Thai military campaign targets refugees

Friday, July 31, 2009

Hmong refugees at Huay Nam Khao camp in Petchabun province have become victims of what seems to be a Thai military psy-ops campaign geared at coercing them to return to Laos - a violation of international law.

The military has so far not resorted to physical force but has instead been using an extreme amount of psychological coercion to get the remaining 4,000 Hmong refugees to return to Laos.

Last week, the army erected an additional four razor wire barriers around the camp, forcing a significant number of residents, out of their homes. The targeted group happens to be first on the list for forced repatriation at the end of September.

On July 25, the military encouraged a group of roughly 200 angry Thai protestors to rally outside the camp to psychologically coerce the refugees to return to Laos. The local media and district officials all showed up at the same time as the protestors, remaining for the one-hour staged event.

Just days before the rally, witnesses in nearby Khet Noi village reported seeing soldiers trying to get recruits for the rally by offering them Bt500 and a kilo of pork as incentives. Even then, Thai-Hmong villagers refused to get involved.

The military and chaperoned media reported a very conflicting version of events than what the refugees witnessed. The army and media stated there was a mob of 500 angry Thai-Hmong villagers, but Hmong in the camp claim only 20-30 of the protestors were Hmong. The vast majority was Thai and possibly relatives of the military personnel stationed there. Some of the Hmong protestors even apologised to the refugees for having participated because they needed the money. Amazingly, two of the protestors reportedly work in the camp for the NGO COEER, which has a contract to distribute food there. One of the two reportedly works for the military in Khet Noi village.

The protestors have threatened the refugees, saying they'll return on August 7 for another rally. If the Hmong still refuse to return to Laos, they will return a third time and ask the military to forcibly deport them all. The army has told the refugees that Lao General Bouasieng [Champaphanh] will visit the camp on August 7 to encourage them to return to Laos. The military is encouraging those Hmong with legitimate grievances to address them to General Bouasieng during his visit but at the same time cautions them, stating: "Don't mention anything about your problems in the jungle [Lao military attacks] to him".

JOE DAVY

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US won't take Hmong

Thursday, July 30, 2009

By Supalak Ganjanakhundee
The Nation
Published on July 31, 2009

Phetchabun - United States' officials have told Hmong refugees in Ban Huay Nam Khao that Washington has no policy to take them for resettlement in the US.

A delegation led by Samuel Witten, deputy assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration visited the camp in Phetchabun yesterday to gain first-hand information on the Hmong. He wanted to keep his visit low-key and refused to talk to the media about the trip.

But it's known Witten met with Colonel Chavalit Rianchaeng, deputy commander of the Khao Kho Task Force, and insisted the US had no policy to take the Hmong refugees to the US. Also, Washington would not intervene in Thai-Lao deals over Hmong repatriation, he told Col Chavalit.

The Americans met with five Hmong representatives at the camp and one - Jongje Loh - had the same message.

"We had no chance of going to America and the US officials came here just to visit us," Jongje said after the meeting. Nevertheless, the refugees were still not willing to return to Laos because of fear of the Lao government, he said.

Timothy Scherer, from the US Embassy in Bangkok, said Witten went to see the work of COERR (Catholic Office for Emergency Relief and Refugees, which has taken over the camp from MSF and gets funding from the US.

The US has given some Bt17 million for the refugees through international organisations.

Thailand has sheltered thousands of Hmong since late 2004. Many claim they were close associates with the US CIA's secret fighters against the Communist Lao before the fall of Vientiane.

However the Lao and Thai governments regard them as economic migrants seeking better lives in Thailand and abroad.

Thailand has repatriated 2,904 Hmong so far and plans to send the remaining 4,645 back to Laos by the end of next month.

Jongje said the Hmong had demanded that officials from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees verify the repatriation.

"Some might be repatriated [safely] to Laos - but some 2,000 Hmong [with] CIA [connections] must not return to Laos since they could be oppressed," he said.

