Laos, Hmong Author Lauds U.S. Congressional Action on Veterans’ Bill

Saturday, July 31, 2010

”This legislation, if enacted, will allow them to rest eternally near other veterans of that war. This will provide dignified recognition of their important and unique role in U.S. military history," Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt stated.

Online PR News – 30-July-2010 – Washington, D.C., Madison and Green Bay, Wisconsin, Minneapolis & St. Paul, Minnesota and Fresno, California, June 31, 2010

U.S. Congressional action in support of Lao and Hmong veterans was lauded by noted Southeast Asia scholar, author and human rights advocate Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt.

On Tuesday, legislation was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by the Honorable Jim Costa (D-Central Valley, CA) to seek to grant burial benefits to Lao and Hmong veterans who served in combat during the Vietnam War in defense of the Royal Kingdom of Laos and U.S. military and clandestine forces.

"Providing burial benefits in our national cemeteries for the surviving Lao Hmong veterans is a most meaningful way to honor the extreme sacrifices made by the Lao Hmong soldiers who were the backbone of the U.S. military effort in the Lao theater of the Vietnam War,” said Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt.

This legislation, if enacted, will allow them to rest eternally near other veterans of that war. This will provide dignified recognition of their important and unique role in U.S. military history," Hamilton-Merritt said.

Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt has undertaken countless trips to Lao and Hmong refugees in Southeast Asia and has repeatedly testified in the U.S. Congress about the plight of the Lao Hmong people. She is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee for her humanitarian and human rights work on behalf of the Lao and Hmong.

Over the years, Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt worked with Members of Congress on this important veteran's issue. http:///www.tragicmountains.org

In 2009-10, she was again honored and recognized by the Lao Veterans of America Institute and Lao Veterans of America, Inc., and others, in Washington, D.C. and Fresno, California, for her important work on behalf of the Lao and Hmong people as well as to mark the 15th anniversary of the publication of her book “Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, The Americans and the Secret Wars for Laos.”

The historic legislation, House Resolutin 5879 (HR 5879) , was introduced by U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (D-CA), Devin Nunes (R-CA), George Radanovich (R-CA), Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI), Tim Holden (D-PA), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Bill Delahunt (D-MA), Steve Kagen (D-WI), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Joesph Cao (R-LA), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Jim Langevin (D-RI), Mike Honda (D-CA), Sue Myrick (R-NC), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Collin Peterson (D-MN), and others.

“Our Hmong veterans fought shoulder-to-shoulder with American soldiers during the Vietnam war,” stated U.S. Congressman Jim Costa.

“Many paid the ultimate sacrifice… Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to these patriotic individuals and their service should be honored with burial benefits in our National Cemeteries,” Costa said.

“We are happy and pleased… that if enacted, the legislation would provide full veterans burial benefits in American National Cemeteries to Lao Hmong veterans who served in support of U.S. forces in the Kingdom of Laos during the Vietnam War,” said Colonel Wangyee Vang, National President and founder of the Lao Veterans of America Institute (LVAI). http://www.media-newswire.com/release_1123225.html

“… we are very grateful to U.S. Congressman Costa and his colleagues in the U.S. Congress who have worked so very hard to help to make this legislation a reality and introduce it,” Vang commented.

Colonel Vang concluded: “Our Laotian and Hmong veterans and their refugee families across the United States are honored and deeply grateful for the potential opportunity… to be buried in U.S. National Cemeteries along with the American veterans we helped to defend and save during the Vietnam War; We fought side-by-side with American forces and clandestine troops of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in defense of the Royal Kingdom of Laos and the United States.” http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20100728006607/en/Laos-Hmong-Veterans-Vietnam-War-Honored-Congress

“Clearly, U.S. Congressman Jim Costa’s bipartisan leadership, along with his colleagues in the U.S. Congress, in support of the Lao and Hmong veterans and their families across America, gives hope and dignity to the plight of the Lao and Hmong community and the veterans who seek to be buried with honor in America’s National Veterans Cemeteries,” said Philip Smith, Director of the Washington, D.C.-based CPPA. http://centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

Earlier this year, and in previous years, national memorial and policy events were conducted at Arlington National Cemetery and the U.S. Congress by the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., Lao Veterans of America Institute, Counterparts, Inc., Center for Public Policy Analysis, Hmong Advance, Inc., Hmong Advancement, Inc. in cooperation with other organizations and Members of the U.S. Congress. http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100608007501&newsLang=en


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Bill Would Honor Hmong Veterans at Burial

Friday, July 30, 2010

A military funeral honors those who served this country. But right now, Hmong veterans can not be buried at National Cemeteries. If a proposed bill becomes law, thousands who put their life at risk to help American soldiers would finally be honored.

By Norma Yuriar

Fresno, Calif. (KMPH News) — Two friends in combat lay next to each other at Fresno's Mountain View Cemetery, one American and one Hmong. A burial like this is only possible at private cemeteries, at National Cemeteries it's out of the question.

"We have no right to go there," Hmong Veteran Wangyee Vang said.

But, that could soon change. Valley Congressman Jim Costa introduced a bill Tuesday that would recognize Hmong soldiers as American servicemen and provide them the same burial benefits in National Cemeteries.

"They lost their country fighting for us," Vietnam veteran Keith Rudolf said. "What are we supposed to do, turn our backs?"

Vang and about 6,900 other Hmong soldiers who served in support of U.S. forces in the Vietnam War – are still alive today. At the age of 63, Vang is now head of Fresno's Lao Veterans of America. Vang says it's urgent the bill become law. Many of the Hmong soldiers that survived the war are now elderly.

"Here in the central valley, Fresno alone, sometimes 2 or 3 people at the same time pass away," Vang said.

"It's a sad issue that has to be brought up" Rudolf said. "I mean it's not a huge number. We are not going to crowd anybody else out of our cemeteries, so why don't we honor the people that fought for us."

The military color guard and burial squad from Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 8900 honors Hmong veterans.

"Yes, that's as far as we can go to honor our comrades," Rudolf said. "I call them comrades because I feel like they fought on the field of war with us, they helped us. I call them comrades."

Vang says it took ten years to pass a law that now recognizes Hmong veterans as U.S. citizens. He hopes this time things will move a lot faster. According to Lao Veterans of American, about 500 Hmong veterans live in Fresno. Vang says many of them are sixty years old and older.

The closest national cemetery is the San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery in Santa Nella. It's nearly ninety miles outside Fresno.

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Bill would give burial rights to Hmong veterans

Thursday, July 29, 2010

FRESNO, Calif.—Members of the country's Hmong community who fought with U.S. forces during the Vietnam War would be eligible for burial in national cemeteries under a bill introduced by a Fresno congressman.

Hmong groups say legislation like the bill Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, introduced Tuesday is long overdue and would give them the recognition they deserve.

"It means a great deal to the community," said Bao Vang, president and chief executive of the Hmong American Partnership, a Minnesota-based community development organization. "Hmong lost many lives due to the war."

The Hmong are an ethnic minority from the mountains of Laos. Thousands of Hmong soldiers fought under CIA advisers—an effort that was not acknowledged publicly by American officials for years—during the war to back a pro-American Lao government. A communist victory in 1975 forced them to flee, with many going to Thailand and the United States.

Census figures show more than 65,000 Hmong live in California, including 48,000 in Fresno. Other large Hmong communities are in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

"Our Hmong veterans fought shoulder to shoulder with American soldiers during the Vietnam War," Costa said in a statement. "Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to these patriotic individuals, and their service should be honored with burial benefits in our national cemeteries."

About 6,900 Hmong around the country would be eligible for the burial privileges if the bill passed, according to Costa. The Department of Veterans Affairs would have to verify their service.

Costa said he was able to finally introduce the bill after garnering the support of 22 other members of Congress, who co-sponsored it.

Will Crain, a spokesman for Costa, acknowledged that time was quickly running out to pass the bill in the current session.

"Looking at the legislative calendar, there's not a huge timeframe under which to move this," he said. "But we're going to continue to build support for it."

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Laos, Hmong Veterans Burial Bill Spearheaded By Jim Costa to Honor Veterans, Community

"We are very grateful to U.S. Congressman Jim Costa and his colleagues in the U.S. Congress who have worked so very hard to help to make this legislation a reality and introduce it in the U.S. Congress today," said Colonel Wangyee Vang, National President and founder of the Lao Veterans of America Institute and Lao Veterans of America, Inc.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington, D.C., and Fresno, California, July 27, 2010 - U.S. Congressman Jim Costa ( D-CA ) and a bipartisan coalition of 22 Members of Congress have introduced legislation today in Washington, D.C., to honor Laotian and Hmong Veterans in the Central Valley of California and across the United States. The historic legislation would provide burial benefits in National Cemeteries to Hmong Veterans who served in support of U.S. forces in the Vietnam War.

“Our Hmong Veterans fought shoulder to shoulder with American soldiers during the Vietnam war,” said U.S. Congressman Jim Costa.

Congressman Costa continued: “Many paid the ultimate sacrifice and I am proud that Hmong Veterans now call places like our Valley home. Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to these patriotic individuals and their service should be honored with burial benefits in our National Cemeteries.”

