UN rights envoy says Laos focus on big projects hurting poor

March 28, 2019

BANGKOK (AP) — A United Nations human rights expert has urged communist-ruled Laos to focus less on foreign-invested dam and railway contracts and devote more resources to helping its children and the poor.

The U.N. rapporteur on poverty, Philip Alston, said Thursday that Laos' impoverished economy can only thrive if its leaders do a better job of educating and caring for all of its people. The current strategy of favoring big-ticket projects with Chinese investors and granting big concessions for land and other resources favors a wealthy elite and is leaving many others behind, he said.

Alston made the remarks in a news conference livestreamed from Laos' capital, Vientiane, after he toured parts of rural Laos, including an area devastated by a dam collapse last year. They add to a chorus of concern over China's push for big construction projects linked to its "Belt and Road" initiative, which is aimed at weaving a global network of transport and trade that is integrated with its own economy and industries.

Tucked between Thailand, China, Myanmar and Cambodia, tiny Laos' economy has grown quickly in recent years, but the benefits of that growth have not reached many in its largely rural population. Alston said many infrastructure and plantation projects take land from local residents, forcing their resettlement. Most generate too few jobs and result in too much debt, he said.

"Those concessions potentially cover something like 40 percent of the national territory and many if not most of those concessions have produced very few returns to the national budget," he said. "They have generated very little real revenue that can be spent on the wellbeing of the Lao people and of course they have led to widespread dispossession."

A Lao foreign ministry official, Phetvanxay Khousakoun, objected to Alston's comments. "Some of that information that you received might be biased. Also, NGOs might have hidden agendas. This might provide you some misperceptions about Laos," he said. "These are rather small groups of people that do not reflect the entire country."

The official also suggested Alston's comments went beyond his mandate. Alston praised the government for allowing his 11-day visit to the country. But he countered that his findings were in line with his mission.

"These challenges can only be met if they are acknowledged," he said. He noted that women in Laos are largely shut out of decision making, and that the ethnic minorities who make up nearly half of the population are "severely deprived" by nearly every measure, with low incomes and inferior access to education and health care.

Despite major progress in alleviating poverty, more than one-fifth of Lao children are underweight, 9 percent suffer from "wasting," or severe malnutrition and a third are stunted. Less than half have been vaccinated.

"You might have no interest in children, but all you have to know is they are the economic future," he said. "You're not going to have a great workforce with those statistics as your starting point." Alston, an Australian who is based in the U.S., acknowledged that all countries struggle with poverty.

He said the government's pursuit of resource-oriented foreign investment such as rubber plantations, mining and hydroelectric dams is directly linked to poverty because they fail to generate tax revenues or jobs needed to address poverty.

"Poverty is a political choice," he said. "When you decide to spend money on something else, you produce poverty or you perpetuate poverty."

Pope names cardinals for Laos, Mali, Sweden, Spain, Salvador

May 21, 2017

VATICAN CITY (AP) — In a surprise announcement Sunday, Pope Francis named new cardinals for Spain, El Salvador and three countries where Catholics are a tiny minority: Mali, Laos and Sweden. "Their origin, from different parts of the world, manifests the universality of the Church spread out all over the Earth," Francis said, speaking from the window of the Apostolic Palace to thousands of faithful in St. Peter's Square.

The five churchmen chosen are Monsignor Jean Zerbo, archbishop of Bamako, Mali, where he has been involved in peace efforts amid Islamist extremism; Monsignor Juan Jose Omella, archbishop of Barcelona, Spain; Monsignor Anders Arborelius of Stockholm, who became a Catholic at the age of 20; Monsignor Louis-Marie Ling Mangkhanekhoun, apostolic vicar of Pakse, Laos; and Monsignor Gregorio Rosa Chavez, an auxiliary bishop who works as a parish pastor in San Salvador, El Salvador.

Francis will formally elevate the five to cardinal's rank in a ceremony at the Vatican on June 28. Then the new "princes of the church," as the red-hatted, elite corps of churchmen who elect popes are known, will co-celebrate Mass with Francis the next day, the Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul, an important Vatican holiday.

Since being elected pontiff in 2013, Francis has made a point of visiting his flock in places where Catholics are in the minority, as well as of working to improve relations between churches and among believers of different faiths.

His brief pilgrimage last year to Sweden, where Lutherans are the Christian majority, was hailed by some as instrumental in helping to improve relations between the two churches. While there, he joined Lutheran leaders in a common commemoration of the Protestant Reformation that divided Europe five centuries ago.

