Laos’ highest court is working to set up a special court in the notorious Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone to directly clamp down on an area that has attracted scam-related businesses and human trafficking, a government official told Radio Free Asia.
Lao state media reported last week on the planned special court. A government official who works in the zone said the idea was first proposed several months ago.
“There is now an agreement to open the People Court’s office in the zone,” he said on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
An office site and a place where court officials would live has already been selected, he said. Relevant officials in nearby Bokeo province have agreed to coordinate in forming the new court.
The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone, or SEZ, was established in 2007 in the northern province of Bokeo on a 3,000-hectare (7,400-acre) concession along the Mekong River where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet.
It’s become a gambling and tourism hub catering to Chinese citizens where investors – exempt from most national-level economic regulations – have built hotels, restaurants, casinos, a hospital, markets and factories.
But it has also earned a reputation as a haven for criminal activities, including prostitution and drug trafficking.
In August, a report from the International Crisis Group called for a “coordinated regional approach” – including through law enforcement – to combat the outsized impact illicit businesses have in the Golden Triangle SEZ and across the river at another special economic zone in Myanmar’s Shan state.
Lao authorities currently do not have the right to enter special economic zones to conduct investigations.
In June, however, the Golden Triangle SEZ management board handed oversight of a detention and rehabilitation center located inside the zone to Bokeo provincial police. And in January, officials from the Office of People’s Supreme Prosecutor visited the zone to discuss logistics for establishing a prosecutor’s office.
‘Money is god there’
Laos’ judicial system includes a People’s Supreme Court that is located in Vientiane as well as local People’s Courts and Military Courts throughout the country. The special court would be directly overseen by the People’s Supreme Court.
A former Lao government official told RFA that the special court could speed up criminal cases, which would help authorities tackle the zone’s large volume of crime.
“This zone has almost become its own country already,” he said. “There are too many people who break the law.”
But a resident of Bokeo province said a better approach would be to strengthen the current system of transferring criminal cases to the local People’s Court in Bokeo province.
A lawyer in Vientiane said that court officials located inside the zone would be even more unlikely to resist bribes from wealthy Chinese business people who dominate the zone.
“Everything will be difficult,” he told RFA. “In Laos, officials are afraid of rich people. If the rich people committed crimes in the zone, who would sue them in this court? It seems impossible to do so.”
Another Lao resident of Bokeo province agreed with this sentiment.
“I have seen that when something bad happens in the zone, law enforcement’s response is weak,” he said. “These days, money is god there.”
RFA contacted the People’s Supreme Court in Vientiane for comment on the planned special court, but a relevant official said he wasn’t able to comment.
Translated by Phouvong. Edited by Matt Reed.