View Full Version : Hmong:Still a Secret War!
illhmong
10-06-06, 01:22 AM
A little about Hmong youngsters living in the US after the War in Laos.
http://www.geocities.com/illhmong
Death is tough, but living is tougher.
Blimey! Some retirement for Gen. Van Pao:
Laos's resistance fighter; Gen Van Pao charged in US for Laos coup plot
San Francisco -- police arrested nine people charged with plotting to use rifles and rockets to overthrow the communist government in the southeast Asian nation of Laos, a prosecutor in California said Monday.
The suspects, mostly members of the Hmong ethnic group, were seized after US authorities "interrupted a plot to overthrow the government of Laos by force and violence," the public prosecutor in the state capital Sacramento said in a statement.
The "Hmong insurgency planned to use AK-47 automatic rifles, Stinger missiles, LAW rockets, anti-tank rockets and other arms and munitions to topple (the) Lao government and reduce government buildings in Vientiane to rubble," it said.
Targets allegedly discussed by the plotters included the Royal Palace in the Laotian capital.
Hundreds of federal agents swooped on the suspects in pre-dawn raids across California.
Those seized include the Hmong former general Vang Pao -- a veteran resistance fighter -- and Harrison Jack, a retired officer of the US Army.
The nine, most aged in their fifties and sixties, were heard during the covert investigation discussing plans to buy hundreds of rifles, rockets, mines, grenades and surface-to-air missiles and ship them to Laos via Thailand.
A 10th person was arrested but not yet charged.
Vang, 77, is a prominent figure in the Hmong community in the United States, a former general in the Royal Lao army in the 1960s and 1970s who fled to the United States in 1975 after communists ousted Laos' royal rulers.
Harrison, 60, is a graduate of the prestigious West Point US military academy, the prosecutor said. Local media said Harrison served in the Vietnam War.
The arrests followed a six-month investigation by police and anti-terrorism authorities dubbed "Operation Tarnished Eagle."
Rights groups have accused Laos authorities of persecuting the Hmong hill tribe groups, former resistance fighters opposed to the state's communist regime.
The scattered groups of Hmong in Laos are remnants and descendants of former fighters of a CIA-funded "secret army" who from the early 1960s fought communist Pathet Lao forces when the war spilled over from neighboring Vietnam.
"Fortunately, we were able to disrupt their activities before their plot evolved into a coup against a country with which the United States is at peace," said one of the federal police officials who headed the probe, Michael Sullivan.
"These defendants posed a substantial threat to public safety abroad."
They each face life imprisonment if convicted.
Agence France Presse
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/05/headlines/headlines_30036051.php
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/05/headlines/images/30036051-01.jpg
[Photo: The Nation]
Full entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vang_Pao
General Vang Pao (b. c. 1931) was an American-allied Hmong military leader in the Second Indochina War. To this day, he remains an important figure in the Hmong community, and is considered to be the key leader of the traditional Hmong living in exile, or in Laos. In the past, he was known for his opposition to the human rights violations conducted by communist government of Laos, but since 2001 he changed his approach and released his Peace Doctrine. Vang was commander of the Secret Army, a highly-effective, American-trained and supported fighting force made up mostly of Hmong tribesmen. He fled to the United States after the communists seized power in Laos in 1975. Since then, he has been subject to several unsuccessful assassination plots, presumably ordered by the government of Laos or foreign communist forces.
Vang is considered by most Hmong to be a preeminent leader of the Hmong people in the United States and a hero of American-allied forces in the Second Indochina War. Although referred to as General, he only obtained the rank of Major General in the Royal Lao Army.
Vang is slated to have an elementary school in Madison, Wisconsin named after him.[1] The idea of naming a school after Vang has caused some controversy in Madison due to allegations of drug trafficking and war crimes during the CIA's secret war in Laos.[2] The school will open in 2008.
On Monday, June 4, 2007, Vang and nine others were arrested in California for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Laotian government[3].
The plot may have involved, not too surprising, the movement of large quantities of arms through Thailand:
Nine charged over Laos 'coup plot'
The group reportedly plotted a massive armed assault against the Laotian communist government [EPA]
Prosecutors in the United States have charged nine people with plotting a violent overthrow of the communist government of Laos.
According to investigators the group was raising money to recruit a mercenary force and buy enough weapons to equip a small army, including anti-tank missiles and grenade launchers
"We're looking at conspiracy to murder thousands and thousands of people at one time," Bob Twiss, an assistant US attorney, told a federal court in Sacramento on Monday.
Among the nine accused of leading the plot are a former Laotian general and a Lieutenant-Colonel Harrison Ulrich Jack, a retired California National Guard officer who reportedly served in covert operations during the Vietnam War.
Aside from Jack, the eight suspects are all prominent members of the ethnic Hmong community who have settled in California's Central Valley after fleeing South-East Asia.
All nine suspects face life imprisonment if convicted.
Speaking in court, Twiss said that while those charged were believed to be the main leaders of the plot, thousands of co-conspirators remain at large, many in other countries.
He said that as recently as May this year, agents acting on behalf of the plotters had been gathering intelligence about military installations and government buildings in the Laotian capital, Vientiane.
A statement from the California public prosecutor's office said the Hmong planned to use a range of rifles, Stinger surface-to-air missiles, anti-tank rockets and other arms and munitions to "reduce government buildings in Vientiane to rubble".
'Tarnished Eagle'
The arrests followed a six-month investigation by police and anti-terrorism authorities dubbed "Operation Tarnished Eagle".
According to police, the nine, most aged in their fifties and sixties, were heard during covert surveillance discussing plans to buy hundreds of weapons and ship them to Laos via Thailand.
The plotters were also said to have met an undercover agent posing as an arms broker during which they agreed to pay $150,000 for a consignment of weapons.
"Fortunately, we were able to disrupt their activities before their plot evolved into a coup against a country with which the United States is at peace," said Michael Sullivan, the federal official who headed the probe.
"These defendants posed a substantial threat to public safety abroad."
Among the nine charged is Vang Pao, a prominent figure in the Hmong community in the United States.
A former general in the Royal Lao army in the 1960s and 1970s and an ethnic Hmong, he fled to the US in 1975 after communist forces ousted the pro-American government in Laos.
Prosecutors say Vang Pao was the likely ringleader of the plot.
Rights groups have accused Laotian authorities of persecuting the Hmong hill tribe groups because of their association with resistance fighters opposed to the communist government.
Many of the scattered Hmong communities living in Laos are remnants and descendants of former fighters from a CIA-funded "secret army" which fought communist Pathet Lao forces when the war spilled over from neighbouring Vietnam in the early 1960s.
Source: Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/50EBCDC7-AF67-45D5-80BA-61918EAC8AB0.htm
Vang Pao charged with Laos plot
(BangkokPost.com, Agencies)
Hmong General Vang Pao was arrested in California on Monday as the alleged mastermind of a violent plot to overthrow the Lao government with arms and equipment that were ready to be shipped to Thailand next week.
The indictments handed down in Sacramento culminated a six-month investigation that included meetings between undercover agents and the alleged conspirators to discuss transferring weapons to Thailand and Laos.
US prosecutors allege that Vang Pao was the mastermind behind the plot. Eight others were also arrested and charged; authorities believe there will be more arrests.
"We're looking at conspiracy to murder thousands and thousands of people at one time," Assistant US Attorney Bob Twiss said in federal court Monday.
All nine are charged with violating the federal Neutrality Act and face the possibility of life in prison.
"No matter how strongly held their beliefs, citizens of the United States cannot become involved in a plot to overthrow a sovereign government with which the United States is at peace," Drew Parenti, FBI special agent in charge of the Sacramento region said during a news conference following the defendants' initial court appearance.
The Associated Press says the case "reads like it was taken from the pages of a spy novel."
Since January, the Hmong leaders and Jack inspected shipments of military equipment that were to be purchased and shipped to Thailand. Shipments were scheduled for June 12 and 19, the complaint alleged. That equipment included hundreds of machine guns, ammunition, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets, Stinger shoulder-fired missiles, mines and C-4 explosives.
During a news conference after the defendants' court appearance, prosecutors displayed photographs of the weapons involved in the alleged plot. They showed a light anti-tank rocket system, a Stinger missile, Claymore mines and an AK-47 assault rifle.
The defendants also attempted to recruit a mercenary force that included former members of the Army Special Forces or Navy SEALs, prosecutors allege.
The planning was disrupted after a six-month investigation by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The criminal complaint said Vang Pao and the other Hmong defendants plotted an insurgent campaign to overthrow the Laotian government "by violent means, including murder, assaults on both military and civilian officials of Laos and destruction of buildings and property."
The defendants acted through the Lao liberation movement known as Neo Hom, led in the US by Vang Pao. It conducted extensive fundraising, directed surveillance operations and organized a force of insurgent troops within Laos, according to the complaint.
Also charged was former California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Ulrich Jack, a 1968 West Point graduate who was involved in covert operations during the Vietnam War. Jack acted as an arms broker and organizer of the plot, according to a criminal complaint filed in US District Court.
Vang Pao, now 77, led CIA-backed Hmong forces in Laos in the 1960s and 1970s as a general in the Royal Army of Laos. He immigrated to the US in 1975 and has been credited by thousands of Hmong refugees with helping them build new lives in the US.
Since then, however, he also has been plotting to overthrow the Laotian government, according to the federal complaint.
Seven others, all prominent members of the Hmong community from California's Central Valley, also were charged Monday in federal court. The criminal complaint identified them as:
- Lo Cha Thao of Clovis, a suburb of Fresno
- Lo Thao of Sacramento County, who is president of United Hmong International, which the complaint says also is known as the Supreme Council of the Hmong 18 Clans
- Youa True Vang of Fresno, founder of Fresno's Hmong International New Year
- Hue Vang, a former Clovis police officer
- Chong Yang Thao, a Fresno chiropractor
- Seng Vue of Fresno
- Chue Lo of Stockton, both of whom are clan representatives in United Hmong International
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=119229
Laos welcomed on Tuesday the US action against high profile dissident leader, Gen Vang Pao and other eight Hmongs who were arrested in San Francisco with charge of plotting to overthrow the communist ruling government in Vientiane.
"We praise the US government as the group committed wrong doing against the Laos government which has good relations with the US," said Lao Foreign Ministry's spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy.
...........
Meanwhile Thai Foreign Ministry's spokesman Tharit Charungvat said the Thai government was acknowledged on the arrest and charge on the Hmong in the US.
The Thai security concerned agencies would take care of investigation on the plot if there would be any arm smuggling via Thailand to neighboring country, he said.
"Thailand has a clear policy not to allow any party to use our territory as a lunching pad against our neighbors," he said.
Thailand sheltered more than 7,000 Hmong, many of whom claimed they were closed associates with the CIA secret fighters left over since the Vietnam War and fled from suppression at home. They hoped to have a chance to settle in the third countries like other Hmong fellows earlier.
Laos spokesman Yong said the Hmong in Thailand were victims of trafficking syndicates, not fighters. There was no active dissident group in Laos, he said.
"The arrest of Vang Pao and his group might not have direct impact to Laos as we have nothing to do with them but it would be a good news for Hmong minorities since the traffickers would have no excuse to lure them to Thailand to seek resettlement in the US with Vang Pao," Yong said.