Arborelius, who is 67, converted to Catholicism when he was 20. In 1998, when he was consecrated as a bishop in Stockholm's Catholic cathedral, Arborelius became Sweden's first Catholic bishop, of Swedish origin, since the times of the Reformation,

In Mali, a country bloodied by Islamist extremism, Muslims constitute the predominant religious majority. Zerbo's clerical resume reveals him to be a churchman working for reconciliation in society, a virtue repeatedly stressed by Francis. The Vatican noted that Zerbo, 73, who was named an auxiliary bishop of Bamako in 1998 and 10 years later was made that city's archbishop, has played a role in peace negotiations.

Extremists attacked a hotel in Bamako in 2015, killing 19 people. Last month, the U.N. peacekeeping chief for Mali called the security situation there alarming, warning that extremist groups operating under the al-Qaida banner were carrying out more sophisticated attacks and Islamic State militants were slowly making inroads.

There has been slow progress in implementing a peace deal reached in June 2015 between Mali's government, Tuareg separatists and armed groups in the north. In Laos, the tiny Catholic community has often struggled to persevere, including under communist-led rule. Mangkhanekhoun, 73, was ordained a priest in 1972 and has served as a bishop since 2001. The Vatican paid tribute to his work in visiting faithful in mountain villages. Since early this year, he has served as apostolic administrator in Vientiane.

Catholicism has been the majority religion in Spain and in El Salvador, although in parts of Central and South America, evangelical Protestant sects have been gaining converts from the Catholic church.

The resume of Chavez, 74, also includes credentials valued by the pope, who has made serving the poor a key focus of the Catholic church's mission. Chavez heads the Latin American division of Caritas, the Catholic charity. He was appointed an auxiliary bishop in 1982 for San Salvador, where he now will be based as a cardinal after serving as a parish pastor in the city.

Chavez worked closely with the late Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero, who during El Salvador's civil war was shot to death by a right-wing death squad while saying Mass in 1980. Pope Francis has denounced Catholic clerics who "defamed" Romero after the slaying, a campaign that delayed Romero's eventual beatification.

Francis' pick for the Spain cardinal's post, Omella, 71, worked as a missionary in Zaire earlier in his career and serves on the Vatican's powerful Congregation of Bishops office. Since December 2015, he has been archbishop of Barcelona.

In announcing his selections, Francis expressed hope that the new cardinals with their work and "their advice will sustain me more intensely in my service as bishop of Rome, universal pastor of the church." In other remarks to the faithful in the square, Francis referred to the situation of another Catholic minority — Chinese whose loyalty to the pope has put them at odds with authorities of the state-sanctioned Catholic church in China, and sometimes brought persecution.

He prayed that Catholics in China would be able to bring their "personal contribution for the communion among believers and harmony in the entire society." Francis is eager to see improved Vatican-China relations. Both sides have for decades been at odds over Chinese authorities' insistence that they have the right to appoint bishops, a prerogative the Vatican says only belongs to the pope.

He urged Catholics in China to "stay open to meeting and dialogue, always."

Laos moves ahead with plan for third contentious Mekong dam

November 08, 2016

Laos has notified its Southeast Asian neighbors that it's moving ahead with a third contentious hydro dam on the Mekong River's mainstream. The Mekong River Commission, an organization that groups together Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand for joint management of the river, said in a statement it has received notice from Laos that it will undertake a process of consultation about the Pak Beng dam.

In the previous consultation cases for the Xayaburi and Don Sahong dams, Laos pressed forward with the projects despite vociferous objections from the other countries, scientists and conservationists.

It has already begun preparatory work for the 912 megawatt Pak Beng dam in the northern province of Oudomxay and the official Lao News Agency reported in July that construction would begin in early 2017.

Critics of the dams say they will damage wild fisheries and a rice bowl delta that feeds 60 million people in the region, with the severest effects in the downstream countries Cambodia and Vietnam. The river basin is already under pressure from dozens of dams built on Mekong tributaries.

The government of Communist Party-ruled Laos sees hydro-electricity exports as a way to develop its impoverished economy and plans up to nine dams on the Mekong mainstream. But by jeopardizing wild fisheries it might add to its own food security problems. The World Food Program says nearly half of children under the age of five in Laos suffer from chronic malnutrition and stunting.

The impact of the Lao dams, and half a dozen dams already built on China's stretch of the Mekong, will be "extremely grave," said Nguyen Thi Hong Van, a coordinator of Vietnam Rivers Network, an advocacy group.

She said Laos could build too many dams and end up with surplus electricity because its plans don't consider long-term energy development in the region. "The Lao government should work out a master plan for energy security for Laos and for the region," Nguyen said. "Lao investment in hydro power plants without considering its social impact on countries in the lower basin would impact on the economic development of these countries."

The Mekong commission's relevance as a transboundary organization has been undermined by Laos, as well as its own internal failings. Foreign donors have cut financial assistance and the commission's staff numbers have been slashed.