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Report on Laos Violations, Hmong Crisis Discussed During Thailand Camp Visit

Regarding the Freedom House report on Laos, B. Jenkins Middleton, Esq., an attorney active on human rights issues concerning Laos and Hmong refugees, and former Vice President of the Export-Import Bank in Washington, D.C., said: "I applaud Freedom House's "tell it like it is,' concise and damning description of the nature and practices of the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR) in its "2009 Worst of the Worst' report."

(Media-Newswire.com) - Washington, D.C. and Bangkok, Thailand, July 30, 2009 - Freedom House, a non-governmental organization, has issued a new report on the most repressive societies around the world in which it highlights the abuses of Laos, North Korea, Burma and other authoritarian regimes. A former Export-Import Bank Vice President, B. Jenkins Middleton, Esq., and others in Washington, D.C. are concerned about the report in the context of the current Lao Hmong refugee crisis in Thailand.

In response to U.S. Congressional concerns about the forced repatriation of Lao Hmong refugees in Thailand and Laos, as well as a letter sent in June by 32 Members of Congress to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton about the matter, Mrs. Clinton raised the Laotian and Hmong refugee crisis issue during talks with Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at the Association of Southeast Asian Nations ( ASEAN ) conference in Thailand last week.

Thirty-two ( 32 ) Members of the U.S. Congress spearheaded by Representatives Patrick Kennedy ( D-RI ), Dennis Cardoza ( D-CA ), Howard Berman ( D-CA ), James McGovern ( D-Mass ), Frank Wolf ( R-VA ), William Delahunt ( D-MA ), Dana Rohrabacher ( R-CA ), Ron Kind ( D-WI ), Steve Kagan ( D-WI ), Tammy Baldwin ( D-WI ), George Radanovich ( R-CA ), Devin Nunes ( R-CA ), and others, sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the United States and Thailand to intervene to halt the forced repatriation Hmong refugees from two of the remaining camps in Northern Thailand. http://www.media-newswire.com/release_1092956.html

Today, Samuel Witten, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration ( PRM ), in Washington, D.C., is slated to visit Hmong refugees in Thailand at Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Petchabun Province, Thailand, to raise concerns about the forced repatriation of Lao Hmong refugees from Thailand to Laos.

Laos, under the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic ( LPDR ) regime, is a staunch ally of North Korea and Burma, is listed in Freedom House’s “Worst of the Worst 2009” report issued in Geneva, Switzerland recently. High-level, state-sponsored rallies in support of North Korea were held in June in Vientiane, Laos, by the LPDR regime. http://www.media-newswire.com/release_1094995.html

Regarding the Freedom House report on Laos, B. Jenkins Middleton, Esq., an attorney active on human rights issues concerning Laos and Hmong refugees, and former Vice President of the Export-Import Bank in Washington, D.C., said: “I applaud Freedom House's ‘tell it like it is,’ concise and damning description of the nature and practices of the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( LPDR ) in its ‘2009 Worst of the Worst’ report; It provides a litany of current conditions in that country that make it the very model of a repressive, autocratic and totalitarian regime: A constitution that makes the Lao People's Revolutionary Party ‘the sole legal political party,’…’[g]overnment regulation of virtually every facet of life,’… state ownership of all media, tight restrictions on freedom of religion, academia, assembly and union organization, and courts controlled by the ruling party.” http://www.freedomhouse.org/template.cfm?page=384&key=227&parent=22&report=81

Middleton further stated: “Despite these conditions, in June President Obama, no doubt acting on advice of the State Department, determined that the LPDR ‘has ceased to be a Marxist-Leninist country within the meaning of the’ Export-Import Bank Act. In light of Freedom House's recital, and as a former lawyer and vice president of Eximbank, I am at a loss to comprehend what factual basis may exist for that determination.”

“Freedom House’s new report casts significant doubt on the Lao regime’s absurd denial of human rights violations against Lao Hmong refugees and asylum seekers who have fled to Thailand,” said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis ( CPPA ) in Washington, D.C. “Political and religious dissidents and opposition group members, including many ethnic Hmong, are still suffering persecution in Laos because of the authoritarian nature of the one-party military junta.”