“U.S. Congressman Costa’s bipartisan leadership, along with his colleagues in the U.S. Congress, in support of the Lao and Hmong veterans and their families across the United States gives hope and dignity the plight of the Lao Hmong community and the veterans who seek to be buried with honor in America’s National Veterans Cemeteries,” said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis. Smith also serves as the Washington, D.C. Director for the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., the nation’s largest Laotian and Hmong veterans organization.

“We are very grateful to U.S. Congressman Jim Costa and his colleagues in the U.S. Congress who have worked so very hard to help to make this legislation a reality and introduce it in the U.S. Congress today,” said Colonel Wangyee Vang, National President and founder of the Lao Veterans of America Institute and Lao Veterans of America, Inc. which is headquartered in Fresno, California.

“This important and historic new legislation will make our Laotian and Hmong-American veterans and the Lao-Hmong community in the United States very pleased and happy,” Colonel Wangyee Vang continued. “Our Laotian and Hmong veterans and their refugee families across the United States are honored and deeply grateful for the potential opportunity this legislation affords to be buried in U.S. National Cemeteries along with the American veterans we helped to defend and save during the Vietnam War; We fought side by side with American soldiers and clandestine troops of the Central Intelligence Agency in defense of the United States and in defense of the Royal Kingdom of Laos and America.”

In May of this year, the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., the Lao Veterans of America Institute, the Center for Public Policy Analysis, Counterparts, Inc., Hmong Advance, Inc. and Hmong Advancement, Inc. held ceremonies in Arlington National Cemetery with the U.S. Department of Defense to honor Lao and Hmong veterans and their American advisers who served in Laos during the Vietnam War.
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Contact:

Ms. Maria Gomez or Philip Smith
( 202 ) 543-1444
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Colonel Wangyee Vang
Lao Veterans of America Institute
( 559 )252-3921

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Bill would allow Hmong veterans' burial in national cemeteries

WASHINGTON — As the years went by and more Hmong war veterans passed with them, Charlie Waters attended funerals and read eulogies for the oft-forgotten allies in the U.S. war in Southeast Asia.

Now, after years of lobbying and with the help of California lawmakers who introduced a bill Tuesday to make some 6,900 Hmong veterans eligible for internment in U.S. national cemeteries, Waters may soon address the Hmong at their proper burial grounds.

"It's been a long time coming," said Waters, judge advocate for the American Legion in the Central Valley and legislative adviser for the Special Guerrilla Units veterans. Elated and emotionally stirred by the proposed bill, some Hmong "are hardly able to talk today," Waters said.

Hmong veterans, who fought alongside the CIA and U.S. Special Forces during the Vietnam War, have long sought to gain access to those hallowed grounds. Now, more than 30 years after participating in a covert operation in the mountains of Laos, the Hmong likely will be honored by Congress and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for their service.

"Our Hmong veterans fought shoulder to shoulder with American soldiers during the Vietnam War," said Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, who introduced the bill. "Many paid the ultimate sacrifice, and I am proud that Hmong veterans now call places like our Valley home. Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to these patriotic individuals and their service should be honored with burial benefits in our national cemeteries."

Leaders of the Hmong community say that winning the burial rights demonstrates a U.S. commitment to give the estimated tens of thousands of Hmong and Lao who died in the war and the remaining veterans the recognition they deserve.

"If we're able to get something like that (proposed bill) in place, it means a great deal to the community," said Bao Vang, president and chief executive of the Hmong American Partnership, a Minnesota-based community development organization that is supporting the legislation. "Hmong lost many lives due to the war. There's not that many Hmong veterans remaining. ... This is definitely a step in the right direction."

According to the 2000 Census, more than 65,000 Hmong live in California, including some 48,000 in Fresno. Other large Hmong communities in the U.S. are in Minnesota, with 45,930, and Wisconsin, with 31,578.

"We just kind of abandoned those folks when we left Vietnam. They came here; they didn't ask for anything," Waters said.

With the help of 22 co-sponsors, Costa said he had garnered enough support in Congress to finally propose the legislation. Though he expects the bill to pass, Costa said he'll need to educate his fellow members of Congress about the story of the Hmong veterans.

Part of that lesson is to understand the monumental sacrifices Hmong veterans made to help the U.S. fight communist North Vietnam, Waters said.

"So many of the young congressmen don't understand ... so many of them are not Vietnam-era people," Waters said. "These people ... they gave up everything. The least we can do is honor them."

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Among the Hmong: A new farming culture takes root in North Carolina

HICKORY, N.C. -- Pahoua Xiong, wearing hip, black-framed Ray Ban glasses and girlish pink rain boots, is standing on the side of a rice paddy outside Hickory, N.C.

The rice paddy is built in four squares, tiered down the slope of a small hill on the Hmong-owned farm that Mai Kia Her runs with her extended family.

Water trickles from one square down to the next. Palm-size butterflies dart over the lush green stalks. You can't see the rice yet. The heads of grain are mostly still inside the stalks, waiting to emerge in August for harvest in September. But you can smell it, a light, warm scent like rice being toasted in a dry pan.



"Can you smell it?" Xiong calls. "It smells so good."

Yes, there is rice growing in North Carolina these days. And a lot more, a cornucopia from Southeast Asia: Bumpy bitter melons and football-sized red cucumbers, Chinese long beans and snake gourd, dark green clusters of yu choi and bok choy, lemon grass, amaranth and daikon radishes.

You can find a lot of it at local markets, where Hmong farmers stand behind tables piled with mint and Thai basil, neat stacks of green onions and piles of bright green vines, from sweet potato to Asian pumpkin.

For three years, Pahoua Xiong (pronounced pah-WHO-ah Zhong) has helped to distribute those vegetables. She translates for agricultural agents and drives visitors around on farm tours, explains American marketing to her Laotian clients, even puts Hickory's Hmong farm program on Facebook and Twitter.

Born in California to a Hmong family, she wanted to get away from farming as a kid. She went to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and got a psychology degree. But she got pulled back to the fields to run a program that has put Hmong refugees back onto farms and helped them spread out to farmers markets all over the Piedmont.

"Couldn't find a job," says Xiong, 26, bumping her aging van around country roads in Catawba County, N.C., last week. "Figured I'd come back and contribute to my community."

With an estimated 15,000, North Carolina is believed to have the fourth-largest Hmong population in the U.S. Most of the N.C. Hmong (pronounced "mong") live in Alexander, Burke, Caldwell and Catawba counties, with a few in Lincoln, Stanly and Gaston counties.

Why there? It's the hills, say the agriculture agents who work with them. The rolling hills of the Piedmont look like the terrain the Hmong knew in Laos. The climate is similar, too, with hot, humid summers. And there's a price factor: Small farmers can't afford land in urban areas.

Starting in 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service's Office of Refugee Resettlement spread 10 grants around the country to help Hmong refugees get back to the farming they knew in Laos and turn it into a way to support themselves.

Using a $395,000, three-year grant, North Carolina A&T University in Greensboro teamed up with Hickory's United Hmong Association to form HRAPP - Hmong Rural Agricultural Partnership Program. Starting with 12 families, it has grown to 34 farms. Lara Worden, an agriculture extension agent based in Gaston County, has taught growers schools for HRAPP, focusing on how to set up tables and sell at farmers markets.

"Before we started this program, most of them were not familiar with selling directly to consumers or using farmers markets," she says. "Everything they grew, they consumed on their own. Before we started with them three years ago, there were only one or two going to farmers markets. We're now up to 13 families. That's a big jump."

It's actually bigger than that, says Lincoln County Extension director Kevin Starr. Since so many Hmong farmers live in extended families, those 13 can account for even more farm stands.

"A vendor that has gone and taken hold at a farmers market, that means a lot. At times, we've had more markets than we've had vendors. So anything we can do to add to the pool of farmers is a good thing."

Selling at farmers markets is natural for entrepreneurs. It doesn't cost much to rent a $5 or $10 space. But for the Asian farmers, drawing customers has been harder.

know you," says Worden. "They don't like to speak directly to a stranger. And that can be a problem in selling at farmers markets, where establishing a relationship and regular customers is key." Worden has learned that even when Hmong understand English, they will use a translator if one is available, fearing they won't understand or will be misunderstood.

Walking through the fields on a Hmong farm is a different experience than walking around an American one. Most crops aren't planted in rows, and few fields have only one crop.

At Mai Kia Her's farm, one field has radishes among mustard greens among pepper plants. Melon vines snake around corn stalks, sugar cane rises above jicama, Brussels sprouts bump up against cabbages.

Keith Baldwin, an extension specialist and program leader at N.C. A&T, says there are advantages to growing that way. If you don't concentrate things together, it helps confuse insects. When one crop is blooming, it draws pests away from the other crops.

On several farms, a row of corn is planted in front of the rice. Back in Laos, people learned that wild animals, particularly boar, are attracted to the smell of rice. So they plant corn to mask the scent.

"They're very innovative in what they do," says Worden. "They're not as reliant on technology as we are. It just overwhelms me, what they come up with."

In Hickory, HRAPP has turned an acre of reclaimed land behind the Blackburn Landfill into a demonstration farm, where six families share space.

