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[justinm at ucr.edu]

2007-0909 - The Nation - Thai military mounts pressure on Hmong

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/09/09/regional/regional_30048330.php

Regional

Thai military mounts pressure on Hmong

Published on September 9, 2007

Military pressure is mounting on about 8,000 Hmong refugees in
Phetchabun province's Ban Huay Nam Khao shelter to make a
snappy decision to return Laos, a Hmong leader said.

Military officers who oversee the camp summoned a number of
Hmong leaders for questioning after they gave interviews to
local and international media against a plan to repatriate
them to Laos. The plan was decided by a meeting of Thai and
Lao military officials last week.

Le Su, a 48 yearold Hmong leader, was questioned by military
officers after he gave his reaction to the repatriation plan
to The Nation and the USbased Radio Free Asia last week.

Lao deputy chief of staff Brig General Buaxiang Champapanh and
Lt General Niphat Thonglek, chief of the Thai Supreme
Command's Boundary Department held a meeting on the
repatriation of the Hmong in Phitsanulok last week.

Le Su told the media upon learning of the meeting that his
group had fled suppression at home and would not return. Only
10 per cent of the Hmong in Huay Nam Khao were willing to
return, he said.

He said Buaxing was disappointed with his comments and asked
Thai military officials to find out personal details about
him. His mobile phone was confiscated to cut off communication
with the outside world, another Hmong leader Daovong Thua said.

The Thai military was campaigning in Ban Huay Nam Khao camp to
get the Hmong to make the decision to return home. The
officials called the Hmong to see a video handed by Lao
officials on the treatment by Vientiane of previous groups of
Hmong deported from Thailand over the past months.

"We don't believe the message in the video and we don't
believe we would have a chance to live in such a place
prepared by the Lao government," Daovong Thua said.

Close to 8,000 Hmong from Laos have taken refuge in Huay Nam
Khao in Phetchabun since late 2004. Most claimed ties to the
US CIA which battled the communists before the fall of
Vientiane in 1975. They say they fled suppression in their
homeland.

But Laos and Thailand reject the claim and say they consider
the group merely illegal migrants who entered Thailand with
the hope of being resettled and eventually enjoying a better
life abroad.

Authorities of the two countries have agreed to repatriate
them to their place of origin.

Lao spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy said the Hmong would not face
punishment. The government had prepared a new site in Kaxi
district, about 150 Kilometres from the capital Vientiane, for
them. This was because some of repatriated Hmong had nowhere
to go as they had sold all of their property.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation
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September 10, 2007 05:02 pm (Thai local time)
www.nationmultimedia.com

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