Clinton to make landmark visit to Laos

Hillary Clinton, seen here in June 2012, will become the first US Secretary of State to visit Laos in 57 years as part of an eight-nation tour of the Middle East and Asia

05 July 2012
By Jo Biddle | AFP

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is to become the first top US diplomat to visit communist-run Laos in 57 years, as part of an eight-nation tour that will also take her to Egypt and Israel.

"Clinton will travel to France, Japan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Egypt and Israel departing Washington, DC on July 5," said a statement from State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland released on her departure.

The landmark Laos visit comes after she was officially invited by counterpart Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith in 2010 when he made the first visit by a top Laotian official to Washington since Soviet-backed communist rebels swept to power and replaced the monarchy in 1975.

Khmer Group Says It Shares Goals of Other Minorities in Vietnam

Thach Ngoc Thach, left and newly re-ordained monk Tim Sakhorn, middle, drops by VOA Khmer while on a visit in the US, file photo. (Photo: VOA Khmer)

Friday, 20 April 2012
Sok Khemara, VOA Khmer | Washington, DC

“The government of Vietnam has always accused us of being a terrorist group, a group to break up the country.”

Members of the Khmer minority in Vietnam recently met with State Department officials and are now looking for ways to unite with other minorities like the Hmong and Montagnards to protect themselves from persecution, a leading advocate says.

Thach Ngoc Thach, president of the US-based Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation, told VOA Khmer the main goals of these minorities are the same.

Khmer groups in Vietnam face persecution for their religion and separate culture, activists say, including land seizures and arbitrary arrest.

“Khmer Krom, Montagnards, and Hmong face similar social and economic issues,” a US State Department official said. “We continue to encourage Vietnam to implement policy that will encourage greater economic and social opportunities for all ethnic minorities.”

What Religious Freedom Means in Vietnam

June 12, 2011
By Michael Benge
American Thinker

For many Vietnam veterans, Memorial Day was for remembering not only those Americans who died in the Vietnam War, but also our counterparts -- the Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians who died fighting for freedom, and for all who still suffer persecution under the brutal communist regimes of those countries.

It seemed that Vietnam's wave of human rights violations and religious persecution might have peaked with the arrest and detention of over 1,500 activists for democracy, human rights, and religious freedom prior to the nation's 11th Congress of the Communist Party, but the brutal communist regime may have outdone itself with last month's reported slaughter of over 75 ethnic Hmong Christians. Hundreds more were wounded and/or arrested and taken to undisclosed locations.

An estimated 9,000 Hmong, mainly Catholics and Protestant Christians, gathered in the Muong Nhe district in North Vietnam's Dien Bien province on May 1 to honor the beatification of Pope John Paul II. According to Catholic sources, the late "Polish Pope," who had opposed both fascist Nazis forces and communist totalitarianism, is a source of inspiration to many Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, and Hmong Christian believers due to the courageous moral conduct of his life and his powerful call to "be not afraid" in challenging social injustice and Stalinist-type regimes around the world.

The religious services honoring the pope evolved into peaceful protests by Hmong seeking religious freedom and the cessation of human rights abuses, institutional corruption, social injustice, and land-grabbing. Dien Bien is one of Vietnam's poorest provinces, located in the remote and mountainous area bordering Laos and China. The province's estimated 170,000 Hmong represent 35 percent of its population (1.24% of VN's total), with the Hmong earning less than a tenth of the average annual income of the Vietnamese.

Vietnam troops 'use force' at rare protest

May 06 2011
AFP

Vietnamese soldiers have clashed with ethnic Hmong after thousands staged a rare protest in a remote mountain area calling for greater autonomy and religious freedom, a military source said on Thursday.

The Vietnamese army sent troop reinforcements after the demonstrations broke out several days ago in Dien Bien Province in the far northwest of the nation.

Soldiers "had to disperse the crowd by force," according to the military source, who did not provide details of any casualties or the number of troops involved.

It is Vietnam's worst-known case of ethnic unrest since protests in 2001 and 2004 in the Central Highlands by the Montagnards. About 1,700 of them fled to Cambodia after troops crushed protests against land confiscation and religious persecution.

Vietnam quashes rare Hmong uprising lasting days

Thursday, May 5, 2011
The Associated Press

Vietnamese security forces quashed a rare protest of hundreds of ethnic Hmong Christians calling for an independent state, officials said Thursday.

Giang Thi Hoa, vice president of the People's Committee in Dien Bien province, said the situation was brought under control after several days. She did not provide more details.

Another People's Committee official said the Hmong were calling for a separate state and that people living outside Vietnam were believed to be orchestrating the demonstrations. The official was identified only as Bac because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Opinion: Why I can't shrug off KDWB's hateful slur against Hmong community

Bee Vang

04/07/2011
By Bee Van
TwinCities.com

Last week a chilling thing happened. I started hearing funny noises. Noises that were almost incomprehensible. But the eerie thing was, I was sure I'd heard them before ...

Here's what they sounded like: "Lighten up." "Quit being so dang sensitive." "Can't you take a joke?"

As a Hmong actor who portrayed Thao Vang Lor in Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino," something echoed in me this spring as I listened to the uproar about an impromptu song on the radio station KDWB. During the shooting of the film, I tried to stay true to the script. But as a Hmong person, I also tried to do justice to my own life and to that of others like me.

"Gran Torino," as many know, is the story of an aging Detroit white man who gets involved with a neighboring Hmong family and attempts to intervene in their lives and prevent the teenage boy Thao from getting drawn into a gang. During casting, when I first saw excerpts from Gran Torino, I was puzzled because so many things in it seemed distorted and unrecognizable. One of the lines jumped out at me. In the scene when Thao was getting to know his white neighbor, Walt, the old man had been insulting him with a litany of racial slurs: "chink," "gook," "swamp rat." My character blurted out this reply: "You can call me whatever you want, because you know what? I'll take it."

