<div><span>The 3rd Parliamentary Delegation to visit Lao PDR during 25-7 August over the enforced disappearance last December of noted activist Sombath Somphone reported in a press conference at the FCCT that there was no new information, with the official investigation going nowhere and the Lao government still in denial.</span></div> <p></p>

<p>A group of Australian scholars has sent a letter to the Australian Government to voice their concerns about the Lao activist who has disappeared since December last year and call on the government, as a major aid donor to the Lao PDR, to act on the matter.</p> <p></p>

<p>On the evening of Saturday, December 15 last year, Sombath Somphone was seen in CCTV footage being taken away by a man in plain clothes in a white truck, after he had been stopped by police officers in Thadue Road, Vientiane, Laos.&nbsp;</p> <p></p>

<p>This ASEAN Economic Community cannot come a moment too soon. &nbsp;If nothing else, it will give Thailand a chance to learn how to do things properly from the more advanced countries in ASEAN. &nbsp;Like Lao.</p> <p></p>