Nov. 9, 2006
 
HMONG REFUGEE CRISIS: Laotian Troops Fan Out in Jungles Where Hmong Hide
 
By David M. Kinchen
Editor, Huntington News Network
 
Large numbers of Laotian military forces are rapidly spreading out in alarming numbers into the remote areas where many thousand Hmong people live in hiding, according to human rights activist Rebecca Sommer and other sources that furnish information to HNN on the continuing refugee crisis in Laos and Thailand.
 
In the mountainous jungles of Xieng Khouang province, the Hmong groups fear that Laotian military troops heightened the systematic crackdown on the Hmong people, who have lived for 31 years in involuntarily isolation, Sommer indicated.
 
Many Hmong fled after the Vietnam War ended in 1975 into the safety of remote mountains jungles, where they are trying to this day to avoid any contact with Laotian authorities.
 
But the Laotian military is becoming more and more successful in finding and eliminating the Hmong in hiding – many of them the direct descendants of former CIA soldiers.
 
Laotian troops are following the Nam Ngum River, where, Sommer said, on Nov. 3, 2006 they spotted a group of fleeing Hmong. Nine children and one woman were wounded, while at another location on the same day Yang Thao, and Xee Xiong, two small Hmong girls were not fast enough to run away and were killed by the soldiers. A mother ran for her life while being attacked by the soldiers, leaving her one-year old boy behind. The soldiers killed toddler Ker Xiong on the scene.
 
The wounded and murdered children are the third generation of parents who helped the United States during the Vietnam War and fled into the Laotian jungles after the U.S. withdrew from Southeast Asia.
 
“There is no doubt that the Laotian government continues to this day to hunt and eliminate the internally displaced Hmong people, while European governments, the U.S., and the UN are busy assisting Laos with monetary aid -- as if there are no human rights violations going on,” said New York City-based Sommer, of the Society for Threatened Peoples.
 
Sommer added: “We strongly object against the indifference of countries, and the UN system; how much longer do they want to receive reports after reports of human beings being hunted, chased and massacred by Laos?”
 
“The groups are dispersed, no one knows how many casualties there really are,” said Kue Xiong, from the Hmong Lao Human Rights Council, “It is a nightmare, the attacks are getting worse as we speak, who will rescue them?”
 
“The lack of response from the United States government and the United Nation is most disappointing,” said Lee Pao Xiong, the director of the Center for Hmong Studies, Concordia University, St. Paul, MN. Minnesota and Wisconsin are home to large numbers of Hmong refugees who were fortunate enough to make it to the States after the Vietnam War ended.
 
“We appeal to the United States of America, the United Nations and the world community to save our lives.” said Yang Toua Thao, a leader of one group-in-hiding, ”Someone needs to ask the Lao government to stop attacking us.”
 
Editor’s note: For more on the Hmong refugee crisis, click on: http://archives.huntingtonnews.net/national/061031-kinchen-hmong.html