Former Hmong General Vang Pao passed away in the US

File photos of former Hmong general Vang Pao, who once commanded a CIA-backed "secret army" of Hmong guerrillas during the Vietnam war. He died in California aged 81, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Vietnam War 'secret army' chief dies in US hospital

7/01/2011
AFP

"...his leadership rested on the force of his own personality, which was energetic, volatile, direct and fearless"

Former Laotian general Vang Pao, who once commanded a CIA-backed "secret army" of Hmong guerrillas during the Vietnam War, died in a Californian hospital. He was 81.

"He died today... the family was there," said a spokeswoman for the Clovis Community Medical Center, some 200 miles (322 kilometers) southeast of San Francisco, adding that he had been at the facility since December 26.

A general in the Royal Lao army and member of the Hmong ethnic minority, Vang Pao ran an irregular army in the 1960s and 70s, commanding thousands of fighters in the US-funded covert war against Vietnamese and Lao communist forces.

He fled to the United States in 1975 after communists ousted Laos' royal rulers, and was credited with helping negotiate the resettlement in America of tens of thousands of fellow Hmong.

THAILAND: With Hmong Expulsion, Army Asserts Foreign Policy Role

A picture released by the Royal Thai Army shows Hmong refugees being removed from the Huay Nam Khao camp in northern Thailand yesterday. Photo: AFP

Analysis by Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 6 (IPS) - The recent deportation of Hmong asylum seekers to Laos has shown that Thailand’s powerful military remains the dominant player in shaping the relationship between this South-east Asian kingdom and its immediate neighbours.

Thai analysts are hardly surprised, given the long history of the Thai army calling the shots to determine Bangkok’s foreign policy with neighbouring Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Malaysia. It is rooted in military thinking that was dominant during the Cold War, when Thailand was a strong ally of the United States government’s war in Indo-China.

"The army has always sought to be in charge of Thailand’s foreign policy with regards to its immediate neighbours," said Sunai Phasuk, Thailand researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based global rights lobby. "The treatment of the Hmong reflects this. It carries a lot of Cold War baggage to some extent."

Such power enables the Thai military to "verify who can stay and who cannot stay in the country," Sunai told IPS. "The deportation of the Hmong reveals the new relationship between the Thai army and the Laotian government."

In fact, the operation that saw more than 4,000 Hmong men, women and children deported on Dec. 28 last year had all the flair of a military operation. An estimated 5,000-strong Thai force, armed with batons and shields, ensured that all the members of this vulnerable ethnic minority were transported in a convoy of some 100 military trucks and buses to Laos.

A Thai military officer saw the issue in a different light. It was a "voluntary" effort by the Hmong to go home, Thai Armed Forces Headquarters’ deputy chief of joint staff, Gen. Worapong Sanganetra, was quoted as having told the local media.

Thailand’s civilian government has echoed similar sentiments in statements that also sought to characterise the Hmong as "illegal migrants," not as a group that had fled their homeland in search of political asylum.

"Thai authorities managed the safe and orderly return of some 4,300 Laotian Hmong illegal migrants in the shelter at Huay Nam Khao in Petchaboon Province and in the Immigration Detention Centre in Nong Khai Province to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in accordance with the Thai Immigration Act," stated the Thai foreign ministry.

The deported Hmong belong to a minority ethnic tribe living in the mountains of northern and central Laos. Their fear of persecution at home by the authorities of Laos, a communist-ruled country, stemmed from the Hmong’s ties with the U.S. government’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They fought alongside Washington’s spy agency to stop Laotian communist guerrillas taking power in a clandestine war from 1961 to 1975.

At the time of the CIA ‘secret war’ in Laos, the Thai military was very much on the side of the Hmong fighters and the CIA’s operatives. Such ties continued even after the communists triumphed in Laos – becoming a bone of contention between Vientiane and Bangkok.

September 2007 marked a decisive end to this Cold War legacy and gave rise to a new relationship that the Thai military wanted to cultivate with Laos. Gen. Surayud Chulanont, the prime minister at the time, headed a military government that had come to power following a September 2006 coupd’etat that overthrew a popularly elected administration.

A bilateral agreement signed in September 2007 between Laos and Thailand sought to classify the Hmong who had fled Laos for safety to Thailand as "illegal immigrants" and threatened them with deportation. It consequently ruled out a role for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which had been involved in aiding, till then, some 300,000 Hmong who had sought refuge in Thailand since the end of the Indo-China conflict in the mid-1970s and subsequently resettled in the United States.

Thai journalists who had reported about the Hmong fleeing persecution in Laos had to capitulate to the new regimen. "The military has slapped stiff restrictions on news coverage" of the Hmong asylum seekers, wrote senior journalist Supalak Ganjanakhundee at the time.

"The restrictions include no reporting of events or incidents that may shed bad light on Thailand or its officials or anything that may encourage Hmong to enter this country."

"We had to ask permission from the military after these new guidelines to cover the Hmong," Supalak, who writes for ‘The Nation’, an English-language daily, said in an interview with IPS. "I was surprised by this because before we had easy access to the Hmong refugee camps. Many of my requests were rejected."

The media blackout, which remained in force till the latest deportation, confirmed that the military, rather than the civilian government, was in charge of the Hmong policy, added the journalist of over 20 years, who has covered regional issues. "It was the National Security Council and later ISOC (Internal Security Operations Command), and not the ministry of foreign affairs, that had a greater say in the Hmong case."

Yet that is to be expected in Thailand’s current political context, where the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was formed a year ago with political deals shaped by the military. "It shows that Abhisit is beholden to the military on certain policy issues," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. "The civilian government and the military have cooperated in dealing with the Hmong."

Such cooperation has marked a shift from foreign policy being a "contested area" between the military and civilian governments since the early 1990s, when Thailand began moving away from military regimes to civilian administrations, Thitinan explained.

