BANGKOK-The wife of one of the 16 men extradited from Thailand to Laos thisweek, six months after a Thai court ordered them freed, says she fears forher husband�s life now that he is in Lao custody.
The Thai government says it has received assurances from Laos that the menwill face trial for robbery �under Lao laws� in connection witha July 2000 raid on a Lao-Thai border checkpoint that the raiders say was politically motivated.
But Saythong Homnouane, whose husband Thongdy Homnouane, 47, is among the 16 raiders now back in Laos, said she was heartbroken by news of her husband�s deportation and believes any legal proceedings against the menwill be illegitimate.
�There�s no way they are going to be questioned or investigated,� she toldRFA�s Lao service. �I think all I can do now is wait for thetime to make merit [for their souls]. Why were they not deported right at thebeginningof the ordeal [in 2000] instead of sending them to their certain death now?Why torture the families like this?�
Lao Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavat has said on several occasions thatthey won�t face execution.
�Regarding their safety, the Lao government has assured us that thesepeoplewill be tried under their laws. The whole process will follow Lao laws, andthey will have all the rights they are entitled to under Lao laws,�the ThaiForeign Ministry spokesman said.
On July 4, Thai authorities repatriated them men�six months after a Thaiappeal court threw out a Lao extradition request and ordered the men freedwithin 48 hours. All 16 men were removed from the Immigration DetentionCenter in Bangkok and taken under guard to Oubol in southern Thailand.
The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) had deemed all 16 men�persons of concern� eligible to be considered for asylum andresettlement in a third country. On Dec. 30 last year, a Thai appeal court upheld a lower-court ruling that the men shouldn�t be extradited and ordered them freed within 48 hours. Why Thai authorities failed to release the menremains unclear.
Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy welcomed the deportations,which he said were �in accordance with the agreement between the Lao andThai governments made during the joint cabinet meetings in Champassak andOubol in June 20-21, 2004.�
�The deportation of these people was in accordance with the spirit ofthetwo governments. We see it as a good omen for bilateral cooperation forkeeping peace and order in our border areas,� Chanthalangsy said.
�As to how and when they are going to be indicted, I still don�t know. It�sup to the court. It depends on how long it will take to build the case. Buteverything will go in due process, according to Lao laws,� he said.
Sources in Laos say they men are being held in a Champassak provincialprison.
Laos, under communist rule since 1975, had asked Thailand repeatedly toextradite the 16 Lao and 11 Thai nationals accused of taking part in theraid. A seventeenth Lao suspect died in Thai custody.
A group of some 60 men seized the Vang Tao border post on July 4, 2000. Theyheld the post overnight, hoisting the old Lao national flag untila deadlyfirefight with Lao troops drove them out and across the Thai border.
The raiders, according to local sources, demanded Lao political reformbefore they would free seven Lao hostages. After they were assured theirdemand was under consideration, they freed the hostages. Lao troops thenopened fire, killing six raiders and driving the rest into the jungle.
A Thai trial court in Oubol Province and an appellate court in Bangkokrejected Vientiane�s extradition requests on grounds that the raidprecededany relevant treaty between the two governments and that eyewitness accountspresented by Laos were insufficiently compelling to implicate the Laosuspects.
But the men remained in Thai custody for illegal entry.
According to the most recent State Department report on human rights aroundthe world, most Lao trials in 2003 were �little more than pro forma examinations of the accused, with a verdict having already been reached.Most criminal trials reportedly ended in convictions. Defendants sometimeswere not permitted to testify on their own behalf. Trials for allegedviolations of some criminal laws relating to national security and trialsthat involved state secrets, children under the age of 16, or certain typesof family law were closed.�
�In some instances, police administratively overruled court decisions, at times detaining a defendant exonerated by the court, in violation of the law,� the State Department report said. And while the Lao Constitution andPenal Code prohibit torture, �members of the security forces subjected prisoners to torture and other abuses.�
�Credible sources reported that detainees sometimes were subjected tobeatings, long-term solitary confinement in completely darkened rooms, andburning with cigarettes. In some cases, detainees were held in leg chains orwooden stocks. During the year, several persons arrested for religiousactivity or suspected insurgent activity were held in wooden stocks orshackles for part of their confinement.�
The 16 men deported from Thailand to Laos are: Lom Salihom, 47; Kham Sayavong, 42; Sam Sayavong, 33; Sourya Samad, 29; Vixay Xayachak, 40; Seng Champa, 62; Teum Phomthevy, 34; Paisarn (Souay)Linthang, 27; Seng (Kabang) Sayboungna, 40; Keobouathong Vongphachanh, 38; Kene Singkhoumkhong, 32; Thongdy Homnouane, 47; Phailin Sayaboungna, 19; Napha Phothibandith, 35; Boonlod Khenesouvanh, 59;Souang Sengsoura, age unknown. Done Souryachanh, 58 and the leader of the group, died of tuberculosis in Thai custody.#####