY 3 Ministre auprès du cabinet gouvernemental, M. Bounheuang DUANGPHACHANH, 4 Ministre auprès du cabinet gouvernemental, M. Sinlavong KHOUTPHAYTHOUN E . 5 Ministre auprès du cabinet gouvernemental, le Dr Duangsavat SOUPHANOUVONG, 6 Ministre auprès du cabinet gouvernemental, Mme Khemphèng PHOLSENA -Gouverneur de la Banque de la RDP du Laos, M. Somphao PHAYSITH - Président de la Cour Populaire Suprême M. Khamphanh SITHIDAMPHA, - Procureur Général, M. Khamsan Souvong.
Les difficultés du développement économique et social des populations Hmong du Laos. Yang Dao .Thèse de Doctorat de 3ème cycle. Université de Paris. 1972
Laos pledges to help Vietnam seek fallen soldiers’ remains (VOV) - The Lao people will never forget the volunteer Vietnamese soldiers and experts, who laid down their lives for the prosperity of Laos, a Lao army general has said recently. Lao Deputy Minister of Defence Chansamone Chanuyalath also affirmed his country is determined to provide the best assistance for searching for and repatriating the remains of these Vietnamese volunteers.
In the dry seasons of 2010 and 2011, the Lao government helped its Vietnamese counterpart to seek 482 sets of remains of killed Vietnamese soldiers, of which 49 sets have been fully identified. Lao people and localities have provided more than 1,500 pieces of information to the Lao government’s special commission on this work. Based on this, Laos has planned to help Vietnamese groups to repatriate another 500 sets of remains in the dry seasons of 2011 and 2012.
Over the past 17 years, the Lao government’s special commission has helped search groups from Vietnam’s Thua Thien Hue province to take home over 600 sets of remains and Nghe An province nearly 6,000 sets of remains.
Subject: Official moratorium on the death penalty – an opportunity for Laos
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Public Statement
AI Index number: ASA 26/001/2008
3082008
Official moratorium on the death penalty – an opportunity for Laos
Amnesty International and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) urge the Lao government to introduce an official moratorium on executions.
As of 2007, both Amnesty International and FIDH were pleased to publicly categorize the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) as
abolitionist in practice. In a recent letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs the organizations welcomed the absence of executions in Laos
since 1989, but pressed the government to go a step further by formalising the current de facto moratorium.
Amnesty International and FIDH also called on the Lao government to take a lead in supporting this trend across Southeast Asia, by
promoting a moratorium as a step towards abolition, which in turn is part and parcel of promoting human rights and reforming criminal
justice policy.
In December 2007 the Lao government abstained in the vote on UN General Assembly (UNGA) resolution 62/149 “Moratorium on the use
of the death penalty” which was adopted by an overwhelming majority of states. Unfortunately, a month later it went on to support a
statement circulated as a Note verbale on 11 January 2008 to the General Assembly, in which 58 countries, including Laos, disassociate
themselves with the resolution.
Momentum towards abolition is gathering across the world. As of June 2008, 92 countries had abolished the death penalty for all crimes;
11 other countries have abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes and retain the death penalty only for exceptional crimes such as
crimes under military law or crimes committed in wartime. In Asia and the Pacific, 27 of 41 countries are now abolitionist in law or practice.
The adoption of the UNGA resolution was an important milestone underlining this trend,as only 24 countries carried out executions in
2007. FIDH and Amnesty International call on the Lao government to support this momentum and consider practical steps towards
abolishing the death penalty.
FIDH and Amnesty International oppose the death penalty in all cases and without exception, believing it to be a violation of the right to l
ife and the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. The death penalty legitimizes an irreversible act of violence by the state.
There is no clear evidence that the death penalty deters crime any more effectively than other forms of punishment, it denies the
possibility of reconciliation or rehabilitation and has been inflicted on the innocent. FIDH and Amnesty International support a global
moratorium on executions as a step towards the abolition of the death penalty.