"The post-Cold War era saw an uneasy relationship between the military and civilian governments on foreign policy as the country became more democratic. The military’s role had begun to diminish till the 2006 coup."

The military has been "emboldened" since then, he added. "Yet that exposes the Abhisit government, which is trying to build an image of respecting human rights and international law."

Abandoning the Hmong Again?

General Vang Pao

January 5, 2010
Paul Hillmer
The Huffington Post (USA)

On Tuesday, December 22, at an event celebrating his 80th birthday, Hmong leader and former general Vang Pao announced he was returning to Laos. Claiming support from high-ranking officials in Thailand and Laos, he insisted, "We have to make a change right now . . . We should put something on the table and sit down in peace." Vang's stunning proclamation made little sense. He was tried in absentia and sentenced to death in Laos, and his efforts to sustain an insurgency movement and create a provisional Lao government within Thailand cost him politically there. Then there were the recently-dismissed federal charges accusing him of a plot to overthrow the Lao government. After an official announcement that Laos had no intention of meeting with him unless he first served his death sentence, Vang Pao "postponed" his trip because the Lao government was "not ready." (How's that for understatement?) An American veteran of the "Secret War" now living in Thailand worried less about Vang Pao's peculiar claims and more about their potential to accelerate the long-threatened forcible repatriation back to Laos of thousands of Hmong.

At 6:40 pm on Monday, December 28, that same American expat watched as eleven large, caged vans packed with Hmong made their way across the Friendship Bridge to Laos. Twenty minutes later three more vans and four buses carried more unwilling passengers. Not only were about 4,000 expelled from Huai Nam Khao camp in Phetchabun province, but also 158 from Nong Khai who were already screened and guaranteed resettlement by the United Nations' High Commissioner for Refugees. At least 500 from Huai Nam Khao, said the expat, had also been "screened in" (classified as people deserving resettlement to a third country) by the Thai military. Who knows how many more would have been deemed worthy of resettlement by a neutral agency?

To be sure, there is no evidence that Vang Pao's quixotic plan actually triggered this tragedy. And yes, at least a few in Huai Nam Khao were, as the Thai called them, "economic migrants." Some were Thai Hmong trying to "blend in;" others left their homes and possessions in Laos, persuaded by human traffickers that this was their ticket to a Western country.

But there were plenty who had every reason to fear for their safety if forced back to Laos. Many had been living in the Buddhist temple of Tham Krabok, given refuge by its powerful abbot, Phra Chamroon Parnchand. After his death in 1999, the Thai military surrounded the settlement with razor wire. Most, both before and after arriving at Tham Krabok, had several opportunities to resettle to third countries, but were so often told "this is the last time" they would be allowed to apply that they were shocked to learn that registrations in 2003 were indeed their final chance. For years most had been encouraged by Vang Pao's, Pa Kao Her's, or other Hmong resistance groups to stay in Thailand and wait for an opportunity to return to Laos and take it back by force.

Still others from Huai Nam Khao had been living in the forests of Laos for many years. Some continued to fight, but most were simply eking out a living in hiding, too afraid of the retribution they were sure the Lao would mete out if they surrendered.

When I visited Huai Nam Khao in November 2007, the Thai colonel in charge brought me three men to interview. All said they had come from Laos and feared being handed back to Lao authorities. The Thai colonel kept haranguing them. "Things are different now. Why don't you go back?" The youngest of the three finally retorted, "If you are going to send me back to Laos, just kill me now." At the time I wondered about the sincerity of his statement. But less than a month later I was back home, going through pictures taken in 2003 of Hmong people still hiding in Laos. There, in one of those images, were two of the men I met at Huai Nam Khao.

The relationship between the Thai government and the Hmong in Laos goes back to 1961, when a CIA officer named Bill Lair, living in Thailand for the previous ten years, had developed a Thai commando team called the Police Aerial Reinforcement Unit, or PARU. It was the PARU who were sent into Laos to train Hmong anti-communist guerrillas under the command of then-lieutenant colonel Vang Pao. Between 1970 and 1974, as many as 20,000 Thai troops were sent to Laos to fight against communist forces. Even after the war's official conclusion, members of the Thai military helped support Hmong insurgents fighting in Laos. Thailand certainly suffered a tremendous influx of refugees from Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Burma in the post-Vietnam period, contending with hundreds of thousands of people staying in the country for an indeterminate length of time. It also received massive aid from several countries and from the United Nations to take care of them and to secure its own borders.

But times have changed, political winds have shifted, and now almost 50 years later, the Thai and American governments who saw the Hmong as crucial to their plans have both abandoned them. The Thai now suffer strained relations with Burma and Cambodia, and cannot jeopardize their ties to Laos -- or their share of Lao hydroelectric power and the contracts to build and finance the dams that produce it. The United States did nothing to curb Vang Pao's fund-raising practices and insurgency activities, and in fact, during the Reagan and Bush, Sr. years, may have played a role in encouraging the latter. While engaging in negotiations and rapprochement with Vietnam, it has done little to improve its relations with Laos or defend the interests of the Hmong and other former allies still living there. Its diplomatic efforts to prevent the recent repatriations were feeble at best.

The Hmong governor who got me into Huai Nam Khao said it was easy to distinguish the true refugees from the "economic migrants." But no one in Thailand seemed interested in trying, or allowing the UNHCR or anyone else to. Thai General Worapong Sanganetra's shameless lie that all Hmong left Huai Nam Khao voluntarily only further erodes what little credibility his country may have retained.

The only hope for a tolerable resolution to this tragedy is that the Lao PDR will allow immediate and ongoing access by the UNHCR, other humanitarian agencies, and the US and other embassies, to all Hmong forced back into their country, as well as any remaining Hmong still hiding in the jungles. But Laos has already said it is "too soon" for UN inspectors. Word is already reaching humanitarian advocates that former resistance leaders have been imprisoned and tortured. Unless Laos invites observers in to confirm or refute these claims, most Hmong will believe they are true, and that the US and Thailand have once again abandoned their former allies, with devastating results.

