Hmong-Americans Stunned by Laos ChargesBy GARANCE BURKE
AP
FRESNO, Calif. - Many of the thousands of Hmong refugees who fled to the United States following the Vietnam War never accepted the communist government that took power in their native Laos.
And if federal prosecutors are right, some apparently never abandoned their dream of toppling it.
A revered leader of the Hmong-American population was among 10 men charged this week with plotting to overthrow the Laotian regime in a case that has shaken the growing immigrant community.
Many Hmong credit Vang Pao, a 77-year-old former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led Hmong counterinsurgents, with helping them build new lives in the U.S. In California and Minnesota, where the first large wave of refugees settled in the 1980s, Hmong-American politicians are rising quickly through political ranks.
Despite that momentum, some in the community say elders still long to return to their highland villages.
"People of my father's generation have hoped one day that they could go back to a free Laos and farm the plot of land they left 30 years ago," said Minnesota state Rep. Cy Thao of St. Paul. "Vang Pao is sort of their last hope. You hear them talk about it, but you don't ever think it will come to this point."
An undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives secretly recorded a Feb. 7 luncheon meeting with Vang Pao, former California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Jack and others at a Thai restaurant a few blocks from the state Capitol in Sacramento, according to the agent's affidavit.
They then walked to a recreational vehicle parked nearby to examine machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets, anti-personnel mines and other weapons, the agent wrote.
Hmong leaders had agreed to buy $9.8 million worth of military weapons, Jack said in a recorded conversation, with much of the money coming from immigrants throughout the United States, the affidavit states.
Vang Pao appeared briefly in federal court Tuesday in Sacramento.
"Gen. Vang Pao has worked actively to pursue peaceful solutions to the problems in Laos and has disavowed violence," his attorney, John Balazs, said afterward. "We look forward to a trial where we can demonstrate Gen. Pao's innocence."
An attorney for Jack declined to comment after a court proceeding Monday.
Vang Pao and the other nine defendants were scheduled for detention hearings later this week. Prosecutors recommended that all be held without bail until their trials.
"People don't know right now whether the charges are justified or a witch hunt. We just want people to remember that for 20 years the Hmong community has worked to make sure that this is our home," said Peter Vang, refugee community liaison for Fresno County, home to about 30,000 ethnic Hmong.
After fighting as U.S.-backed guerillas in Laos, members of the ethnic minority were all but abandoned when the country fell to communist forces in 1975. More than 300,000 Laotian refugees, mostly Hmong, fled into Thailand.
About 145,000 members of Laotian ethnic groups resettled in the U.S., establishing large enclaves in Fresno, St. Paul, Minn., cities across Wisconsin and in small towns throughout Arkansas' Ozark mountains.
Among those charged Monday were the founder of Fresno's annual Hmong International New Year celebration, a former police officer from the nearby suburb of Clovis and a one-time aide to former Wisconsin state Sen. Gary George.
George, 53, who recently finished serving a four-year prison term for taking kickbacks from a Milwaukee social service agency, is not charged in the Laos case. The ATF agent's affidavit, however, states that "probable cause exists to believe" George was involved in it.
George's attorney, Alex Flynn of Milwaukee, did not return repeated telephone messages from The Associated Press. Earlier Tuesday, he told the San Francisco Chronicle that the allegations are "utterly preposterous and categorically false."
Investigators also were examining whether those charged tried to use an unidentified congressman and the California Highway Patrol without their knowledge, according to authorities and court documents.
During a March meeting at a Sacramento restaurant, the affidavit says, Jack told the undercover ATF agent that he had contacted a patrol commissioner and arranged for Hmong leaders to help recruit.
The goal was for the Hmong officers to eventually move to Laos "to take positions of trust" in the new Lao government, the affidavit says.
Federal prosecutors said the men who are charged conspired with a Laotian liberation movement, led in the U.S. by Vang Pao, who splits his time between homes in the Twin Cities _ which has the largest concentration of Hmong in the United States _ and Southern California. The group raised money, directed surveillance operations and organized a force of insurgent troops within Laos, according to the complaint.
Somphet Khoukahoun, the permanent secretary for the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday he would wait to comment until authorities were briefed by U.S. officials.
Like many of their counterparts in the U.S., Hmong leaders in Thailand said they found the charges unbelievable.