Yong joined a Lao delegation to a meeting of General Border Committee (GBC) in Bangkok yesterday to discuss the border security and the Hmong issue. The two countries shared common agreement to deport the Hmong in Thailand to Laos, he said.
..........
Supalak Ganjanakhundee/The Nation
Agence France Presse
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/05/headlines/headlines_30036051.php
Did Hmong crisis spur Vang Pao 'plot'?
News that General Vang Pao may have been plotting to overthrow the Lao government will come as little surprise to people in Laos, or groups and individuals within the region who have been following the plight of the "jungle Hmong", which is particularly bad at present.
Remnants of Hmong groups that have survived since the war in remote areas of mainly northern Laos are in their death throes, given several years of a reportedly brutal crackdown by Lao and Vietnamese troops in the Saysomboom restricted zone, a series of large surrenders by the main jungle groups and a mass exodus across the Mekong to Phetchabun province.
The recent bilateral agreement by a Thai-Lao border committee last month - to forcibly return any new arrivals to Laos "no matter how many bullet wounds they have", as one sarcastic observer noted - was probably the straw that broke the proverbial camel's back.
Vang Pao would have been acutely aware of how dire the situation has become in recent weeks, which have seen a series of alerts of looming forced deportations from detention centres in the North and far Northeast, where Hmong from Laos have been detained.
Websites in the US such as factfinding.org carry regular updates on the predicament of Hmong refugees here, which is now an issue of international attention thanks to activists such as Joe Davy, Laura Xiong, Ed Szendrey and Rebecca Sommer.
Sommer, a German, recently showed her documentary on the plight of the jungle Hmong - "Hunted Like Animals" - in New York. She had initially planned to screen the film in the UN building itself, "but Vietnamese officials stopped that", she said.
Early last month, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) sent a senior official to Bangkok and Vientiane to stop the forced repatriation of 155 Hmong at Nong Khai Immigration Detention Centre, all of whom are listed as "people of concern" and believed to be at genuine risk of persecution or even death, if returned. That group remains, in a pathetic state of limbo, but the two governments have virtually thumbed their noses at the UN by sending back many similar groups.
Indeed, Reuters reported recently that Thai officials have ordered UNHCR staff in Bangkok to stop processing refugee applications because of the large number of Hmong and North Korean seeking refuge here. Hundreds of people with serious claims to refugee status have crossed into Thailand this year but none have been listed since late last year.
At least two large groups of Hmong with serious claims to refugee status (strong links to groups that have survived in the Lao jungles) have been forcibly deported in recent weeks. And a third group of 45 people is now crammed in Lom Sak police station awaiting the same dismal fate. This group allegedly includes survivors and relatives of 26 people killed in a notorious massacre near Vang Vieng on April 6 last year. (Photos have been posted at rogerarnold.net by the US photographer taken to the site several months later.)
Perhaps the most unusual aspect of the whole crazy Vang Pao "plot" is that the US government actually opted to prevent this latest alleged scheme going ahead.
Why? Because many in Laos and Thailand suspect Washington has either turned a blind eye to such activities in the 30 years since the Vietnam War - or has actually encouraged efforts to destabilise the tiny Asian regime and its socialist leaders, many of whom are ex-military and seen as bitter ideological foes.
French journalist Cyril Payen is one of about eight Western journalists and photographers who have sneaked into the military zones in Laos in recent years. He has just published a book, "Laos, the Forgotten War", which details one of several raids into Laos in the 1980s or 1990s by foreign mercenaries allegedly backed by Hmong exiles abroad, and even the Thai military.
Payen said his interest in Laos grew after he met two French mercenaries on the Thai-Burma border after the fall of Manerplaw in 1995.
"They told me about the Hmong. They said they undertook a security mission in 1989 allegedly organised by [a high-ranking Thai military official], to prove there were some resistance groups still existing. They went with a group of overseas Hmong, crossed the Mekong, and made a six-month trip to Phu Bia, a huge mountain where rebels were based. They lost about 200 men - mostly Hmong from America, who were killed by the Vietnamese. But they found 4,000 to 5,000 people - Hmong. The group included kids who were victims of chemical weapons.
"They [the mercenaries] said they later made a film and wrote a book about this, but nobody cared. They had gone later to join the Karen [fighting the Burmese] but were crying when they told me about the Hmong they met years before."
However, not many realise current Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont, a former Army chief, but one regarded as having a far greater grasp of moral issues than the military official Payen spoke of, is fast gaining a bad reputation because of his regime's treatment of the Hmong. Some have argued that the Surayud government has agreed to summarily deport all Hmong because it needs help from Vientiane, as the Council for National Security fears the "former power" or Thai Rak Thai heavyweights may seek to use Laos to funnel weapons or mercenaries, or simply large bundles of Thai baht to buy the next election.
Jim Pollard
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/06/opinion/opinion_30036124.php
Other related threads in this forum. The first on the Xaisomboun Special Zone mentioned above, and the second of possible instances of biowarfare against the Hmong in the past:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?t=1375
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showthread.php?t=1721
In April a dispute erupted in Madison, Wisconsin over a proposal to name a new elementary school after him. The move was intended to recognise the area's large Hmong population but dissenters said a school should not bear the name of a figure with such a violent history.
In 2002 the city of Madison dropped a plan to name a park in Vang Pao's honour after a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor cited numerous published sources alleging that Vang Pao had ordered executions of his own followers, of enemy prisoners of war and of his political enemies. A spokesman for Vang Pao and his followers denied the charges at the time.
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation,
Associated Press
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/06/headlines/headlines_30036156.php
General Vang Pao: former CIA-backed warlord
General Vang Pao, arrested in the United States on charges of plotting a coup in communist Laos, once commanded a CIA-backed "secret army" of hilltribe fighters and mercenaries during the Vietnam war.
A member of the Hmong ethnic minority, General Pao ran an irregular army in the 60s and 70s, commanding fighters in the US-funded covert war against Vietnamese and Lao communist forces.
When the Washington-backed Lao royal government fell in 1975, General Pao was airlifted to Thailand and, along with other Hmong, resettled in the United States.
From exile, the fervent anti-communist remained a leader of the Hmong community and a defender of the minority, many of whose members, according to human rights groups, are still persecuted and killed in isolated Laos.
On Monday, at age 77, Pao was arrested in California along with eight others, charged with plotting to overthrow the Lao government using explosives, AK-47 assault rifles and Stinger surface-to-air missiles.
The nine suspects, according to the criminal complaint, wanted to bomb Lao government buildings and make them "look like the results of the attack upon the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001."
Pao was born in 1931 in central Xieng Khouang province. His community, the Hmong, are a mountain people from China who practiced slash-and-burn farming, grew opium and were known in Laos by the pejorative Meo, or "savage."
A teenage soldier against World War II Japanese troops, he underwent French-run army officer training from age 20 and later fought against communist rebels.
He rose in the Royal Lao Army and in 1964 became the first Lao Hmong to achieve the rank of general.
The United States was then stepping up its undeclared war against Lao and Vietnamese communist forces in the landlocked country, training a proxy army and flying missions in unmarked aircraft of the CIA-run Air America.
From the mid-60s, Pao commanded the irregular army of Hmong, other Lao fighters and Thai mercenaries from his Long Cheng mountain headquarters in a campaign that some historians contend was part-financed by the opium trade.
"Operational advice was given by a small number of CIA operatives, writes Australian historian Grant Evans. "All was paid for by US aid."
Pao could supply rice and medical supplies to villagers and even control US air power, gaining him "the status of a minor deity" among his soldiers, writes another author, Christopher Robbins.
"But mostly his leadership rested on the force of his own personality, which was energetic, volatile, direct and fearless," Robbins writes in "The Ravens -- Pilots of the Secret War in Laos."
After 1975, the new Lao government jailed tens of thousands people, and around 300,000 Lao, about half of them Hmong, fled the country.
But some of Pao's fighters continued a low-level insurgency that has since been all but crushed.
Their descendants have paid a high price, with up to 3,000 Hmong men, women and children still in hiding and under attack, according to overseas Hmong and international human rights groups.
Amnesty International said this year that the Lao army continues to "regularly attack their temporary encampments, killing and injuring them, perpetuating their life on the run" -- charges the Lao government denies.
Pao, a naturalised US citizen, meanwhile led a movement that brought thousands of Hmong refugees to the United States.
He never gave up the dream of leading his people back to Laos, but his public influence had faded in recent years along with memories of the war.
That was until Monday's pre-dawn raids, when hundreds of US federal agents arrested Pao and the other suspects, accused of planning to fight once more in their distant homeland.
US Attorney McGregor Scott, announcing the arrests, said: "The United States cannot provide a safe harbour to those plotting to overthrow a government with whom we are at peace."
Agence France Presse
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/06/headlines/headlines_30036156.php
Something rarely seen here anywhere:
FULL TEXT Formal charges against Vang Pao
Following is the full text [80 pdf pages] of the formal charges against Gen Vang Pao, accused by the US of plotting to overthrow the Laos government.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/specials/pdf/vangpaocharge.pdf
Hmong pair 'bashed for opposing deportation'
Ethnic Hmong being sheltered in northern Phetchabun province were stunned by the arrest of former leader General Vang Pao and fear it may cause them to be forcibly deported back to Laos.
Vang Sen, leader of Hmong in Phetchabun's Ban Huay Nam Khao shelter, said: "I think the lives of Hmong here will be in trouble. Assistance from relatives in the US will be affected, as it would be under close surveillance of both the Thai and US authorities."
Vang Sen said he was a nephew of Vang Pao and a former fighter for the US Central Intelligence Agency, who fought the Communist Pathet Laos before the fall of Vientiane in 1975. While his uncle resettled in the US more than 30 years ago, Vang Sen says he was left in the jungle, but fled recently to Thailand.
Late yesterday, it seemed his fears were well-founded. Two Hmong men who refused to sign documents giving consent to forced deportation to Laos were severely beaten in nearby Khao Kor jail, according to a Hmong rights advocate who telephoned from the US.
Lee Pao Vang had to be taken to hospital after he and colleague Vang Meng Lee were bashed by Thai officials, Joe Davy told The Nation.
The pair were among 36 Hmong in the jail. Most had fled jungle areas near Vang Vieng and were part of a group led by Blia Shoua Her, who is in Nong Khai Immigration Detention Centre (IDC), he said.
Two of the group have UN status - Theng Lor, 26, and his wife Yer Lee. They have three young children, all under 10, who are in Nong Khai IDC. Theng Lor tried to take his own life several months ago, so there are major concerns about him, Davy said.
"We fear they are treating them more harshly due to Vang Pao," he said. "The Thai and Lao authorities may be trying to legitimise strong-arm tactics with the refugees. It seems to have started already with the beating of these two at Khao Kor."
Some of the Hmong due to be sent back had already been accepted by third countries for resettlement, Davy said.
Thailand has sheltered more than 7,000 Hmong in Phetchabun for several years. Most claim they were associates with the CIA "secret war" and fled from suppression at home in the hope of being resettled overseas.
Thailand and Laos regard the group as illegal migrants who were victims of human trafficking, not fighters. Lao spokesman Yong Chantalangsy said his government was ready to take them back once Thai authorities finish screening them.