Young Abhisit at Oxford U. During Human Rights Lecture

Thailand defies protests to deport asylum seekers

December 29 2009
By Tim Johnston in Bangkok
Financial Times (UK)

Thailand began to deport more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum seekers back to Laos yesterday, defying pressure from the UN, the US and human rights organisations that say the group could face persecution on their return.

About 5,000 troops and officials entered the Hmong camp in Thailand's central Petchabun province in the morning to load residents on to buses to take them over the border, a process that a military official said might take 24 hours.

The Thai government said the communist authorities in Laos had given assurances that the people would be well treated and given amnesty. But the migrants say they are at risk from discrimination because they backed the US during the Vietnam war.

Many were soldiers or relatives of soldiers who fought in a secret army set up by the US both to try to cut supply lines to communist forces in south Vietnam, and to fight Laotian communists who eventually took over the country in 1975. Hundreds of thousands fled Laos after the communist takeover.

Colonel Thana Charuwat, who led the operation, said 2,100 residents of the camp had agreed to leave voluntarily and the army was trying to persuade the rest, but the authorities blocked media access and mobile phone connections to the camp, making it difficult to confirm his comments.

By evening, Human Rights Watch reported the camp had been emptied and 130 people judged to have resisted removal had been put in police trucks to be handed direct to the Laotian military at the border.

The US and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees urged Thailand to suspend the deportations. "We deeply regret this serious violation of the international humanitarian principles that Thailand has long been known for championing," said the US state department.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, a Thai government spokesman, said Bangkok was also planning to deport 158 Hmong who have been held for three years in a detention centre. This group, whose members have been identified as being in -danger by Bangkok, were being interviewed by representatives of Australia, Canada, the US and the Netherlands, with a view to giving them permanent sanctuary.

"Our plan is to send them back to Laos and that within a month they should be sent out to the third countries," Mr Panitan said.

The Thai government has denied international access to residents of the larger Hmong camp in Petchabun, insisting they are economic migrants rather than political refugees.

"Based on the evaluation of our officers, these people are illegal immigrants," said Mr Panitan.

But the UN High Commissioner said the Thai authorities originally informed them that some of the Hmong did need protection.

Médecins Sans Frontières, the French charity, was working in the camp until May when it pulled out, saying the army was trying to use its food and medical distributions to encourage the Hmong to return to Laos.

Amnesty International said some women and girls who were sent back in 2005 were detained for 18 months and another group of six, who returned at the same time, were still unaccounted for.

In the past, tens of thousands of refugees from Burma and Cambodia were given sanctuary in Thailand, but a year ago, the army was accused of towing back out to sea hundreds of Burmese refugees who had arrived by boat, leaving them with inadequate food and water. human rights groups say hundreds died.

Thailand Deports Hmong Asylum Seekers to Laos

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Dec 28 (IPS) - In a move that places greater weight on growing regional solidarity over historical ties with a western superpower, Thailand ordered its military to forcibly return over 4,000 men, women and children from the Hmong ethnic community to Laos, the country they had fled in search of political asylum.

By Monday, the first batch of 440 Hmong—an ethnic tribe living in the mountains of northern and central Laos—from an isolated camp in the Petchabun province in north-eastern Thailand was removed under the watchful eye of over 4,500 soldiers and police, says the Thai government’s spokesperson, Panitan Wattanayagorn, adding that the operation involving military trucks began at dawn.

"We have given instructions to the military officers that this move has to be conducted ensuring the safety of the Hmong and with no violations of their rights," says Panitan. "Our agreement with the Laotian government is that all the Hmong should be sent back by the end of the year."

It means that the "time for negotiations is over" and the Thai government will "not turn back on its decision," Panitan confirms in an interview with IPS. "That would undermine the relationship we have developed with our neighbour Laos in recent years. It is a relationship built on good faith."

Bangkok’s decision to send the Hmong back to communist-ruled Laos has prompted protests from a range of international actors, notably the United States. Washington has been equally troubled by Thai authorities justifying the deportation after characterising the majority of Hmong as "economic migrants," not refugees.

"This is a deeply disappointing decision by the government of Thailand," Eric Schwartz, U.S. assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, tells IPS in a telephone interview from Washington. "You cannot make categorical statements that all people are economic migrants unless the (Thai) government has knowledge of each individual case."

The U.S. government, the United Nations and concerned human rights groups state that at least 158 of the Hmong asylum seekers had been recognised as refugees by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). And a further 80 had "bullet wounds," suggesting that they had fled violence in Laos.

What is more, Thai officials have denied the UNHCR access to screen the largest group of the Hmong, who had been living in makeshift shacks at the Huay Nam Khao village in Petchabun. Journalists and other independent observers have also been denied contact to the same group.

According to Human Rights Watch, the New York-based global rights lobby, Thai authorities have violated international refugee laws by using "intimidation" to silence the Hmong. The coercive tactics included "light deprivation," separating parents from children and cutting off "access to clean water and proper sanitation."

"Thai authorities know very well that the United States and other countries would have been prepared and are still prepared to ensure the possibility of third-country resettlement for each person deemed to need protection," says Schwartz, who ended a mission to Bangkok last week, where he made a bid to secure a policy shift from senior Thai officials.

But for the Thai administration of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, that would have meant a further delay in ending a problem that traces its roots back to the mid-1970s. At that time, Thailand opened its borders to refugees who poured in from Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam following the end of the U.S. government’s war in Indo-China. At its height, Thailand hosted over 1.5 million refugees.

"We have been trying to persuade the U.S. to take these people back but the U.S. has not said they will receive all of them," says Panitan, the Thai government spokesman. "Thailand cannot shoulder this burden alone."

Thailand’s stance suggests how far regional politics has changed since the end of the Cold War era, when Bangkok was Washington’s strongest ally on mainland South-east Asia during the wars the U.S. government waged in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

The Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) "secret war" in Laos was among them, beginning in 1961 and ending in 1975, when U.S. troops left Vietnam in defeat. This clandestine war staged by Washington’s spy agency depended on tens of thousands of Hmong for manpower.

The covert military operation to fight the advancing communist guerrillas in Laos resulted in the landlocked South-east Asian country coming under relentless aerial attacks—where over two million tonnes of explosives were dropped by U.S. bombers, more than the explosives dropped on Europe during the Second World War.

Both the U.S. public and the Congress were kept in the dark while this conflict raged. The CIA’s air base in Long Chen, in central Laos, became one of the busiest airports in the region at that time. Flights from Thailand were frequent.

But the triumph of the communist forces in Laos saw the Hmong flee their homeland in the thousands, first to Thailand as refugees and later to the United States for resettlement. Some 250,000 to 300,000 Hmong – nearly a third of this ethnic group’s population in Laos – joined this exodus decades ago.

In 2005, when the United States took in 15,000 Hmong who had been languishing in Thai refugee camps since the 1970s, Washington declared that it would the last group of refugees it was aiding.

But soon after that, the current group of Hmong asylum seekers surfaced in Petchabun, hoping for a similar journey to the U.S. for supporting the CIA during its "secret war" and being persecuted by the Laotian military since the conflict ended.

Among them is Blia Pao Yang, a leader of the refugees in Petchabun, says Joe Davy, a Hmong rights advocate in an e-mailed statement. "Many in his group have war wounds and have been documented by the Thai military as having legitimate asylum claims."

Thailand's Cruel Policy of Deportation of Hmong Refugees: The pictures speak for themselves

Thais force Hmong refugees to go home [-Thai cruelty knows no bound!]

A picture released by the Royal Thai Army shows Hmong refugees being removed from the Huay Nam Khao camp in northern Thailand yesterday. Photo: AFP

December 29, 2009
SETH MYDANS, BANGKOK
NEW YORK TIMES, AP

THE Thai army has begun forcibly returning thousands of ethnic Hmong asylum seekers to communist Laos despite international protests.

''The operation started at 5.30am [yesterday],'' Colonel Thana Charuvat, who is co-ordinating the repatriation, told reporters at an army centre about 12 kilometres from the camp in Phetchabun province.

He said 5000 soldiers, officials and civilian volunteers had entered the camp in Huay Nam Khao village to begin rounding up the group of more than 4000 Hmong being held there.

Members of a mountain tribe that aided the US in its secret war in Laos, the asylum seekers say they fear retribution by the Laotian Government, which continues to battle a ragged insurgency of several hundred Hmong fighters.

Thailand initiated the repatriation despite complaints from the US, the United Nations and human rights and aid groups. It was doing so despite some asylum seekers being eligible for refugee status, human rights groups said.

''This forced repatriation would place the refugees in serious danger of persecution at the hands of the Laos authorities, who to this day have not forgiven the Hmong for being dedicated allies of the US during the Vietnam War,'' said Joel Charny, acting president of advocacy group Refugees International.

The remote Hmong encampment in Phetchabun province, about 300 kilometres north of Bangkok, is a remnant of an Indochinese refugee population that once numbered 1.5 million. That included boat people from Vietnam, survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia and hundreds of thousands of Hmong who crossed the Mekong River from Laos.

Since the Vietnam War ended in 1975, the US has processed and accepted about 150,000 Hmong refugees in Thailand for resettlement in the US. But in the past three years Thailand has not allowed foreign governments or agencies to interview the Hmong.

Refugee experts say the camp residents are a mix of refugees who fear persecution and economic migrants who have left Laos over the past few years. They include dozens who display what appear to be battle scars, as well as some older refugees who fought on the US side during the war.

A separate group of 158 asylum seekers has been interviewed by the UN, which has labelled them ''people of concern'' who could face persecution if returned. The Thai Government says these asylum seekers will be forcibly repatriated eventually.

Government spokesman Panitan Wattanayagorn said the exact timing of the deportations was in the hands of the military, but that it would be completed by Thursday, in accordance with an agreement with Laos. He said Laos had said the returnees would be treated well and the UN could interview them within 30 days of arrival to determine if any were eligible for resettlement elsewhere. ''There is no reason to believe they will be harmed,'' Mr Panitan said.

Reporters have not been allowed into the camps since 2007. Last May the main aid group assisting the Hmong in Phetchabun, Medecins Sans Frontieres, withdrew in protest at the conditions at the camps.

''We can no longer work in a camp where the military uses arbitrary imprisonment of influential leaders to pressure refugees into a 'voluntary' return to Laos, and forces our patients to pass through military checkpoints to access our clinic,'' the group said.

Colonel Thana said the group of 4000 Hmong in Huay Nam Khao village would be removed from the camp by truck and later transferred to 100 buses that carried 40 people each.

Special forces members were among the troops entering the camp and 50 mobile prison trucks also arrived there on Sunday night, said Sunai Phasuk, a Thailand analyst at New York-based Human Rights Watch.

''The army said they would first target group leaders and potential troublemakers. Those people would be snatched and sent out first,'' he said.

US Senator Leahy May Review Funding of U.S.-Thailand Military Relations as Anupong, Abhisit Move Against Hmong

Abhisit and Anupong: The killers of 4,000 Hmong refugees?

"Should the Hmong be treated similarly it could badly damage the Thai military's reputation, and put our military collaboration at risk," U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy said on the Senate floor regarding U.S.-Thai Military Relations.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington, D.C. and Bangkok, Thailand, December 28, 2009 - The text of a Senate floor statement by U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy ( D-VT ) was released today in Bangkok, Thailand and Washington, D.C., in opposition to the forced repatriation of over 4,000 Lao Hmong political refugees from Thailand to Laos.