To help the farmers do better at markets, agriculture agents have encouraged them to grow traditional American foods along with Asian ones. So there's a section of plastic-covered rows where the families can try out American-style row farming. A high tunnel - an unheated greenhouse that can extend the growing season - got knocked down by snow last winter, but Baldwin hopes to rebuild it this fall.

Blia Vue, who lives between Hickory and Connolly Springs, is trying fingerling potatoes and purple corn on her plot, alongside her Asian-style red cucumbers and amaranth.

Za Xue Yang and his wife, Cho Yang, are growing rice in a dry field instead of a flooded paddy. Rice yields better in water, but it's cheaper to grow in dry fields, without the expense of water and electricity to run pumps.

The rice that is growing on almost all the Hmong farms is Worden's main frustration: American customers would love it, but Hmong families really don't want to sell it. It represents a lot of work. Paddies are dug by hand, rice is harvested and dehulled by hand.

"They save it for their own consumption," she says. "And when they sell it, they sell it for a pretty penny." Hmong sticky rice, used at holidays, usually sells for $25 a gallon.

"It is to die for," she says. "It is really wonderful rice. And traditional American culture would buy that, because it is familiar."

Farming replaces lost jobs

The grant that started HRAPP three years ago came at exactly the right time. Right after the program started, the economy crashed.

"In this culture, women stay home and do the farming and the husbands take jobs away from home, usually in factories," says Worden. "A lot of them lost their factory jobs and were back on the farm. They had to get another source of income."

Not only husbands lost jobs. Mai Kia Her lost her own job in a hosiery mill. So she and her four sons and two daughters, ranging in age from 14 to 32, cleared the trees from the fields and dug the rice paddies. Until recently, when the heat slowed down her green beans, she had been selling at the Denver farmers market.

Could she make enough at markets to replace what she made at the mill?

"Because this is her first year, she doesn't really know," Xiong says. "She could maybe make that much if she was to produce on a larger scale."

Before the HRAPP program ends in September, Xiong hopes to produce a booklet that Hmong farmers could use at markets to explain what things are and how to cook them.

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Hmong Summer Festival livens up Kiwanis Park

Mai Shoua of Sheboygan hustles with the football during a flag football game Saturday July 24, 2010 at the Hmong Summer Festival at Kiwanis Park in Sheboygan. (Photo by Gary C. Klein/The Sheboygan Press)


Hli Thao waited patiently with her team, watching the field attentively and keeping an eye on the competition.

Thao, 18, from Milwaukee, was a cornerback on the hopefully named Vanquishers, one of hundreds of young women and men who came to the Hmong Summer Festival over the weekend to prove their athletic abilities.

"We practice really hard," said Thao as she waited to take on the Annihilators. Right after that, her next game was to be against the Tsunami.

If it sounds fierce, that's because it is.

The Hmong Summer Festival routinely draws around 5,000 people to Kiwanis Park for authentic, homemade Asian food, a spectacular array of items for sale — from toys and jewelry to fresh herbs and lacy bras — and, of course, the sports.

"Most everybody here are for sports," said Chou Vang, 23, of Sheboygan, as he waited with his wife and two daughters, Julina, 2, and Sophia, 2 months, for his volleyball game to start. "I would say 80 percent of the people here are for sports. This is what it's basically about, playing sports. It's just a way to have fun and it's only once a year."

His wife, however, had an entirely different favorite.

"The food and the vendors," said Pahoua, 22. "I love coming to buy stuff."

Like any summer festival, the main thoroughfare was lined on both sides with vendors keeping their tables and tents looking neat and attractive. And loud Hmong-language music from both sides joined thousands of voices to create a friendly cacophony.

There were tables piled high with sparkly high-heeled shoes, heavy silver jewelry glinting in the sun and bins full of DVDs, many of them American classics like "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," translated into Hmong.

One vendor was hawking colored contact lenses, and the food booths were really more like outdoor restaurants, with tents overhead and cloth-covered tables.

From the old men shopping with their toddler granddaughters to the young couples holding hands as they walked and middle-aged people dressed in suits and high heels, everyone, no matter what they were doing, gave at least an occasional glance toward the athletic fields.

Xay Hang, 21, went so far as to dye his jet-black mohawk bright blue for the football tournament he was in with his team, called Team Sheboygan.

It's not as dramatic as many other team names, but there's a good reason.

For one thing, Hang said, "Our city's small, so we want to represent our city."

For another, Team Sheboygan is a new team made up of two smaller teams, the Juggernauts and Unrivaled.

"We knew we weren't gonna win because of the size of the teams," said Chai Xiong, 24. "So with combining the teams we knew we'd have a better chance to take first. And that's what we're here to do. We want to take first in Sheboygan, our home turf."

Carl Hintzelman, 23, was one of the few non-Asian faces in the tournament, but the name on the back of his jersey, "Mekas Dab," which means "white monster," said it all.

"My girlfriend's Hmong," he said. "I know a lot of these guys from cars and work and school and stuff, so I'm good friends with them."

Team Sheboygan was one of only two hometown teams in the tournament, and the other one was a new team that was just getting started.

"Oh, we can beat 'em," Hintzelman said.

Teams compete for cash prizes, and Xiong said the top prize for football was $2,000.

"It's just basically for the team, for us to grow and get better," he said.

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Hmong presence growing at Farmer's Market

   
Yeng Yang, left, and his mother, Mee Xiong, set raspberries out at their booth at the Dane County Farmer’s Market. Michelle Stocker -- The Capital Times

Yeng Yang credits much of his family's success in a new country to the Dane County Farmers' Market and other area farmers' markets.

"If it weren't for this, I don't know where our family would be," said Yang during some rare downtime between markets.

Yang's parents, like many other Hmong immigrants, came to the United States after the Vietnam War with agricultural skills but little else. Farmers' markets gave them a way to earn money and build a better life for themselves and their children.

The family is part of a growing Hmong presence at the Dane County market, where 40 or so Hmong farmers - about 12 percent to 15 percent of the market's membership - set up stalls each week.

Farmers markets are especially important for recent immigrants, said Alfonso Morales, an assistant professor of urban and regional planning at UW-Madison and an expert on public markets. A market, such as the Dane County Farmers' Market, where shoppers pay a premium, gives the Hmong a better outlet than a roadside stand or another farmers' market because of its great reputation and its large, affluent customer base.

The income they make frequently gets plowed back into their operations and paid forward through investment in their children, he said.

The Yang family has been very successful. Yang, 25, is a graduate of East High School and attends college in Minnesota. His oldest brother teaches at the college level. One of his sisters is a pharmacist. Each of his four brothers and three sisters are successful in their own right, Yang said.

The family's business, Yang's Fresh Produce, has a stand at the Saturday market on the Square, then it's off to sell at other markets: Park Street on Tuesdays, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard on Wednesdays, Middleton and Fitchburg on Thursdays, Lodi on Fridays and Beloit on Sundays.

Selling everything from beans and peas to herbs and berries, they can make between $8,000 and $20,000 a month, when Yang combines revenue from all the markets they work each week. Yang's Fresh Produce also sells to the Regent Market Co-op, the Willy Street Co-op, and the restaurants L'Etoile and the Old Fashioned.

Larry Johnson, Dane County Farmers' Market manager, said the success of a Hmong farmer hinges on the products sold.

"They sometimes will bring their cultural vegetables, but customers don't always know what to do with them," he said.

Hmong farmers often rent their land, Johnson said, but now more are beginning to buy their land.

The family rents garden space in two-acre parcels in Fitchburg, town of Dunn and Deerfield.

Both Yang and his sister, Christina, emphasize that farming is hard work. In the future, Christina Yang said, she doesn't want her mother to work so hard. One thing that motivates the children in the family to be successful is the desire to support their mother in her old age, she said.

"Look at how much she works, how hard she works. We don't want to live our lives that way," she said.

Phil Yang, who teaches at Edgewood College in the school of education, said the market has been a vehicle to help his family economically and educationally.

It has also given his younger siblings, many of whom grew up in the United States, a chance to learn about farming and, in turn, about traditional Hmong culture, since the Hmong are an agricultural society, said Phil Yang, who was born in Laos and came to the U.S. at age 13.

Selling at the market also helps the family give back to the community, he said. "To be able to do something like this is something we can really feel proud of, being part of the American Society."

