Nation bids farewell to revolutionary hero, former Party and state leader

Lao people from all walks of life on Monday joined Party and state leaders to bid a final farewell to a revolutionary hero and former Chairman of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Central Committee and former President, General Khamtay Siphandone.
The General, who was an outstanding revolutionary and among the first generation of leaders of the Party that led the Lao people in their long struggle for national liberation, died on April 2 at the age of 102.

Soldiers carry the coffin bearing the body of President Khamtay Siphandone to the cremation platform.

The funeral began with a ritual ceremony at the National Convention Centre where the body of General Khamtay lay in state. Shortly afterwards, his body was carried on a military vehicle along Kaysone Phomvihane Avenue, which was lined by throngs of people wanting to pay homage to the revered leader.
The cortege eventually arrived at the That Luang esplanade where the grand funeral took place.
Thousands of Party cadres, government officials, police officers, soldiers, monks, members of the public, and foreign diplomats and representatives gathered in solemn silence at the esplanade together with Party and state leaders to bid a final farewell and send General Khamtay’s spirit to rest in peace.
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh from Vietnam - the neighbouring country that fought shoulder to shoulder with Laos to achieve both countries’ liberation from decades of foreign oppression - flew in to attend the funeral. A government delegation from Thailand also attended the funeral, which was broadcast live on state television. 
Party Secretary General and President Thongloun Sisoulith addressed the mourners, recounting President Khamtay’s remarkable journey from his youth to the revolutionary path, which saw him rise through the ranks to become a Party and state leader.
Born on February 8, 1924, to a farming family in Khong district, Siphandone province (now Champassak province), President Khamtay was educated in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City), Vietnam, and became a member of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1953.
General Khamtay was elected a member of the Lao People’s Revolutionary Party Central Committee seven times at the 1st to the 7th National Party Congresses.
In 1972, he was elected a member of the Politburo — the Party’s top decision-making body — at the 2nd Party Congress and became Supreme Commander of the Lao People’s Liberation Army.
After the country was liberated and the Lao PDR was proclaimed in 1975, General Khamtay was appointed Vice Chairman of the Ministers’ Council (currently equivalent to Deputy Prime Minister), Minister of National Defence, and Supreme Commander of the Lao People’s Liberation Army.
He became Prime Minister of the Lao PDR in 1991.
A year later, he was elected as Chairman of the Party Central Committee while continuing to serve as Prime Minister. In 1998, General Khamtay was elected President of the Lao PDR and retired from the Party and state leadership in 2006.
“Throughout the revolutionary movement over the past nearly eight decades, Comrade General Khamtay Siphandone demonstrated without doubt that he was an outstanding, resolute and tenacious revolutionary of our Party,” Party Secretary General Thongloun told the assembled crowd.
“Throughout his revolutionary life, he was always energetic, committed to the Party’s ideology, had a firm grasp of the Party’s guidelines and policy, and had an astute vision.”
Together with President Kaysone Phomvihane and other leaders, General Khamtay studied and laid out guidelines, policies, strategies, and revolutionary tactics, making great contributions to the Party’s revolutionary mission from the outset until it eventually achieved victory and today continues to fulfill the ongoing task of national development and defence.
President Thongloun said Comrade President Khamtay Siphandone ‘was a strategist with a broad political vision and an outstanding military strategist, a resolute commander of combat forces, and a person who educated and built up the armed forces to be able to resist and defeat an aggressor with a hundred times Laos’ military might.’
The outstanding and firm revolutionary moral character of Comrade President Khamtay Siphandone was summed up in his loyalty and total devotion to the Party and his country.
“Comrade Khamtay always put the interests of the Party and the nation above all else. His overwhelming patriotism and boundless determination to serve the people was expressed in his unwavering courage in fighting Laos’ enemies and leading the people to defeat them,” President Thongloun said.
The passing of General Khamtay represents the loss of a visionary strategic leader, a capable politician, a courageous military strategist, a socio-economic developer with outstanding abilities, an astute diplomat, and a foreign policy expert who served the Party and nation wholeheartedly, he added.
Amid the incomparable sorrow and grief over the passing of President Khamtay, President Thongloun said he was committed to leading the continued implementation of the noble tasks to realise the Party’s ideology, and fulfill the desires of the Lao people and General Khamtay.  
“We pledge to our comrade’s spirit that we will continue to carry out the mission to preserve and enhance the fruits of the revolution we have achieved so far, and to continue to strengthen unity and solidarity within the Party, state and armed forces, as well as the solidarity of all Lao people and the entire nation, and to continue to develop our beloved and cherished nation,” vowed President Thongloun, who was Chairman of the committee in charge of the funeral.
His address was followed by the customary funeral rites, with the cremation taking place at 20:00 pm.

By Souksakhone Vaenkeo
 (Latest Update April 8, 2025)