Laos has disciplined 78 police, immigration and border officers for accepting bribes to allow Chinese citizens to cross the China-Laos border illegally, a police notice that was recently released to the public said.
According to the notice issued on June 7, 2023, by the Luang Namtha provincial police department, a total of 77 currently active police and immigration officers, and one former police officer were disciplined for facilitating illegal entry and exit through a checkpoint in the border town of Boten in northern Laos.
The notice said that the officers had accepted bribes to allow the Chinese nationals to enter and exit Laos without visas and passports. Most of them worked in the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, or SEZ, in Bokeo Province, a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese citizens situated in Bokeo province that has been described as a de-facto Chinese colony.
Out of the 78 officers disciplined, five had their membership in the ruling Lao People’s Revolutionary Party revoked and have lost their jobs or retirement benefits.
They included Lt. Gen. Iamxay Maotapong, deputy chief of police mobile unit; Lt. Gen. Phongsak Vongmany, deputy chief of the Boten SEZ Police Department; Capt. Singthong Phetthongsy, immigration officer at the Boten border checkpoint; Capt. Vongmany Phetthongsy, a police officer in the Boten SEZ; and Gen. Khamphet Phomphiphak, a retired former deputy chief of the Luang Namtha police department.
The other 73 individuals were disciplined in various ways. Some were suspended from the party for six months, demoted and relocated. Others faced only demotion or only relocation, and all had to sign notes acknowledging they were disciplined with either the party or the police department.
An influx of undocumented Chinese nationals is causing problems for police, an officer from the Luang Namtha police department, who like all unnamed sources in this report requested anonymity for security reasons, told RFA’s Lao Service.
“Many Chinese enter and exit our country illegally and these police officers facilitated the illegal entry and exit,” the officer said.
Many of them worked in the casino in the Golden Triangle SEZ, he said.
Although the officers were punished in June, the disciplinary actions were not made public until now because of the sheer number of ongoing investigations, a Luang Namtha provincial official told RFA.
Rampant corruption
Bribery is not only a problem on the country’s borders, but among regular police officers as well, a Luang Namtha resident told RFA.
“All other police officers here in the province would accept bribes too,” the resident said. “The officers at the provincial level must be dealt with by the higher-ranking police officers from the ministry.”
The fact that the police accepted bribes from foreign nationals was concerning for a resident of Champassak Province in southern Laos, who has been monitoring corruption among government workers.
“This is wrong. The government officials shouldn’t give permission like that to foreigners,” the Champassak resident said. “It’s because of money. As soon as the money was offered, the police just gave the green light. That’s not right. it’s against the law.”
The mass disciplinary action followed the May 24 demotion, relocatio and party suspension of Lt. General Somdy Kitthaxay, who had been the police chief of the Public Security Department of the Boten SEZ.
Upon accepting his new position, he promised that the Luang Namtha Security Department would continue to monitor the activities of some “bad elements” on the police force in the province more closely because with the influx of Chinese, illegal activities have been on the rise in Luang Namtha province and the rest of the country.
RFA was not able to determine what his new position was.
Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.