"We agreed in principle that whoever came from Laos would be repatriated sooner or later," Yong told The Nation.
Lao officials are monitoring the Vang Pao trial in the US closely and will consult with Thai authorities on reactions and movements of Hmong in the Kingdom, he said.
Supalak Ganjanakhundee, Jim Pollard
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/07/national/national_30036221.php
The Laos plot thickens
Sacramento, California
US investigators now believe that an alleged plot to overthrow the Laos government by arms may have involved a former Wisconsin state senator and even a US congressman, but Hmong icon Vang Pao denied there was any such plan.
Many Hmong refugees wonder why they even left Thailand.
Vang Pao's lawyer said the general was innocent of all charges after his client's brief appearance in federal court in Sacramento on Tuesday.
"General Vang Pao has worked actively to pursue peaceful solutions to the problems in Laos and has disavowed violence," attorney John Balazs told reporters outside the courthouse.
Reports from the US said that at a community center in Fresno, dozens of Hmong immigrants who attended a Monday night English lesson fell silent as they absorbed the news. Several later said they felt sick and questioned why they had left their Thai refugee camp for California, if their leader, General Vang Pao, was in jail.
"I love my general. He is like my uncle," said a tearful Neng Vang, who regularly attends the nighttime language classes.
In contemporary Laos, Hmong people are still subject to detentions and human rights violations, according to the State Department.
Many recent immigrants arrive in the US still traumatised by war and decades of persecution, only to find that they are blocked from obtaining asylum or green cards under provisions of the USA Patriot Act, said Sharon Stanley, director of Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries.
The Associated Press reported that the unnamed US congressman, as well as the California Highway Patrol known as CHP, apparently were unwitting parties that Hmong conspirators hoped to use to further their plans, according to court documents and interviews Tuesday with investigators on the case, AP reported.
A sworn affidavit from an undercover agent states that "probable cause exists to believe" that former Wisconsin state Senator Gary George was among those involved in the conspiracy.
"There is going to be a wealth of information we're going to be following up on," said Nina S. Delgadillo, a special agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. "There may be other defendants - that's a strong possibility."
George has not been arrested or charged. Lo Cha Thao, 34, of Clovis, who once worked as an aide to the senator, was one of 10 people charged Monday in federal court in Sacramento.
The AP reports that George's attorney, Alex Flynn of Milwaukee, said the evidence in the indictment does not implicate his client.
"Gary George denies any allegations as defamatory and has as much interest in seeing the government of Laos overthrown as he does in the Klingons taking over the Starship Enterprise," Flynn told The Associated Press late Tuesday. "These allegations are preposterous."
George, 53, recently completed a four-year federal prison sentence for accepting kickbacks from a Milwaukee social service agency.
On Monday, federal prosecutors followed a six-month investigation by charging 10 people, including former Laotian military general Vang Pao and a former officer in the California National Guard.
Investigators said they may charge others as the investigation continues and they examine material seized from 14 locations across California, the AP says.
"We will go wherever the evidence takes us," First Assistant US Attorney Larry Brown said Tuesday outside a federal court hearing for four of the defendants.
He would not specifically say whether authorities were investigating the congressman, George or others referred to in the federal court documents.
Among those arrested Monday was Vang Pao, 77, a former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led Hmong counterinsurgents before he fled to the United States with thousands of other Hmong refugees after the Vietnam War.
Also charged were eight other members of the California Hmong community and a former California National Guard officer, Harrison Jack.
The 10 face charges that include violating the federal Neutrality Act by plotting the violent overthrow of Laos' communist government. A federal complaint alleges the men were raising money to recruit a mercenary force and buy $9.8 million worth of automatic weapons, grenades, rockets and shoulder-fired missiles.
The alleged plot unraveled because the arms dealer who was to supply the weapons and mercenaries was actually an undercover federal agent.
Investigators would not say how they believe George, the former Wisconsin senator, was involved in the plot. But Mark Reichel, the attorney appointed to represent Lo Cha Thao, said his client worked for George and two other Wisconsin state senators before returning to California about two years ago.
His client was recruited by the lawmakers after distinguishing himself with his work from 1994-1999 in a youth gang and drug prevention program run by the California National Guard, Reichel said.
Reichel said his client is innocent but said he and the others might have been trying to act to prevent persecution of Hmong who remain in Laos.
"The Hmong are being horribly slaughtered in Laos, and these individuals are aware of it," Reichel said.
The criminal complaint also refers to the alleged conspirators trying to get help from a US congressman, who is not named.
On April 12, federal investigators recorded a telephone call between Lo Cha Thao and Jack, a Vietnam veteran and retired lieutenant colonel in the California National Guard. They were discussing a conference call between national Hmong leaders and a congressman, according to court documents.
"Thao said that his group had been consulting with a United States congressman and had received advice concerning ‘under table strategies' from military personnel like Harrison Jack and an unnamed ‘CIA guy,'" according to the federal affidavit.
During a March 5 meeting at a Sacramento restaurant, Jack told the undercover ATF agent posing as an arms dealer that he had contacted a commissioner with the California Highway Patrol and arranged for Hmong leaders to help recruit people to become CHP officers.
The goal was for the Hmong officers, once trained, to eventually "abandon the CHP and move to Laos to take positions of trust in the law enforcement departments of the new Lao government," according to an affidavit attached to the criminal complaint.
CHP spokesman Tom Marshall said Assistant Commissioner Arthur Anderson was contacted and arranged a March 7 tour of the CHP academy in West Sacramento for Jack and 26 Hmong representatives, including at least four who now face federal charges.
"It was presented as an opportunity to recruit people from the Laotian community. We don't know about this other stuff," Marshall told the AP on Tuesday.
The CHP is cooperating with federal investigators, he said, but "there is no indication of any criminal activity on the part of our people."
Also Tuesday, the permanent secretary for the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Somphet Khoukahoun, said he would wait to comment until authorities were briefed by US officials.
The Thai government declined to comment before a verdict was reached.
"Thailand will not tolerate the use of its territory for any movement that undermines the stability of its neighboring countries," said Tharit Charungvat, a spokesman for Thailand's Foreign Affairs Ministry.
After fighting as US-backed guerillas in Laos, members of the ethnic minority were all but abandoned when the country fell to communist forces in 1975. More than 300,000 Laotian refugees, mostly Hmong, fled into Thailand.
About 145,000 members of Laotian ethnic groups have resettled in the US, establishing large enclaves in Minneapolis, Fresno and in cities throughout Wisconsin, a US State Department spokesman said.
The 10 men named in two federal complaints include beloved members of Central California's Hmong community. Among them were the founder of Fresno's annual Hmong International New Year celebration and a former police officer from the nearby suburb of Clovis.
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=119271
The Nation - Editorial intended for Thursday's paper edition:
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/07/opinion/opinion_30036199.php
This interesting memoire of a chance meeting with Gen. Vang Pao in his heyday has been sent to me by a member who wishes to remain anonymous:
I met General Vang Pao en passant in the early 70s. I was young then, and certainly not of a high enough rank to be dealing with the General. But I certainly knew who he was. He lived in a small compound overlooking the runway at Long Tieng. He was a legend even in those days. He was a small wiry figure, brimming with energy, and seemed very much to know that he was in charge. So did everyone else. When I saw this photograph in your forum post yesterday I did not recognize him. But on closer examination, I could see a resemblance to the young dynamo I saw over 30 years ago. I guess we’ve all changed in that respect.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/05/headlines/images/30036051-01.jpg
[Photo: The Nation]
I have over the years felt such great sadness at the plight of the Hmong people. I’m sorry to say that my own government’s involvement with the Hmong is not one of the most glowing chapters of our history. The Hmong were brave and loyal allies. In my humble opinion, the USA has not done nearly enough to care for those who have been able to leave Laos, nor has Thailand, which also benefited from their sacrifices.
As I said, I did not deal directly with Vang Pao. But he had a “colorful” reputation among the Americans operating in that area during the war years. I think he was widely viewed as an able leader, but quite corrupt and ruthless when it suited his ends. He was a modern “warlord” if ever there was one. He obviously enjoyed the loyalty and respect of many if not most of his people, but I think there was a dose of fear involved as well.
The news of Vang Pao’s arrest yesterday was quite a shock to me. I, like others, have seen numerous reports to the effect that some Hmong people inside Laos continue to fight for their survival. There are many credible reports of their persecution by the government there. And there are countervailing reports of violence by revolutionaries within Laos as well. But for someone of the General’s sophistication to believe that he could be successful at toppling the Lao government strikes me as the stuff of fantasy. What was he smoking? Even if they had been able to overthrow the existing government, I’m certain their success would been very short-lived. Neither Vietnam, nor China would stand by idly and it is a virtual certainty that the US government would provide Vang Pao no assistance, either overt or covert.
My fear is that this entire episode can only deepen the tragedy of the Hmong remaining inside Laos. If the government ever needed a cover to basically destroy them, Vang Pao just delivered it to them.
All in all, this is a tragic episode, and one which saddens me deeply. The Hmong are in temperament and character very much like our Thai friends from Issan. They are ingratiating, kind, and loyal friends. They certainly do not deserve the kind of neglect and mistreatment which is been visited upon them by virtually everyone over the past few decades. To be sure, the US and Thailand have provided some assistance to them, but it is clearly insufficient. This latest incident will almost certainly guarantee their further persecution with impunity.
Don’t mean to seem excessively maudlin, Old Boy. I tend to think of myself as a student of real politik, even if still somewhat idealistic. Sad as it is. This is a fascinating part of Southeast Asian history, and I somehow feel privileged to have participated in such a slight way and to be able to observe it playing out. I just wish it could be happier sometimes.
Quote from anonymous contributor of the 'Gen. Vang Pao en passant' post:
I think I may have a few old color slides. In those days we weren't supposed to carry a camera into Long Tieng and we traveled light anyway. So I didn't take so many photographs.
It has been suggested that Gen. Vang Pao's actions were almost inevitable as a result of an upsurge of brutality against the Hmong in Laos:
Diplomats, MSF urge softer approach on Hmong
Western diplomats in Bangkok have been lobbying senior Thai officials to try to stop the forcible deportation to Laos of ethnic Hmong who are regarded as having serious claims to refugee status.
European and American officials have reportedly met representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to voice their concern about a series of cases involving Hmong thought to be in grave danger if returned to Laos.
Officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are also seeking to end the veto imposed by the Interior Ministry on processing applications from "people of concern". UNHCR staff were told to stop processing refugee applications late last year because of the "large" number of Hmong and North Korean refugees arriving here.
The head of a key non-government group said this week the crisis would be eased greatly if Bangkok permitted UNHCR staff to help process Hmong who arrive in Phetchabun and the Northeast - to verify if new arrivals are "illegal immigrants" or "genuine refugees" fleeing the Lao and Vietnamese military.
Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders, or MSF), has been caring for about 7,800 Hmong at Huay Nam Khao in Phetchabun province for almost two years, providing humanitarian assistance such as medical care, water and sanitation, food and shelter.
MSF has undertaken this operation with its own funds - more than ค1.3 million (Bt57 million) for 2007 - "because no funding agency is willing to get financially involved in this issue until the Thai government is more open and allows the UNHCR to take part in the screening process".
MSF also has serious concerns about Thailand's recent bilateral agreement with Vientiane to forcibly return all people from Laos who seek refuge here.