But it said in the statement that despite lack of agreement the consultation process for the Xayaburi dam had resulted in the Lao government and the project's Thai developer spending an additional $400 million on design changes that could mitigate some its damaging effects.

The consultation process takes about six months. Earlier this year, a study funded by Vietnam predicted Mekong Delta rice production would drop steeply because the dams planned by Laos would trap sediments, reducing nutrients flowing downstream, and reduce fish stocks by disrupting migratory breeding.

It estimated annual fishery and farming losses of more than $760 million in Vietnam and $450 million in Cambodia, the two worst affected countries.

Tran Van Minh in Hanoi, Vietnam contributed.

Southeast Asian summit opens, overshadowed by Duterte flap

September 06, 2016

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — A summit of Southeast Asian leaders to discuss issues ranging from terrorism to South China Sea tensions opened Tuesday, overshadowed by the Philippine president's intemperate comments in his debut appearance at the annual meeting. The insult was made more egregious because of who the target was — President Barack Obama.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte occupied center stage on the eve of the summit Monday when he made comments about Obama that included a "son of a bitch" remark. He was again in the spotlight Tuesday when he trooped into a conference hall in the Laotian capital of Vientiane wearing a traditional Filipino shirt with sleeves rolled up, and hands in pant pockets. The other male Southeast Asian leaders were dressed in dark business suits. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi wore a mauve traditional dress.

Filipinos wear the "barong" shirt on formal occasions too, but with sleeves buttoned down at the wrists. Rolled-up sleeves are considered too casual for any formal setting, let alone a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN. Duterte rolled his sleeves down and buttoned them when Laotian President Bounnhang Vorachith gave a speech to open the summit.

"Multifaceted security challenges have occurred in many parts of the world, such as terrorism and extremism, natural disasters, climate change, migration crisis, trafficking in people, territorial disputes and armed conflicts," Bounnhang said. "At the same time, although the global economy has gradually recovered, growth remains slow and fragile."

"There is a need for us to closely follow these developments and continue to enhance ASEAN cooperation and collaboration with the international community," he said. The 10-nation ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The summit will be followed by a series of other meetings on Wednesday and a summit Thursday between leaders from ASEAN and other countries, including the United States, China, Russia, India, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

Obama arrived in Vientiane on Monday night and will attend Thursday's summit. Duterte also arrived Monday night. But hours before his arrival, Duterte dropped a diplomatic bombshell by saying he doesn't want Obama to ask him questions about extrajudicial killings that have occurred amid an ongoing crackdown on drug dealers in the Philippines. More than 2,000 people have been killed in the crackdown since he took office on June 30.

In his typical loose-tongued style, Duterte said: "I do not have any master except the Filipino people, nobody but nobody. You must be respectful. Do not just throw questions. Putang ina, I will swear at you in that forum," he said, using the Tagalog phrase for "son of a bitch."

Obama later canceled a bilateral meeting he was scheduled to have with Duterte in Vientiane. On Tuesday, Duterte expressed regret over the remarks, but the damage was already done. Duterte is also planning to ask China's premier at the Vientiane meetings whether China is trying to develop a disputed reef, Scarborough Shoal, off the Philippines' northwestern coast, Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

The shoal is part of the larger dispute in the South China Sea between China and some ASEAN countries. An international arbitration panel recently ruled that China's expansive claims in the sea are illegal. Beijing has rejected the ruling as a sham.

Although ASEAN has the power of the ruling behind it, its summit is unlikely to mention it in its final declaration, a reflection of Beijing's diplomatic clout. But according to a draft of the final statement ASEAN is scheduled to release on Thursday, the region's leaders will express strong concern about Beijing's construction of man-made islands in the South China Sea, which Southeast Asian countries fear could destabilize the region.

Duterte said last week that the Philippine coast guard has sighted Chinese barges at Scarborough, which he said could presage the transformation of the Chinese-held reef into another man-made island. One of the Chinese vessels had what appeared to be a crane, according to a Philippine official who did not want to be identified because he was not authorized to discuss classified intelligence.

China sparked widespread alarm when it converted seven reefs in the Spratly Islands into islands that the United States says could be transformed into military bases to reinforce Beijing's territorial claims and intimidate rival claimant countries.

Duterte has taken a more conciliatory stance toward China than his predecessor. But a confirmation of Chinese reclamation activities at Scarborough Shoal, a rich fishing ground where Filipino fishermen have been forced away by Beijing's coast guard, could impede relations.

U.S. officials have also expressed deep concern over the possibility of China developing Scarborough into an island or starting to erect concrete structures there, which could reinforce Beijing's control over a swath of the South China Sea.

Obama to become first US president to visit Laos

Washington (AFP)
Aug 18, 2016

President Barack Obama will visit Laos next month, a first for a US president, in a trip that begins with a G20 summit in China, the White House said Thursday.

The September 2-9 tour will be the president's 11th visit to Asia since he took office in 2009.

Obama has made a "pivot" to the region a pillar of US foreign policy. Next month's swing will come about five months before the Democratic president steps down after two four-year terms.

In Laos, which this year holds the presidency of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Obama will participate in the US-ASEAN Summit and East Asia Summit from September 6 through 8.

The East Asia meeting will include the major regional powers such as China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and Russia.

"President Obama will be the first US president to visit Laos," the White House noted.

Secretary of State John Kerry has visited Laos, which has strained ties with the US, twice this year -- in January to prepare for Obama's arrival and in July for ASEAN meetings.

Kerry raised issues related to the devastation caused by US bombings during the Vietnam War and the future of Southeast Asia in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

Laos became the world's most-bombed country per capita from 1964 to 1973 as the United States tried to cut supplies flowing to North Vietnamese fighters during the Vietnam War.

More than two million bombs were dropped. About 30 percent did not explode and some 50,000 people died by the end of the war.

In January, Washington and Vientiane discussed beefing up a US program to clear mines and disarm unexploded devices.

Before the Laos visit, Obama will attend his last meeting of leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers, on September 4-5 in Hangzhou in eastern China.

There Obama will also hold "in-depth" meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the White House said in a statement.

The leaders of the world's superpowers will discuss "a wide-range of global, regional, and bilateral issues," it said.

At the last US-China strategic and economic talks, in Beijing in June, the two sides clashed over human rights and China's expansion in the South China Sea while proclaiming cooperation on climate change.

Source: Space War.
Link: http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Obama_to_become_first_US_president_to_visit_Laos_999.html.

Laos assures US it will help counter Chinese assertiveness

January 25, 2016

VIENTIANE, Laos (AP) — The prime minister of communist Laos assured U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday that his small nation will help counter China's assertiveness in the South China Sea.

Laos this year takes the rotating chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, with the group's heads of state scheduled to hold a special meeting next month in Sunnylands, California, at the invitation of President Barack Obama as part of his foreign policy to reach out to the region as a counterweight to China.

Kerry's visit to the landlocked nation of fewer than 7 million people was meant to pave the way for the summit, with a goal of making sure Laos holds the group together. Kerry arrived in the Laotian capital Sunday.

Prime Minister Thongsing Thammavong "was very clear that he wants a unified ASEAN and he wants maritime rights protected and he wants to avoid militarization and avoid the conflict," Kerry told reporters. "And that will develop as we go into Sunnylands, and there will be a greater, I'm sure, articulation of that unity going forward."

ASEAN nations such as Vietnam and the Philippines have become increasingly concerned about China's territorial claims in the South China Sea, including its construction of man-made islands and airstrips in contested areas.

But other ASEAN nations are more pro-China, including Cambodia, which blocked ASEAN from reaching consensus on the South China Sea during its 2012 chairmanship of the group. Cambodia is Kerry's next stop on an around-the-world diplomatic marathon this week that will also take him to China.

Murray Hiebert, a Southeast Asia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, said "these statements by Lao leaders aren't totally surprising." He noted that a Communist Party congress in Laos last week removed a party chief generally considered as pro-Chinese and replaced him with one who appears to be more evenhanded in his views about China and Vietnam, Laos' other big neighbor and fellow member of ASEAN.

Later this year, Obama will become the first U.S. president to visit Laos for the ASEAN summit. Laos is one of the last few communist nations in the world. The country has moved away from a hard-line communist system in the past two decades, but like its close ally Vietnam, it retains a one-party political system and its government has been criticized for being intolerant of dissent.

Kerry said relations with Laos are improving after a period of war and mutual suspicion. In addition to meetings with Thammavong and Thongloun Sisoulith, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Kerry toured That Luang, the golden-spired Buddhist structure that is Laos' most sacred monument. Kerry also was scheduled to meet with members of Obama's Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative.

Kerry and Laos' leaders discussed increased U.S. funding for a variety of projects here. That includes the removal of unexploded bombs dropped by American warplanes during the Vietnam War era, which still cause frequent casualties. Kerry, a Vietnam War veteran, also brought up a new $6 million child nutrition program, and a U.S.-funded "smart infrastructure" for the Mekong River.

"We still have concerns about human rights and freedom of expression and other issues, and I raised those," Kerry said. "But it is also - you know, we are partnering on a wide range of issues." Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said he hopes for more human rights pressure on Laos as the country prepares to host world leaders all year.

"The international community should demand Laos' leaders end their restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly, stop their crushing censorship of the media, and permit freedom of association for workers to form independent trade unions," Robertson said.