“Key U.S. Senators are openly stating that the return of Lao Hmong refugees to Laos by Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and Army Chief of Staff General Anupong Paochinda may have negative effects on America’s relationship with Thailand, including potential damage to the U.S.-Thai military relationship, including American funding, and the annual Cobra Gold exercises,” said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis ( CPPA ) in Washington, D.C.

Smith continued: “Senator Leahy is calling for the potential review of the funding for U.S.-Thailand military relations as General Anupong and Prime Minister Abhisit Order the Thai Army to move against defenseless Lao Hmong political refugees at Huay Nam Khao in Petchabun Province. Moreover, Prime Minister Abhisit and General Anupong have ignored repeated appeals by Members of Congress and the international community to His Majesty, Bhumibol Adulayadej, the King of Thailand, to grant asylum to the Hmong refugees until they can be resettled in third countries like Australia, Canada and The Netherlands, that have agreed to host them.”

“It is important to note that U.S. Senators, Russ Feingold ( D-WI ), Patrick Leahy ( D-VT ), Richard Lugar ( R-IN ), Barbara Boxer ( D-CA ), Al Franken ( D-MN ) , Amy Klobuchar ( D-MN ), Mark Begich ( D-AK ), Lisa Murkowski ( R-AK ) and Sheldon Whitehouse ( D-RI ) sent the letter to Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on December 17, 2009, and released it on December 23, 2009, in Washington, D.C. following reports of more Thai soldiers and a large troop convoy of over 50 army trucks and buses being deployed at the main Hmong refugee camp at Ban Huay Nam Khao to force over 4,000 political refugees back to Laos over the Christmas and New Year holiday season,” Smith concluded.

“Senator Leahy, Chairman of the key committee in the U.S. Senate that oversees international U.S. military assistance, has issued a clear message to the Thai Government that forced repatriation of Hmong back to Laos, as now appears imminent, would have dire implications for U.S. military-to-military cooperation with Thailand,” said Edmund McWilliams, a retired senior foreign service officer who served at the U.S. Embassies in Thailand and Laos and is a combat veterans of the Vietnam War.

“The Senator, joined by other colleagues earlier this month, wrote to the Thai Prime Minister underscoring the urgency and importance… of this issue; Forced repatriation of Hmong back to the land from which they were driven would be especially egregious in this Christmas season, particularly for many Christians among the Hmong,” McWilliams explained.

The following is the text of the statement by Senator Leahy:

STATEMENT OF SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY
ON
THE FATE OF HMONG REFUGEES

Senate Floor

December 23, 2009, Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I want to speak briefly about a worrisome humanitarian situation that is developing in Thailand, which could cause problems for our relations with the Thai military.

Thailand and the United States are long time friends and allies, and our armed forces have developed a cooperative relationship. Many Thai military officers have been trained in the United States, and Thai soldiers have participated in joint U.S.-Thai training exercises such as Operation Cobra Gold. I expect this relationship to continue. But I am very concerned, as I know are other Senators, that the Thai Government may be on the verge of deporting roughly 4,000 ethnic Hmong back to Laos where many fear persecution.

Thailand has a long history of generosity towards refugees from Burma, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. It is a history to be proud of. But the Thai Government, which insists that the Hmong are economic migrants who should be repatriated, has reportedly deployed additional troops to Phetchabun province where most of the Hmong are in camps. There is a growing concern that the Thai military may expel the Hmong before the end of the year. There is also concern that a group of 158 Hmong in Nongkhai province, who have been screened and granted United Nations refugee status, could be sent back to Laos. I understand that the United States and several countries have told the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the Thai Government they are prepared to consider this group of refugees for resettlement. Potential resettlement countries should be given an opportunity to interview these individuals in Thailand.

It may be that some of the 4,000 Hmong are economic migrants. It is also likely that some are refugees who have a credible fear of persecution if they were returned to Laos. I am aware that many Hmong fought alongside the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, working with Thai authorities, needs to determine who has a legitimate claim for asylum and who does not, in accordance with long-standing principles of refugee law and practice. No one with a valid claim should be returned to Laos except on a voluntary basis. The United States, and other countries, can help resettle those who do have valid claims but need access and the opportunity to consider relevant cases.

I mention this because I cannot overstate the consternation it would cause here if the Thai Government were to forcibly return the Hmong to Laos in violation of international practice and requirements. The image of Laotian refugees – including many who the United Nations and the Thai Government itself have stated are in need of protection – being rounded up by Thai soldiers and sent back against their will during the Christmas season, and the possible violence that could result, is very worrisome. On December 17th I joined other Senators in a letter to the Thai Prime Minister about this, and I ask that a copy be printed in the Record at the end of my remarks.

As Chairman of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee which funds international assistance programs, I have supported U.S. military training programs and other assistance to the Thai military. We share common interests and want to continue to work together. But after the deplorable forced repatriation to China of Uighur refugees by Cambodian authorities last week, we expect better of the Thai Government. Should the Hmong be treated similarly it could badly damage the Thai military’s reputation, and put our military collaboration at risk.

###

Contact: Ms. Maria Gomez or Mr. Juan Lopez
Telephone ( 202 ) 543-1444
info@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org
CPPA - Center for Public Policy Analysis
2020 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Suite No. #212
Washington, DC 20006 USA

Thailand deports Lao-Hmong despite international concerns available

Dec 28, 2009
DPA

Bangkok - Thailand on Monday began deporting 4,000 ethnic Hmong refugees to Laos despite international appeals to the government to reconsider the involuntary repatriation to an uncertain future.

The first batch of 442 Hmong were taken from Huay Nam Khao camp in Phetchabun province at 9:30 am (0230 GMT) to buses that will carry them to Nong Khai province where they will cross the Mekong River on the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge into neighbouring Laos, said Thai Army Colonel Thana Jaruwat, spokesman for the Internal Security Operations Command.

The remaining 3,600 have thus far refused to leave the camp peacefully, he said.

'We will try to convince them to leave on their own will but if they refuse we will enforce the law,' Thana said.

Thailand has never recognized the Hmong at Huay Nam Khao, 280 kilometres north-east of Bangkok, as refugees but instead has classified them as illegal migrants, who, according to Thai law can be expelled without bringing charges against them, Thana said.

Officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), other human rights workers and journalists were held several kilometres away from the camp to prevent outsiders from observing the mass deportation operation.

'If the Hmong see journalists they will do themselves harm to make a scene and we don't want that,' Thana said.

The US government, the UNHCR and the European Union all urged the Thai government to reconsider its deportation plans but to no avail.

'This is unfortunate and indefensible and we're very concerned about it,' said Eric Schwartz, the US assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, in a telephone interview with the German Press Agency dpa.

Thailand and Laos agreed months ago that the Hmong at Huay Nam Khao camp must be deported by year-end. The Lao government announced on state TV Sunday night that the returning Hmong will be treated humanely.

'The government of Laos has a great opportunity now to demonstrate a policy of humanitarian treatment for those who have returned,' Schwartz said.

Preparation for the mass deportation began last week when the Thai army, which controls Huay Ban Khao, confiscated all sharp objects and mobile phones from the 4,000 Hmong residents, some of whom have lived in the camp since 2004 hoping to be resettled in third countries.

The Hmong, an ethnic minority which has inhabited the mountainous northern region of Laos for centuries, were recruited as guerrilla fighters by the US military in its 'secret war' against communist forces in Laos.

The communists prevailed in 1975, and the Hmong were left behind. Unknown thousands fled to neighbouring Thailand since 1975 and sought resettlement abroad.

In 2003, the US agreed to take 14,000 Hmong who had lived for years at Tham Krabok temple in north-east Thailand. Since then, some 8,000 more Hmong sought refuge in Thailand, claiming persecution at home.

About 3,000 refugees returned to Laos voluntarily in 2008-09. Thailand insists the remainder must be deported to prevent the country from being a magnet for more Hmong migration.

'There are ways to try to discourage economic migrants but you cannot decide by fiat one day that people are going to stop crossing the border when they need protection,' Schwartz said.

Besides Hmong, Thailand has attracted more than 1.5 million refugees from Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam over the past four decades.

The Thai government has been criticized for not allowing UNHCR to determine the Hmong's eligibility for refugee status. At least 158 former Huay Nam Khao residents, now in a detention centre in Nong Khai, have been classified as 'people of concern' by the UN agency.

Despite claims of concern, no foreign country has expressed interest in accepting the Huay Nam Khao community.

To date, the Lao government has not invited the UNHCR to work in the country, nor to monitor the Hmong repatriation process, although foreign embassy staff in Vientiane have been brought to resettlement camps where some of the 3,000 Hmong who returned have ended up.

Haven for the Hmong

Friday, December 25, 2009
The Washington Post
Editorials

SOUTHEAST ASIA has witnessed more than its share of war and political violence in the past half-century. From the bloody conflict and communist repression in Vietnam, to the killing fields of Cambodia, to the various crackdowns in Burma, the region's woes have generated hundreds of thousands of refugees in need of haven and resettlement. Throughout that time, the most peaceful and politically open country in the area, Thailand, has generally made room for those fleeing persecution and danger.

Thailand's performance stands in contrast to that of other nearby states, such as China, which has frequently repatriated North Koreans escaping starvation and tyranny. Indeed, Beijing has pressured other countries to adopt a similarly ungenerous approach to those fleeing China's own internal repression: Just last week, the Cambodian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen forcibly sent home 20 Uighur asylum seekers who fled after the July protests in Urumqi, China -- despite the fact that they had been issued "Persons of Concern" letters by the U.N. Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Cambodia.

Now there are signs that Thailand, too, may be turning its back on its international obligation not to expel legitimate refugees. The Hmong people of neighboring Laos have been targets going back to the days four decades ago when they fought alongside the United States against the communists who now run Laos. The United States has resettled many of them. But Thailand is moving to expel about 4,300 Hmong asylum seekers held within its territory. Not all of them necessarily merit protection under international law; clearly, though, many do. Among those reportedly at risk of deportation are 158 Hmong in detention in Nong Khai province who have been screened and granted U.N. refugee status. U.S. officials are concerned that the Thai military, which controls a refugee camp holding 4,200 of the Hmong, has not permitted a fair and transparent process to determine who among the camp residents would merit protection.

The U.S. government is urging Bangkok not to forcibly return the Hmong, so that potential refugees may be interviewed by officials from the United States and other nations offering to resettle refugees. Thailand has legitimate concerns about the burden on its economy posed by irregular migrants. But it has no reason to hastily or arbitrarily push out people who may be at risk. Working together with the United States and other friends, Thailand can avoid staining its proud record.

US lawmakers concerned at possible Hmong expulsion

Hmong refugees are pictured in 2008 at a Thai detention centre

Thursday, December 24, 2009
AFP

WASHINGTON — Nine US senators have written Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to protest the possible expulsion of more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong back to communist Laos, where they fear persecution.

Thailand confirmed Wednesday the move would take place by year's end despite international outcry.

"While we recognize that the Kingdom of Thailand is burdened by the large number of refugees it hosts on its territory, we encourage you not to take steps to repatriate any individuals to Laos at this time," the US lawmakers wrote Vejjajiva in a letter dated December 17.

The group of ethnic Hmong, held in a camp in Huay Nam Khao in northern Phetchabun province, are seeking political asylum based on claims they face persecution from the Laos regime because they fought alongside US forces during the Vietnam War.

Democratic senators Russ Feingold, Patrick Leahy, Barbara Boxer, Sheldon Whitehouse, Mark Begich, Amy Klobuchar, Al Franken and their Republican colleagues Richard Lugar and Lisa Murkowski denounced the Thai government's "lack of transparency" in screening the refugees.