Country director Gilles Isard said: "Things are extremely difficult now; it seems that there is no space to find a reasonable solution to this problem. After having been working with those Hmong people for almost two years, we have gathered much information about their situation in Laos, and it seems very clear that the majority of the people living in this camp have very good reason to be here.
"We are convinced that they will face harsh treatment if they ever have to be returned to Laos. Thailand considers those people 'illegal migrants', and I guess it is probably true for some of them, but not for all of them.
"So, a way to make an objective distinction between the real refugees and the illegal migrants must be found, and then the appropriate measures must be taken accordingly.
"Recently, several groups arrived directly from the jungle into the camp, claiming they have nowhere else to go if they want to survive. But we hardly had time to see them before they were arrested, and a couple of days later sent back to Laos.
"A group of 31 were sent back recently and a second group of 45 is at Lom Sak and will be sent back soon. There is nothing much we can do to stop that, besides informing the UNHCR and different foreign embassies.
"MSF has no benefit to work in this camp. If we commit to get involved in this project it is for two reasons: First, we believe that the majority of those Hmong people must be protected and must receive humanitarian assistance. Second, we acknowledge that it is a burden for Thailand and we have decided to help the Thai authorities handle this problem by covering the cost and managing this assistance.
"A new camp is currently under preparation, it will provide better living conditions for the 7,800 refugees, and this is very positive. But we do not want this camp to become a detention centre for the Hmong before they are forcibly returned to Laos without any guarantee for their well-being once returned.
"We'd like the Thais authorities to find a way to consider this issue more openly and if possible give access to the UNHCR to screen those Hmong people objectively."
Jim Pollard
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/08/national/national_30036331.php
If you don't fancy reading the entire 90 page charge sheet [The link for this is no longer active anyway!], and trying to reorder it logically in your own mind, this may be the article for you:
Loose tongues foil 'Laos plot'
By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - After a US Justice Department undercover agent displayed a Stinger surface-to-air missile in a bugged Hilton hotel room in Sacramento, California, the motley crew of would-be revolutionaries began to suspect that they might be the victims of a "sting" operation. They were right.
V.......... SEE LINKS FOR ENTIRE ARTICLE ..........V
Part 1:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IF08Ae01.html
Part 2:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IF08Ae02.html
Richard S Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco. He has reported news from Asia since 1978 and is co-author of the non-fiction book of investigative journalism, Hello My Big Big Honey! Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews. He received Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism's Foreign Correspondents Award.
Interestingly, Part 2 mentions that Gen. Vang Pao's plan involved occupying the Long Tieng airstrip which was his base in the early 70s. It was also the place where our recent anonymous poster recalls seeing him in his heyday:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=15035&postcount=12
Thailand repatriates 160 Hmong to Lao PDR
BANGKOK, June 9 (TNA) – Some 160 ethnic Hmong from the Lao PDR who had entered Thailand illegally were repatriated from Thailand Saturday.
Lt-Gen. Nipat Thonglek, director of the Thai Supreme Command's Military Border Affairs, said the 160 Hmong men, women and children were sent back across the Mekong River at the immigration checkpoint in Nong Khai province bordering Laos at 6.40 am.
They were met and taken into custody by senior Laotian army and government officials while foreign ministry officials of the two countries witnessed the event, Gen. Nipat said.
He said the Lao government had promised to provide the group of would-be immigrants occupational training and to look after them properly.
There are still more than 7,000 Hmong staying at a camp in Khao Kho district in Phetchabun province, Gen. Nipat said
The Hmong, loyal to Gen. Vang Pao, provided many mercenary soldiers to the US Central Intelligence Agency in the war against the Communist Pathet Lao before the abdication of King Savang Vattana in Vientiane on December 2, 1975.
Gen. Vang Pao was later resettled in the United States.
The Hmong leader and eight others, including a retired lieutenant-colonel of the California National Guard, were charged in a US federal court on June 5 on charges of plotting to overthrow the current communist government in Vientiane. (TNA) -E111
http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=29831
The Lao govt. has "welcomed" the prodigal Hmong back home. I sure hope someone with some clout monitors how the repatriates are treated. Given the many reports of continued persecution of the Hmong remaining in Laos (including reports of yellow rain attacks ala' Saddam) there is little reason to feel sanguine about the repatriates' prospects. One hopes the Thai government will find a way to better protect these people. Below is a link with the latest news.
Bernie
http://www.asianewsnet.net/news.php?aid=10265
Recent National Public Radio reports from the USA:
Vang Pao Appears in Court on Laos Charges
Listen to this story...
Day to Day, June 11, 2007 · Gen. Vang Pao, a leader of the Hmong immigrant community in America, will appear in a Sacramento courtroom Monday. Vang Pao is charged with trying to overthrow the government of Laos. The general's defense attorney Thomas Heffelfinger, says Vang Pao will plead not guilty. He talks with Madeleine Brand.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10936929
Hmong Community Reacts to Laos Plot
Listen to this story... by Sasha Khokha
Day to Day, June 11, 2007 · Gen. Vang Pao was one of nine prominent Hmong community leaders who were arrested last week and accused of being part of a plot to overthrow the government of Laos. Members of the Hmong community in Fresno, Calif., are expressing anger and heartbreak.
Sasha Khokha reports from member station KQED in San Francisco.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10936932
Vang Pao refused bail, held in jail
Sacramento, California (Agencies) - Hundreds of supporters demonstrated outside a federal courthouse Monday as a magistrate refused to release Hmong leader and ex-general Vang Pao on bail while he awaits trial on charges of trying to overthrow the communist government of Laos.
Despite his age and deteriorating health, Vang Pao, 77, is too dangerous and too great a flight risk to be freed under any circumstances, US Magistrate Judge Edmund Brennan ruled after a 30-minute hearing.
Vang Pao and eight other Hmong elders were arrested June 4 on charges that they tried to buy nearly $10 million worth of military weapons and recruit mercenaries to unseat Laos's communist government.
A 10th defendant, retired California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Jack, is also charged, accused of trying to arrange the coup through an arms broker who turned out to be an undercover federal agent.
Hmong from across California and several other states packed the courtroom and filled a courthouse plaza and surrounding sidewalks for Vang Pao's detention hearing. Court security officials estimated that 500 to 1,000 Hmong showed up.
Most of the Hmong were dressed in white to show their peacefulness and purity, said Ka Va, who helped organise the rally.
They waved American flags, giant portraits of Vang Pao and signs calling for the release of the Vietnam War-era general whose guerrillas rescued downed American pilots and waged an ultimately futile covert war orchestrated by the CIA.
"This is how much this man is loved," said Thomas Heffelfinger, one of Vang Pao's attorneys, said over the noise of the crowd. "This reflects the general's commitment to a peaceful agenda."
Heffelfinger, a former federal prosecutor from Minnesota, said he was hired by Vang Pao's supporters to assist John Balazs, the Sacramento attorney who was appointed by the court to represent the general last week.
Heffelfinger said Vang Pao is innocent of the charges, which could bring him life in prison if he is convicted.
Balazs argued that Vang Pao could safely be released to home confinement with a virtual communications blackout: No phones, computers or other communications devices.
But Assistant US Attorney Bob Twiss told Brennan that Vang Pao's influence is so sweeping and unquestioned that he could organise his followers no matter what restrictions are imposed, perhaps sending messages through intermediaries or with a smuggled cell phone.
"Thousands of people came here on the day of his detention hearing," Twiss said in an interview. "If General Vang Pao were to pick up a cell phone, is there any doubt they wouldn't execute his order? To me, it (the rally) was an indication of his ability to effectuate action indirectly."
Vang Pao has foresworn violence and lobbied peacefully for the United States to protect Hmong still being persecuted in Laos, Heffelfinger said. Moreover, the general has had heart bypass and gallbladder surgery and a stroke, and suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, he said.
"The mere fact that he has loyal followers does not make him dangerous," Heffelfinger said outside the courthouse. "The general is a man of peace."
Brennan nonetheless ordered Vang Pao detained. He also ordered the detention of two alleged co-conspirators, Lo Thao and Nhia Vang, after brief separate hearings.
The general sat silently hunched over a table during the hearing, wearing a bright orange jail jumpsuit and listening through an interpreter.
Outside, supporters waved signs reading, "Honor your war heroes - don't jail them," and "Free our leader."
"He is like a supreme leader to all of us," said Silas Cha of Fresno, a leader of Hmong-American Concerned Citizens. "He is no threat to anyone, anywhere in the world. ... He is an American hero and a Hmong hero who has saved thousands of lives."
US Attorney McGregor Scott issued a statement saying his office respects the Hmong community's right to protest but expects they "will understand why we made the decisions we did" once more information becomes public.
Attorneys for the accused said they expect their clients to be indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury. The charges they face now were in a complaint filed by Scott's office. Their next hearing is set for Monday, when supporters are promising an even larger crowd.
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=119390
Admin seems to have actually got a copy of this plan from somewhere:
http://www.2bangkok.com/07/operationpopcorn.pdf
The $28 mln Popcorn plot to take over Laos
Sacramento, California (Agencies)
The Hmong-led plot to overthrow the communist government envisioned a 90-day campaign to replace the Vientiane regime, assassinating top leaders along the way if necessary.
A newly available, 18-page document titled, "Operation Popcorn: A Comprehensive Plan of Action," outlines a $28 million budget to pay local mercenaries to carry out the plot, then shut down all access into or out of the country. It said martial law would be established in the capital before Laos was transitioned to democracy.
The document, obtained by the media on Saturday, was filed last week after the arrest of an 11th suspect in the case, 48-year-old Dang Vang, who is listed as the author of the plan.
It offered the first detailed look at the plan to overthrow the government of the Thai neighbour.
Prosecutors say Dang Vang and nine other members of California's Hmong community, along with a former California National Guard official, wanted to bomb government buildings and shoot down military aircraft in an effort to topple the country's communist regime, which has persecuted US-sympathising Hmong since the end of the Vietnam War.
At the heart of the alleged plot is Vang Pao, a 77-year-old former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led CIA-backed counterinsurgents during the Vietnam War, and retired California National Guard Lt Col Harrison Jack.
Prosecutors say the leaders planned to purchase nearly $10 million in weapons, including AK-47 rifles and Stinger missiles.
The "Popcorn" plan - Popcorn stands for "Political Opposition Party's Coup Operation to Rescue the Nation" - details the cost to acquire dozens of sophisticated weapons, as well as payments for security forces, coup leaders, political and military consultants, and even mundane things such as office supplies and printing.
It details a three-part plan to take over the communist regime through a network of underground sympathisers who would "neutralise trusted government leaders." Those who could not be neutralised would face "in-house arrests or assassination."
It estimates about 1,000 security forces would be needed to establish martial law and patrol the capital city, Vientian.
Next, the group would take over all government buildings and communication systems, transportation and media. Airports and bus stations would be closed, and access to all major routes, including the Mekong River, would be closed.
Operation Popcorn calls for a transitional government to be set up within 60 days, consisting of exiled Lao leaders, members of the Laotian opposition party and cooperative government officials. That government would serve for two years before it would be replaced in a free election to be monitored by the international community.