The “Worst of the Worst 2009” Freedom House report says that Laos is not free and further states: “Laos is not an electoral democracy. The 1991 constitution makes the Lao People's Revolutionary Party ( LPRP ) the sole legal political party and grants it a leading role at all levels of government. The LPRP vets all candidates for election to the rubber-stamp National Assembly, whose 115 members elect the president. Corruption and abuses by government officials are widespread. Official announcements and new laws aimed at curbing corruption are rarely enforced. Government regulation of virtually every facet of life provides corrupt officials with many opportunities to demand bribes.”

The report further raises concerns about political and religious persecution in Laos by the LPDR regime and states: “Freedom of the press ( in Laos ) is severely restricted. Any journalist who criticizes the government or discusses controversial political topics faces legal punishment. The state owns all media, including three newspapers with extremely low circulations and the country's only radio station. Internet access is heavily restricted, and content is censored. Religious freedom is tightly restricted. Dozens of Christians have been detained on religious grounds, and several have been jailed for proselytizing or conducting other religious activities. Academic freedom is not respected. University professors cannot teach or write about democracy, human rights, and other politically sensitive topics. The government severely restricts freedom of assembly. Laws prohibit participation in organizations that engage in demonstrations or public protests, or that in any other way cause ‘turmoil or social instability.’ All unions must belong to the official Federation of Lao Trade Unions. The courts are corrupt and controlled by the LPRP. Security forces often illegally detain suspects, and hundreds of political activists have been held for months or years without trial. Poor prison conditions and the use of torture remain serious problems.”

Regarding the plight of the ethnic minorities and women in Laos, including the Hmong people the report by Freedom House researchers says: “Discrimination against members of minority tribes is common at many levels. The government's continued attempts to destroy the remnant Hmong guerrilla army and alleged rebel elements have created significant hardships for these mountain people, and thousands have been forced off their land to make way for the exploitation of timber and other natural resources. Gender-based discrimination and abuse are widespread. Poverty puts many women at greater risk of exploitation and abuse by the state and society at large, and an estimated 15,000 to 20,000 Laotian women and girls are trafficked each year for prostitution.”

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Doctors Without Borders ( MSF ) the Lao Hmong Human Rights Council and other organizations have also issued recent reports about the Lao Hmong refugee crisis in Thailand and Laos.

In June, the Lao military gang raped and killed 5 Hmong civilians in Laos in the Phou Bia mountain area of Laos.
http://media-newswire.com/release_1094929.html


--
Contact: Maria Gomez

Tele. ( 202 ) 543-1444
info@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

Center for Public Policy Analysis
2020 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite No. #212
Washington, D.C. 20006 USA

www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

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Wisconsin woman accused in theft of thousands from fellow Hmong

By Chris Hubbuch
La Crosse Tribune
Updated: 07/29/2009 08:42:02 AM CDT


Prosecutors say an Onalaska woman invented bogus aid programs to bilk fellow Hmong families out of tens of thousands of dollars over the past two years.

A criminal complaint filed Tuesday in La Crosse County Circuit Court details an elaborate scheme in which victims were told wealthy American sponsors wanted to help struggling Asian families.

Beginning in 2007, Sue Moua, 26, solicited thousands of dollars from people, including her sister-in-law, to enroll them in programs she called "People Helping People" and "Senior Private Helper," the complaint states.

The victims were encouraged to obtain multiple credit cards with the understanding they'd be reimbursed by the anonymous sponsors, according to the complaint. They were told to turn the unopened bills over to Moua, who also said she was authorized to make purchases with the credit cards.

Moua helped one family apply for credit cards because they did not speak much English. The victims told police Moua kept the cards; when they confronted her about nearly $7,500 in purchases she'd made, Moua threatened to put them in jail if they told anyone, according to the complaint.

Moua convinced a couple to give her nearly $41,000 to enroll them in programs with names such as "Grants" and "Airplane," the complaint states. Another woman said she lost more than $20,000.

When questioned by police, Moua said she had gotten involved in the programs while in college, and others had approached her about joining.

Moua said she used e-mail to arrange meetings with sponsors, usually in Hastings, Minn., but the addresses she provided were bogus.
Moua was charged Tuesday with seven counts of felony theft by misrepresentation as well as one count of misdemeanor theft.

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Clinton voices concern over plight of Hmong refugees

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Writer: ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT
Published: 30/07/2009 at 12:00 AM
Newspaper section: News

A senior US official will visit a Hmong camp in Phetchabun today after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton expressed concerns over the plight of Hmong refugees in Thailand.

Samuel Witten, principal deputy assistant to the secretary of state in charge of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, yesterday discussed the Hmong and Burmese refugees with the head of the Foreign Affairs Ministry's International Organisations Department, Anuson Chinwanno, and held talks with Thawil Pliensri, the new secretary-general of the National Security Council.

Mr Witten will be the most senior official from the US to visit the Phetchabun camp, which houses about 4,700 Hmongs.

Last week, 97 Hmongs were sent back to Laos as part of the Thai-Lao agreement to repatriate all volunteer Hmongs to Laos this year. Mr Witten will also visit the Burmese refugee camp at Ban Mae La, in Tak's Tha Song Yang district tomorrow.

Mrs Clinton last week raised the Hmong issue during talks with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

She was concerned about the repatriation process being conducted on a truly voluntary basis. She also suggested a screening mechanism to identify refugees by neutral parties such as the UN refugee agency, sources said. However, Mr Abhisit said Thailand, although not a signatory to the refugee convention, had respected the international obligations .

The Hmong helped the US Central Intelligence Agency fight the communist Pathet Lao movement before the fall of Vientiane in 1975 and later sought political asylum and resettlement in third countries.

They fear being persecuted if they return to Laos.

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Minneapolis hospital opens rooftop garden

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Mayor R.T. Rybak will cut the ribbon on a new rooftop herb garden Tuesday at the Hennepin County Medical Center in downtown Minneapolis.

The garden is funded by a city grant. It will grow fresh herbs for food served in the hospital and special herbs for the traditional Hmong postpartum meal.

Food services manager Lisa Nadeau (nay-DOO') says the hospital is excited about getting the freshest ingredients for its recipes, and being able to accommodate the cultural preferences of its patients.

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From war refugees to proud parents -- a Stockton success story

By Lori Gilbert
Record Staff Writer
July 28, 2009 12:01 AM
It was billed as a celebration to commemorate the off-the-charts achievements of four children in one family.

A doctor. A nurse. A California State University, Sacramento, graduate about to embark on a credential program and the most recent Edison High School graduate. All were the guests of honor.

The gathering was about great achievement, and served as a nice tribute to the educational foundation they received from Edison, a school whose qualities are often buried underneath its creaking buildings and Charter Way location.

Mostly though, the Vang family party of more than 300 relatives and friends at the Scottish Rite Temple was a tribute to Bria Vang and his wife, Kia Xiong, who arrived in the United States in 1979 without a possession to call their own or even a remote understanding of English.

Driven from their homeland by war, the Hmong couple landed in a Thailand refugee camp and after the birth of two daughters there, they took a leap of faith as great as any you can imagine when they decided to come to the United States.

"I didn't know what to expect," a smiling Bria Vang said as his eldest child, Sa, translated. "I didn't know what the future would hold. I just came and hoped for the best."

Settling first in Minnesota, they were introduced to objects many Americans take for granted: a flushing toilet, a stove, an electric washing machine.

The family moved to Stockton, where it was greeted by a burgeoning Hmong community, but work was sporadic. The growing family subsisted on welfare, clothes donated to St. Mary's Interfaith Dining Hall and the vegetables Kia could grow in the small patch of dirt outside the front door of their home.

"We had to interpret for them," said Chao Vang, 21, the recent Sacramento State graduate who wants to become a teacher at Edison. "We were going to the doctors with them as kids. We didn't understand half the things they were saying. We were just shaking our head yes to all these medical terms."

Bound to their Hmong culture, in which girls learned to sew and cook and clean to prepare them to be good daughters-in-law, Vang and Xiong didn't understand their daughters' desires to excel at school.

When Mang, their second-eldest who is now a 30-year-old nurse in St. Petersburg, Fla., joined the Edison tennis team, they wouldn't pick her up after practice because she shouldn't have been on the team in the first place.

"My mom called me her rebel," Mang said.

She wasn't the classic American rebel, loitering outside liquor stores or drag racing down Pacific Avenue. She was a rebel to her Hmong parents because she was participating in such activities as the Science Olympiad.

She learned about that from Sa, now 32, a mother of two and a family physician in Modesto.

The eldest child of the family, Sa didn't set out to establish a tradition of academic excellence and professional achievement for her siblings.

"I just wanted to do something with myself with my life," Sa Vang said. "I just wanted, in my mind at the time, to be able to lift my parents out of the poverty they were in and to change their minds about girls and women."

She knew education was the key and teachers at Victory Elementary, Marshall Middle School and Edison High inspired her as she progressed.

A mother at 16, married and living with her in-laws before her junior year of high school, Sa Vang managed to keep up her schoolwork, took honors classes and was Edison's 1995 valedictorian. She graduated from Sacramento State and University of California, Davis, School of Medicine.

"They did discourage us initially," Sa Vang recalled of her parents. "When I told my mom I wanted to be a doctor she said, 'Don't set your standards too high. You may not reach them.' My dad was always more quiet and didn't say much. In his silence, I took that as his support. He never said 'no, you can't do it.' He never said 'you must do this.' I took that as a green light for me to continue."

As they watched their children succeed as a result of education, the old traditions began to give way to a new way of thinking.

"Now that we all have a career, they're more open to and now encourage the younger siblings," Mang Vang said. "I saw, firsthand, the change. When I was a (high school) sophomore we went to meet one of the counselors to talk about college, and my mom was really resistant. Now, she's telling the younger siblings, 'You have to go to school so you can have a career.' "

Sa Vang calls her parents' transformation amazing.

"It's been hard," she said. "They realize their children live in America, and we're very independent. Instead of trying to fight us, they learned to take a position of guiding us.

"As we walk through life with blinders on, they're our eyes to stop us from running into the wall, rather than trying to stop us from hitting the wall at all."

The walls these offspring scaled are mighty, but no more so than the circumstances from which the attempt was made.

"You don't have to be middle class," Chao Vang said. "You do not have to be born in the United States. Your parents don't have to have that $150,000-a-year salary. It's all about passion and motivation and dedication."

It's also about daring to dream.

Bria and Kia Vang passed along to their children the courage to follow their dreams. The road to the medical degree, nursing certificate and teaching credential started with those first brave steps by a couple of refugees who boarded a plane with nothing but hope and each other.

Nothing their children learn will ever be quite as valuable as that lesson, or more worthy of being honored.

Contact reporter Lori Gilbert at (209) 546-8284 or lgilbert@recordnet.com.

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Hmong sporting event attracts thousands

Sunday, July 26, 2009

It was the annual Asian-American
Sporting Festival

* Heather Sawaski

Wausau - MyFox Wausau - Athletes from across the Midwest took to the turf in Wausau this weekend. It was all for the 9th annual Asian American Sports Festival.

Sports tournaments are a growing national trend in the Hmong community. Each summer teams travel to soccer and volleyball tournaments, not only for the love of game, but also for the camaraderie.

Benjamin Moua plays flag football for Team IDK out of Minnesota.

"Our culture is very much based on the idea of unity and group unification," Moua explained. "And playing sports is something that gives us a really great opportunity to come together."

And it's that sense of unity in the Hmong culture that packed over 2,500 athletes, friends, and families into Marathon Park. Organizers say sports festivals are becoming a large part of what it means to be a Hmong-American.

They bring together people young and old to bond over a passion for American-style sports, while still keeping an Asian sense of community and culture.

"Since we came to this country," said organizer Toulee Moua. "we spread out. So now it's time to get all the people together and have fun."

Between games, people could shop around for traditional Asian clothing and food.

Some athletes say they look forward to the event every year.

"We usually like to come out and get to know people," said flag football player Ai Yang. "It's good to come and enjoy the Hmong festivals here."

The first place finishing teams took home close to $2,000.

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Festival weekend full of flavor, fun

It's a cultural festival weekend in Sheboygan full of flavor, families, fun and friendship.

