Silencing of a Laotian Son : The Life, Work and Enforced Disappearance of Sombath Somphone

       "Silencing of a Laotian Son : The Life, Work and Enforced Disappearance of Sombath Somphone" is a wife's sensitive and thoughtful portrayal of a poor village boy's life journey to improve the lives of rural communities in Laos, and his subsequent enforced disappearance on December 15, 2012 in front of a police post in Vientiane.

    The book describes how Sombath's ground-breaking community and youth development work earned him widespread recognition as Laos' leading development specialist. It also documents the Lao authority's cynical denial of state involvement in Sombath's disappearance and his wife Shui Meng's tireless and agonizing struggle to rally international support to secure Sombath's safe return.

1. The Abduction
2. Family Background
3. Education in Laos
4. A Year in the U.S. as an AFS Student
5. Study in Hawaii
6. Finding Love in Hawaii
7. Building a New Life in Laos
8. Sombath - Developing a Meaningful Role in Laos
9. Charting a New Development Path and Establishing PADETC
10. Setting the Stage for Sombath’s Abduction
etc.

This book...is about Laos over the sweep of more than a half century of multiple traumas and changes that always seem to have left those who form the soul of the country to pick up the pieces. It is also about being caught in the middle of polarised worlds...Sombath ultimately falls foul of ideologues and bullies - despite his gentleness and supreme cultural skills in dealing with such people and forces...ultimately it is about the durability of Sombath's ideas and practices based on basic humanism...
    -- Philip Hirsch, Emeritus Professor University of Sydney, Australia --

    In place of silence, people are joining across communities, countries and continents to stand with Sombath and Shui-Meng Ng, to demand, loudly and clearly, truth and justice. You are not alone, we are many, we trust in our common humanity.
   -- International Organising Committee of the Asia Europe People's Forum --

    The powerful figures who directed that Sombath Somphone be made to disappear probably thought that his disappearance would soon be forgotten. How wrong they were! For the past nine years Sombath's disappearance has frequently come back to haunt authorities in the Lao PDR...with demands for a full accounting of what has happened to him.
    -- Jon Ungphakorn, Thai human rights activist, former elected member of the Thai Senate and Ramon Magsaysay awardee, 2005 --