New Mandala

4 responses so far ↓

• 1 Jon Fernquest // Feb 7, 2007 at 11:54 pm

  I hope this Australian dissertation is published in book form one day:

  Phothisane, Souneth. (1996). The Nidan Khun Borom: Annotated Translation and Analysis, Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Queensland.

  I already have my copy. It’s a model of scholarship.

• 2 Saowapha Viravong // Feb 8, 2007 at 9:46 am

  hi Jon
  I will contact Ajarn Souneth Phothisane, adn see if the library could purchase a copy of the nidan Khun Borom mentioned above.
  Thanks a million

• 3 Srithanonchai // Feb 9, 2008 at 2:40 pm

  Here is another book on the history (?) of Laos (review from Bangkok Post, February 9, 2008).

  BOOK REVIEW

  The gulags of Laos

  A survivor’s account of political incarceration in Laos details similarities with other oppressive regimes

  KATHRYN SWEET

  ‘I Little Slave” is the direct translation of the term doy khanoy, a pre-revolutionary Lao pronoun meaning “I”. The term was suppressed after the change of regime in Laos in 1975 as an indicator of feudalism. Ironically, its continued use was encouraged in the prison and camp system of the newly communist nation. This is the setting for I Little Slave, in which Bounsang Khamkeo recounts the seven years he spent in re-education camps in the north-eastern province of Houaphan.

  I Little Slave is one of few accounts of the Lao re-education camps. While the Lao Ministry of National Defence official history states that 80,000 people underwent re-education in the years after 1975, little is known about the system of re-education and labour camps. A small handful of personal accounts are available in Lao, French and English. Many of the Lao accounts are unpublished, and circulate informally among interested readers in a manner similar to the samizdat of the former Soviet Union.

  Unfortunately, the introduction to I Little Slave is marred by a muddled explanation of Laos’ many ethnic groups. The author equates the term Lao Soung with Meo and Lao Theung with Kha, pre-revolutionary pejorative terms for Hmong and Khmou. In fact these outdated, blanket terms encompass many more ethnic groups than just Hmong and Khmou. Also, when referring to the high ranking party members detained in the early 1990s for discussing the option of multi-party democracy, he mentions only two of the three people detained, even though he is clearly aware of the third person. However, these are minor criticisms. On the whole, the book stands out as a well-written, comprehensive account of one man’s ordeal within the Lao camp system.

  The author, Bounsang Khamkeo, is a Pakse native who spent 13 years in France before returning to Laos in 1973 with a PhD in political science from the University of Toulouse. He joined the coalition government in 1974 as a Foreign Affairs officer and stayed on to work under the new government of Lao PDR in 1975. At the time, many of his family and friends were fleeing the country. Despite his patriotism and his hope in the future of his country, he was arrested in 1981 on the evening he challenged his supervisor about some unorthodox work practices he had noticed at the Lao Mekong River Commission Secretariat. He spent the next seven years, from 1981 to 1988, in prisons and re-education camps in Xam Tai and Vieng Xay districts of Houaphan province.

  Bounsang’s account contributes to our knowledge of some key Lao identities during their incarceration, both high ranking officers in the former Royal Lao Government and proponents of multi-party democracy in the current regime. He courageously names names: Those who were his friends and those he respected both inside and outside the camps as well as those who were his foes. Bounsang also documents a series of human rights abuses by the Lao authorities including his arrest and detention without charge, trial or conviction, the poor conditions of the camps, the day-to-day brutality he experienced there and the summary executions and disappearances around him.

  If I Little Slave had been published earlier it may well have represented the Lao experience in Paul Hollander’s 2006 anthology of communist camp systems around the world, From the Gulag to the Killing Fields, which features excerpts from writings on many countries. As it is, Laos is conspicuously missing from this anthology. However, comparisons can be made between Bounsang’s account and those in Hollander’s work, which give international perspective to the Lao experience.

  The many excerpts in Hollander’s anthology emphasise the importance of extracting confessions from prisoners, despite prisoners often having little clue about which law they had violated or how they had done so. Bounsang himself doubted that he had broken any law and suspected that his detention was based on the personal jealousy of his supervisor. Inevitably, the Lao authorities finally sought a confession from him. However, he was subjected to scant interrogation in comparison with experiences in other communist countries and was not required to make a confession until many years into his imprisonment. Even then, the Lao authorities’ attention to his confession seemed irregular compared to the serious bureaucratic attention it would have been expected to receive if he were detained in the former Soviet Union, China or the countries of Eastern Europe.

  According to Hollander’s anthology, another common characteristic of communist detention systems was the physical abuse suffered by the prisoners. Bounsang reports that in the camps of Houaphan province, as in other communist camp systems around the world, prisoners were required to take part in beating fellow prisoners or be punished themselves. Some prisoners were tortured to death or executed. Most prison deaths, however, were a result of malnutrition or untreated health problems in a country that was undergoing food shortages outside the prisons and camps and where even today rural people still suffer under a very weak health system. On the whole, torture and punishment within the Lao camps seemed to be less systematic than in other communist countries. Instead, the Lao camp regime was marked by a low-tech, low budget approach of general neglect.

  The official papers shown on the cover of I Little Slave are Bounsang’s release documents. Upon release, some of his fellow prisoners were issued with official apologies, which admitted that their arrest and many years of detention had been an administrative error. Bounsang was not issued with any such apology as his accuser was well-connected and senior party members were unwilling to challenge him.

  A fellow prisoner who subsequently died in the camps advised Bounsang that each prisoner needed a reason to survive. Bounsang’s reason was his desire to tell his story of unjust incarceration, hardship and abuse so that others would know. He has achieved his goal. He survived the camps and has told his story in I Little Slave. In doing so, Bounsang has helped to illuminate a little known part of recent Lao history.

  ————-

  I LITTLE SLAVE:

  A Prison Memoir from Communist Laos

  Bounsang Khamkeo

  Eastern Washington University Press, 422pp, $21.95 (from amazon.com)

  ISBN: 978-1597660075

• 4 Kingsavanh Pathammavong // Mar 7, 2009 at 1:15 am

  Hello Ms. Sweet

  I just read your comment on “I Little Slave.” It gives me an inspiration to continue working on my father. He was Colonel Royal Lao Army, spent 13 years in reeducation camp. He arrived in the US in 1988 and passed away in 2002.

  I have interviewed over 100 Lao refugees, former military officers and civillians across the US for my research project on Lao Court Music. I discovered so many sad, funny and survival stories and wish that this information can be published some where, some how.

  Sincerely,

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