Abhisit's human rights record is as "shiny" as Hun Xen's record

PM defends his record on human rights

January 25, 2010
The Nation

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva yesterday defended his government's record on human rights, saying it was determined to uphold universal principles.

He dismissed criticism of his government's record in Human Rights Watch's annual report as lopsided and not consistent with the facts.

The New York-based group blamed the prime minister for failing to honour his pledges to make human rights a priority.

Abhisit countered that he had consistently pushed to advance freedom of expression and the rule of law. He said his performance was judged through a distorted perception.

"I am confident in my government's record on human rights - it is not as bad as being portrayed in the HRW report," he said in his weekly address.

He rejected allegations by HRW, saying his government did not condone harsh suppression of opponents or double standards in law enforcement.

In regard to HRW citing two deaths during the Songkran mayhem, he said the deaths occurred because of clashes between rival crowds and were not a result of the anti-riot crackdown.

The enforcement of emergency rule in 2008 was deemed necessary to restore normalcy after the crowds turned unruly, he said, adding that crowd control measures enforced under the emergency rule and internal security law were designed to deter violence and did not block peaceful protests.

He said the strife-torn South had shown signs of improvement with a downward trend in the numbers of violent incidents.

Commenting on cases related to lese majeste and computer crimes, he said his government had initiated a review mechanism to ensure fairness.

"My government intend to bring culprits to justice based on their motives rather than the politicisation of these cases," he said.

The HRW report may have hastily voiced concern about gagging critics before it was aware of new mechanisms, he added.

"If my government had a poor human rights record as alleged, then we certainly would not have the audacity to join the race for a position in charge of human rights at the United Nations," he said.

Meanwhile, ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra had no involvement in the HRW report, as speculated by certain figures in the government, his legal adviser Noppadon Pattama said.

"The government should heed the criticism and quicky address human rights problems instead of hitting back at Human Rights Watch," he said.

Government leaders were obligated to safeguard the country's reputation and should not try to attribute their poor performance to Thaksin, he said.

HRW coordinator for Thailand Sunai Phasuk said the government should have read the full text of the report instead of making hasty reactions.

The full report had just been submitted at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he said, noting the text was not as critical as had been made out. It had been misunderstood by the government.

He said the angry rebuttals were unjustified and might have been based on a distorted translation of a summary of the report. The HRW did not fault the government for having "poorer record on human rights", he said.

The report just presented a well-rounded assessment of human rights complaince without apportioning blame, he said, noting a key conclusion was although the government came to power under high expectations, it had yet to show tangible achievements in advancing human rights, as pledged.

Thailand's diplomacy: searching for new dynamics

11-01-2010
Kavi Chongkittavorn
The Nation (Thailand)

"The Thai-Cambodian diplomatic dispute, coupled with the deportation of 4,500 Hmong refugees at the end of last year, left a huge scar on Thai diplomacy. It made a mockery of the country's much professed human-rights oriented policy and standing"

Entering its second year, Thailand's government under Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will pay more attention to Thai diplomacy and strategic interests. His government's ultimate aim is to fit the country, individually and as an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) member, into the regional and broader Asia-Pacific region in the next decade, especially within the current effort to build regional architectures.

While political uncertainties and polarisation continue to haunt the government, Abhisit will have more time in coming months to focus on key foreign policy issues that would bring back investors' confidence and increase employment as well as public and private corporate social responsibility. Notably, no other Thai government in recent memory has put so much energy into ensuring the proper image of Thailand in the global stage as the Abhisit government.

Last year, Thailand was in a big mess, resembling almost a failed state, confronted with a series of continuous political crises. Governing the country became a daily high-wire crisis management job, making long-term and strategic plans almost impossible. Worse still, the internal turmoil seriously impacted on the Thai chairmanship of Asean when the scheduled Pattaya Summit was postponed, further delaying declarations and overall cooperation.

The threat of using force by the government's opponents also placed subsequent summit preparations constantly in a standby mode, turning into endless sources of bilateral bickering and ridicule between the host and the colleagues from Asean and dialogue partners.

