The Lao government is planning to establish a prosecutor’s office in the lawless Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone amid concerns over nearly non-existent oversight that Lao authorities have over the zones, which have become a magnet for scam-related businesses and human trafficking.
Officials from the Office of Supreme People’s Prosecutor met on Jan. 5 to discuss logistics, according to a member of the zone’s management board, who like other sources in this report requested anonymity for safety reasons.
“The upper-level authorities are doing all the planning and research about setting up the prosecutor’s office,” the member said. “We can’t tell you when, what day or what month exactly the office will be established. We’re waiting for the decision.”
The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, or SEZ, was established in 2007 in the northern province of Bokeo on a 3,000-hectare (7,400-acre) concession along the Mekong River where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet.
It’s become a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese citizens where investors – exempt from most national-level economic regulations – have built hotels, restaurants, casinos, a hospital, markets and factories.
But it has also earned a reputation as a haven for criminal activities, including prostitution and drug trafficking.
Impoverished young people from Laos and neighboring countries have told Radio Free Asia they were lured to the area with the promise of a lucrative job but were then held against their will in casinos by trafficking rings that exploit them under threat of violence.
Last month, the body of a 24-year-old woman was found floating in the Mekong River several kilometers downriver from the Golden Triangle SEZ. Police in Bokeo Province's Ton Pheung District said surveillance video showed her climbing into a car in front of a nightclub in the zone five days earlier.
In August, a report from the International Crisis Group called for a "coordinated regional approach" – including through law enforcement and governance – to combat the outsized impact illicit businesses have in the Golden Triangle SEZ and across the river at another special economic zone in Myanmar's Shan state.
Insufficient oversight
Lao authorities currently do not have the right to enter special economic zones to conduct investigations.
But in June, the Golden Triangle SEZ management board handed oversight of a detention and rehabilitation center located inside the zone to Bokeo provincial police.
Government officials have acknowledged that oversight of the Golden Triangle SEZ and the country's 20 other zones has been inadequate and has left the impression that Chinese investors in Laos have unfair advantages.
However, National Assembly lawmakers in November rejected a draft law that sought to exert greater government control over the zones, saying they felt it wasn’t specific enough.
Last week’s meeting about establishing a prosecutor’s office was attended by several officials from the Bokeo Province prosecutor’s office, one official told RFA.
“We’re not ready to give you any more details,” the official said. “You better wait for the official statement.”
A newly established prosecutor’s office in the SEZ could be susceptible to bribery by those suspected of committing crimes, a Bokeo lawyer told RFA. It would probably be easier – and more effective – to just empower provincial prosecutors to handle criminal cases that originate in the zone.
“Setting up an office inside the SEZ might not be easy because the SEZ is controlled by the Chinese,” he said. “It might also be difficult to staff the office.”
Translated by Max Avary. Edited by Matt Reed and Malcolm Foster.