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Hmong Refugees Live in Fear in Laos and Thailand

Ethnic Hmong refugees stand inside a truck in Phetchabun province, Thailand, during an operation to deport thousands of asylum seekers to Laos, on Dec. 28, 2009

Recently, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Laos Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith met in Washington for the highest-level talks between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam War. For the U.S., the meeting was part of a strategy to re-engage with Asia, while Laos hoped the D.C. visit would boost trade. After years of frosty relations following America's carpet bombing of Laos in the 1960s and '70s, the meeting was overall a symbolic break with the past.
Improved relations with the U.S. would surely benefit most citizens of Laos — though not everyone is so upbeat about the possibility. Meeting TIME at a secret location in Thailand, a Laotian Hmong refugee who recently escaped a repatriation camp in Laos says the Washington exchange will do nothing to help thousands of Hmong still being persecuted in Laos. "They are only talking about imports and exports, not how to help Hmong people who once supported America," says Pao Chang (an alias used for security).
During the Vietnam War, the CIA enlisted more than 60,000 Hmong from the Royal Lao Army to form a secret army to disrupt Communist supply lines and rescue American pilots. Fierce mercenaries, the Hmong acted as an effective counter to North Vietnam's growing support base in Laos. When the Communists won and the CIA left, a handful of senior Hmong were flown out, but the majority remaining faced Communist retribution for siding with America. The Pathet Lao publicly announced they would wipe out the Hmong, and attacks intensified. Some Hmong groups fled deep into the jungle — where more than 3,000 continue to live to this day — while the rest sought asylum in Thailand, where they remained until recently. (See a brief history of the Hmong and the CIA.)
On Dec. 28, 2009, Pao Chang and more than 4,000 other Hmong asylum seekers in Thailand were rounded up by local Thai authorities and forcibly sent back to Laos. "We based these actions on our immigration law, which considers them to be illegal migrants, so they were dealt with accordingly," Panitan Wattanayagorn, spokesman for the Thai Prime Minister, told TIME. Only six years earlier, Thai authorities had helped resettle 14,000 Hmong refugees in the U.S. The Thai about-face on its Hmong population sparked an international furor, with countries including the U.S. and Australia condemning Thailand for refusing to protect the minority group. Although Thailand never signed the United Nations Convention on Refugees, the U.N. was outraged that the government had sent back unwilling refugees. "To proceed would not only endanger the protection of the refugees but set a very grave international example," said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), António Guterres, at the time.
Even more troubling for the United Nations were the 158 Hmong refugees being held in the Nong Kai immigration detention center, who had been granted refugee status and invited to resettle by the U.S., the Netherlands, Australia and Canada. "We were ready to leave," says Pao Chang, showing his family's acceptance letter from a third country along with tickets for a flight out. "Then Thai authorities came to us on the day and just said, 'No, you can't go. We have an agreement with Laos that no Hmong are to leave Thailand.' " Asked for comment, Wattanayagorn said the move came only after "Laos had assured Thailand the returning Hmong would not face persecution."
Thailand's involvement in the U.S.'s "secret war" in Cambodia and Laos is often overlooked. Allied with the U.S. against the Communists in Laos and Vietnam, the Thai military trained many of the senior Hmong leaders. Times have clearly changed. Thailand is now Laos's No. 1 foreign investor, and according to Joe Davy, a Hmong advocate, deporting the Hmong is just another example of political fence mending following years of border conflict. "The main reason Thailand sent them back was pressure from Laos, which has always accused Thailand of harboring elements of the Hmong resistance," Davy says.
After a series of multilateral meetings in December 2009, the Laotian government agreed that the 158 registered refugees could resettle elsewhere on the condition that they spend 30 days in Laos. "They told us if we were still not happy in Laos, we could leave, but it was just a trick," says Pao Chang. A few days later, says Pao Chang, Thai soldiers forced him onto a bus and took him to Laos, where authorities ordered him not to tell foreigners he wanted to leave. He says he was then sent to a repatriation camp, where armed guards — many of whom had fought against the ragtag groups of Hmong fighters who remain in the jungle — kept his family under 24-hour surveillance. Pao Chang says he was given a "flimsy house and a tiny plot of bad farmland." Says Pao Chang with tears in his eyes: "The conditions were unbearable. There were no schools and only two nurses for thousands of people." (Read "A Blackbird's Song.")
To ease the international community's concerns, Laotian authorities organized two official visits for foreign diplomats. During one visit, Pao Chang says, a senior commander gave him a script ordering him to tell diplomats he was being looked after and had no desire to move. Those who refused to abide by the script were denied day passes to leave the camps. After unknown assailants burned down camp farmland, Pao Chang decided he had to escape. "If I stayed, they eventually would have found a way to kill me," he says.
Pao Chang escaped the camp, traveling through Laos at night without identification, and illegally crossed the Mekong River. Chang says, "If the authorities would have caught me, I would have been executed." The future of Pao Chang and other families in Thailand who have followed remains unclear. He has papers from the UNHCR certifying his refugee status, but he has little faith he will be protected. "Last time I showed this paper to Thailand, they hit me on the head," Pao Chang says.
Wattanayagorn says that if caught, returning Hmong asylum seekers would be treated as illegal immigrants and sent back to Laos regardless of U.N. documents. According to Kraisak Choonhavan, MP of the Democrat Party, Thailand has never signed an international refugee treaty, so it is not bound by UNHCR rules. But even Choonhavan didn't know why Thailand wasn't letting the Hmong families invited by third countries leave. "There is something strange going on here," he says.

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Hmong Refugees Live in Fear in Laos and Thailand

Recently U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Laos Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith met in Washington for the highest-level talks between the two countries since the end of the Vietnam War. For the U.S., the meeting was part of a strategy to re-engage with Asia, while Laos hoped the D.C. visit would boost trade. After years of frosty relations following America's carpet-bombing of Laos in the 1960s and '70s, the meeting was overall a symbolic break from the past.

Improved relations with the U.S. would surely benefit most citizens of Laos - though not everyone is so upbeat about the possibility. Meeting TIME at a secret location in Thailand, a Laotian Hmong refugee who recently escaped a repatriation camp in Laos says the Washington exchange will do nothing to help thousands of Hmong still being persecuted in Laos. "They are only talking about imports and exports, not how to help Hmong people who once supported America," said Pao Chang using an alias for security.

During the Vietnam War, the CIA enlisted more than 60,000 Hmong from the Royal Lao Army to form a secret army to disrupt Communist supply lines and rescue American pilots. Fierce mercenaries, the Hmong acted as an effective counter to North Vietnam's growing support base in Laos. When the Communists won and the CIA left, a handful of senior Hmong were flown out, but the majority that remained faced Communist retribution for siding with America. The Pathet Lao publicly announced they would wipe out the Hmong and attacks intensified. Some Hmong groups fled deep into the jungle - where more than 3,000 continue to live to this day - the rest fled to Thailand seeking asylum, where they remained until recently. (See a brief history of the Hmong and the CIA)

On Dec. 28, 2009, Pao Chang and more than 4,000 other Hmong asylum seekers in Thailand were rounded up by local Thai authorities and forcibly sent back to Laos. "We based these actions on our immigration law, which considers them to be illegal migrants, so they were dealt with accordingly," Panitan Wattanayagorn, spokesman for the Thai prime minister, told TIME. Only six years earlier, Thai authorities had helped resettle 14,000 Hmong refugees in the U.S. The Thai about-face on its Hmong population sparked an international furor, with countries including America and Australia condemning Thailand for refusing to protect the minority group. Although Thailand never signed the United Nations Convention on Refugees, the U.N. was outraged the government had involuntarily sent back refugees. "To proceed would not only endanger the protection of the refugees, but set a very grave international example," said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, AntÓnio Guterres, at the time.

Even more troubling for the United Nations were the 158 Hmong refugees being held in the Nong Kai immigration detention center, who had been granted refugee status and invited to resettle by America, Netherlands, Australia and Canada. "We were ready to leave," said Pao Chang, showing his family's acceptance letter from a third country along with tickets for a flight out. "Then Thai authorities came to us on the day and just said, 'No, you can't go. We have an agreement with Laos that no Hmong are to leave Thailand.'" Asked for comment, Wattanayagorn said the move came only after "Laos had assured Thailand the returning Hmong would not face persecution."

Thailand's involvement in the U.S.'s "Secret War" in Cambodia and Laos is often overlooked. Allied with the U.S. against the Communists in Laos and Vietnam, the Thai military trained many of the senior Hmong leaders. Times have clearly changed. Thailand is now Laos's number one foreign investor, and according to Joe Davy, a Hmong advocate, deporting the Hmong is just another example of political fence-mending following years of border conflict. "The main reason Thailand sent them back was pressure from Laos, which has always accused Thailand of harboring elements of the Hmong resistance," Davy says.

After a series of multilateral meetings in December 2009, the Laotian government agreed that the 158 registered refugees could resettle elsewhere on the condition they spent 30 days in Laos. "They told us if we were still not happy in Laos, we could leave, but it was just a trick," says Pao Chang. A few days later, says Pao Chang, Thai soldiers forced him onto a bus and took him to Laos where authorities ordered him not to tell foreigners he wanted to leave. He says he was then sent to a repatriation camp, where armed guards - many of whom had fought against the rag-tag groups of Hmong fighters who remain in the jungle - had his family under 24-hour surveillance. Pao Chang says he was given a "flimsy house and a tiny plot of bad farmland." Says Pao Chang with tears in eyes: "The conditions were unbearable; there were no schools and only two nurses for thousands of people."(Read "A Blackbird's Song.")

In order to ease the international community's concerns, the Laotian authorities organized two official visits for foreign diplomats. During one visit, Pao Chang says a senior commander gave him a script ordering him to tell diplomats he was being looked after and had no desire to move. Those who refused to abide by the script were denied day passes to leave the camps. After unknown assailants burned down camp farmland, Pao Chang decided he had to escape. "If I stayed, they eventually would have found a way to kill me," he says.

Pao Chang escaped the camp, traveling through Laos at night without identification and illegally crossed the Mekong River. Chang says, "If the authorities would have caught me, I would have been executed." Now in Thailand, the future of Pao Chang and other families who have followed remains unclear. He has papers from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) certifying his refugee status, but he has little faith they will protect them. "Last time I showed this paper to Thailand they hit me on the head," Pao Chang says.

Wattanayagorn says if they are caught, returning Hmong asylum seekers would be treated as illegal migrants and sent back to Laos - regardless of U.N. documents. According to Kraisak Choonhavan, MP of the Democrat Party, Thailand has never signed an international refugee treaty so it is not bound by UNHCR rules, but even Choonhavan didn't know why Thailand wasn't letting the Hmong families invited by third countries leave. "There is something strange going on here," he says.

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Hmong activists protest US engagement on Laos

Friday, July 16, 2010

WASHINGTON — Advocates for the Hmong on Friday voiced concern about the new US engagement with Laos, urging the communist nation to improve treatment of the ethnic minority.

Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith this week paid the first visit by a senior Laotian official to Washington since the communist victory in his country in 1975, shortly after the fall of US-allied South Vietnam.

Thongloun and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton agreed to step up contacts and signed an aviation agreement, part of a renewed focus on Southeast Asia under President Barack Obama.

Hmong-American groups, along with Lao-American groups critical of the Vientiane government, issued a joint statement voicing opposition to the Laotian minister's visit.

Clinton "may not know that the Lao military regime continues to engage in widespread corruption and the exploitation of the Laotian people," said Bounthanh Rathigna, president of the United League for Democracy in Laos.

Laos "remains a one-party regime closely allied with corrupt military generals in Hanoi as well as Burma and North Korea," he said.

The groups urged Laos to improve treatment of its people, including the Hmong, by allowing 158 internationally recognized refugees to leave the country.

The Hmong, a hill people, assisted US forces against North Vietnam during the secret wartime campaign in Laos and faced retribution after the communist takeover.

Some 250,000 Hmong have resettled in the United States and have gained a foothold in US politics, often asking lawmakers from states with large Hmong communities such as California, Minnesota and Wisconsin to pressure Laos.

State Department officials said that Clinton raised the treatment of the Hmong with Thongloun but was also eager to find ways of cooperation with Laos after decades of frosty ties.

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Old wars never die

Thursday, July 15, 2010

The unhappy fate of the Hmong



FOREIGN dignitaries in black limos are a common sight in Washington, DC. Rarely though do they hail from Laos, a tiny, landlocked country that was caught up in America’s ill-fated Indochina War. Laos’s foreign minister, Thongloun Sisoulith, who met his counterpart, Hillary Clinton, on July 13th, is the most senior Lao official to visit since 1975, when Communist forces seized power. The two countries restored full diplomatic ties in 1992, but the war still casts a shadow. Unexploded ordnance, dropped by the Americans, remains scattered over the Lao countryside.

Another niggling concern is the fate of 4,689 ethnic Hmong who were forcibly sent back to Laos by Thailand in December. During the war the CIA recruited the Hmong as anti-Communist fighters. Many fled the country after 1975, ending up as refugees in America, Thailand and elsewhere. In 2004-05 America accepted 14,000 Hmong who had been living at a Thai temple. The latest group, which had been stuck in Thai army camps, was less fortunate. Thai officials, calling them economic migrants, blocked most from applying for sanctuary via the United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR. And although 158 of them did get somehow get UN refugee status, pending resettlement by America and others, they were deported anyway.

Foreign governments pressed Laos for access to the returned refugees, who were packed off to resettlement villages. In March visitors were flown by helicopter to one village for a carefully staged visit. Handpicked Hmong told diplomats that they preferred to stay in Laos and had been “misled” into seeking refugee status. But when others went off script, pleading for help in getting to the West, the visitors were bundled away. Some of these Hmong have since fled from the village, presumably for the border. In response, a curfew has been imposed, a human-rights monitor reports from Bangkok, the Thai capital.

Laos denies that the Hmong, one of dozens of minority groups, face any ill treatment. But they have reason to be worried. Hmong traditionally farm upland areas where the CIA set up clandestine operating bases during the war and, incredibly, 35 years later, tiny pockets of Hmong fighters are still battling the Lao army. It is unclear how many, if any, of the latest deportees are related to these ragtag rebels. But with such uncertainty, international law forbids the forced return of people to a country where they fear persecution.

Sadly, it is not the first time that Thailand has flouted such rules. It has turned away Myanmar’s minorities, including Muslim Rohingya boat people who in 2009 were pushed back to sea, where hundreds probably drowned. Army officers claimed that the Rohingya were a security threat and had links to a Muslim-led insurgency in the south. They gave no evidence and, despite a promise by the Thai prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, there has been no inquiry.

Thailand’s expulsion of the Hmong drew sharp criticism from American, UN and European Union officials. But it has done wonders for relations between Thailand and Laos. The Obama administration tries to claim that America’s influence in the region is not waning. Mrs Clinton is expected at a summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations next week in Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital. But shoddy treatment of minorities by Thailand, long an American ally, bodes ill for others hoping for help from the superpower. Nor is it an encouraging sign for Thailand itself. “There was a time when they wouldn’t do this, when the rule of law meant something,” sighs a Western diplomat in Bangkok.

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Eagan Man Threatens Hmong Gardeners With Shotgun

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

EAGAN, Minn. - An Eagan, Minnesota man has been charged with terroristic threats after allegedly sitting in a chair in his backyard, loading a shotgun in front of the Hmong community garden whose fence he wanted taken down.

According to the criminal complaint, 62-year-old Richard William Schliesing was upset with the gardeners, claiming their garden and fence were interrupting the deer he feeds in his backyard.

Around 8 p.m. on June 10, Eagan police were called to the area of Schliesing’s home and the community garden, near Deerwood Elementary School. With the help of an interpreter and garden organizer, police learned two gardeners with limited English had asked Schliesing to bring his complaint to the garden organizer the next day.

The gardener told police Schliesing threatened to shoot him, then went into his house and came out with a shotgun. While the gun was never pointed at anyone, he said Schliesing sat in a chair in his backyard, loading shells.

Schliesing explained to police that he took issue with the stick and string fence, which is on the edge of his property lien and about three to four feet tall. He said the height of the fence had continued to grow taller and was interfering with his ability to feed deer in his yard.

Schliesing denied having a gun, but admitted he approached the gardeners with his concerns. Officers however noticed some long guns inside a sliding glass patio door at the rear of Schliesing’s house and placed him under arrest.

Schliesing admitted to drinking some beer and registered a .088 BAC. Officers spoke with his wife, who showed them several guns in a closet. All of the guns were cased except for a .12 gauge shotgun, which wasn’t loaded at the time.

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US and Laos agree to boost ties


Hillary Clinton, right, and Thongloun Sisoulith promised to boost ties after the historic meeting [AFP]

The United States and Laos have pledged to step up cooperation after their highest level governmental talks since the end of the Vietnam War in the mid-1970s.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, met Thongloun Sisoulith, the Laotian foreign minister, in Washington on Tuesday.

Sisoulith is the first senior Laotian official to visit the US since the war ended in 1975.

Growing cooperation is "producing mutual benefits and a constructive relationship contributing to peace, stability and cooperation for development in the region and the world," the two sides said in a joint statement issued after Tuesday's meeting.

In a practical sign of improving ties, the two signed an "open-skies" agreement allowing access to each other's airlines, which officials said may give a small boost to tourism in isolated and landlocked Laos.

Prolonged tensions

Ties between the US and Laos have long been tense over concerns of human rights abuses of the ethnic Hmong minority along with uncertainties over US troops missing in action.

"The United States is committed to building our relationship with Laos as part of our broader efforts to expand engagement with Southeast Asia"

Philip Crowley, US State Department spokesman

Many Hmong fighters assisted US forces during the Vietnam War, and rights groups say the community has faced persecution from the country's communist government.

The US established normal trade ties with Laos in 2004 and has recently looked at ways to help clear unexploded landmines that continue to take a heavy toll on the country.

During the war US forces dropped millions of bombs on the country to cut off North Vietnamese supply lines, but many failed to immediately explode and a recent survey estimated that some 50,000 Lao civilians have died in the years since.

Philip Crowley, spokesman for the US state department, said that Clinton and Thongloun discussed "a wide range of old and new areas for bilateral cooperation".

"The United States is committed to building our relationship with Laos as part of our broader efforts to expand engagement with Southeast Asia," he told reporters.

Some 250,000 Hmong have resettled in the US since the war and often speak of persecution in Laos, enlisting support of US lawmakers to pressure the Vientiane government.

The revived US interest in Laos comes as China expands its influence in the country, as well as across Southeast Asia.


US forces dropped millions of bombs on Laos during the Vietnam War

Chinese clout

China has been seeking to improve relations with Laos, with Chinese vice-president Xi Jinping visiting the country last month and pledging millions of dollars of investment in infrastructure.

Last year the US initiated a dialogue with another isolated Southeast Asian country, Myanmar – formerly known as Burma - whose military government has curtailed the rights of the democratic opposition.

Ernie Bower, the head of the Southeast Asia programme at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said Tuesday's talks in Washington marked a US effort to "broaden and deepen engagement" with countries in the region.