Given the do-or-die circumstance of the past 12 months, Abhisit and Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya have done relatively well in coping with myriads of challenges from within and abroad. Their achievements could have been given greater value if not for the year-end negative developments. The Thai-Cambodian diplomatic dispute, coupled with the deportation of 4,500 Hmong refugees at the end of last year, left a huge scar on Thai diplomacy. It made a mockery of the country's much professed human-rights oriented policy and standing.

Right after the government took power last January, the government was flabbergasted by the widespread reports of torture and forced repatriation at sea by the Thai authorities of the Rohingya asylum seekers from Burma.

Despite continuous severe attacks and criticism from the international community, the Abhisit government managed to allay fear that they would not be pushed back without a proper screening process from UN-related and humanitarian organisations.

Somehow, the Abhisit government was unable to do the same with the Hmong who have been living here for the past three decades. Again, the repatriation brought universal condemnation.

Throughout the tumultuous Asean chairmanship, Thailand faced a huge dilemma - how could it speak for the conservative Asean, without undermining its own outward looking foreign policy objectives?

At certain points, it was extremely difficult to distinguish the Thai and Asean policies as diplomatic parlance and activities got blurred, because the Asean chair must speak on behalf of the bloc as well as itself.

The aborted joint Asean appeal asking for a pardon for Burma's opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, last fall was a case in point. Kasit thought the time had come when Thailand and Asean must take a stronger stand on Burma-related issues, particularly on Suu Kyi's fate and push for a national reconciliation process.

With flurries of diplomatic activity at the global level on Burma, Asean also needed to intensify engagement with its pariah member. Securing Suu Kyi's freedom and wishing for a democratic Burma - Thailand's longstanding wish-list - quickly crumbled when it took on the Asean initiative.

With a long common border, Thailand has to shoulder all political, economic and social problems emanating from Burma's oppressive regime. Other Asean members did not care that much.

Thailand's overwhelming support for the role of civil society groups in the Asean top-down decision making process was another good example. It was far too progressive and subsequently was blocked by most of the Asean members that have yet to recognise the work of non-government organisations in the region.

At the forthcoming Asean summit under the chair of Vietnam, the interface between the Asean leaders and representatives from Asean-based civil society groups used in the previous two summits, will no longer apply. It is not compulsory for Asean leaders to meet up with people-oriented delegates. Earlier, Thailand's strong advocacy for more human rights protection in Asean was quickly neutralised by the strong Asean objection.

No wonder, the government's nine-point comprehensive foreign policy announced on December 30, 2008 was unable to implement in totality. Thai diplomatic objectives, while seeking to promote universal norms and standards, are just not compatible with Asean thinking as they are considered too progressive.

Looking back, the government succeeded only partially in pushing forward at least five diplomatic agenda: developing ties with neighboring countries; trying to make Asean a people-centred organisation;strengthening cooperation and strategic partnership with major powers; promoting the country's interaction with the global community in setting international standards on important transnational issues including human rights; promoting public awareness and understanding of global changes that affect Thailand so as to forge consensus in the formulation and conduct of foreign policy.

The remaining four objectives - promoting close cooperation with Muslim countries; supporting entry to international agreements including ratifications; building the country's confidence and people-to-people understanding in the international community; protecting and promoting Thai interests overseas - will be the main focus of this year's diplomatic efforts.

It was unfortunate that the Thai-Cambodian dispute received all the media attention and coverage, giving the impression of the government's obsession with Cambodia and its leadership links with fugitive Thaksin Shinawatra. Truth be told, Thailand's present relations with other neighbours including Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia are very good, marked by closer cooperation and concrete progress.

Later this month, Abhisit will attend the 40th World Economic Forum at Davos, where he left his mark on global leaders last year.

This time, he must be even more prudent in presenting his country's credentials because the world is watching and needs to be convinced that Thailand is led by a visionary, and is not a banana republic in the making, as generally perceived.

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

Thai Military Preparing to Return Hmong to Laos [-Abhisit's Thailand is no better than Hun Xen's Cambodia?]