Although many in the jungle nation lack even basic services, the America-hatched plan includes one decidedly modern necessity for a successful coup: a press liaison to communicate their message through broadcast and print media and invite the international community to support the movement.
Operation Popcorn identifies possible operatives from within the country, including disgruntled former military officers as well as more than 1,284 combat-ready troops and 10,000 unarmed opposition party members who are "ready to fight to overthrow the Lao PDR government."
Vang estimates that three-quarters of party members are "ready to rise up against the government and demand change or to overthrow the government. They are waiting for supports from the exiled Lao leaders and the international community."
The original complaint filed in US District Court in Sacramento said the group planned to ship weapons on June 12 and June 19 to a remote staging area along the Thailand-Laos border. However, the arms broker who was to help deliver the weapons was really an undercover agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
The 11 men indicted are charged with conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act, which bars Americans from taking military action against nations with which the United States is at peace. They were also accused of conspiracy to kill, kidnap and maim. All face life in prison if convicted.
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=119498
Vang Pao group plead innocent
Sacramento, California (Agencies) - Ten people charged in an alleged plot to overthrow the communist government of Laos pleaded not guilty Monday to conspiracy charges that could bring them life in prison.
The brief proceeding in U.S. District Court followed a grand jury indictment last week against Vang Pao, a 77-year-old former general in the Royal Army of Laos, and nine other members of California's large Hmong community.
Also charged was Harrison Jack, a 60-year-old former Army Ranger who led covert operations and worked with Hmong fighters during the Vietnam War.
One of the alleged conspirators, 48-year-old Dang Vang of Fresno, was arraigned on Friday and also pleaded not guilty. He did not appear in court on Monday with the others.
The charges continue to reverberate throughout the Hmong community, which is concentrated in California's Central Valley and includes thousands who fled following the 1975 takeover of Laos by the communists.
On Monday, an orderly crowd of 1,200 to 1,500 demonstrated outside the federal courthouse in Sacramento and the state Capitol. Many Hmong said they feel betrayed that the U.S. government has not done enough to stop the persecution of Hmong in Laos and now is turning on their leaders in the United States.
"This is a long story that has to be told from the beginning," attorney William Portanova, who represents defendant Lo Thao, 53, of Sacramento, said outside the courthouse. "And the beginning is not in January '07; the beginning is in 1951. That's where we're starting. And when the story's told, they're not guilty."
In addition to Jack, Vang Pao and Lo Thao, the others arraigned Monday were: Lo Cha Thao, 34, of Clovis; Youa True Vang, 60, of Sanger; Hue Vang, 39, of Fresno; Chong Yang Thao, 53, of Fresno; Seng Vue, 68, of Fresno; Chue Lo, 59, of Stockton; and Nhia Kao Vang, 48, of Rancho Cordova.
Judges have refused to set bail during previous hearings, saying each defendant could be a flight risk or pose a danger to society.
Attorney Shari Rusk argued that her client, Chue Lo, should be released because he simply attended two meetings as a clan leader.
She acknowledged that weapons were displayed at one of those meetings but said Vang Pao is so influential that her client had no choice but to attend.
"It's beyond 'If the president of the United States asked you to go, would you go,'" Rusk told Magistrate Dale Drozd. "It's not even a decision. There's no question about it."
Drozd postponed a decision on whether Rusk's client could be released.
The indictment alleges that Chue Lo was among those present during a Feb. 7 meeting at a Thai restaurant in downtown Sacramento. The alleged conspirators were meeting with a person they believed was a weapons broker but who actually was an undercover federal agent.
After leaving the restaurant, they examined a truckload of weapons that contained samples of AK-47s, M-16s, C-4 explosives, anti-tank rockets, rocket-propelled grenades and Claymore mines, according to the indictment.
The 10 defendants who appeared in court Monday were previously charged under federal complaints, which were replaced with the federal grand jury indictment that was issued Thursday.
All 11 are charged with conspiring to violate the Neutrality Act against a nation with which the United States is at peace; conspiracy to kill, kidnap and maim; conspiracy to possess firearms and destructive devices; and conspiracy to export munitions without a State Department license.
Federal prosecutors say the defendants intended to buy nearly $10 million worth of weapons. All except Seng Vue and Chue Lo also were charged with conspiracy to receive and possess Stinger missile systems designed to destroy an aircraft.
Earlier this year, Jack, a former California National Guard officer, sent an email to friends suggesting the Lao government was planning mass killings of Hmong remaining in the country. That apparently was the genesis of the alleged overthrow plot.
Many Hmong have fled to Thailand, where they live in refugee camps. Those who came to the United States are concentrated in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=119542
Vang Pao link detained in Thailand
(Agencies) - Police have arrested a Hmong-American man in Nan province, and say they believe he may be linked to the US-based plot to overthow the government of Laos.
Pol Capt Sitthinan Sithkamjorn told the Associated Press news agency they were taking the man to the US Embassy to verify his identity and determine if the Americans would like to have him deported in connection with the California arrests of other alleged plotters of Hmong descent.
Police identified the man as Sha Wang Lee, 53. He is believed to be an associate of Vang Pao, the 77-year-old ex-general who has been charged in California along with nine others in the alleged plot.
Pol Capt Sitthinan said he could not confirm the exact spelling of the man's name but said he carried a US passport that expired on May 27, 2003, and showed his hometown as Fresno, California. He also carried a certificate signed by Vang Pao stating he had undergone military training.
Police arrested Sha Wang Lee on Monday in Nan, a province bordering Laos and frequently used as a base by Hmong dissidents.
Pol Capt Sitthinan said Sha Wang Lee would be detained in Thailand for overstaying his visa if he was not deported to the US.
On Monday, Vang Pao and the other nine accused in the plot pleaded not guilty to conspiracy charges that could bring them life in prison. They appeared before a US District Court in Sacramento, California.
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=119567
Thousands protest at Vang Pao hearing
Los Angeles (dpa) - Thousands of ethnic Hmong protested in the California state capital of Sacramento against the incarceration of a revered former military leader and 10 others accused of plotting a coup against the communist regime in Laos, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.
The rally took place in front of the state capital and federal courthouse, where Laotian General Vang Pao, 77, and his alleged accomplices pleaded not guilty to a five-count indictment.
The daylong demonstration was the third rally in support of Pao by ethnic Hmnog, thousands of whom emigrated to the US following the fall of Saigon in 1975. During the Vietnam war the Laotian hill people fought with the US against communist forces and are credited with slowing the military march of North Vietnam.
Vang Pao, 77, and the others are charged with conspiracy to violate the neutrality act and illegally export munitions as well as conspiracy to kill and maim citizens in a foreign land.
The general and eight other defendants are also accused of trying to purchase Stinger antiaircraft missiles.
Prosecutors alleged that they planned to topple the Laotian government and reduce buildings in the capital city of Vientiane to rubble. In the 30-minute hearing, Vang Pao and the others sat quietly, hands and feet manacled, as their lawyers pleaded not guilty on their behalf.
Outside, the angry crowd said the charges were unjust.
"We feel betrayed," said rally organizer Vaming Xiong. "We hope they dismiss these charges. What's the point to go to trial? The general is a hero."
On June 5, US authorities arrested nine ethnic Hmongs and a tenth man, Harrison Jack, a 60-year-old West Point graduate. Since then, an eleventh person has apparently been detained.
The Laotian government has welcomed the arrests.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth Wainstein, who announced the arrests earlier this month, said the defendants had "developed an audacious plan to overthrow the government of Laos, and were seeking to arm themselves with automatic rifles, rockets and surface-to-air missiles."
Vang Pao was the chief leader of the guerrilla struggle during the 1960s to 1970s. He and thousands of other Hmong fled Laos in 1975 when the country fell to communist forces.
Tens of thousands of Hmong refugees have remained in Thailand, afraid to return to Laos while it remains communist and reluctant to be resettled abroad. For this Thai-based Hmong community, the arrest of Vang Pao represented another betrayal by the US government.
"He helped the US fight communism so why have they done this to him?" said Meng Sae Vue, a Hmong religious leader based in Thailand, after the arrests. "Vang Pao is so old. It's sad."
US investigators said Vang Pao and his followers had planned to use AK-47 automatic rifles, stinger missiles, LAW rockets and anti-tank rockets to topple the Lao government and "reduce government buildings in Vientiane to rubble."
The thwarted plot, reminiscent of a Sylvester Stallone Rambo movie, had been code-named "Operation Tarnished Eagle," investigators said.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=119560
See full article:
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/IF21Ae01.html
Short extract at end of article:
..........
In the past 30 years, many things have changed. While the US lost the military war, it has won the economic war. Only last year, President George W Bush visited Vietnam to normalize relations between the two countries. US companies are heavily invested in Southeast Asia and have no interest in seeing the region destabilized. If the alleged coup had succeeded, the government of Laos would have fled to Vietnam and brought an invading army. China, which has millions of ethnic Hmong, also wouldn't be happy with a Hmong homeland, just as Turkey has no interest in seeing a Kurdish country.
During the past 30 years, the self-interests of the Hmong and the US have slowly diverged. That is why it is foolish of a group like Vang Pao's to plot openly inside the US. One has to know when one's friend has become the friend of one's enemy.
Soul Vang fled Laos as a child. He is a veteran of the US Army and is a teacher living in California.
Blind justice for the Hmong of Laos
On June 4, about 200 law-enforcement agents in California launched what initially appeared to be a spectacular raid, arresting nine in an alleged plot to overthrow the government of Laos. Eight of those arrested originally came from Laos.
They are members of the Hmong hilltribe, and their leader is a man who is legendary in CIA circles, Vang Pao.
Vang Pao rose to become a major-general in Laos, thanks to his CIA mentor, a soft-spoken Texan named Bill Lair. Starting in 1961, the Hmong and the CIA operative created a tribal guerrilla army that fought successfully against Lao and North Vietnamese communists - for a while. Later, when Laos became a side-show of the bigger war in neighbouring Vietnam, the programme started falling apart. In 1975, when the US pulled out of Laos and Vietnam, over 10,000 Hmong were slaughtered by Laos' new communist regime. Many survivors fled the country and went to the US as refugees. Today there are about 200,000 Hmong-Americans; and although Vang Pao, now 77, is no longer their undisputed leader he is still their most famous name.
I have spent many hours recently with both Bill Lair and Vang Pao for a documentary-film project. The two men are not close, but they recognise that their legacies are intertwined; and Lair has volunteered to testify for Vang Pao at his upcoming trial.
Lair and I have also travelled to Southeast Asia, to visit the sites of his covert war, and to look into claims that Hmong are still fighting against their old enemies in Laos. We found those reports true on a small scale. Scattered bands of ragged fighters subsist off wild plants, trying to evade the Laotian army … and almost every day, the leaders of these Hmong bands talk on satellite phones with their Hmong-American relatives.
There is no doubt that some Hmong-Americans have been up to their eyeballs in supporting and guiding the Hmong resistance in Laos, but there are different ways of interpreting this fact. Some might say it is heroic and steadfast for old allies to continue the fight for years after the US forces went home. (After all, which of our Iraqi and Afghan allies will do that?) Others might say that the old Hmong-American leaders are like exiled White Russians in Paris after World War I, plotting and scheming to return to power and not doing a good job of it. Human-rights workers have another angle: go to the Amnesty International Website, they say, search under "Hmong" and start reading about all the violence done against tribespeople by the Lao regime, which adds up to borderline genocide. You can frame the arguments any way you want, but for me, the more I learn about the Hmong resistance in Laos, the more I find it ambiguous and troubling. There's a cycle of violence in the boondocks of Laos, and all sides are keeping it going. I put the blame first and foremost on the Lao People's Democratic Republic, which is doing the actual killing; the Hmong-Americans rank a distant second.