เรียน พี่น้องผู้รักประชาธิปไตย กลยุทธยุแยกให้ทะเลาะกำลังจะมาอีกแล้ว ประเภท สส.PHAK LAODEANGไม่ดี รัฐมนตรีเPHAKSUASUAไม่ควรจะมีในครม. แล้วสื่อทาสโจรเผด็จการก็จะคาบไปโหมข่าวตามถนัด ถ้าเรายอมหลงกลเขา มันก็จะเหมือนกรณีMWSACRA OF LAO SERI 200 OOO KHON DURING THE POST REVOLUTION แล้วจะเสียหายไปเรื่อยๆ พี่น้องSERICHON LAO
1975 - 85 . Former soldiers, police, public servants were sent to Jail ( re-education camp ) and youth were sent to Done Thao and Done Nang to cut the wood roots to sell for the authorities. 1985 - 2009 Ethnic cleansing. After Refugee camp closed then Lao youth went to Thailand to look for the jobs.
Many Lao girls faced in the sex slave.
Lao PDR allowed Vietnamese to settle in Laos unlimited numbers after Vietnam-Laotian treaty 1977.
[1] ปรับปรุงจากรายงานการวิจัยของผู้เขียน เรื่อง “Laos: A Reserve for Thai Growth” เสนอในการสัมมนาเรื่อง”Thai stakeholders’ perception toward countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region” จัดโดยสถาบันเอเชียศึกษา จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย, 8 พฤศจิกายน 2007 ณ GM Hall, SASA International House จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย
[2] Michael P. Sullivan, Theories of International Relations: Transition vs. Persistence (New York: Palgrave Macmillian, 2002), p. 172.
[3] Antonio Gramsci, Selection from Prison Notebooks, 11th Edition (New York: International Publisher, 1992).
Perfect idea to bring the Grass root campaigns to this forum and we have to get the cooperation from Lao Leaders Abroad to join as a team. The Multi - ethnic is necessary for our priority of the the leadership. It is possible if they intend to unify to do together. The circumstances are a big problem for all of us such as the employment, the transpor or travelling, pocket money, family and visiting Laos.
Many people can talk only but it is hard for them to join the practical task. We are worry about our young generation who are not interested to follow the step of Lao ancestor to fight for democracy in Laos. If our generation fails so the young people will be accepted Laos as is.
Some aged person just complains or refers the mistake to each other. They try to close door and talk about Lao people only and not step up to the international level. If we look Tibet after Dalai Lama and the new educated leader is very young.
Perfect idée de mettre les campagnes racine d'herbe à ce forum et nous devonsobtenir la coopération des dirigeants laotiens à l'étranger à rejoindre une équipe. Lemulti - ethniques est nécessaire à notre priorité de la direction de l'. Il est possible s'ils ont l'intention d'unifier à faire ensemble. Les circonstances sont un gros problème pour nous tous, comme l'emploi, le transport ou en voyage, argent de poche, la famille et de visiter le Laos.
Beaucoup de gens peuvent parler seulement, mais il est difficile pour eux de rejoindrela tâche pratique. Nous nous préoccuper de notre jeune génération qui ne sont pasintéressés à suivre l'étape de l'ancêtre Lao de se battre pour la démocratie au Laos.Si notre génération ne sorte que les jeunes seront acceptés au Laos est aussi.
Certaines personne âgée se plaint tout ou renvoie l'erreur à l'autre. Ils essaient defermer la porte et de parler de peuple lao et non pas au niveau international. Si nous regardons le Tibet après le Dalaï Lama et le nouveau chef instruits est très jeune.
Internet communication is great and yet not enough - we need grass root campaigns on local basis through out the country any where there're Lao people (I mean all ethnic groups). We need any and all so-called leadership groups to meet regularly and get trained for a uniformed update in all aspects including but not limited to strategy, ethics, etc. - we tend to talk too much about helping Laos and the Lao People in Laos, and yet we neglect completely and totally about those who struggle all around us... Our younger generations are losing their own cultural identity, their cultural heritage... and those don't mean any thing to you guys? -we are playing the loser card, aren't we [with the loser attitude and mentality]?