"I think the charges are meant by rival Hmong in the United States to smear him," said Ming Wui, a Hmong Christian minister.
In Laos, Hmong people are still subject to detentions and human rights violations, according to the U.S. Department of State. Many recent immigrants arrive still traumatized by war and decades of persecution, said Sharon Stanley, director of Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries.
Vang Pao's arrest has crushed families struggling to assume a new, American identity, said Blong Xiong, a Hmong-American city councilman in Fresno, where Hmong grocery stores and restaurants are fixtures in most shopping malls.
"I'm hoping that the mainstream understands that our community continues to share the American ideals we defended," Xiong said.
Associated Press writers Sutin Wannabovorn and Ambika Ahuja in Bangkok, Don Thompson in Sacramento and Gregg Aamot in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
And if federal prosecutors are right, some apparently never abandoned their dream of toppling it.
A revered leader of the Hmong-American population was among 10 men charged this week with plotting to overthrow the Laotian regime in a case that has shaken the growing immigrant community.
Many Hmong credit Vang Pao, a 77-year-old former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led Hmong counterinsurgents, with helping them build new lives in the U.S. In California and Minnesota, where the first large wave of refugees settled in the 1980s, Hmong-American politicians are rising quickly through political ranks.
Despite that momentum, some in the community say elders still long to return to their highland villages.
"People of my father's generation have hoped one day that they could go back to a free Laos and farm the plot of land they left 30 years ago," said Minnesota state Rep. Cy Thao of St. Paul. "Vang Pao is sort of their last hope. You hear them talk about it, but you don't ever think it will come to this point."
An undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives secretly recorded a Feb. 7 luncheon meeting with Vang Pao, former California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Jack and others at a Thai restaurant a few blocks from the state Capitol in Sacramento, according to the agent's affidavit.
They then walked to a recreational vehicle parked nearby to examine machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets, anti-personnel mines and other weapons, the agent wrote.
Hmong leaders had agreed to buy $9.8 million worth of military weapons, Jack said in a recorded conversation, with much of the money coming from immigrants throughout the United States, the affidavit states.
Vang Pao appeared briefly in federal court Tuesday in Sacramento.
"Gen. Vang Pao has worked actively to pursue peaceful solutions to the problems in Laos and has disavowed violence," his attorney, John Balazs, said afterward. "We look forward to a trial where we can demonstrate Gen. Pao's innocence."
An attorney for Jack declined to comment after a court proceeding Monday.
Vang Pao and the other nine defendants were scheduled for detention hearings later this week. Prosecutors recommended that all be held without bail until their trials.
"People don't know right now whether the charges are justified or a witch hunt. We just want people to remember that for 20 years the Hmong community has worked to make sure that this is our home," said Peter Vang, refugee community liaison for Fresno County, home to about 30,000 ethnic Hmong.
After fighting as U.S.-backed guerillas in Laos, members of the ethnic minority were all but abandoned when the country fell to communist forces in 1975. More than 300,000 Laotian refugees, mostly Hmong, fled into Thailand.
About 145,000 members of Laotian ethnic groups resettled in the U.S., establishing large enclaves in Fresno, St. Paul, Minn., cities across Wisconsin and in small towns throughout Arkansas' Ozark mountains.
Among those charged Monday were the founder of Fresno's annual Hmong International New Year celebration, a former police officer from the nearby suburb of Clovis and a one-time aide to former Wisconsin state Sen. Gary George.
George, 53, who recently finished serving a four-year prison term for taking kickbacks from a Milwaukee social service agency, is not charged in the Laos case. The ATF agent's affidavit, however, states that "probable cause exists to believe" George was involved in it.
George's attorney, Alex Flynn of Milwaukee, did not return repeated telephone messages from The Associated Press. Earlier Tuesday, he told the San Francisco Chronicle that the allegations are "utterly preposterous and categorically false."
Investigators also were examining whether those charged tried to use an unidentified congressman and the California Highway Patrol without their knowledge, according to authorities and court documents.
During a March meeting at a Sacramento restaurant, the affidavit says, Jack told the undercover ATF agent that he had contacted a patrol commissioner and arranged for Hmong leaders to help recruit.
The goal was for the Hmong officers to eventually move to Laos "to take positions of trust" in the new Lao government, the affidavit says.