But almost everyone I've talked to who is deeply knowledgeable about Laos is dismayed by the indictments and accompanying press releases coming out of the US Attorney's office in Sacramento. The feds boast about stopping a massive attack on the Lao government, as though the Hmong are capable of that. The Hmong resistance in Laos is too scattered and beaten-down for that, and the Hmong-Americans are simply too disorganised.
The government's case is typical of the post-9/11 John Ashcroft-Alberto Gonzales at the Justice Department. You've seen the pattern before: at first, big, ringing announcements of a clear victory over evil are made. Later it turns out the charges have been exaggerated or distorted. Months or years later the cases are dismissed or the charges are greatly reduced. And that is probably what is going to happen with Vang Pao and the Sacramento Nine.
The government's case against the Hmong suffers from two weaknesses. The first is that the feds' undercover operative, who works for the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, was the co-creator of the so-called plot. A former Navy Seal, he offered a stupendous array of weapons, including Stinger missiles, and American-trained mercenaries. He brainstormed extensively with the only non-Hmong defendant, a retired Army colonel named Harrison Jack, who stood to benefit financially if the deal went through. The Hmong-Americans didn't hatch the idea for this plot, or at least nothing this ambitious. They just made the mistake of liking the sound of it when the others proposed it.
The second weakness in the feds' case is that it does not take into account the cultural reality of the Hmong. Though many younger Hmong-Americans are US college graduates today, the elders of Vang Pao's generation still don't speak fluent English. They don't know how to "read" the intentions or sincerity of mainstream Americans and they don't fully understand US government rules. Whether they have been smart to support and guide the resistance in Laos or not, the Hmong-Americans are going to claim the right of ethnic self-defence against their old enemies. Who else would help the Hmong in Laos? The US government abandoned the Hmong in 1975 and has shown no interest in supporting them since then. Rumour has it that the Hmong-Americans who were recently arrested hoped the undercover agent worked for the American government - and he did, just not for the right agency.
This case is already causing collateral damage abroad. Laos and its neighbour, Thailand, have cited Vang Pao's arrest as a so-called terrorist to end a tradition of sanctuary for Hmong refugees in Thailand. About a thousand legitimate war refugees are at risk of being forcibly repatriated, including women who have been raped and tortured by Laotian forces and others who have seen family members killed. The first 160 were repatriated soon after Vang Pao's arrest. Nobody has heard from them since. They will not get trials, or visits from neutral international monitors.
By contrast, I suppose, the Sacramento Nine are lucky. They will get trials, and the worst they can expect is prison for life. The shame is that much of the problem could have been avoided if the US government had taken a radically different approach 20 or 30 years ago. Bill Lair says he would have gladly worked with the Hmong elders to keep them on the straight-and-narrow once they came to this country, but the CIA doesn't provide long-term counselling to refugees, and neither does any other branch of the US government.
What these Hmong-Americans are most guilty of is acting like Hmong, instead of acting like Americans. But they don't deserve prison for that.
Roger Warner is the author of "Shooting at the Moon: the Story of America's Clandestine War in Laos".
Roger Warner
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/28/opinion/opinion_30037966.php
Vang Pao Laos plot was 'amateur'
Sacramento, California (Agencies) - Eleven men charged with trying to overthrow the Laos government should be freed while awaiting trial because their plan was so amateurish that they pose no danger to anybody, defence attorneys argue in new court documents.
Attorneys for the men say much of the plot was encouraged by an undercover government agent who was posing as an arms dealer when he agreed to provide mercenaries and nearly $10 million worth of military weapons for the alleged coup attempt.
"The alleged coup plot was never dangerous," the attorneys said in a joint bail motion filed Monday in federal court in Sacramento. "It was, at most, a government-propelled fantasy, lacking any realistic planning, money or support."
Federal magistrates have denied bail for all 11, including the leader of Hmong in the United States, former Laotian Gen. Vang Pao, 77, who was recently hospitalized for several days while in custody because of complications from his diabetes and heart problems.
All 11 are too dangerous and are likely to flee if released, the magistrates ruled. All 11 face possible life terms if convicted.
Defence attorneys are appealing the magistrates' decisions to a federal district judge, who has set a July 12 hearing on their motion.
The defence cites a declaration from former CIA agent Bill Lair, who recruited Vang Pao to lead a CIA-funded Hmong guerrilla army against the communists during the Vietnam War.
"The so-called plot described in the allegations never stood any chance of coming to fruition," Lair wrote.
Lair, who spent more than 20 years working with Thai security forces, said it would be impossible to transport weapons across the Thai border into Laos as the plotters proposed.
Documents filed by federal prosecutors claim that Vang Pao and the other alleged conspirators had a 90-day plan for attacks in Laos. The plan was titled "Operation Popcorn: A Comprehensive Plan of Action," and called for some assassinations and bombings.
Prosecutors said the goal of the alleged plotters was to blow up government buildings in Laos, shoot down military aircraft and topple the country's regime.
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=119897
Laos arrests 'bomb plotters'
Communist Laos arrested five Hmong dissidents - including a Thai national - over an alleged plot to bomb at least seven places in the northwestern province of Bokeo, a Thai security source said.
The five were nabbed on Saturday in the northern province but were now detained in the capital, Vientiane, the source said.
Lao Foreign Ministry's spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy neither denied nor confirmed the report saying there was no report on the plot and the arrest from local authorities.
Speaking on a phone interview from Vientiane on Wednesday, Yong said "We have no report about the incident, only a newspaper report is in the file so far."
The five are accused of planning to bomb seven spots on the seventh day of the seventh month - last Saturday - including the city hall, airport, provincial hospital and radio station, the source said.
Lao armed forces boosted troops in the province and along the Mekong River, which forms the border with Thailand, and tightened control over movement of people.
Authorities in Bokeo learnt about the dissident group last week and began to search the province. Some 20 suspects were arrested over the past week for allegedly feeding intelligence information to dissidents abroad, the source said.
Lao authorities cracked down on at least five villages in the province on Sunday and clashed with dissidents, the source said, but gave no detail on casualties.
Vientiane has consistently denied any movement of Hmong dissidents within the country and has sought cooperation from Thailand to block any moves by "rebels" here.
Early last month, police in the US arrested highprofile Hmong leader Vang Pao and nine associates over an alleged plot to topple the communist regime in Laos. Prosecutors allege that Vang Pao and the Hmong group ordered the purchase of weapons to be shipped through Thailand for use by disฌsidents in Laos.
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/07/11/regional/regional_30040364.php
US Magistrate Frees Accused Hmong Plotters on Bail
By Aaron C Davis/AP Writer/Sacramento
July 13, 2007
A federal magistrate ordered the alleged ringleader of a plot to overthrow the communist government of Laos and seven others released o*n bail Thursday, letting Hmong leader Gen Vang Pao return to his Southern California home under extremely strict conditions.
US Magistrate Dale Drozd also granted bail for the other central figure among the 11 defendants in the case. Harrison Jack, 60, a former Army Ranger who led covert operations with Hmong fighters during the Vietnam War, is accused of acting as a middle man between Hmong leaders and a presumed arms dealer who was really a federal agent.
Drozd's decision will confine 77-year-old Vang Pao, considered the leader of Hmong who emigrated to the US after the Vietnam War, to his home in Westminster and allow him to see o*nly his family, doctors and attorneys.
The magistrate ordered similar house arrest terms for Jack and six other defendants. The remaining three defendants were expected to be granted bond after appearing in court Friday.
Vang Pao is a legendary former CIA-backed guerrilla general who fought in vain to stop the communist takeover of his country during the Vietnam War when the Hmong people were allies of the US.
After the 1975 victory of the communist Pathet Lao, about 300,000 Hmong poured into Thailand, many later resettling in the US and elsewhere.
John Keker, an attorney for Vang Pao, said the alleged plotters had no idea what they were getting into when they contacted an undercover federal agent posing as an arms broker. The men never intended to overthrow the Laotian government, but o*nly wanted to help the Hmong defend themselves against Laotian soldiers they believe are trying to exterminate them, he said.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?art_id=7868
It's now or never for global aid for the Hmong in Laos
The few Hmong still hiding in the mountainous jungles of the Xaisomboun Special Zone are now at end-game. The international community has essentially two choices. It can continue to do nothing and abandon them all, including women, children, infants and the elderly, to almost certain death after uncounted desperate days of bare survival. Or it can finally take a stand and insist on a real, guaranteed amnesty for all those Hmong who want to come out, so that humanitarian authorities, who can and will protect them, can arrange for and oversee their safe integration into Laotian society.
Rebecca Sommer
Representative of the NGO Society for Threatened Peoples International
Indigenous Peoples Department
USA
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/30/letters/letters_30038173.php
Young Hmong Americans Confront a Dark History
By Ngoc Nguyen
SAN FRANCISCO, Jul 20 (IPS) - The Hmong American community was catapulted into the national spotlight when, on Jun. 4, 11 California residents were arrested for plotting to overthrow the government of Laos.
Among them was 77-year-old Vang Pao, who led a CIA-backed "secret army" of his tribesmen in Laos to aid U.S. soldiers against communist Laotian and Vietnamese forces during the Vietnam War.
Vang Pao and his 10 co-conspirators were charged with violating the so-called Neutrality Act by planning an invasion of a country at peace with the United States. Justice Department officials say the men conspired to obtain AK-47 assault rifles, ground-to-air and anti-tank missiles, mines, rockets and other explosives.
A judge has since ordered most of them released on bail, and a pre-trial status conference is scheduled for Jul. 25.
While Pao and his co-conspirators were imprisoned, thousands of Hmong Americans descended upon the courthouse at the state capitol, demanding the release of all the men.
Daniel Xiong, 21, was among the protestors. He worked to organise youth from his hometown of Stockton, California to attend the rallies and even worked with local police to help maintain security at the events. Xiong said the arrests of General Vang Pao and the other men have drawn negative attention to the community.
"One day I woke up and [went to work, and] the boss came up and said, 'your people are terrorists,' and I was like, 'Not us'. I was sad that the name 'terrorists' was now attached to our community," he said.
A 25-year-old Hmong American graduate student in New York City, whose parents attended the rallies in California, said the protests united the Hmong American community, across generations, for the first time, regardless of their support for Vang Pao. For some, the arrests reopened a chapter of history unknown to them and many second generation Hmong Americans.
The student, who declined to give her name, grew up outside of Fresno, California, home to a large Hmong American community. She said she was exposed to the history of her homeland while growing up -- her parents were activists and both her grandfathers had fought on the side of the United States during the "secret wars." For her, the arrests of Vang Pao and his co-conspirators opened old wounds from the war.
"My impression is the revival of betrayal of the U.S. toward the Hmong in Laos," she said. "They did pull out their troops and left the Hmong community to fend for themselves. This led to the human rights abuses in Laos, and at one point, there was a publicly announced genocide after the war when the Laos government hunted down Hmong, that's why so many of them fled."
