Sept. 2, 2006
 
‘Hmong Persecuted and Treated Like Animals in Laos’
 
By HNN Staff
all photos (c) Rebecca Sommer
 
Bangkok, Thailand (Special to HNN) -- Laos and Thailand were the subject of scathing attacks at a press conference in Bangkok Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006 over their treatment of ethnic Hmong in Laos, and the Hmong refugees held in Thailand’s prisons.
 
A delegation of US based human rights advocates accused the Lao government of a horrific campaign to virtually annihilate remaining pockets of Hmong living in hiding, in restricted zones in the communist state.
 
Thailand was also condemned for brutal treatment of Hmong refugees since the beginning of this year, including the jailing of groups of 29 people and 51 people -- mainly women and children -- in “horrible conditions” in Phetchabun and Lomsak police station.
 
Accusations of gross human-rights abuses were aired by US-based activist Rebecca Sommer, who spoke after showing “rough cuts” from her forthcoming documentary “Hunted Like Animals” at the Foreign Correspondents Club. The film features interviews with Hmong refugees who accuse Lao troops of murder, gang rape and use of chemical weapons. It reportedly includes footage smuggled out of Laos by the Fact Finding Commission in recent months.
 
The German activist, who is based in New York, said the film stemmed from interviews with hundreds of people from the “conflict zone.” It is aimed at convincing the United Nations and other relevant decision makers including Thailand, to pressure Vientiane to end its “genocide” of Hmong hiding in small, isolated groups in the Xaysomboum restricted zone. The film is most useful to advocate and to raise awareness that the refugees who fled persecution can not be send back.
 
“As long as Laos continues to persecute the Hmong in the conflict areas, Thailand will have Hmong refugees. Even so Thai has a hard-line policy towards the refugees, all the recent arrivals since 2006 come without an exception from the conflict area, those who can make it will do everything they can, to escape to Thailand, they have no other choice,” Sommer said.
 
Sommer rejected recent claims by the Thai military that most of the Hmong refugees in Phetchabun were “economic refugees who want to go to the US.”
 
“No one who fled the conflict areas is saying they want to go to America. They just want to survive,”Sommer said. “They have no money. They don’t speak Thai or Lao. They’re from the conflict zone. There may be people who want to go to the US, but none of the refugees I spoke to ever mentioned going to the US.”
 
“They are traumatized people, they fled a live in fear and terror. They are not rebels -- most of the groups here are just villagers who got unprovoked attacked and went into hiding. They want to see a tomorrow, and not death all around them, that’s why they are here in Thailand.”
 
The Military Commander in charge of the refugee camp allowed the US based human rights activists access to the refugees last week - even so it is currently off-limit for visitors. “The Commander became growingly alarmed when hearing the shocking details of what these people have endured,” said Xia Kao Vang, “At the beginning he was convinced the refugees are here for economical reasons, now he sees the bigger picture.”
 
Chue Hue Vang said there may be up to 20,000 Hmong caught in zones targeted by the Lao and Vietnamese for “live military training.”
 
Sommer was able to film and interview last week numerous refugees belonging to the two “test groups” of 173 and 241 Hmong, who surrendered 2003 and 2004. “Until now there has been no evidence what happened to them. They informed us that they were tortured, mistreated, many got killed. I filmed women which got gang-raped by the military units until they escaped to Thailand, one got pregnant and her child of rape is with her in the camp. It was horrible, to see the dispair of these emotionally destroyed women. Their testimonies are most important to proof that surrendering is not a real choice, and will be included into my film.”
 
The 3 activists visited on the 28th August eight Hmong refugee groups, which got detained after arriving in Thailand in 2006, and are held in Phetchanun provinces prisons. “We provided money and food to the traumatized detainees, all of them come from the conflict areas of Laos,” said Chue Hue Vang. “After seeing their conditions, we decided to return to Bangkok and to hold a urgent Press conference to ensure, that the UN and other authorities will take action to relief their sufferings.”
 
Sommer informed at the Press conference that especially 2 groups of detainees, 29 Hmong, and 51 Hmong, mainly women and children, held in the Phetchabun jail and Lomsak jail were detained in the most horrible conditions, in the dark, hungry, forced to drink dirty drinking water. “They’re sick and have rashes. They have not seen daylight for many months, some are detained in that condition since January 2006. Most are children, and teenagers and seem mentally broken. We were shocked.”
 
“The US embassy and the UN have already taken action, now we need to see the results, especially the 2 groups must be released from the Phetchabun and Lomask jails, we suggested that they will be allowed to live in the other prisons, were they can go outside, and are allowed to find jobs. The Thai authorities will most likely not allow them to merge into the White Water refugee camp, but at least they must allow them to see daylight, have food, and clean water to drink, most of them are children, it was heartbreaking to see my people behind closed bars held worse than animals,” said Chue Hue Vang.
 
Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey said a day later at a Press conference on the 31. August in Bangkok, that the US is only taking in Hmong asylum seekers who fought on its side during the Vietnam War, The US did not wish to attract other Hmong to come to Thailand to wait for resettlement in the US, she said.
 
“The refugees from the conflict area are second, third and 4th generation of former CIA soldiers, and many are simply villagers. The US can not neglect them just because they are not former CIA soldiers,” said Xia Kao Vang. “All of the refugees from the conflict area will be killed if send back to Laos, or at least severely mistreated, and the US knows that.”
 
The US has asked Thailand not to forcibly return the Hmong if they risk persecution or inhumane treatment.
 
The government had ''said they had no intention of doing that'', said Assistant Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey.
 
Thailand might need help from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to determine who deserved protection and who were economic migrants, she added.
 
''We do recognize that every government has the right to enforce the border and the standard that separates the economic migrant from the refugee is genuine fear of persecution,'' she said.
 
UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, who held talks with caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and several senior officials today, voiced concern about the Hmong people.
 
Speaking to reporters after the talks, he linked his concern to ''the precarious humanitarian situation'' of the Hmong in Phetchabun.”