Sept. 22, 2006
Sommer: Detained Hmong Lao Refugees Finally See Daylight after Months in
Darkness
By David M. Kinchen
Editor, Huntington News Network
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“In Lomsak prison, the women and children from the group of 51 are no longer held inside prison, in the prison Phetchabun city, the police allowed the women and children to go outside for some hours - for the first time,” the German-born, U.S.-based human rights activist and documentary filmmaker said.
In mid-September, the US based Hmong organization Lao Family received two calls, from the two prisons in Thailand, Phetchabun province, where Hmong refugees are held detained like animals, many since beginning of this year, Sommer reported to HNN in a continuing series of news reports on the plight of the Hmong refugees.
"They cried, and laughed, and cried again," said Xia Vang, who received the call from the detained refugees. “They said that in Lomsak prison, the women and children are now living in a house, allowed to go outside, only the men are still inside the prison."
Sommer said Xia Vang was one of three U.S.- based human rights activists who discovered the shocking conditions of 240 Hmong detained refugees, most of them women and children, held in Phetchabun’s prisons.
"We immediately held a large Press conference in Bangkok and the next day the story was in the headlines of Thailand’s news media.”
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"We demand the release of the detained Hmong refugees, in the worst prison in the city of Phetchabun where they are held like animals," said Chue Hue Vang, from the United Hmong International. ”We are pleased that the police allowed them to go outside for some hours."
“We thank the world that you do not forgot about us, “Ze Xiong told Sommer in a phone call. She’s a young mother of three children and added: “My 9 year- old- daughter Bee has stopped talking, she was so depressed after being held for three months in the hot, humid, smelling, pitch black cell. It is like torture, day after day with no light, no food, the dirty water we get to drink, one gives up any hope to live.”
“The darkness of the crowded cell, the hunger, the despair-- haven’t we endured enough, hunted, chased, raped, attacked by the Lao soldiers for the last 30 years?” asked Me Lee, a 70-year-old grandmother.
“I look at our children here, what did they have but a life of fear, desperation, hunger, death, killings, and now months of their life held in the worst nightmare a human being can think of,” Me Lee told Sommer.
“Even so, we were at least safe in the prison, and knew that we escaped definite death by being killed by the Lao military if we would have stayed inside Laos, but during months held in prison -- in complete darkness, we all felt really homesick” said Pokhoua Vue, one of 44 who were allowed to go outside of the 51 detained in prison Lomask. “We missed our forest, we sang songs to each other in the dark, about the beauty of our mountains, the sunlight, the blue sky, and we cried a lot.”
“We human rights advocates have a long road to go, this whole situation is a humanitarian nightmare, at the Hmong Lao refugee camp in Petchabun, there are in official numbers of over 7000 Hmong Lao, all threatened to be send back to Laos” said Lor Thao, president of the 18 Council. “Thailand doesn’t assist even with food assistance, the UN doesn’t assist on a larger scale as needed, now it is the US based Hmong community who has to step in on a short term bases and help at least with food, the people go hungry.”
“We do not understand, why it is so difficult to give these people even food, in my opinion the United States must step in, let’s not forget, most of the Hmong Lao fled Laos because their grandfathers helped the U.S. during the Vietnam war, is that how the US is thanking the children of their former allies?” said Chue Hue Vang, from United Hmong International.
Kue Xiong, the president of Lao Human Rights Council, a Hmong organization based in St. Paul, Minnesota, said “I have no doubts that Thailand starts to react to the growing pressure by Human Rights organizations; last but not least also the media helped a lot -- Thailand looks pretty bad in this whole story."
Keep reading Huntington News Network for more developments on this continuing refugee crisis – one of many in this world.