Federal prosecutors said the men who are charged conspired with a Laotian liberation movement, led in the U.S. by Vang Pao, who splits his time between homes in the Twin Cities _ which has the largest concentration of Hmong in the United States _ and Southern California. The group raised money, directed surveillance operations and organized a force of insurgent troops within Laos, according to the complaint.
Somphet Khoukahoun, the permanent secretary for the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday he would wait to comment until authorities were briefed by U.S. officials.
Like many of their counterparts in the U.S., Hmong leaders in Thailand said they found the charges unbelievable.
"I think the charges are meant by rival Hmong in the United States to smear him," said Ming Wui, a Hmong Christian minister.
In Laos, Hmong people are still subject to detentions and human rights violations, according to the U.S. Department of State. Many recent immigrants arrive still traumatized by war and decades of persecution, said Sharon Stanley, director of Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries.
Vang Pao's arrest has crushed families struggling to assume a new, American identity, said Blong Xiong, a Hmong-American city councilman in Fresno, where Hmong grocery stores and restaurants are fixtures in most shopping malls.
"I'm hoping that the mainstream understands that our community continues to share the American ideals we defended," Xiong said.
Associated Press writers Sutin Wannabovorn and Ambika Ahuja in Bangkok, Don Thompson in Sacramento and Gregg Aamot in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
10 comments:
American Foreign Policy. Politics as usual. It all comes down on
Who will rule the WORLD ECONOMY.
It is a cold WAR between US and China. China bough all gas from ASia through South America and Africa to put the US and European Community to the dead end. Then Indian, one of the US's allies built cars using AIR.
Air Car without using Gas is on the way.http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/659/
The arrest of Hmong_American is nothing more than the US is looking for attention in SE Asia.
Next time these people may want to buy from somewhere else to free their land. Hun Sen bought too many arms just to protect himself in power. He steals and kills his own people.
There is no justice on earth, but people have to fight for it.
Only the poor will die but the stronger will live.
Wrong, Fluke's Boy, Hun Sen only
saves people. It is Ah Sam Nazi
who killed people and making them
suffering for decade after decade.
Are you still insdie the toilet?
The dumbest like you how much do you know?
Here is my suggestion "Don't make enemy, then you may survive. If you do something is going to happen.." You called me Fluke boy but you don't know who I am, but I can find out who you are if necessary. Right now you are not worth my time.
Make that 2, Fluke's Boy!
Not to blaim on the General, but he needs to understand that Loas may be a communist country and something worth fighting for, but Loas under the same skin is now also The US's allied thu Ah Vietcong. The same goes with the our own current government. He needs to be very every careful in term of operation and not to be confused with the Terrorist. Do it thru peaceful mean and thru election may be it would be a better way to save Loas and himself.
Mr. Sam Rainsey by all mean avoid all military conflict and violence. This is something we strongly admire and proud of. Regardless of what people say, he is Khmer true hope and dream for a better tomorrow.
Like the first person's comment, the world is not in mood of anything else, but who will rule the world economy.
Everybody is friend to everybody. It's under one condition that drives the world that way and that is business and for business only. Profit and profits is the moral value. Import, export and making money for those investors and business corporations around the world. You just don't stand in the way of this business Giant Guys! Look out!!!!!
A good man whose day is gone, fighting a lost cause. An entire lifetime of communist misery for the people of Laos. A fickle, faithless nation whose politicians are again selling their military down the river for political gain.
Lao people outside their country need to be concerned about the situation in Lao now and the same as Cambodian people. Hanoi wants to move their border more into other countries. Hanoi doesn't care much about invading or encroaching the neighbor sovereignty. Lao and Khmer need to unite and fight Hanoi from our land. Hanoi doesn't want to live in peace with its neighbors. So why don't we do something to them as well. Khmer and Lao leaders now are all Hanoi (Youn) agents. Let's finish them
I support the General, he is trying to save his Hmong people and bring peace, justice, equaility, freedom, freedom of speech, property, employment, hospital, healthcare, stop genocide the hmong people. Laos has no healthcare for it's people, no hospital, no road, no school, no housing, no adequate water, electricity, -- Hanoi- is the backbone of the Lao communist. That's the problem, Hanoi try to control that region, Laos, Cambodia, and eventually Thailand,Myamar. !!!
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