English to French translation
De communication sur Internet est grand et pourtant ne suffit pas - nous avons besoin de campagnes de racine d'herbe sur le plan local à travers le pays où il ya toute êtespeuple lao (je veux dire tous les groupes ethniques). Nous avons besoin de tout et detous les groupes soi-disant leadership se rencontrer régulièrement et se former pourune mise à jour en uniforme dans tous les aspects, y compris mais non limité à la stratégie, l'éthique, etc - nous avons tendance à trop parler aider le Laos et laRépublique démocratique populaire lao au Laos , et pourtant nous négligeons complètement et totalement de ceux qui luttent partout autour de nous ... Nos jeunes générations perdent leur propre identité culturelle, leur patrimoine culturel ... et ceux quine veut pas dire quelque chose à vous les gars? -nous sommes en jouant la carteperdante, n'est-ce pas [à l'attitude e la mentalité perdant]?
Lao people who have no voice, are necessary to seek the assistance from Lao Nork . So we gather here to join a team for speaking up to Lao PDR Government and worldwide. We raise our voice in the forum to defend them and can help them if the unforeseen circumstances will happen to them.
If all Lao Nork shut mouth up so the disappearance of Laos will be true. We have regular contact Lao people in the country so we are worry about them. Vietnam troops come to close around the skirt of the city and Vietnam advisors come to work in all area of Laos country. They control the top job down to lower jobs as Lao being a colonial of Vietnam.
Voice of Laotians Overseas is a part the the grass root campaign but we need Lao leader to speak up and announce the plan of the fighting for democracy in Laos.
Bravo pour votre travail infatigable pour la mère patrie et le peuple lao lao. S'il vous plaît allez-y. Voici mes suggestions: 1 / la mise en place d'un programme de manifestation pacifique réclamant l'indépendance, la démocratie, l'intégrité territoriale du Laos et multipolitical etc ..parties pour le Laos; 2 / approbation de ce programme par votre équipe; 3 / la formation d'un comité représentant de votre groupe d'utiliser son influence auprès du Secrétaire d'Etat américain et les Nations unies du Conseil de sécurité; 4 / poser les aider à parler à Lao communiste de Vientiane et au gouvernementthaïlandais dans le cas où nous ferons la démonstration dans le pont Norng Khai pour éviter arrestation; cette manifestation sera organisée sous les Etats-Unis et la supervision de l'ONU soiten Norng Khai mariée ou en ce que la saison des festivals Luang
laohomlao's members
I think Mr Blacksaphire has good point and it has potential to become a reality My suggestion is we should study the strategies of the Red Shirt group to unite and motivate people to join in demonstration In this forum we have 17 to 20 people as ring Leaders I think we more than enough to set an organization. After that we can set the procedures 1. Set up an advertising camp propaganda to motivate and encourage Laonork to standup in every state every country 2. If it is possible that someone has connections or relatives in Thailand to get intouch with the Red Shirt group to gain and cooperate 3. Lao nai stays tune and expand networking under ground wait for the signal from Lao nork when the time comes. 4. In this event it may be sacrificed our brave men
Subject: Setting up a program for peaceful demonstration demanding independence, democracy , Lao territorial integrity and multipolitical parties etc... for Laos;
Laohomlao's members
Congratulations for your untiring work for Lao motherland and Lao people. Please go ahead. Here are my suggestions: 1/ setting up a program for peaceful demonstration demanding independence, democracy , Lao territorial integrity and multipolitica parties etc... for Laos; 2/ approbation of this program by your team; 3/ formation of a committee representing your group to use one's influence with the USA Secretary of State and with the UN of Security Council; 4/ ask them support to talk to Lao communist in Vientiane and to the Thai government in case we'll do our demonstration in the Norng Khai bridge to avoid arrestation; this demonstration will be organised under the USA and the UN supervision either in Norng Khai bride or in That Luang festival season.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- De : sysay chanthavixay À : freelaos@yahoogroups.com Envoyé le : Dim 15 mai 2011, 1h 31min 50s Objet : Re: [freelaos] Re : ພວກສູອົດບໍ່ົໄດ້ດອກ ຕ້ອງເປີດອ່ານເມລ໌ຂອງກູທຸກເທື່ອ
On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 10:36 AM, Jonh Anouvong wrote:
Why should we worry about the election in Laos....look at Myanma, even they have guests from UN to observe , still the result was comming out the same group of dictators to form the government..
I think we should also stop relying on RLGE nor PGNU any more.... These organazations are only fake... they even might be working for LPDR since long long time ago....or these poeple will never go any where , they work for themself not for Lao poeple.........
