[Tlc] TL-Hmong article in Time

[justinm at ucr.edu]

Why do most journalists call Vientiane "sleepy"? (see the
first line below). 

Most people I know there have 2-3 jobs and rarely get a chance
to sleep!
Best,
justin

2007-0824 - Time - The Hmong Road Home

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655833,00.html

Friday, Aug. 24, 2007
The Hmong Road Home
By Hannah Beech

If the people strolling the streets of Laos' sleepy capital,
Vientiane, were worried about a violent overthrow of their
government, they weren't showing their alarm. Earlier this
summer, U.S. authorities arrested 11 people in California for
allegedly plotting to topple one of the world's last Marxist
regimes.

Among those charged with conspiracy to kill, kidnap and maim,
among other accusations, was General Vang Pao, a member of the
Hmong minority whose guerrilla forces had been funded by the
CIA during the Vietnam War to fight the Viet Cong-aligned
communists of the Pathet Lao. Along with an estimated 200,000
Laotian Hmong, Vang Pao fled to the U.S. after America
withdrew from Indochina in 1975 and communist forces took over
Laos and Vietnam. Now, the 77-year-old ex-CIA operative, along
with nine other Laotian-born Americans and a former U.S. Army
ranger who served in Vietnam, is facing potential life
imprisonment for purportedly trying to send Stinger missiles
and other high-grade weapons to a handful of Hmong guerrillas
back home who are fighting to overthrow the government.

As dramatic as the California indictment may sound, no one I
met in Vientiane had ever heard of this surreal plot. Of
course, it may simply not be the sort of news the nation's
secretive leaders are keen to disseminate. The first morning I
was in Vientiane, the front page of the Times, the local
English-language daily, heralded booming comradely relations
with Vietnam, and the donation of some computers by a
Scandinavian NGO. Not a single negative news story marred the
sunny propaganda spirit of the paper.

Among the sensitive topics studiously avoided by the local
media is the plight of the roughly 300,000 Hmong that remain
in Laos. Persecuted because of their pro-American,
anti-communist stance during the war, many Hmong retreated to
remote mountain jungles to avoid further government reprisals.
Clashes between government troops and rag-tag Hmong forces
continue to this day, and refugees have poured into
neighboring Thailand. This month, U.S. lawmakers petitioned
the Thai King to halt the deportations of 8,000 Hmong living
in makeshift settlements along the Thai-Laos border. Many of
the refugees claim they are descendants of soldiers who fought
for Vang Pao's CIA-funded army, and say they will be forced
into labor camps or imprisoned if sent back home.

Meanwhile, Vang Pao and several co-defendants claim, through
their lawyers, that the CIA knew all about their recent
attempt to send American weapons to Hmong guerrillas in Laos.
They allege they had no idea their plot contravened the U.S.
Neutrality Act, which criminalizes any action taken on
domestic soil against a foreign government with which
Washington is at peace.

When Vang Pao was released on bail last month, he was greeted
by hundreds of Hmong supporters who continue to revere him as
a leader who helped thousands of Hmong-Americans adjust to
life in a strange new land. (Many Hmong living in the U.S. are
believed to suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome because
of their wartime experiences.) To the prosecution team in his
case, however, Vang Pao is a terrorist who is intent on arming
rebels against a friendly government. And to the people of
Laos? The day I left Vientiane, the Times finally did run an
item on the Hmong. It was a small ad announcing a sale of
Hmong handicrafts at a government-run tourist shop.

"Don't bother," advised a local acquaintance. "Those
handicrafts aren't really made by them." That, it appeared,
was the only local information I would glean about the Hmong
of Laos.

* Find this article at:
* http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1655833,00.html

______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
2617 Humanities Building
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu