March 26, 2007
 
HMONG REFUGEE CRISIS: Rights Groups Report New Chemical Poison Used to Eliminate the Hmong Hiding in Jungles of Laos
 
By David M. Kinchen
Editor, Huntington News Network
 
According to a spokesman for the U.S.-based organization Lao Human Rights Council, Laotian military forces used a so far unknown chemical poison against hundreds of ethnic Hmong people, who have been hiding for more than 30 years in remote jungles of communist Laos -- in fear of persecution.
 
“The Hmong were hiding at Phoua Dapho and reported that one single military airplane circled for an hour over the forest where the Hmong where hiding on March 1, 2007. A day later, more than 200 Hmong people became sick, they started to feel nausea , vomited, came down with severe diarrhea with blood in it,” says Vaughn Vang, director of the human rights organization. “They said that nobody died, but they were severely poisoned from this unknown chemical poison.”
 
Vang added: “The military usually attacks with a chemical poison against our people which is visible by a kind of smoke, but this chemical weapon was completely invisible to the Hmong group in hiding. When it must have been sprayed and contaminated the food and water, the group says that they did not see anything falling down from the airplane.”
 
“Ten days later, while the Hmong still recovered from the severe effects of the poison in their scattered hiding places in make-shift shelter homes, military ground troops suddenly launched an attack towards their areas with far range weapons while moving in,” Vang added.
 
While it is not known how many of the Hmong group where able to retreat and hide in the forest, two young Hmong, and five children were too weak to run, and were killed on the spot, Vang told HNN. Twelve others are known to be wounded, he said.
 
The military forces are described by the Hmong-in-hiding as Vietnamese and Laotian, Vang added.
 
“They say that during the attacks some soldiers communicated with each other in Vietnamese,” he said. “ Hmong which had been hiding undetected in the forest overheard passing soldiers who spoke Vietnamese and Laotian language among each other.”
 
“They destroyed our make-shift shelters and food storages, and after they killed the remaining sick people who did not escape, soldiers marched to the other side of the mountain, and attacked another Hmong group a day later. We heard the weapons, but don’t know if they survived the attack; we do not have contact to the other Hmong group living in hiding over there, because we are surrounded and trapped here by military forces which are trying to eliminate us all, ” said one Hmong group member in his testimony, which the Lao Human Rights Council recorded on tape.
 
“There is no doubt that military forces attack internally displaced Lao Hmong people in those mountains even so the international community is not allowed access to these regions,” said Rebecca Sommer, of the Society for Threatened Peoples International.
 
“The groups are dispersed, no one knows how many casualties there really are,” said Kue Xiong, president of the Hmong Lao Human Rights Council. “It is a nightmare, the attacks are getting worse as we speak, who will rescue them?”
 
“The lack of response from the United States government and the United Nations is most disappointing,” said Lee Pao Xiong, the director of the Center for Hmong Studies, Concordia University, St. Paul, MN.
 
Minnesota and Wisconsin are home to large numbers of Hmong refugees who were fortunate enough to make it to the States after the Vietnam War ended in the mid-1970s.
 
“We appeal to the United States of America, the United Nations and the world community to save our lives.” said Yang Toua Thao, the leader of the attacked group-in-hiding, ”Someone needs to ask the Lao government to stop attacking us.”
 
“The Hmong people in the jungle need real amnesty, third parties and donor countries must involve in this process, to end the legancy of the Vietnam War,” Said Cy Thao, a member of the Minnesota legislature.
 
Sommer told HNN: “There is mounting evidence, there is a new report on the Hmong by Amnesty International which just came out, everything is directing towards gross human rights violations on the Hmong who live in hiding inside of Laos, but the issue still hasn’t been tackled. Something must be done so that the remaining people have a chance to survive.”
 
"The Hmong groups living in the jungle are destitute -- the Lao authorities have a responsibility to protect them, not least because of the children involved. Instead, their regular attacks mean the groups live in perpetual danger of their lives," said Natalie Hill, Deputy Asia Pacific Director at Amnesty International.
 
"The Lao authorities must end all attacks against the Hmong people living in the jungle and allow access to international organizations that can provide humanitarian aid and monitor human rights abuses." Hill added.
 
“Uncle, I am poisoned, I can not move so weak I am, I do not know how long I will live, please ask the relatives in the US to pray with a ‘Fiv Yem’ ceremony for us, so that we may survive this.” Said Vang Yee Vang, while his words where dutifully recorded by his U.S.-based Hmong relative Vaughn Vang.
 
“My relatives still live in the jungle. They cry, I cry too. They have a solar panel satellite telephone which was smuggled into the area some years ago, since than I have many many tapes of recorded testimonies, their cries for help --- addressed to the UN, to the US, to our Hmong leaders here, to organizations,” said a board member of the Lao Human Rights Council, “Some translated recordings where submitted to higher up authorities, to the UN, to the US Sate department, or to human rights organizations, but here I am, March 2007, and still prepare the “Fiv Yem” ceremony for my relatives -- which are still hiding and dying in Laos.”
 
Currently, the group of Yang Thoua Thao is still under heavy attack by long- range weapons, said Vaughn Vang.