Keep working and developing our Human right organization is enough... collecting evidences that they have violated, evidences of corruptions, evidences of overlaoded of foreigners in Laos , evidences of violating the natures and environment, collecting evidence that noncooperating to support the world green .......all of these will help Lao poeple who are unnable to voice up for their life...because these evidences are inclued in the purpose of Human Right of the world poeple.....appeal for the remains of those dead Sammanakones that they killed, bring those for their relatives and............
Submit to the UN, to the ASEAN organization and all international community organizations........and see what will be in return.........
Chinese military vows to enhance cooperation with Laos
Last Updated(Beijing Time):2011-08-02 09:10
The Chinese People's Liberation Army is willing to strengthen cooperation with the Lao People's Army (LPA) in the fields of national defense and military construction, military attache of the Chinese Embassy to Laos Tan Zhaosheng said here on Monday.
Tan Zhaosheng made the remark at a reception hosted by the Chinese Embassy in Laos' capital of Vientiane to celebrate the 84th founding anniversary of the Chinese People's Liberation Army.
"As Laos and China are friendly neighbors and close partners, the Chinese People's Liberation Army is willing to deepen friendly exchanges and pragmatic cooperation with the LPA in the fields of national defense and military construction, and enrich overall strategic cooperation between the two countries to maintain regional peace and stability," Tan said.
Tan said that the Chinese People's Liberation Army also hopes to enhance exchange and cooperation with armed forces of all countries, on the basis of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit.
He added that the Chinese armed forces are willing to actively fulfill their international responsibilities and obligations, and to contribute to the peace and common development of the world.
Chinese Ambassador to Laos Bu Jianguo and Lao Vice Minister of National Defense, Major General Sengnouan Xayalath attended the reception.
The Army Day is celebrated in the People's Republic of China on August 1 every year in commemoration of the founding of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in 1927.
Source:Xinhua
Laos vows to enhance parliamentary exchanges with China [03-25-2010]
President of Laos ends China tour [09-14-2009]
Lao party chief meets with Chinese CPC delegation [09-02-2009]
The world today belongs to the new awaken and conscious people who can be able to stand responsible for their lives, their interests and also for their nations. So the world today is our home of mankinds over 1500 millions of world populations. Since Lao PDR took power and controled our country over 36 years. Even if Lao countrys is rich land filled with alot of national resources, gold, jewelry, loggs, now they build many dams around the country invested with 2-3 hundreds or thousand millions dollars by many foreign countries, and also Lao PDR now is living in stability no war,no terrorist groups.
But until today, Lao PDR is the 25 poorest country of the world, in various corners of prostitutes, eveyrwhere filled with the beggars who have waiting for foreigners to give something to their naked hands. Many Lao citizens bowed their heads in Thaliand for jobs, many of them are selling their labours in low prices, and many Lao girls and kids have been wandering selling the sexs for money in Thailand.
Lao PDR fundamental ideas as well as the brians of their leaders are very poor which you can join conclusions in their Constitution August 14th 1991 as follow;
(1) Preamble of some paragraphs in their Contstitution wriiten with very respect to Vietnam... it said that... over the past 60 years, under the correct leadership of the former Indochinese Communist Party,....... thus opening the new era and era of genuine Independence for the country and freedom for the people.... ( Maybe Lao PDR, only the one country of the world who write the Highest Law of their country, Crawling and bowing their heads to respect to other nations spirits...other Nation's honorary qualifications... those of the low brains leaders are Lao PDR.)
(2) its Constitution, the 3rd Article written that... The Rights of the Multi-ethnic people to be the Master of the country are exercised and ensured through the functioning of the political system with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party as its leading neucleus.
And its Constitution 5th Article said... the national Assemby and all other state Organizations are established and function in accordance with the principle of Democratic Centralism .PAXATHIPATAY ROUAMSOON.. ( or Democracy of small groups of people who exercised their power by the guns.)
