Laos Troops Gang Rape Hmong Girl, Kill 5 Civilians - UPDATED

"Laos, under the LPDR military junta, remains one of the world's most repressive societies, especially given its intimate working relationship with the dictatorships in North Korea and Burma, two of its closest military and political allies in Asia," said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington, D.C. and Nong Khai, Thailand and July 21, 2009 - Laos troops have gang raped and killed an 18 year old Hmong girl they captured along with four other Laotian and Hmong civilians during recent Lao military attacks. At least 5 civilians died in the most recent Lao military offensive directed against Lao and Hmong dissidents and civilians hiding from the Lao regime in the Phou Bia Mountain area of Laos.

"According to redundant and reliable reports from inside Laos, government soldiers of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic ( LPDR ) have attacked unarmed Hmong civilians at the Phou Bia mountain area of Laos on July 13-14 killing at least five Hmong villagers at one location in the mountain area, including an 18 year old woman who was captured by Lao Communist soldiers, gang raped and killed after her unfortunate abduction, torture and sexual assault," said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis ( CPPA ) in Washington, D.C. "The Hmong lady who was captured died a cruel and sad death, evidently similar to those horrific images capture on tape in 2004, when Lao soldiers were secretly videotaped gang raping Lao Hmong women and children prior to their torture and summary execution; Amnesty International issued appeals and statements following these earlier attacks in 2004 and 2007."
http://asiapacific.amnesty.org/aidoc/ai.nsf/Index/ENGASA260042004
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/003/2007

According to Smith: "Laos, under the LPDR military junta, remains one of the world's most repressive societies, especially given its intimate working relationship with the dictatorships in North Korea and Burma, two of its closest military and political allies in Asia; We urge Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to raise this issue along with the issue of growing international opposition to the forced repatriation of Hmong refugees with the government of Laos and Thailand at the ASEAN conference she is participating in Phuket, Thailand in the coming days."

"The LPDR government soldiers had attacked Hmong at Phou Bia,on July 13th and 14th, 2009, four people died immediately and a 18 years old was captured by the Lao soldiers and she was raped and killed afterward," said Vaughn Vang of the Lao Hmong Human Rights Council in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

In June, thirty-two ( 32 ) Members of the U.S. Congress led by Rep. Dennis Cardoza ( D-CA ) and Rep. Patrick Kennedy ( D-RI ) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the United States and Thailand to intervene to halt the forced repatriation of Hmong refugees from two of the remaining camps at Ban Huay Nam Khao, Pethchabun Province and Nong Khai, Thailand.

"We urge the Lao communist regime to immediately stop its military and security force attacks against unarmed Lao and Hmong civilians and peaceful political and religious dissidents in Laos," stated Bounthanh Rathigna, President of the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. "We call upon the Lao regime, and its military chiefs, to also release the imprisoned Lao student leaders and political dissidents of the October 1999 movement for democracy, who peacefully protested in Vientiane against the current LPDR regime and urged positive change in Laos and a multi-party democracy with human rights and the guarantee of basic human freedoms."

Freedom House, a non-governmental organization, has recently issued a report detailing human rights abuses in Laos. The communist regime in Laos remains a one-party, military dictatorship closely allied with the military juntas in North Korea and Burma. Laos, under the Stalinist regime, is listed in Freedom House's "2009 Worst of the Worst" report which describes the most egregious countries in the world involved with violating the human rights of their citizens.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=383&report=81

Contact: Maria Gomez
Tele. ( 202 ) 543-1444
info@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

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