He said the Laotian government knows of the interest groups in the US, like the Hmong, who are out "to pressure them on issues they just don't want to talk about".

"The Lao were a little nervous about taking the diplomatic risks of reaching out their hand, but now they are starting to see a little return," said Bower, pointing to growing US business in Laos since restrictions were lifted.

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Laos, US in highest contact since Vietnam War


US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (right) and Laos Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith in Washington, DC

WASHINGTON — The United States and Laos pledged to step up cooperation after their highest-level talks since the Vietnam War, the latest country in a renewed US effort to engage Southeast Asia.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Tuesday with Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith, who was paying the first visit by a top Laotian official to Washington since the communist victory in his nation in 1975.


Laotian students pass a sign warning that mines are located in the area in the northern province of Xiangkhoang

They pledged to step up exchanges, saying in a joint statement that cooperation is "producing mutual benefits and a constructive relationship contributing to peace, stability and cooperation for development in the region and the world."

In a practical sign of ties, the two countries signed an "open-skies" agreement allowing access to each other's airlines, which officials said may give a small boost to tourism in isolated and landlocked Laos.

US relations with Laos, while never severed, were long tense, in part over its campaign against the Hmong hill people who assisted US forces during the Vietnam War along with uncertainties over American troops missing in action.


A Hmong refugee cries as Thai authorities deport to Laos thousands of the ethnic group in late December, 2009

But the United States established normal trade ties with Laos in 2004 and has recently looked at ways to help clean up ordnance that continues to take a heavy civilian toll.

US forces dropped millions of bombs on the country to cut off North Vietnam supply lines, which according to a survey earlier this year have killed or injured some 50,000 people in Laos.

Philip Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said that Clinton and Thongloun discussed "a wide range of old and new areas for bilateral cooperation."

"The United States is committed to building our relationship with Laos as part of our broader efforts to expand engagement with Southeast Asia," Crowley told reporters.

Another US official said that talks also touched on "fighting drug addiction and illegal drug trafficking and US government concerns for the welfare of Hmong" who were controversially returned from Thailand in December.

President Barack Obama's administration has put a new focus on Southeast Asia, saying the region was overlooked as George W. Bush's former administration became preoccupied with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Obama administration last year initiated a dialogue with another isolated state in Southeast Asia -- Myanmar, also known as Burma, whose military regime has curtailed the rights of the democratic opposition.

Ernie Bower, who heads the Southeast Asia program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, saw the talks with Laos as a new example of the US effort to "really try to broaden and deepen engagement with all the ASEAN countries."

As for Laos, "they know there are interest groups in the United States who are out to pressure them on issues they just don't want to talk about, like the Hmong," Bower said.

"The Lao were a little nervous about taking the diplomatic risks of reaching out their hand, but now they are starting to see a little return," he said, pointing to growing US business in Laos since restrictions were lifted.


Laotian students pass a sign warning that mines are located in the area in the northern province of Xiangkhoang

Some 250,000 Hmong have resettled in the United States and often speak of persecution in Laos, enlisting support of US lawmakers to pressure the Vientiane government.

China has meanwhile been seeking to improve relations with Laos, with China's Vice President and heir apparent Xi Jinping visiting last month.

Beijing has also pledged to invest in Laotian infrastructure, which would help transport Chinese goods to key regional hub Thailand.

In the joint statement, Thongloun said he invited Clinton to visit Laos.

The only secretary of state to visit Laos was John Foster Dulles, who spent a day in the then-monarchy in 1955.

Former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice skipped a meeting of ASEAN, or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in Laos in 2005, sending instead her deputy Robert Zoellick.

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Laos: The Visit To The U.S and the Hmong People

Tuesday, July 13, 2010



This coming week, Thongloun Sisoulith (pictured left above) will be visiting Washington D.C as the deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Laos making his visit one of the first from the Southeastern Asian country since the Cold War era.

Laos and the United States have had rocky relationships after the Vietnam War. The Cold War conflict between the U.S and Minh’s communist troops had spread to parts of Laos when the U.S began funding an ethnic group called the Hmong to form resistance against communist forces. The Laotian government will be sending their delegation to the U.S in response to the Secretary of State inviting Laotian officials to the U.S.

This week, Al Franken, a U.S senator visited Laos primarily to see what conditions the Hmong people were in. Back in the ’70′s, the Hmong people were trained by the Central Intelligence Agency in order to fight against Pathet Lao, a communist statesman who took over the government in Laos. Consequently, the Pathet-government targeted numerous Hmong people in retribution. Retribution often was comprised of introductions to “re-education” camps and slave labor.



The Laotian government of course was embittered by further Hmong resistance which was secretly supported by the U.S government. Since then, tens of thousands have tried to escape from their ancestral homes to Western and neighboring nations. Relationships between Laos and the United States took a turn when the Clinton administration admitted to supporting the Secret War in Laos in 1997.

However this did not warm the relationship between the Laotian-communist government and the Hmong people.

Recently, more than 4,500 Hmong were deported from Thailand last year as the Thai government ruled that the Hmong were not political refugees in contrary to some of the nations’ stance on the Hmong people being political refugees.

Senator Franken reported that the Hmong people he visited seemed to be “in fine condition” but also said that the Laotian government said the ‘refugees’ Franken visited wanted to stay in Laos despite invitations of resettlement from the Canadian, Dutch, American, and Australian governments; very peculiar considering their fear of reprisals and their many relatives and ancestors had fled from Laos or hid among the mountains.


Senator Al Franken

Senator Franken stated that he will “request” that Secretary Clinton try to strike up a deal with the coming Laotian officials to release 158 Hmong refugees.

Unlike the 4,000 Hmong controversially repatriated from Thailand last December, the United Nations actually had the time to determine these 158 individuals were political refugees.

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Laos plans first US visit since war: diplomats

WASHINGTON — The foreign minister of Laos will visit Washington next week in the first such trip since the Vietnam War era as the United States seeks to renew influence in Southeast Asia, diplomats said Friday.

Thongloun Sisoulith, who also doubles as deputy prime minister, will spend several days in Washington and is likely to meet Tuesday with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, diplomats told AFP.

It will be the first visit by a senior Laotian official since communists took over the landlocked country in 1975 with the support of Vietnam, which was fresh from routing the US-backed government in Saigon.

Relations, while never severed, were tense for years as Washington voiced concern over Laos's campaign against the Hmong, hill people who assisted US forces during the Vietnam War, and the fate of US troops missing in action.

But the United States established normal trade ties with Laos in 2004 and President Barack Obama last year removed restrictions on US loans for companies doing business in the landlocked country.

China has been seeking to expand influence in Southeast Asia and has also tried to repair sometimes uneasy relations with neighboring Laos. China's Vice President and heir apparent Xi Jinping visited Laos last month.

Beijing has also pledged to invest in Laotian infrastructure, which would help transport Chinese goods to key regional hub Thailand.

The Obama administration has put a new focus on Southeast Asia, saying the region was overlooked as George W. Bush's former administration became preoccupied with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

US officials, however, have also asked Laos to ensure the Hmong's safety. Some 250,000 Hmong have resettled in the United States and often allege continued persecution of their minority group in Laos.

Democratic Senator Al Franken, whose state of Minnesota has a large Hmong community, visited Laos this week and said he urged officials to allow 158 Hmong who are internationally recognized as refugees to leave the country.

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The contenders: Crowded DFL field in SD 67 contest

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

State Sen. Mee Moua’s unexpected decision not to seek a third term at the Capitol set off a political frenzy in the St. Paul district that she represents. Ultimately, nine DFL candidates jumped into the fray, setting up a confusing Aug. 10 primary. Look for a longer piece about the contest on PIM’s website later today, but here are thumbnail sketches of the contenders:

John Harrington: The retired St. Paul Police chief enjoys broad name recognition and a solid reputation after three decades on the force. He’s a political neophyte, but has the backing of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association, as well as Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner.

Foung Hawj: He runs a multimedia consulting firm called Digital Motion. Previously, Hawj worked as information systems manager for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. He has degrees from the University of Kansas and the Rochester Institute of Technology. Hawj’s community experience includes serving on the boards of the St. Paul Winter Carnival and the District 2 Community Council.

Tom Hilber: He’s a perennial DFL candidate, having previously run for the St. Paul City Council and the Ramsey County Board of Commissioners, among other posts. Hilber previously worked as a substance abuse counselor and teacher, and is a blues musician who performs regularly at the Minnesota Music Cafe.

Chai Lee: Lee arrived in the United States a year after he was born, moving to St. Paul in 1998. He’s a graduate of Carleton College and a board member of the DFL Asian-Pacific Caucus. Prior to announcing his candidacy, Lee worked in St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s office.

Vang Lor: He was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, but has called St. Paul’s East Side home for 15 years. Lor is a graduate of Concordia College in St. Paul and serves on the DFL’s Affirmative Action Commission. He’s also been active with TakeAction Minnesota’s Hmong Organizing Program, helping to get Hmong geography and history incorporated into the curriculum of the St. Paul Public Schools.

Jim McGowan: He’s spent two decades as an advocate on behalf of people with diabetes. The issue is personal: His son has type one diabetes. Most recently, McGowan’s been a frequent presence at the Capitol as Minnesota director of the Medicare Diabetes Screening Project. He’s also run a technology consulting firm and a nonprofit group designed to funnel donations to charities.

Trayshana Thomas: She currently works in the office of U.S. Rep. Keith Ellison. Previously, Thomas served as a legislative assistant to state Sen. Linda Higgins. She’s also been involved with the Dayton’s Bluff District 4 Community Council and Women of SD 67. Thomas was recently named a “rising star” by the DFL Women’s Hall of Fame.

Avi Viswanathan: Most recently he worked in Sen. Al Franken’s office, principally on criminal justice issues. Viswanthan is a past president of the Dayton’s Bluff District 4 Community Council and also served on the city’s Neighborhood STAR Board. He has the support of St. Paul City Council president Kathy Lantry and Ramsey County Commissioner Rafael Ortega.

Cha Yang: Yang came to this country from Laos after his father was killed in combat during the Vietnam War. He has degrees from Northwood and Concordia universities and has worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Yang was the Hmong coordinator in Minnesota for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.

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US urges Laos to release 158 Hmong refugees

HANOI — The United States has urged Laos to allow 158 minority Hmong people, who are internationally recognised as refugees, to leave the country, a US senator said Wednesday after talks in the communist nation.

Senator Al Franken said he spoke "at some length" during his visit to the country this week with the Laotian deputy foreign minister.

"We certainly urged them to get the documents of these 158 people so they can go to the countries the UN said they can go to," Franken, of Minnesota, told reporters during a visit to Vietnam with two other senators.

Thailand faced international criticism in December when it used troops to forcibly repatriate about 4,500 Hmong back to Laos, despite concerns of persecution on their return.

Thailand insisted all the Hmong were illegal economic migrants, although the United Nations recognised 158 of them as refugees, and was never allowed to assess if the thousands of others needed international protection.

The 158 have been offered resettlement in Canada, the United States, Australia and the Netherlands, but authorities in Laos told embassies earlier this year that the group wanted to stay.

Franken said talks with Laos were continuing on the issue, which would be on the agenda when the country's foreign minister talks with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington within the month.

The Hmong's fear of retribution from the Laotian regime is a lingering remnant of the Vietnam War, when members of the ethnic hill tribe fought in a US-funded irregular army as the conflict spilled into Laos.

Diplomats said earlier this year there had been no reports that the repatriated Hmong had been mistreated.

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Franken speaks with repatriated Hmong in Laos, but says access was restricted

WASHINGTON — Sen. Al Franken met with a group of about 150 repatriated Hmong in Laos today in a village built by the Laotian government for them.

“I went there today to see their circumstances now,” Franken said, and to “let them know that we in the United States care about their fate and their conditions.” About 4,500 Hmong have been repatriated to Laos, despite concerns from many in Minnesota and other Hmong-heavy populations that they could face political persecution.

Franken spoke to reporters from Hanoi, Vietnam, on the second stage of a tour through southeast Asia. He was in Laos for most of today, meeting with repatriated Hmong in Laos and members of the Laotian government to assess their condition.

His trip was shadowed by a Laotian military officer, whom Franken identified as a general, and Franken said he “did not get the kind of access to the Hmong that I would have liked” to fully assess the situation. That doesn’t necessarily mean there’s anything really bad going on, he added, but is worth pointing out.

That visit was followed by a “really frank exchange, shall we say,” between Franken and senior Lao officials, in which he demanded a full list of names of those at that village.

Laos wants to join the World Trade Organization, like its neighbor Vietnam, and is seeking better trade relations with Washington. Their ambassador is due to meet with U.S. officials next month.

“This is going to be an issue” in those talks, Franken said.

Also on the trip with Franken were Sens. Tom Harkin and Bernie Sanders. Franken's three-person delegation included his wife, Franni, and a foreign-policy legislative aide.

Franken began and will end the trip in Vietnam, which is also pushing for better trade relations with the United States. Franken said he has concerns there too.

"They’re a communist country, and their labor unions are all under the government," Franken said, adding that he'll be pusing for expanded organizing rights in any future trade negotiations.

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Insights into Hmong culture

Thursday, July 1, 2010

It was a no-cost chance to learn about the culture, religion, and communication of the Hmong people, as well as how the Hmong community approaches health care and end-of-life issues. The bring-your-own-lunch workshop took place June 25 at HospiceCare, Inc. and featured speakers Leon Bernido and Charles Vue. The presenters reviewed the history of the Hmong people, discussed values and beliefs Hmong people hold regarding health, and shared personal insights on how Hmong people view death and dying.

Leon Bernido is a masters degreed social worker and a registered nurse, whose training includes a health care concentration, gerontology certification, and cultural and linguistics concentration. Bernido, who has worked at the HospiceCare inpatient unit since 2004, began by discussing the diversity within Southeast Asian people, pointing out that Southeast Asia has a large population of Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists.
“We do not put all Southeast Asian people in one specific group…” he says. Bernido stressed that as health care providers, “I think we need to know something about this group of people” in order to be a good clinician, nurse, etc.

He briefly reviewed the heritage and history of people in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. In the 1700s, the Hmong people were forced to migrate out of southern China and settle in several neighboring countries, including Laos. “As you can see, the Hmong, for the most part, did not have their own country or a sense of nationhood when they came to America.”

Bernido talks about what happened in the 1960s and 1970s and the vital role Hmong played in the “secret war.” In 1961, President Kennedy asked the government of Laos for their cooperation in containing Communism. Many historians have said that without the help of the Hmong, there would have been more U.S. casualties, he says. The C.I.A. visited Laos and recruited Hmong people to assist and disturb the moving of Communist supplies. He explains that Hmong people saved the lives of many American pilots shot down during the war, a fact that is not widely known.

The Hmong and the Meng in Southeast Asia suffered under Pathet Lao (Communist ruler in Southeast Asia.) The U.S. promised to help both the Hmong and the Meng people following the war. However, the Communists sought vengeance against the Hmong and the Meng because they were allies to the U.S. The Hmong people suffered as they attempted to flee and seek political asylum in refugee camps in Thailand. “About half trying to make this journey died,” he said, as the result of starvation, drowning, or being ambushed by Pathet Lao patrol.

Bernido stressed that many atrocities occurred during the time Hmong people escaped from Laos to refugee camps, and as health care providers, one has to think about PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder.) Especially when working with the elderly Hmong, he advises, “think about the fact that this group of people have been through so much and they’re most likely very traumatized. “

Reasons for slower assimilation
Situated in isolated villages, few if any of the Hmong people received any kind of formal schooling. “For the most part, when Hmong people resettled here in Wisconsin and in (other parts of ) America, they tend to take longer to assimilate into the mainstream (than other groups),” he says. Lacking education, they are not exposed to technology and some do not speak English, Bernido adds, which contribute to it taking longer for them “to be up on their (own) feet in America.”

He compared the pathway of the Hmong people with the experiences Vietnamese people have had coming to America. Because of their association with Americans and servicemen and technology associated with the war, people from Vietnam tend to be more educated. Most of them did very well if you read the accounts, “unlike the Hmong; they did not do so well in the beginning.”

Unlike other Southeast Asian people, Hmong are generally not Buddhists and their culture doesn’t include written religion texts. They are animists, meaning they believe in souls or spirits and they pray to spirits. Most Hmong believe spirits cause illness if a misdeed occurs.

Hmong people believe, for example, that if the police stop them for a potential violation, the trauma of the police stopping them will cause their soul to leave their body. And as a result of their soul leaving their body, they believe, they will get sick.

The basis of the Hmong language is oral tradition, Bernido reports. In 1952, linguistic specialists in France first formalized the Hmong language, using the Roman alphabet. “As a result, it is unlikely that elderly Hmong we see would be able to read their language themselves,” he states. Middle aged and younger folks, yes.; they usually can read the Hmong language.

Why Wisconsin?
Individuals frequently inquire, ‘Why did all the Hmong people come to Wisconsin, or California, or Minnesota?’ It began with various churches sponsoring Hmong families. Word started getting around that Wisconsin had a very good support system, which made it possible for family reunification and also to settle in one area. “That’s basically why (Wisconsin),” he quips. “It wasn’t the weather.”

Bernido talks about the impact of poverty and social marginality on Hmong immigrants. In American society, older citizens are often pushed aside for those that are younger. This sharply contrasts the traditional Hmong elderly experience, where elders are valued, respected, and consulted. In the U.S., many elderly Hmong fear taking public transportation and are victimized by crime in low income areas. Consequently, many older Hmong men who have immigrated have lost their traditional role as the wise man that solved many problems. They often feel useless, bemoans Bernido, and spend much of their time sitting around watching television.
Bernido, however, cautions that each situation is different. When you meet a Hmong person, “do not (automatically) assume that they have, or have not, assimilated” to mainstream U.S. culture, he recommends.

Reaching out to Hmong families
Charles Vue, MSSW, is student services coordinator at UW-Eau Claire’s Office of Multicultural Affairs. He has served as a social worker in Eau Claire and as a multicultural consultant in Milwaukee and has also served on the Hmong Mutual Assistance Board of Directors.