The two of Articles in Lao PDR' s Constitutions are very out of date, it is the corrupted Constitution, applying to the corrupted groups of people and the robbers, the bad groups until nowaday, but all the people inside Laos until today never raised any questions to the Floor, Beause, I think they are all stupid or maybe they are all the people of low ideology or they are servants of Keo Hanoi.
forced into servitude? Published Monday August 1, 2011
By Sam Womack and Jason Kuiper WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITERS « Crime/Courts A rare case of indentured servitude is unfolding in federal court, and it has sent Nebraska attorneys back to the law books for a refresher course.
Omaha attorney Stu Dornan is one of two lawyers representing a husband and wife accused of forcing a Laotian man and woman into indentured servitude, or peonage.
On Monday morning, the Laotian man testified that the Omaha couple helped him travel from Laos to the United States. Once here, he was fed, housed and offered work by the Omaha couple. If he did not “obey,” he testified, the couple said he could be “sent back.” His testimony was expected to continue Monday afternoon.
A search of World-Herald archives turned up no cases of peonage in Nebraska.
That didn't surprise Dornan, a former Douglas County attorney and former FBI agent.
"Because of the lack of federal cases filed, I had trouble even finding jury instructions," Dornan said.
"I certainly had to refresh my recollection of what (peonage) charges exactl consisted of, what the elements of the crimes consisted of."
Edward and Amphayvanh Alstatt, owners of Nictalgie Boutique & Tailors, 5094 S. 108th St., are charged in U.S. District Court with conspiracy to commit peonage, human trafficking and document servitude.
Peonage refers to the practice of forced servitude or partial slavery until debts are paid.
While peonage cases are rare, "I suspect this might be much more common among recent immigrants that are not familiar with our laws,'' said Marianne Culhane, dean of the Creighton University Law School. "That is a very vulnerable population to this kind of abuse."
Dornan said the Alstatts have helped hundreds of people through the
He said of the government's case against his clients: "There is an issue of when and where this alleged indentured servitude or document servitude occurred."
The grand jury indictment signed by U.S. Attorney Deborah Gilg alleges that the Alstatts ran the scheme for more than three years. Court testimony also indicated that federal investigators ran an undercove operation to obtain evidence against the couple.
The trial is expected to wrap up this week.
During court testimony, the Alstatts were shown on a 2008 video — an national his green card and passport.
Music blares and there's laughter in the background. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers watched the exchange using a hidden camera carried by the Laotian.
The couple are accused of withholding Ae Xaypanya's passport and resident alien card until he signed a contract promising to pay $9,000 at 5 percent monthly interest. The indictment also says the Alstatts used the threat of "serious harm" should the debt go unpaid.
Luck brought Xaypanya from Laos to America. He won the right to come to the United States through the State Department's diversity visa lottery for countries that have a low immigrant population in the country.
Immigration service officer Joann Howe testified last week that the process, which includes fees for applications, medical exams and background checks, typically costs $1,100 to $1,400.
The debt contract for Xaypanya was nearly 20 times that amount, after adding in interest.
Prosecutors said Edward Alstatt had a joint bank account with Xaypanya, that Alstatt withdrew $2,500 in cash and transferred $1,000 out of the account. Xaypanya was left with less than $100, according to ICE agent Charles Bautch.
Bautch testified that Edward Alstatt admitted to taking $3,000 from his joint account with Xaypanya, but he said it was because the man owed money for a car.
After Alstatt withdrew the cash, Xaypanya called Omaha police, who notified ICE and Bautch. Xaypanya was working at a Men's Wearhouse in Columbia, Mo. That company has not been charged in the case.
Bautch said an immigration records search revealed that about 120 people had listed the Alstatts' home address or business on immigration paperwork.
Bautch said the U.S. Embassy in Laos confirmed that Amphayvanh Alstatt, a Laotian refugee who came to the United States in the 1980s, helped a number of Laotian nationals come to the country, including all nine of the diversity visa winners in 2007.
A search warrant executed on the Alstatts' home and business in April 2009 revealed other debt contracts, immigration forms, blank Laotian birth certificates, identification documents of another Laotian and files labeled with the names of immigrants.
ICE agents also discovered that Amphayvanh Alstatt had joint bank accounts with four other Laotian immigrants. One of those was with Noy Vila, also a diversity visa winner.
According to the indictment, the Alstatts forced Vila to hand over her green card, passport and Social Security card and to work without pay in the couple's tailor shop. She also worked at a Men's Wearhouse.