December 27, 2009
By SETH MYDANS
The New York Times

Thailand’s record also includes pirate attacks and brutalizing of Vietnamese boat people at sea, the forced return to their deaths of 42,000 Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge in 1979 and the expulsion just a year ago of 1,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who were towed back to sea and left adrift in boats without motors

BANGKOK — The Thai military has mobilized troops and buses and was preparing Sunday to forcibly return 4,000 Hmong asylum seekers to Laos in a lingering echo of the Vietnam War more than three decades ago, human rights groups and other observers said.

Members of a mountain tribal group that aided the United States 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 appears to be moving ahead with the repatriation despite vigorous complaints from the United States as well as from the United Nations and human rights and aid groups. It is doing so although it has screened the asylum seekers and determined that some were 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 Lao authorities, who to this day have not forgiven the Hmong for being dedicated allies of the United States during the Vietnam War,” Joel Charney, acting president of Refugees International, an advocacy group based in Washington, said in a statement.

The remote encampment in Thailand is one of the last remnants of an Indochinese refugee population that once numbered 1.5 million and included boat people from Vietnam and survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia.

Since the war ended in 1975, the United States has processed and accepted about 150,000 Hmong refugees in Thailand. But over the past three years the Thai government has not allowed foreign governments or international agencies to interview the Hmong in a camp in Petchabun Province, 290 kilometers, or 180 miles, north of Bangkok.

Refugee experts say they are a mix of economic migrants and genuine refugees who have left Laos over the past few years. They have included dozens who display what appear to be the scars of battle wounds, as well as some older refugees who fought on the American side during the war.

A separate group of 158 asylum seekers has been interviewed by the U.N., which has labeled them “people of concern” who could face persecution on their return. But the Thai government says these asylum seekers also will eventually be forcibly repatriated.

Reporters have not been permitted into the camps since 2007, and last May the main aid group assisting the Hmong in Petchabun, Médecins Sans Frontières, withdrew from the camp in protest of the conditions there.

“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 in a statement.

On Sunday, Sunai Phasuk, the Thailand representative of Human Rights Watch, said a joint task force under military command had been assembled at the camp and had been instructed to wear body armor in case of the kind of violent resistance that has accompanied forced returns in the past.

He said Maj. Gen. Thanongsak Apirakyothin, the third army regional commander, arrived at the camp Sunday and said that the army was prepared to move and that everyone would be sent back to Laos.

“The first wave of action to clear the camp will happen on Dec. 27 night, and the deportation can start on Dec. 28 morning,” Mr. Sunai said in an e-mail message. “During that, mobile phone signals will be jammed to prevent the Hmong from contacting outsiders. More than 100 buses and trucks are to be put on standby.”

A government spokesman, Panitan Wattanayagorn, said that the exact timing of the deportations was in the hands of the military but that it would be completed by the end of December in accordance with an agreement with Laos.

He said the Laotian government had given assurances that the returnees would be well treated and that the U.N. could interview them for resettlement within 30 days of their arrival.

“We are sending back these people based on our good faith that there is no reason to believe that they will be harmed,” he said.

Speaking by telephone from Washington on Sunday, Eric Schwartz, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, said he had met with high-level officials in Thailand last week and that the United States was prepared to assist both with questions of third-country asylum for those who merited protection and with the return to Laos of economic migrants.

“We recognize the challenge of irregular migration that the government of Thailand faces, but there is absolutely no need to resort to these kinds of measures,” he said.

Lionel Rosenblatt, president emeritus of Refugees International and a key figure in the planning for the post-war evacuations from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, said Thailand had been an active transit point for as many as 1.5 million refugees from the wars in Indochina. “To end by pushing 4,000 refugees by truck into Laos where they can’t be monitored would be a terrible way to end this endeavor,” he said. However, Thailand’s record also includes pirate attacks and brutalizing of Vietnamese boat people at sea, the forced return to their deaths of 42,000 Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge in 1979 and the expulsion just a year ago of 1,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar who were towed back to sea and left adrift in boats without motors.

