[Tlc] L-Hmong refugees

[justinm at ucr.edu]

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justin



2008-1029 - The Nation - Laos rejects demands

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/10/29/regional/regional_30087101.php

Regional

Laos rejects demands

By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
Published on October 29, 2008

Laos yesterday rejected a request from an international human-rights group to release Hmong leaders, saying it was not holding any refugees deported from Thailand.

New York-based Human Rights Watch yesterday urged Lao authorities to release the Hmong leaders who had led the raid into Phetchabun's Huay Nam Khao camp in June.

The leaders were deported to Laos and later detained, the rights body said in a statement.

"Of the 1,673 Hmong deported from Thailand since 2005, nobody was arrested, detained or served any kind of punishment under Lao law," said Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy.

On June 20, more than 5,000 of the 8,000 Hmong refugees marched out of the Huay Nam Khao refugee camp to protest against the arrest and deportation of Hmong asylum seekers.

Thai military stepped in to stop the march some 5 kilometres from the camp and held the protesters, some children, captive overnight without food or drink, Human Rights Watch said.

By the end of the second day, Thai authorities had arrested 837 Hmong refugees, and forcibly returned them to Laos the next day.

Witnesses recently said that Lao authorities usually detain Hmong leaders in a prison in southern Laos for more than three months before releasing them.

The whereabouts of the remaining leaders - Chia Yang, Phia Lee, Nyia Ma Vue, Phaya Vue and Xai Toua Yang - is still unknown, the right group said.

Speaking from Vientiane, Yong said Laos had followed Bangkok's request not to let the Hmong leaders return to Thailand since they were regarded as persona non grata.

"So we sent them back to their home in Vientiane province's Muang Fuang and have instructed local authorities to keep eyes on them," he explained, without confirming if the detained leaders were ones named by the rights group. "They did not serve any punishment, because they had done nothing wrong under Lao law."

Thailand has been sheltering some 8,000 Hmong refugees since late 2004. The asylum seekers claim to be close associates of the US Central Intelligence Agency's secret fighters against the Communist Pathet Lao movement before the fall of Vientiane in 1975.

However, Thai and Lao authorities see them as ordinary illegal migrants who must be repatriated to their homeland. No international agency has monitored the repatriation.

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October 29, 2008 03:45 pm (Thai local time)
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Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu