[Tlc] TL-Hmong

[justinm at ucr.edu]

FYI.
Thanks,
justin

2008-0321 - AP - No sign of Hmong man from Minnesota two years
after disappearance

http://www.startribune.com/local/16905456.html

No sign of Hmong man from Minnesota two years after disappearance

By FREDERIC J. FROMMER , Associated Press

March 21, 2008

WASHINGTON - Two years after his mysterious disappearance in
Thailand, there has been no sign of Yer Vang, a Hmong-American
from Minnesota, according to family members and U.S. authorities.

The U.S. embassy in Bangkok has pressed Thai police to try to
find out what happened to Vang, who went missing in the
northern part of the country in March 2006 along with several
others, including his wife and daughter, both of whom lived in
Thailand. Embassy officials say that Thai police have told
them they are continuing to look into the case. Vang was the
only U.S. citizen in the group.

In late March 2006, several weeks after his disappearance,
Thai police found seven decomposed bodies that were believed
to include several missing Hmong Americans. But the U.S.
embassy says that none of them turned out to be U.S. citizens.

Officials at the Thai embassy said they were not able to
provide any information about the case, and attempts by The
Associated Press to reach police officials in Thailand were
unsuccessful.

Vang, 55, is a retired social worker who spent many years in
St. Paul before moving to Lino Lakes — from where he
maintained a long-distance relationship with his 29-year-old
wife and 2-year-old daughter.

Vang is originally from Laos and moved to the United States in
the mid-1970s. Vang was in Thailand vacationing, says his
nephew, Lee Pao Xiong, who has headed up the family's efforts
to locate him.

Xiong questioned the U.S. embassy's handling of the matter,
suggesting the Thai police may be behind the disappearance.

"For the embassy to wait for the police to tell them — if the
police had something to do with it, they're not going to tell
you," said Xiong, who is director of the Center for Hmong
Studies at Concordia University in St. Paul. "That's our
frustration. We're getting the runaround."

In a letter to the U.S. embassy last month, Xiong cited a
story in the Thai newspaper The Nation, which reported that
border police had made money by extortions and kidnappings.
That case, Xiong wrote, made him wonder if it had anything to
do with his uncle's disappearance.

Embassy officials said they could not speculate on the
circumstances surrounding Vang's disappearance.

Vang's daughter, Pang Vang, also suspects the police were
involved.

"And if it was the Thai police, who can help us?" she asked.
"The embassy maybe. But they haven't been as supportive as we
thought they'd be."

Pang Vang, 28, who is one of Vang's nine children in the U.S.
from a previous marriage, said her father had just retired
from working as a social worker.

"He made sure my brothers and sisters were stable, he worked
so hard to get where he was, he got the family on track, and
boom, in a blink of an eye — what happened?" she asked.

"The first year, we had a lot of high hopes," she said. "But
after two years, we all talked about it, in our hearts, we
believe he is gone. We just want to know what happened, who
killed him, what was the purpose. He was a really good man."

According to Xiong, the other people missing in Vang's party
were all Thai nationals, including his wife and daughter, two
cousins and three groundskeepers who worked at his cousins'
property in Thailand.

"We hold out hope that he's still alive," said Xiong. "He
might be detained somewhere."

Xiong said he's convinced that his uncle's disappearance has
nothing to do with politics, because Vang was not involved in
any political causes.

In a separate case, three Hmong Americans have been missing in
neighboring Laos since last August. The Hmong advocacy group
Lao Veterans of America says the men were arrested by Laotian
military and security forces; the Lao government has denied that.

The Hmong live in several countries in Southeast Asia,
including Thailand and Laos, as well as southern China. Large
numbers from Laos came to the United States after the end of
the Vietnam War, with the majority settling in Minnesota,
Wisconsin and California.

In April 2006, three members of the Minnesota congressional
delegation wrote a letter to the Thai ambassador in Washington
to express their concern about Vang's case.

"Given the troubling nature of this situation, we would
greatly appreciate your government's continued resolve in
bringing this case to a swift and, hopefully, favorable
conclusion," wrote Sen. Norm Coleman, a Republican, and Rep.
Betty McCollum and then-Sen. Mark Dayton, both Democrats.

But Coleman's spokesman, LeRoy Coleman, said that his office
doesn't have any new information about the disappearance.

"This has been a deeply distressing and difficult time for the
Vang family, and going forward, Senator Coleman will continue
working towards his safe return home," LeRoy Coleman said.
McCollum's office said it hasn't heard anything new about the
case either.

———

Frederic J. Frommer can be reached at ffrommer(at)ap.org

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