Former Lao Prime Minister Sisavath Keobounphanh passed away yesterday at 7am at the age of 92.
General Sisavath Keobounphanh was among the senior members of the first generation of Party revolutionaries. He was crucial to the Party’s eventual success in establishing a new nation-state based on Marxist-Leninist principles in 1975.
General Sisavath Keobounphanh was born on 1 May 1928 to Bounxou and Parn of Huaykaleum Village, Viengxay District in Huaphanh. He married La Keobounphanh, with whom he had 4 daughters.
According to Vientiane Mai, General Sisavath Keobounphanh served as a member of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Central Committee from the 1st to 8th sessions, Secretary of the LPRP Central Committee for the 3rd and 4th sessions, and as a Politburo member during the 4th, 6th, 7th, and 8th sessions.
He served as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in 1991. He was then appointed Vice-President from 1996 to 1998 and then Prime Minister from 1998 to 2001.
Following this, he was appointed as the Head of the Lao Front For National Construction in 2001. He fully retired from public office in 2011.
The Lao government has declared a five-day mourning period during which the late general’s body will be lying in state at the assembly hall of the General Political Department of the Ministry of Defence in Vientiane Capital, followed by a state funeral to be held on 16 May.