Escaping retribution at the hands of the Laotian government, many Hmong fled as refugees. Tens of thousands started new lives in neighbouring Thailand. An estimated 250,000 currently reside in the United States, with communities flourishing in California, Wisconsin and Minnesota.
In the 1990s, 29,000 Hmong living in Thailand were repatriated back to Laos. Some Hmong Americans claim the Hmong face discrimination, persecution and violence in Laos, where the Hmong and Iu Mien (Yao) account for less than 10 percent of the population of roughly 6.5 million.
The ambassador of the Laotian People's Democratic Republic (PDR) to the U.S., Phiane Pilakone, has denied ongoing human rights abuses of the Hmong in Laos. But T. Kumar, advocacy director for Asia with Amnesty International, said the Hmong are "in bad shape in terms of human rights abuses."
He said there are about 2,000 Hmong hiding in the Laos jungles, still fighting a low-level war with the Laotian military, using Vietnam War-era weapons. According to Kumar, this group lives under impoverished and dangerous conditions, lacking food and medicine and frequently attacked by military.
"Amnesty International is concerned about two groups of Hmong living in Laos -- one is the scores of people deported back to Laos from Thailand, including women and children, and the group of people still in the jungle, who are still fighting a lost cause," he said. "We don't have access to either group. No one has access -- journalists or international monitors."
For second generation Hmong Americans, the controversy has opened the door to dialogue on their history and the current situation for Lao Hmong.
Daniel Xiong said he recently learned the U.S. military left their Hmong allies behind after the end of the war, but that hasn't changed his mind about joining the U.S. military himself. In response to others labeling his community as "terrorists", Xiong said he wants to volunteer to go to Iraq.
"We [Hmong] don't have a home country, but when we come to United States, it is our home country," he said. "We will join the fight for our home country, because it is fighting for peace and for our country we left behind."
Several years ago, the Hmong American community was split on another issue: normal trade relations between the United States and Laos. The two countries entered into a trade agreement in 2003, but it wasn't official until 2005. Some Hmong Americans opposed normal trade relations, and felt the U.S. should pressure Laos to put an end to human rights abuses.
Others in the community see increased business ties as a path to peace.
Pastor Seng Fo Chao, president of the Iu Mien American National Coalition, was part of a delegation of Laotian Americans who traveled in December 2005 to Laos to forge greater business and personal ties with the country. The pastor also fought alongside the U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War, but his life has since taken a different turn.
Chao belongs to the Iu Mien ethnic group, whose people are spread throughout Laos, China, Thailand and Vietnam.
His group has voted to take a "neutral stance" on the Vang Pao arrests.
"Some of the Iu Mien (Yao) in Lao PDR were deceived and lured into the jungle and fought against the government soldiers of Lao PDR from 1975 to 1987," he said. "Then the last group of Iu Mien laid down their arms and came out from the jungle to join the government of Lao PDR in 1987. Since then, the Iu Mien in Lao PDR has been at peace with the government of Lao PDR and the world."
http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=38620
All Hmong must go
By Post reporters
The 7,700 Hmong refugees currently living in a make-shift camp in Phetchabun will be deported to Laos as no countries have come forward to offer them resettlement.
Supreme Commander Boonsrang Niumpradit said on Saturday the Hmong living at the Ban Huay Nam Khao camp in Khao Kho district had little chance of being offered resettlement in a third country and therefore had no choice but to return to Laos.
"None of them are allowed to live in Thailand anymore and Laos is ready to take them back," he said.
Officials said it would take them two months to get the personal records in order for all the refugees after which they would be deported to Laos.
Gen Boonsrang dismissed fears from human rights groups that the Hmong will be mistreated by the Laotian authorities if they were to return to Laos.
Third Army commander Jiradet Khotcharat said the deportation of the Hmong was not a matter of concern because they had illegally entered Thailand and therefore had to be sent back.
Many of the Lao Hmong were allies of the US and fought against the communists during the Vietnam War. After the 1975 victory of the communist Pathet Lao, about 300,000 Hmong poured into Thailand, many later resettling in the US and elsewhere.
Lt-Gen Jiradet said the recent relocation of Lao-born Hmong at Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee camp to a new shelter, about two kilometres away, went well.
Security is been heightened at the new camp, and access to the refugees is being very tightly restricted.
The authorities want to ensure no new Hmong refugees sneak into the camp, he said.
A security source said an average of about 12 Hmong babies are born in the camp every month, leading to increasing overcrowding
Link may expire:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=120370
Thirteen US lawmakers have written a petition HM the King, asking him to intervene to stop what they called a forced repatriation of some 8,000 ethnic Hmong to Laos.
"We are writing out of urgent concern for the plight of some 8,000 Lao-Hmong political refugees and asylum seekers at Huay Nam Khao, Phetchabun, Thailand, who are in imminent danger of forced repatriation back to the brutal communist regime in Laos that they fled," read the letter.
The refugees "face horrific mass starvation and death by the Lao military regime if they return to their homeland," they said, asking the king to "personally intercede to ensure that these and other Lao-Hmong remain in Thailand until they can be resettled in third countries."
"We are pushing for political asylum and that they be allowed to be resettled in third countries," said Philip Smith, director of the Lao Veterans of America.//Agencies
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/08/04/headlines/headlines_30043718.php
No forced repatriation for Hmongs : PM
Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont guaranteed on Monday that there would not be forced repatriation of 8,000 Hmongs taking refuge in Thai soil.
"We will not force them to return to their homeland. Our repatriation will be organised with the respect to the human rights regulations. The Hmongs have to be repatriated because they are citizens of our neighbouring country (Laos).," he said.
Future of Hmongs in the Thai soil became spotlight again after a group of 13 US lawmakers last week wrote to HM the King asking him to stop the repatriation of the Hmong to Laos.
Surayud said his government has been discussing the fate of the Hmong with Laotian officials, and that a third country would likely be asked to help with the repatriation.
"A third country would take care of the repatriation so that it does not violate their human rights," he said.
Surayud said that Thailand would stick to its agreement with Laos to send back the Hmong because so far no other country has offered to take them.
"We worried that to wait for a third country or to have a third country for the Hmongs will only encourage more Hmongs to the Thai soil.
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/08/06/regional/regional_30043957.php
Laos Thursday rejected an idea suggested by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to have a "third party" monitor the repatriation of more than 7,500 Hmong refugees.
Lao spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy said a joint subcommittee of border security officials would discuss the issue at a meeting from September 24 in Phetchabun's Ban Huay Nam Khao, where nearly 8,000 Hmong refugees have taken shelter.
Yong was in Thailand yesterday to accompany a group of 25 Lao media representatives to a meeting with their Thai counterparts. He will also visit the 24th Universiade and observe Sunday's referendum on the draft constitution.
Surayud suggested recently that Thailand and Laos should allow a third party, possibly an Asean member, to monitor the repatriation of the Hmong. This would demonstrate transparency and respect for human rights in front of the international community, he said.
However, Yong said: "As long as the two countries can solve the problem together peacefully, we see no necessity for another party."
Hmong groups in the US and members of the Congress have voiced concern about plans to return refugees at Huay Nam Khao, because there would be no independent screening to determine who have legitimate claims to refugee status and well-founded fears of persecution or mistreatment if returned. Vientiane has so far refused to allow any form of monitoring by the UNHCR or outside parties.
Thai military officials in Phetchabun have begun screening the 7,653 Hmong refugees who have lived in Ban Huay Nam Khao since late 2004. Many of them claim links to the United States Central Intelligence Agency's "Secret War" fighters who battled the communist Pathet Lao before the fall of Vientiane in 1975 and say they subsequently fled from oppression in their homeland.
Thai and Lao authorities regard them as illegal migrants who have sneaked into the Kingdom for economic reasons.
Those believed to be Lao would be repatriated to their places of origin. While those thought to be Thaiborn Hmong, or who went to Ban Huay Nam Khao after the closure of Saraburi's Tham Krabok camp in mid 2005, would be separated and the Thai authorฌities would seek new places for them to stay, a military officer said.
Yong said the repatriation would be conducted in a humanitarian manner and they would be sent back to their origฌinal homes.
"Some 15-20 per cent of them might need assistance from the government as they have no relatives and have already sold their land and houses," he said.
The Lao government had prepared areas for new homes, provided construction material and would give them rice for up to 18 months after their return, he said.
Lao officials would film these preparations to show the Hmong refugees when they go to the meeting in Huay Nam Khao next month, Yong said.
Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/08/16/regional/regional_30045303.php
Hmong detainees in Nong Khai on hunger strike
The 149 Hmong stuck in the Nong Khai immigration detention centre since January have gone on a hunger strike to call international attention to their alleged bad treatment at the hands of Thai authorities.
"They decided to starve themselves and die in prison due to the fact that they have been tortured for the last eight months without a date to be released," a Hmong rights advocate, who carried their message from the jaillike centre after they began fasting around lunchtime, said.
"The message they send to the world is, if the Thai and Lao governments desperately want this group, they may take the dead bodies when they become available; 149 Hmong refugees, including 90 children will die in Nong Khai," he said on condition of anonymity.
"They have been locked inside the prison cells since January 30 without seeing the sun. They have been forced to drink dirty water from the bathroom for more than a month and the food is not fit for human consumption.
"Women, children and men are alike; the Thai authorities treat everyone like common criminals without a fair trial. If the international and diplomatic communities ignore such harsh treatment by the Thai authorities, then the refugees decide to die," he said.
The Hmong group resisted an attempt to expel them to Laos on January 30. Vientiane dispatched senior officials to the border province to take them back home but many of the Hmong locked themselves in their cells and threatened to commit suicide if they were deported.
Representatives of human rights groups were there to observe the drama. Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont instructed authorities to hold off the repatriation and explore the possibility of their resettlement to third countries.
Australia, the United States, Canada and the Netherlands volunteered to take them, but the Hmong still remain in limbo at the centre.
The group was part of more than 7,500 Hmong taking shelter in Phetchabun's Ban Huay Nam Khao. They were arrested between October and December last year after sneaking out of the shelter to go to Bangkok. Some of them managed to get UN protection as "persons of concern".
Laos has insisted they get together with others in Ban Huay Nam Khao and opposed the idea of having a "third party" involved in the repatriation.
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/08/18/regional/regional_30045538.php
Cooperation between Laos and Thailand over power generation is likely to ensure that Thailand does give much consideration to the plight of Hmong refugees & economic migrants:
http://www.angkor.com/2bangkok/2bangkok/forum/showpost.php?p=16929&postcount=41
Laos denies Hmong-Americans arrested
(dpa) - The Lao government on Wednesday denied reports that authorities had arrested three US citizens of Hmong decent in Vientiane, the capital.
"I've checked with security authorities and they assured me that none of these people are being kept under custody in Laos," said Lao foreign ministry spokesman Yong Chanhthalousy, in a telephone interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
According to press reports from the US, three Hmong-Americans identified as Hakit Yang, 21, Conghineng Yang, 31, and Trillion Yunhaison, 41, were allegedly arrested in Vientiane on August 25 by security personnel.
A US Embassy source in Vientiane confirmed that they had obtained reports of the arrests.