"We believe that the lack of transparency in the screening and repatriation process only exacerbates these difficulties and heightens international concerns regarding these populations," the letter said.

The lawmakers urged Thailand to work with an independent third party to conduct a "transparent" screening process that complies with international norms.

Leahy said on the Senate floor Wednesday that "no one with a valid (refugee) claim should be returned to Laos except on a voluntary basis," and compared the situation in Laos with Cambodia's repatriation to China last week of 20 Uighur Muslim refugees.

"Should the Hmong be treated similarly," Leahy said, "it could badly damage the Thai military?s reputation, and put our military collaboration at risk."

Laos has systematically denied the charges of persecution, while Thailand says the thousands held in Phetchabun are economic migrants and has refused access for the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to see if there are political refugees.

The UNHCR and diplomats said they believe some could qualify as refugees, and as such should only be returned on a voluntary basis.

Although the defense ministry has said Thailand would not use force to return the remaining Hmong, there were reports Wednesday that the army had significantly boosted troop numbers in Phetchabun overnight, further stoking fears Bangkok would abide by the December 31 deadline.

Net help for persecuted tribes of Laos and Vietnam

The Internet has become an effective tool of communication. It is through the web that the indigenous people in the forests of Laos and Vietnam are letting the world know about their persecution by their respective governments.

14 April 2008, Monday
By Bhumika Ghimire
MeriNews - Power to People

ALERTNET BLOGGER, Amy Hutt, who has reported on human rights issues in Southeast Asia, Australia and South America, writes about how the Hmong and the Montagnards are reaching out to the world, through technology.

Hmong, who live in the forests of Laos, claim that the government is persecuting them and treating them like enemies for their supposed relation with the rebels, who fought against the communist regime 40 years back.

A video has now surfaced on the YouTube, which shows a 10-year-old Hmong boy, whose stomach is cut open and the internal organs are exposed. He was attacked by the government forces while searching for food. He died two days after the attack, without getting any medical care.

The report also talks about a video posted by the ’Montagnard Foundation’, which shows the Montagnard people being tortured and beaten up by the Vietnamese forces. Although they have given up violence and disbanded their separatist campaign, the Montagnards are still facing serious government actions. The report estimates that 350 are in prison. The majority of the prisoners are accused of seeking asylum into the neighboring country of Cambodia or being active in the religious activities.

The Hmong

According to the data provided by the Wikipedia, China has the largest Hmong population in the world at three million. In Laos, there are 3,20,000 Hmongs and in Vietnam there are 7,90,000. It is said that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recruited Hmong men in Laos to fight the ’US Secret War’ in the country, in the early 1960s.

After the war ended, the Hmong were targeted by thecommunist regime and faced retaliation. Many fled to Thailand and other countries seeking refuge.

The Montagnards

According to the ’Save the Montagnard people’ website, the Montagnards are now facing political, economic as well as cultural retaliation from the Vietnamese government. Their language cannot be taught in the schools, and all the books written in their tribal languages were burnt after 1975.

Montagnard farmers are not allowed to use the public irrigation system, which affects their crop production and income level. They are also denied medical care and other facilities that other villagers receive from the government.

They are also facing religious persecution, many of their churches were forcibly closed down, and some were even vandalised. The government even arrested preachers and forced them to worship only in ’approved’ churches.

Hmong refugees sent back to Laos

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2007
Al Jazeera

Thailand and Laos have agreed to forcibly repatriate thousands of Hmong refugees currently living in Thailand to purpose built villages outside Vientiane, the Lao capital.

The governments of the two South East Asian nations are to jointly sponsor the project to relocate the refugees and construction on the "new villages" has already begun.

But the move has been criticised by rights groups and prompted concerns among the refugees, who say they will be persecuted if they return to Laos, claims the Lao authorities deny.

General Bovaxieng Champaphanh, deputy general in the Lao People's Army told Al Jazeera: "The allegation that there is persecution ... is all fabrication."

"We are in peace, there is no war, there is no conflict and there is no reason for people to flee the country."

Meanwhile, Thailand, which says it cannot cope with the influx of asylum seekers from neighbouring countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, is keen for the refugees to return home.

General Nipat Thonglek, director of Thai border affairs, told Al Jazeera that it was "very clear" that the Hmong "are just illegal migrants in Thailand".

"The good news is the Thai government and Lao government already agree that we will work together to do the right thing by sending them back."

'Secret war'

In the 1960s, many of the Hmong were recruited by the US to fight its "secret war" as part of its fight against Vietnamese communists.

When the US withdrew from the Vietnam conflict in 1975, the Lao kingdom was overthrown by the communists and an exodus of the ethnic Hmong began.

Thousands escaped with their families to live in the forests or fled to Thailand. Many of those who did not flee were rounded up by the Lao authorities and sent to re-education camps where hundreds died.

In Thailand, the majority of Hmong asylum seekers live in a military-patrolled camp in the country's Petchabun province. Human rights groups say they have little freedom of movement and limited access to food, water and medical services.

Many of the refugees say they fear persecution if they return to Laos.

'A burden in every way'

In August, General Surayud Chulanont, Thailand's prime minister, warned that the Hmong asylum seekers could become a "never-ending problem."

"It is a burden in every way for us," he said.

So far eleven families have been resettled in a remote purpose built village in Laos.

The repatriation plan has been criticised by Human Rights Watch, the US-based rights organisation.

Brad Adams, Human Rights Watch Asia director, said in a statement: "It is shocking that Thailand is even considering the return of refugees fleeing from political persecution, rights abuses and fighting in Laos."

Thai officials are monitoring their welfare, but the UN refugee agency and other international human rights groups have not been given access to them.

Kia Pao Her, who alongside his family was recently repatriated as part of the project, told Al Jazeera: "Before coming back from Thailand I thought I would be tortured by the Laos government authority but after coming back I feel very safe."

But without international monitoring, the world may never know the fate of those in the remote mountains of Laos.