AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL USA
PRESS RELEASE
March 23, 2007
Military Attacks Continue Decades After Some Hmong Fought Alongside United States Forces During Vietnam War
(Washington, DC) - Thousands of men, women and children from the Hmong ethnic minority are living in the mountainous jungle to avoid abuses by the Laotian military, according to a new Amnesty International report, Laos: Hiding in the Jungle - Hmong Under Threat. The Lao army continues to mount violent attacks on them, even though the jungle-dwellers' military capacity is all but depleted decades after some Hmong fought in the CIA-funded "secret army" in Laos during the Vietnam War.
The Hmong battled Communist Lao forces alongside the United States in the early 1960s when the Vietnam War spilled across the border. When the Communist forces won in 1975, small numbers of soldiers from the losing side launched armed resistance against the government. The predominantly Hmong groups in the Lao jungles are the remnants and descendents of these factions. Hungry and destitute, they no longer appear able to pose a military threat against the national government.
"The Lao military cannot keep using the excuse of a long-concluded war to continue attacking the country's Hmong minority," said Larry Cox, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "It is the responsibility of the Laotian authorities to reign in the military and bring the abusers to justice."
"In addition, the Laotian government must allow access to international groups to provide humanitarian aid and monitor abuses. The United States needs to come to the aid of the Hmong people in their time of need by applying real pressure to the Laotian government to end this travesty."
Hmong groups frequently move camp to evade the Lao military, which has attacked them with AK-47s and grenades both inside their camps and outside when they search for food. Many of the Hmong civilians, including children, have scars and wounds from bullets and shrapnel. This community spends 12-18 hours a day foraging for roots and husks and is susceptible to malnutrition, diseases and infections from untreated.
Despite numerous reports of killings and attacks by Lao security forces, Amnesty International is aware of only two cases that have been "investigated" by the authorities -- and in both instances the authorities concluded the information about the attacks was fabricated and issued blanket denials. In one of the incidents, in April 2006, 17 children were among the 26 people who had been killed while foraging for food. Survivors said around 15-20 soldiers from the Lao People's Army had ambushed them with rocket-propelled grenades.
One young woman named "Pakou" described how her family was captured in the jungle when she was 18. She was taken alone to a police post where she was locked in a room for a year with two other Hmong women. They were repeatedly gang-raped by the police and made to do housework. After a year, "Pakou" managed to escape, traumatized, across the border to Thailand.
Many others who flee to Thailand face unlawful deportation by the Thai authorities, before they have been assessed by the United Nations refugee agency. Even those who have been recognized as refugees are at risk of deportation to the violence and abuse they fled in Laos. Around 350 Lao Hmong men, women and children are currently in Thai detention, at imminent risk of forcible return.
The Lao authorities refuse to allow human rights organizations unfettered access to areas of concern and only limited information is available about the fate of those Hmong who are deported back from Thailand or who choose to come down from the jungles to try to integrate into Lao society.
In December 2006, 420 people emerged from the jungle in the north-eastern province of Xieng Khouang, apparently seeking to join mainstream society. Some 370 people had similarly left the jungle near the northern tourist town of Vang Vieng two months earlier. Nothing has been heard from either group since and Amnesty International is concerned for their safety.
"We urge the Lao authorities to make public what has happened to these two groups," said T. Kumar, Amnesty International USA Advocacy Director for Asia and the Pacific. "And they must allow U.N. bodies to have access to them."
The Hmong living in the jungle have little contact with the outside world. Some journalists attempting to document their condition have been imprisoned. Amnesty International's new report is largely based on interviews with Hmong asylum seekers and refugees in Thailand in March 2006 and early 2007, and further interviews with individuals connected to the Hmong, including relatives, advocates and reporters.
Hmong war refugees began resettling in the United States after the communist takeover of Laos in 1975. The 2000 U.S. Census counted more than 185,000 persons of Hmong ancestry in the United States. The states with the largest Hmong populations are California, Minnesota and Wisconsin, but there are Hmong communities across the country.
Contact: Jason Opeña Disterhoft 202-544-0200 x302
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