VZCZCXRO1431
PP RUEHCHI
DE RUEHVN #0636/01 1880633
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 070633Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0110
INFO RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 6687
RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 2692
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON 2141
RUEHPF/AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH 1804
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0429

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENTIANE 000636 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS, G/TIP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR KWMN LA
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S MEETING WITH LAO WOMEN'S UNION 
PRESIDENT ADDRESSES LAOS' TIER 3 RANKING 
 
REF: VIENTIANE 571 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: Ambassador met with newly-elected Lao 
Women's Union (LWU) President Sisay Leudetmounsone July 6 to 
discuss Embassy cooperation with the LWU across a range of 
issues. The LWU has played a prominent role on TIP issues, 
and Ambassador used the occasion to explain Laos' recent Tier 
3 ranking and suggest areas where the Lao could take steps to 
improve their standing. President Sisay, who was aware of our 
TIP Report, suggested the LWU would be willing to work with 
the Embassy and, as a starting point, would meet with a 
visiting G/TIP official later this month.  Sisay pointed out 
other positive developments: the LWU women's shelter, funded 
jointly by UNICEF, the Japanese government and The Asia 
Foundation (TAF), was up and running, the government had just 
issued a Presidential Decree on implementing the 2004 Women's 
Law, and the National Committee on Anti-Human Trafficking had 
recently met.  The LWU is one of the lead GoL agencies on 
TIP; Sisay appears to be as committed to the issue as her 
predecessor, who has taken the reigns at the Ministry of 
Labor and Social Welfare. End summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Ambassador described to President Sisay the 
Embassy's long record of cooperation with the LWU, especially 
through USG-funded projects implemented by LWU partners like 
TAF and, more recently, with the Academy for Educational 
Development (AED) on Avian Influenza. TAF, in particular, had 
enjoyed an extremely close and productive relationship with 
the LWU, helping the Union construct a women's shelter, the 
first of its kind in the country, in conjunction with UNICEF 
and the Japanese government.  Over nearly a decade, TAF had 
worked with the LWU in providing training for women in a 
variety of areas, had been a partner in drafting and 
disseminating the 2004 Law on Women, and had assisted the LWU 
on its TIP strategy. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Although the LWU had been at the forefront of TIP 
efforts, the Ambassador reminded Sisay, other parts of the 
Gol had been laggard, with the result that this year the 
G/TIP office had demoted Laos to Tier 3 ranking -- partially 
a result of the GoL's inability to show serious efforts on 
prosecution of traffickers and protection of victims.  A 
senior official from the State Department's G/TIP Office 
would visit Laos later this month to discuss recommendations 
for Laos to follow on trafficking, and she hoped the LWU 
would be able to meet with him.  Sisay was familiar with the 
ranking and indicated she understood the TIP Report critique. 
She took issue with the ranking overall, however, and claimed 
that the government had been making serious efforts; its 
failures were of omission, not commission.  As an 
illustration, she said there had been a number of 
prosecutions of traffickers, but unfortunately details were 
sparse because of the inherent difficulties in collecting 
information on cases from provincial courts and police. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Sisay told Ambassador that one manifestation of Lao 
intentions regarding trafficking was its passage of the 2004 
Women's Law. This law had been slow to be implemented, but 
earlier this year the President had finally issued 
implementing regulations for the law in the form of a 
Presidential Decree.  This decree would allow the law, with 
its many sanctions against trafficking, to be put into 
effect. This would in turn have an impact on the government's 
ability to prosecute traffickers.  On protection of victims, 
the LWU now had the Women's Shelter, which was finally up and 
running, providing for out-patient counseling services for 
victims of trafficking and domestic abuse and short-term 
accommodations for women, and their children, who had no 
other place to turn. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Sisay also said the Lao government's National 
Committee on Anti-Human Trafficking had met recently, the 
first time since the body was set up two years ago. She hoped 
this would be the start of a continuous effort at the 
national level.  She said she welcomed the visit of the G/TIP 
official (Senior Reports Officer Mark Taylor) to discuss 
recommendations for moving Laos off Tier 3. Sisay said she 
would be happy to meet with him to discuss the 
recommendations. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: Tier 3 ranking appears to have galvanized 
the Lao to an extent we had not anticipated. Interlocutors at 
both the LWU and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare 
have generally welcomed establishing a dialogue with us to 
discuss their ranking, and are tangibly more willing to share 
 
VIENTIANE 00000636  002 OF 002 
 
 
with us what they've been doing on TIP than they were before 
our report came out. The recent cabinet shakeup may help as 
well: the LWU's former President, Onechanh Thammavong, has 
moved over to become Minister of Labor and Social Welfare. 
Onechanh has been closely engaged on TIP efforts and her 
presence at the MLSW should be a fillip to that office's TIP 
work. Sisay is new to the LWU's Vientiane office, but came 
here from Champassak, where she headed the provincial LWU for 
many years. Champassak is a point of origin of many Lao 
migrants to Thailand, and is in the front line of the TIP 
issue.  Sisay brings to the LWU substantial experience on 
TIP.  End comment. 
 
¶7. (SBU) On a biographical note, Sisay is an up-and-comer 
whom we would definitely rate as one of our more personable 
interlocutors. Born in Salavane province in 1959, she is an 
ethnic Katang who moved to Champassak at the age of 9 and has 
spent nearly all her life in that southern province. She 
worked her way up through the provincial education department 
and LWU; she was for many years a teacher of science at the 
Teachers' Training School in Champassak, and in 2005 was 
named Director of the Provincial Education Department. She 
served two terms, from 1998 to 2006, as a National Assembly 
representative from Champassak. Relatively unknown outside 
the province, in March she was elected to the Central 
Committee at number 48 in the 55-member body, one of only 
four women represented at that level of the Party. Unusually, 
she is single. She speaks some English. 
HASLACH