So how can people be more effective in reaching out to families? Vue contends that people are doing their best. He encourages folks “to build relationships (first) and then establish the outcome, which is to help your patient.” In Asian cultures and sometimes in low-income families, the tendency is to emphasize effectiveness, he states, versus efficiency--money and time in Western culture.

He reminds attendees that Hmong people came to the U.S. relatively recently, only 30 some years ago, and they came with their own values and the things they owned on their back. They’re only two generations here, he reiterates. In the Hmong tradition, “family comes first,” and “if an individual is a success or a failure, the impact rests with the whole family. “ Families simultaneously give a lot and expect a lot, he indicates.

“We have a system that I consider quite different,” he elucidates, referring to a “make or break” situation. “I consider (it) ‘make,’” he attests. The philosophy: “An individual stick is easy to break, but if you have a bundle (of sticks), (it’s) hard to break.”

Approximately 18 different clans currently exist in the Hmong culture and some use the clan as a support system for themselves. Members of the same clan “have the obligation of reciprocating mutual support… because we are considered brother and sister,” Vue says, and as such, people cannot marry within their own clan.

Generally, if a person becomes ill, word travels fast throughout the clan. All the clan members in the area would visit him/her in his/her home, or in the case of hospitalization, would jam into a (Western) hospital room or in a family lounge in a hospital. “We’re talking 24/7,” he further explains.

He went on to discuss the way Hmong people typically eat when they are ill. “We drink hot or warm water,” which is especially important after a woman has given birth, in the belief that this will prevent harm or clogging of the blood. “Sick people eat mostly boiled chicken and pork and certain vegetables.” In the Hmong tradition, “the main way of healing and treating a person is to follow our religious practice.”

Vue discusses the role of shamans in the health and well being of Hmong people: “When a person is ill, they seek the help of a shaman to determine if the cause of the illness is within the realm of the spirit.” The Hmong shaman “acts as a medium between the visible world and an invisible world and practices rituals for healing and control over natural events.” A shaman can be a man, a child, or a woman. The frequency with which Hmong people use a shaman varies: For some, it’s on a daily basis, others it’s a couple of times a week, or a couple times a year. Most shamans collect a small fee for their services. “Before you can become a shaman, you have to be severely ill for a long time,” he says, necessitating an existing shaman to be called in to help. The assisting shaman determines that you need to become a shaman, which entails an established mentoring process. (Of the 3,000 to 5,000 Hmong individuals in Madison, about one-quarter are shamans.)

Khawv Koobs are deemed to be magic healers. When someone is sick, Hmong people request a Khawv Koob event, which takes place over a bowl, using water to sprinkle over the area they had surgery. “The belief is that (by so doing) they will recover faster after that surgery,” Vue says.

He details what happened when his mother-in-law required major surgery and his father-in-law wanted the healing to be perfect. He and his wife had to be “very diplomatic” in working with his in-laws and the surgeon, who was concerned about keeping the surgical site sterile and preventing infection. For the kagone ceremony, a cotton ball sprinkled “just enough (water) to wet the area, but not to soak the wound.” While they were able to achieve what they wanted, many Hmong folks may not be able to advocate for themselves in a health care situation, he says, citing such factors as ignorance or inexperience.

Today, about half of Hmong families have converted to Christianity; a church sponsored Vue’s family when they came to the U.S. and they quickly became Lutherans. How religious beliefs play out in terms of health care and healing varies; often, “we go back and forth in the (Hmong) community (between Western medicine and shaman healing), depending on how strong is your belief and how flexible you are.” Mixed faith families call for good communication skills when it comes to weddings, illness, funerals, etc. , Vue declares.

Seeking out a Western doctor
Often Hmong turn to Western medicine only “after we exhausted (care) in our way,” Vue says. What conditions would make a Hmong family seek out a Western doctor?

A broken arm, a broken leg, cancer, or a coughing-type ailment that can’t be cured with herbs, “we would agree, that’s a (that needs a) Western approach.” Or, in the event of an obvious emergency, the hospital is the first place to go.

Vue laments about his uncle, who had a bladder infection and didn’t go to the hospital or clinic for treatment. By the time he went, doctors told him he only had three months to live. He currently is in the process of dying and is very uncomfortable. He also speaks of his good friend, a well-known Hmong person and Wisconsinite who was told he needed heart bypass surgery for blockage. Instead of pursuing cardiac surgery, he went to Thailand and Laos, looking for herbal medicine and died in the process.

When Hmong people are unhappy with the care they receive, he says, they may not communicate their dissatisfaction to their care providers. Most Hmong may listen attentively to a health professional out of respect, but may not necessarily challenge or follow their advice. Rather, they may refuse care or turn to traditional treatment.

To communicate emotion to a stranger in the Hmong culture is to give away your strength, he discloses, with two exceptions —funerals and weddings. At Hmong funerals, there is a very public display of emotions, where moaning in sorrow for the deceased and other lost loved ones is common. When the bride leaves the family with her new husband, her mother and other family members often cry heavily.

Hmong perspectives on life and death
“We believe that life is a continuous process,” Vue says. “…In other words, when you die, you reincarnate…we believe you live to your oldest age, 120 years (old),” and that a permit to live is given by the Spirit.

Though Vue quickly points out that it’s very individual, “generally a Hmong person doesn’t want to talk about their death.” It’s typically seen as a curse to discuss death.

In the Hmong tradition, it is important that they wear their nicest clothes when they die, Vue says, as they believe in the afterlife, they’ll wear those same clothes. Christian and non-Christian Hmong people believe the same thing, he clarifies.

Non-Christian Hmong people believe it is vital to remove all non-decomposable objects, like golden/filled teeth, plastic buttons from clothes, even metal rods that have been surgically implanted to repair legs, before the funeral. Not doing so is thought to delay the person going back to carnate; also, a surviving or subsequent family member might have a birthmark or develop a medical problem if they fail to remove such items. The funeral director dressing the deceased can remove these things, he explains. (Some “even believe if you have an amputated arm or leg, you have to have that piece with you…”)

Q and A time
A number of attendees posed questions following the presentation. One individual asked how Hmong people view advance directives? Vue responded to the question with several statements, including, “generally, we don’t believe we’re going to die;” “we think the paperwork is way too complicated,” and “we think, ‘we’ll get to that (later).’”

A HospiceCare representative asked Vue, given that Hmong people don’t talk about death, what advice he would give to staff when the end is approaching, as to how to talk with the patient and family about what’s happening to the patient. “Every family has a spokesperson or someone who is known as a trusted individual.” he says.

So ask the patient, “Who is the head of the family? Who is the leader of the family? Or, “Who do you prefer us to talk to?” (He cautions that “just about every visitor will appear to be family.”)

“Then you leave the information with that person, delegate them to share it.”

Vue also advises that to serve effectively as a provider of care, not necessarily efficiently, listen.

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Principal recruits students for Hmong charter school in Sacramento

Registration for the first charter school in California to focus on Hmong culture starts today with a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

Nearly half of the target enrollment has already pre-registered at the Yav Pem Suab Academy, a K-4 elementary school.

"I've personally gone out and enrolled more than half of those students. I made home visits and if they were interested, I registered them on the spot," said principal Vince Xiong. The maximum enrollment will be 300.

In the next month, he'll hire 15 teachers and prepare for the Aug. 2 opening. School officials will be on hand to answer questions about the charter school after the 10 a.m. ceremony.

The idea for the school began five years ago, according to Dennis Mah, the president of the board of directors and former principal at Bowling Green charter school. The academy's charter was approved in March.

"It started with a group of Hmong parents talking about the quality of their children's education," he said. "Everyone assumed that Hmong are doing fine because they are Asian." It was far from the case, he said.

Hmong students in Sacramento, who number roughly 4,000, had the lowest scores of all the district's ethnic groups on the English language arts section of standardized tests last year and the year before.

About 60 percent of the registered students are transferring from Program Improvement schools, which failed to meet federal targets for two years in a row.

Mah expects to draw pupils from Hmong neighborhoods in Meadowview, Oak Park and Del Paso Heights.

School leaders had hoped to locate the school in the Meadowview neighborhood, he said, where many Hmong children live. But the shuttered Lisbon Elementary School, a red brick building next to a park on South Land Park Drive, was the only available spot.

Mah said the school's location in a neighborhood with very few Hmong will reinforce its objective of attracting a diverse student body not limited by ethnicity. He projects that 50 non-Hmong students will attend the school.

So far, five of the 145 registered students are non-Hmong and include African Americans and Afghans.

Robert Woodfork-Bey said his 9-year-old daughter got excited about the school during a home visit by Xiong.

"It was her choice to enroll. She was interested in learning another language and in the creative aspects of the program," he said.

Core academic classes will run from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Music, art, dance, drama, sports, and Hmong language classes will run from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. Students will have Fridays off and take a shorter summer break – one month – to limit the learning drop-off associated with a longer vacation.

Kary Thao, mother of 6-year-old Andrew Fang, said she switched her son from another school to the Yav Pem Suab Academy so he wouldn't lose his language and culture.

"I think that it's going to be more opportunity for my son," she said. "(The children) live in the United States, but they need to know who they are."

Read more: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/07/01/2861994/principal-recruits-students-for.html#ixzz0sSQ4BgNn

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