The Ministry of Public Security is the ministry of the interior of Laos. It includes local police, traffic police, immigration police, security police (including border police), and other armed police units. The current minister is Mr. Thongbanh Sengaphone.
In order to increase its capacity to address issues such as the illegal drugs trade and human trafficking, the Ministry of Public Security has established working relations with a number of foreign government agencies and international organisations, including UNODC and UNICEF.
The security forces subject to the ministry have occasionnally been accused of human rights violations. Their persecution of Christians in Laos is among the heaviest in the world. Particularly members of the ethnic group of the Hmong have been subject to violence by security forces.
Famous quotes containing the words ministry, public and/or security:
“the eave-drops fall
Heard only in the trances of the blast,
Or if the secret ministry of frost
Shall hang them up in silent icicles,
Quietly shining to the quiet Moon.”
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834)
“Know that, on the right hand of the Indies, there is an island called California, very near to the Terrestrial Paradise, which was peopled with black women.... Their arms were all of gold.”
—For the State of California, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The contention that a standing army and navy is the best security of peace is about as logical as the claim that the most peaceful citizen is he who goes about heavily armed. The experience of every-day life fully proves that the armed individual is invariably anxious to try his strength. The same is historically true of governments. Really peaceful countries do not waste life and energy in war preparations, with the result that peace is maintained.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)