Vila's passport was found in a search of the couple's home.
Bautch said $4,500 was withdrawn from Vila's account and $4,900 deposited into the Alstatts' personal account on the same day in October 2008.
Amphayvanh Alstatt also is charged with making false statements. Prosecutors said she knowingly lied on an application for naturalization on behalf of a Laotian national.
The trial resumes Monday with the defense getting a chance to cross-examine Xaypanya.
Out of control, Drugs, alcohol, sex in public, in LaoPDR no law enforcement. ການບໍຣິການ ນັກທ່ອງທຽ່ວຕ່າງປະເທດສ້າງບັນຫາຫນັກໃຈແກ່ຜູ້ໃຫ້ບໍຣິການເປັນຕົ້ນ Drugs, ການບໍ່ນັບຖືກົດໝາຍ, ການເປື້ອນເປີ້, ການທໍາອະນາຈານ ຊຶ່ງເປັນການທໍາລາຍປະເພນີ. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1do2EJleOEY&feature=player_ embeddedLaos tubing craze 'destroying town'
Subject: Urges it to ensure unhindered and independent access by UNHCR and humanitarian agencies to all returnees in resettlement sites at Phalak and Nongsan in Vientiane Province and Phonkham in Borikhamsay Province.
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC STATEMENT
AI Index: ASA 26/003/2010 29 September 2010
Lao People’s Democratic Republic: Amnesty International urges immediate and unconditional release of long-held peaceful demonstrators, to guarantee freedom of speech, and to fully respect the rights of asylum-seekers
Human Rights Council adopts Universal Periodic Review outcome on Lao People’s Democratic Republic
Amnesty International welcomes the engagement of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic with the Universal Periodic Review as part of its stated efforts to promote and protect human rights.
It deeply regrets, however, that the Lao People’s Democratic Republic rejected the recommendation to release peaceful demonstrators.
1 - At least five men were arrested on 26 October 1999 for attempting to hold a peaceful demonstration in Vientiane and calling for peaceful economic, political and social change. Three are reported to remain in detention despite having completed their 10-year prison sentences. Thongpaseuth Keuakoun, a father of seven children, Seng-Aloun Phengphanh and Bouavanh Chanhmanivong should have been released at the latest in October 2009.
Amnesty International strongly urges the Lao authorities to demonstrate its commitment to protecting human rights in practice and to release the three men immediately and unconditionally.
Amnesty International welcomes the government’s support of those recommendations, announced in the Addendum to the report of the review, that call for full implementation of provisions in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) related to freedom of speech, including through review of domestic legislation.
2 - The organization is disappointed, however, that recommendations to revoke laws that suppress the right to freedom of expression and assembly were rejected.
3 - The reasons provided for rejection appear to reflect the government’s wish to retain the strong limitations on the right to freedom of expression currently in place, which are contrary to the ICCPR provisions it claims to support.
Amnesty International urges the government to reconsider its position on these recommendations. Several states made recommendations with regard to the thousands of Lao Hmong, including refugees and asylum-seekers forcibly returned from Thailand to Laos in December 2009.
4 - Amnesty International regrets the government’s only partial support for these recommendations and urges it to ensure unhindered and independent access by UNHCR and humanitarian agencies to all returnees in resettlement sites at Phalak and Nongsan in Vientiane Province and Phonkham in Borikhamsay Province.
While the authorities have organized several visits to these sites for diplomats and journalists, full and free access was not provided and opportunities for returnees to speak freely to the visitors without repercussions were extremely limited. This hampered a proper assessment of conditions and treatment of returnees.
The Lao government has a responsibility to respect the right of all persons to seek asylum, as provided in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and Amnesty International 1 A/HRC/15/5, paragraph 99.3. 2 A/HRC/15/5, paragraphs 98.41, 98.43 and 98.44, and A/HRC/15/5, Add.1, paragraph 1. 3 A/HRC/15/5, paragraphs 98.42 and 98.45, and A/HRC/15/5, Add.1, section III, paragraphs 25 and 26. 4 A/HRC/15/5, paragraphs 98.27, 98.28, 98.29, 98.30, 98.31 and 98.32.