"We have local sources who inform us that the arrests took place on August 25 but we don't have confirmation from the central government," said an embassy spokesperson in Vientiane.
News of the alleged arrests coincided with a Thai-Lao Border Committee meeting in Phitsanulok, Thailand, concerning the fate of some 8,000 Hmong refugees who have been living in Thailand for decades.
Thailand has classified the Hmong living at Huay Nam Khao camp as "illegal migrants," while the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and various human rights groups claim they are refugees who will face persecution if they are repatriated to Laos.
The current Thai government is trying to find an acceptable way to repatriate the Hmong as part of their long-term solution to problem of Lao-Hmong fleeing to Thailand.
Laos is also seeking their repatriation, primarily to prove that the ongoing Hmong resistance struggle is a myth.
"These people are illegal migrants, and you can see how illegal migrants are treated in the West, for instance African migrants in Europe," said Yong of the Hmong in Thailand. "This is a global problem."
The New York based Human Rights Watch last week blasted Thailand's efforts to repatriate the 8,000 Hmong in Huay Nam Khao.
"It is shocking that Thailand is even considering the return of refugees fleeing from political persecution, rights abuses and fighting in Laos," said Brad Adams, Asia director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"The Thai government's threatened return of the Lao Hmong refugees shows a brazen contempt for the most basic principle of refugee law," he added in a statement made available in Bangkok.
May expire soon:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=121379
Friday, September 14, 2007
US's Mayor to Send Mission to Thailand about Hmong Graves
The mayor of Minesotta, the US city with the highest urban concentration of Hmong in the United States, said he will send a delegation to Thailand to explore options to help families affected by the 2005 desecration of more than 900 graves of Hmong refugees. The Wat Tham Krabok refugee camp held thousands of ethnic Hmong before their recent resettlement to the United States. More than 300,000 Laotians, mostly Hmong, are known to have fled to Thailand since the communist takeover. Most were either repatriated to Laos or resettled in third countries.The graves at the refugee camp, in a Buddhist monastery, were exhumed by workers who can be seen on videotape dismembering remains and removing the bones.Officials there have said the graves were contaminating the water supply.The delegation sent by St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman will be in Thailand September 21-29. The group will be led by state Senator Mee Moua, the first Hmong-American legislator in the US. (AP)
http://www.irrawaddy.org/article.php?cat_id=1#140907_1
Hmong to be sent back to Laos
Bangkok (dpa)
About 8,000 Hmong refugees living in Thailand are to be repatriated within 12 months to Laos, the two countries announced Thursday, despite warnings from human rights groups that the refugees faced persecution back home.
The deal meant that the refugees from the ethnic group that battled communist forces in Laos during the Vietnam War would be returned home, by force if necessary, the government-run Thai News Agency said.
The return of the Hmong - who currently live in a camp in Petchabun province, 290 kilometres north of Bangkok - would be conducted on "humanitarian principles," Thai Lieutenant General Niphat Thonglek said.
His Lao counterpart, General Bunakleang Champapan, said communist-ruled Laos accepted that monitors should ensure the Hmong were fairly treated on their return.
It was not clear, however, whether third-party monitors would be permitted. The two countries have balked in the past at involving other parties to their talks on the refugees, calling it a bilateral issue.
Human Rights Watch, a New York-based rights group, last month called it shocking that Thailand was even contemplating returning refugees "fleeing from political persecution, rights abuses and fighting."
It accused Thailand of showing "brazen contempt for the most basic principles of refugee law" and argued that the Hmong should be allowed to remain in Thailand until they are resettled in third countries.
The group said it has received reports of abuse and detention of repatriated individuals.
Thailand repatriated 31 Hmong to Laos in May and 163 more in June. Human rights organizations have complained that no outside monitors can find out what has happened to them since.
Bunakleang said he hoped the refugees at Petchabun would return voluntarily, but he added that if they would not, then "force may be necessary."
Officials from Thailand have argued that the Hmong refugees remain a source of bilateral friction and a burden on the host country while Lao authorities have long resisted taking in people they suspect are hostile to its rule.
Refugee experts said Thailand is concerned that the mere presence of the Hmong - even in a camp surrounded by barbed wire - is attracting an endless flow of people leaving Laos for the relative wealth of Thailand. Some of the refugees have been there for decades, but some are recent arrivals.
Thailand stopped the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees from screening arrivals for political refugee status in May, allowing Thailand to tag all refugees as "illegal immigrants."
Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said in August that without firm action, the refugees would become a "never-ending problem."
The Petchabun camp is guarded by armed soldiers and served by one relief agency, Doctors Without Borders.
Human Rights Watch complained that although many of the camp's inhabitants are children, the Thai authorities have provided no schooling for them. It was also denied access to the camp in July.
May expire soon:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=121873
MSF: Don't force the Hmong back
Published on November 1, 2007
Having kept silent for more than two years about its work providing humanitarian assistance to 7,500 Hmong refugees in Phetchabun, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) made a public appeal yesterday for Thai authorities to halt the forced repatriation of the Hmong to Laos.
MSF believed that while some "refugees" were illegal migrants who came to Thailand for economic reasons, many had fled harsh treatment by Laos' communist government, MSF country director Gilles Isard said.
MSF staff at Phetchabun were "strongly convinced" many refugees were telling the truth and had been badly traumatised by persecution in Laos. Dozens had bullet or shrapnel wounds, and moves to return people had already caused suicide attempts and scenes of hysteria.
"We believe they are genuine refugees and should be entitled to proper protection," he said in press briefing. "If people are to be sent to Laos it should be on a voluntary basis. Don't send them back without any guarantee."
Thailand has sheltered the Hmong since late 1994 when members of the group claimed they were close associates of the US Central Intelligence Agency's secret fighters in the anti-communist war before the fall of Vientiane in 1975. Most have said they fled suppression at home.
Laos rejects the claim and Thailand regards them as normal illegal migrants. The two countries agreed in May to repatriate them by the end of next year.
MSF said Thailand must allow independent agencies such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to screen the Hmong at Ban Huay Nam Khao in Phetchabun.
UNHCR had the ability to ensure fair and objective screening of the refugees, but Thai authorities had so far denied them access, the Frenchman said.
Thai officials have quietly sent hundreds of Hmong back to Laos over the past year.
Authorities claim they are screening ethnic Hmong, as some Thai-born and were "left over" after the closure of Saraburi's Tham Krabok camp in mid-2005. These people are now mixed with Hmong from Laos at Phetchabun.
However, Isard said the military had not yet conducted a screening process and the Hmong did not trust the Thai officials to do the job fairly.
Supalak G Khundee
The Nation
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/11/01/national/national_30054496.php
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mi68GYu64k
Scattered groups of ethnic Hmong have hidden in the remote mountains of Laos for more than 30 years, afraid to come out. Many have not seen the modern world, and exist with little food, scavenging in the jungle. The CIA trained and funded many Hmong hill tribes in Laos from 1961 to 1973 to fight communism. When America withdrew from the conflict most Hmong were left alone to face the might of the invading North Vietnamese Army. The Royal Lao Government fell to the communists and many Hmong became outcasts in the country they fought to defend.
This video was produced and edited by Paul Kwiatkowski, all photos are by Roger Arnold.
Hmong in Laos afraid to surrender
Published on January 23, 2008
Fear of being killed remains the prime reason groups of Hmong hilltribe people are still stuck in isolated pockets in Laos unwilling, and in some cases, virtually unable to surrender - 33 years after the Indochina war ended, advocates say.
The leader of one group of Hmong who have refused or been too scared to integrate into Lao society has made repeated appeals to supporters in the US in recent weeks that his people are so pinned down by government and Vietnamese troops, they cannot surrender without taking casualties.
Most "jungle Hmong" groups - thought to total perhaps 2,000 or 3,000 people - now have a mobile phone, so their plight is becoming better known in the outside world.
Independent Hmong advocate Joe Davy said Yang Lue, the leader of a group of Hmong near Phu Bia in northern Laos, rang him in Chicago several times over the past two months to complain about the dire predicament his group faced. The last time a large group of Hmong attempted to surrender, three people were killed, Yang Lue told Davy.
"He claims that an incident in late November in which three people were killed near Pha Jaow [Stone Mountain] was during an attempt to surrender. He said something like 60 or 100 people tried to surrender but when the soldiers opened fire, the others fled back into the jungle," Davy said in an e-mail to journalists and consular officials in Thailand.
"Killed in the attack was the wife of Va Cher Her, who is the elder brother of the famous jungle leader Zong Zoua Her, along with Va Cher Her's daughter and 8-year-old grandson."
Davy said as many as 900 Hmong, split up into groups of about 20 people, were believed to be living around Phu Bia, the highest peak in Laos.
Yang Lue and other leaders of jungle Hmong groups seemed to genuinely want to surrender, he said, but feared more people would be killed in the process and that Lao troops and officials would treat them harshly once taken into custody.
Others have said Hmong Americans were also phoning the groups and advising them not to surrender "for political reasons" - to hinder international cooperation with the communist regime; to help to prevent "refugees" at Huay Nam Khao being sent back to Laos; or because it might stifle bids (legitimate or otherwise) to raise funds from Hmong now living abroad.
US protests and subsequent publicity about a massacre on April 6, 2006 when some 26 people - mainly women and children - were reportedly slain about 5km north of Vang Vieng may have also spurred Lao leaders to change military tactics.
Roger Arnold, an American photographer taken to the site of the April 2006 massacre, showed photos of that atrocity at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Bangkok recently. He has posted a report about the incident on YouTube. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mi68GYu64k).
Arnold said the whereabouts of about 2,200 Hmong who surrendered from the jungle or were returned to Laos by Thai authorities since 2005 was unknown.
"One big reason the Hmong are afraid to surrender is, once they do, they usually go missing indefinitely and sometimes permanently. And sometimes they are raped or tortured before being released," he said.
"When there are no international monitors, there is no evidence of who surrendered. How can they trust Lao leaders who make public statements that there is no fighting in Laos when Hmong continue to flee to Thailand full of bullet wounds? And some Hmong Americans exploit their fears by telling them to stay in the jungle and that help is on the way. They get screwed by both sides and don't know who to trust."
Laura Xiong, a Hmong advocate in Nebraska in the US, said: "Based on the information I received, the Lao PDR troops no longer open fire at a larger group, but are quietly shooting at them one at a time. This is the new strategy of the Lao military toward the Hmong in the jungle. This may be due to the decrease in the number of people remaining in the jungle."
Davy said: "Yang Lue seems to be very sincere in his desperate pleas for help in monitoring their surrender attempts. He told me just days ago, during our last conversation, that his group has no other choice but to surrender now whether they get killed or not. He asks that the foreign diplomatic community, the United Nations and international human rights monitors intervene to secure their safety.
"Jungle leaders in that area cannot surrender themselves, as they fear they will be killed because they are well-known figures. But they wish for their groups to surrender if they can do so with some obvious safety measures. It is very sad that the international community has not been able to do anything to help these groups after some 32 years in the jungles."
Lao government officials have claimed in recent media interviews there is no fighting in isolated parts of the country. However, reports by Davy and others suggest Laos' total denial of any clashes is just a strategy aimed at minimising disruption to tourism and business - including billions to be spent building dozens of dams for hydropower over the coming years.
Small ambush-style attacks by