Thailand must not tarnish its name over Hmong crisis

Friday March 14, 2008
LIONEL ROSENBLATT
Bangkok Post

The Thai government has launched a dangerous trial balloon in its bid to repatriate several thousand Hmong from Laos. If the international community does not weigh in rapidly and effectively with the government, many Hmong will be forced back to Laos where they will face possible persecution.

Most of the 8,000 Hmong from Laos are in Phetchabun province.

Also under threat of forced repatriation are 150 or more Hmong recognised as refugees by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) who are being held in wretched conditions for more than a year in a detention centre in Nong Khai, perilously close to the crossing point to Laos.

These refugees have all been offered opportunities to resettle in third countries, but Thailand has refused to consider these offers.

Several days ago, the government returned 10 Hmong from Phetchabun to Laos _ all supposedly ''volunteers''. It seems that in at least one case, a Hmong woman with five children was ''repatriated'' without her children. Fortunately, Thai authorities at the last moment took her off the bus. Several Hmong told they were on the next list of volunteers did not know they had ''volunteered''.Medecins Sans Frontieres, the NGO in charge of the camp in Phetchabun, has expressed serious concerns about the grim future facing the refugees there.

Thailand should immediately cease forced repatriation of the Hmong to Laos. A significant proportion of the Hmong who fled to Phetchabun have ties to that war effort or are fighters who only recently abandoned their last ditch Hmong resistance in Laos.

Certainly such Hmong meet the key criterion for international refugee status _ a well-founded fear of persecution, if returned to their country of origin.

There are also non-refugees among the Hmong in Phetchabun who crossed for a better life or to join relatives.

Following the fall of the US-backed governments in Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, Thailand has generally been tolerant of Indochinese refugees fleeing and over a million crossed into Thailand or given safe havens on its borders.

The international community responded to this generosity by either resettling almost all of those who entered Thailand to third countries or in assisting their voluntary return to their homelands, as was the case with most of the Cambodian refugees who return home.

Thailand deservedly has received much international acclaim for its role as the leading country of asylum during the Indochinese exodus. While the Thai government says it has completed refugee screening of the 8,000 Hmong, this process has not been transparent nor subject to any consultation or monitoring to determine whether it conformed to international standards of refugee protection.

Of particular concern for many involved with the US war effort in Indochina is that some Hmong with war time ties to the US as well as recent combatants against the repressive Lao government have not been screened in as refugees; this may be due to a flaw in the screening that did not consider or focus on such individual histories.

So the most endangered Hmong are, in many cases, the most likely to be subject to return to Laos. This is widely seen, in part, as Thailand bowing to pressure from Lao officials, especially those in the Lao military wishing to get such refugees into their hands.

The Hmong crisis in Thailand can be resolved in an acceptable manner if the following steps are taken - true voluntary repatriation can be put in place immediately with some form of international access to the process and a fair and more transparent review of screening for those Hmong who have been screened out _ and who so request _ to insure that those with a well-founded fear of persecution are not returned to Laos. The international community, led by the US, should agree to resettle the Hmong refugees.Thanks to UNHCR and other efforts, several countries already have expressed a willingness to do so.

The US Congress, cognisant of the history of the Hmong, recently acted to permit the resettlement of Hmong and some other combatants struggling against non-democratic governments, which now needs to be implemented.

Jump-starting this provision could save the lives of many refugees at risk, like the Hmong. Forced return of non-refugees to Laos can begin, when the Lao government permits some form of international access.

For the future, the flow of refugees from Laos should wind down sharply. About a thousand Hmong are still holding out. Some of this number may well try to flee to Thailand and perhaps some will continue to surrender; more would do so with international monitoring.

A mechanism to leave Laos for such persons and for legitimate migrants should be put in place; such an orderly departure programme worked well in Vietnam. The Vietnamese government, with its ties to Laos, could be helpful by prodding the Lao government to action.

Meanwhile, international influence with Thailand should be exerted immediately by governments to insure the Thai trial balloon does not lead to further forced repatriation of Hmong refugees. This would be a great shame for the refugees, and for Thailand.

In the final chapter of the exodus from Indochina, Thailand should not be seen around the world to be blotting its widely praised refugee record.

Lionel Rosenblatt is president emeritus of Refugees International.