Dec. 15 marks 10 years since the disappearance of Sombath Somphone, a prominent Lao civil society leader and winner of the prestigious Magsaysay Award for his work on behalf of rural residents. Sombath disappeared after his jeep was stopped at a police checkpoint outside the capital Vientiane, and video footage showed him later being forced into a vehicle and taken away. The Lao government is widely believed to be responsible for the disappearance, but has been silent on the case for most of the past decade.