At Kiwanis Park, thousands of people congregated Saturday for the first day of the Hmong Summer Festival, which featured numerous soccer, volleyball, basketball and flag football teams competing on the fields, and a street fair busy with food, drink and merchandise vendors.

"It's a beautiful festival," said Loke Kue, 40, of Chicago, an assistant coach and player with the Diavlab soccer team, one of many traveling to Sheboygan to participate in the sports and shopping-oriented Summer Festival.

On the lakefront at Deland Park, the grills and stoves at the 66th annual Greek Festival sent delicious plumes of smoke from the chickens, pork and saganaki — or flaming cheese — into the air, to the delight of hungry patrons on the grounds.

"It was flaming," said Trisha Bauer, 43, of Sun Prairie, who was in town for some boating and the festival. "We had to say 'Opa!' when they put the flame out."

Both two-day festivals wrap up today; with the Hmong Summer Festival starting at 7 a.m. and lasting until at least 6 p.m. Admission is $3 for everyone taller than 3 feet, and proceeds will be donated to the Hmong Mutual Assistance Association, which provides services to refugees and the Hmong community of Sheboygan.

The Greek Festival is having a church service at 10 a.m. at Deland Park, and the food, dance and other activities running from noon to 7 p.m. The festival is the chief fundraiser each year for St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church.

Both festivals like to accentuate good times, with friends and families getting together to have fun, eat well and enjoy themselves.

"It's the food, it's the camaraderie, it's the meeting of old friends, and you also have the sports that keep people entertained and you have kids," Kue said. "It's a very healthy thing."

Among those strolling the street at the Hmong festival on Saturday was Youa Lee, 31, of De Forest, which is near Madison, who was in a group that was nibbling on a paya salad, loaded with greens, papayas and tomatoes, with a small slice of limes.

We came to visit for the tournament, and we thought we'd walk around and have food," Lee said.
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Tending the grill for Xiong Family BBQ was Ying Xiong, 31, of Fond du Lac, who was busy turning chicken leg quarters, pork ribs, tilapia, and Asian sausage, long links that just sizzled when they were turned.

"It's got a different ingredient on it," Xiong said. "It's got ginger and it makes it taste pretty tender."

At Greek Fest, Christos Balassi, among the lead organizers of the event, said lots of family and church members are involved in the planning of the festival, and the making and serving of the foods.

"It's good that way that every family has its niche and in the long run, everybody helps everybody," said Balassi, 44, of Sheboygan.

The festival is heavily steeped in tradition; Balassi said he's asked every year to change the menu a bit to include brats and burgers, but continues to stick mainly to the ethnic foods, all of which were selling well on Saturday.

"We want people to enjoy our culture, because there's not many of us here," Balassi said. "There's probably 20 (Greek) families in Sheboygan … and since we're the oldest Greek Orthodox church in Wisconsin, we felt that it's our job to show our culture to other people and to share our passion for what we do."

Balassi said the Greek Festival began in the mid-1940s on the grounds of the church at 1425 S. 10th St., when some of the leaders in the congregation decided to hold a family event on a Sunday afternoon.

"(They said) let's just put out a few lambs, a few chickens, a couple of shish kabobs and all the neighbors would come around because it was like Garlic Boulevard down there on Indiana (Avenue) back then," he said.

The event was quickly expanded to become a fundraiser for the church, and moved to Kiwanis Park for a number of years before heading to lakefront, and has maintained its popularity through the generations.

"We love it," said Leann Gauger, 48, of Cedar Grove, who was nibbling on the chicken and the flaming cheese on Saturday.

The people are always real friendly, and it never gets rowdy. That's what I like about it … this is for family."
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Families and friends are also important to the success of the Hmong Summer Festival, which draws the locals in Sheboygan, but also folks from places such as Green Bay, Wausau, Fond du Lac, Wausau, Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul, Minn.

"We like the people and they're very nice and it's fun," said Feuy Yang, 42, of Green Bay, which was operating the Yang's Cafe booth Saturday, selling snacks and noodles and rice and chicken and other goodies.

"We like coming here every year so we can see all the friends and students that I work with."

Kue, the soccer coach and player, is encouraging everybody to come to the Hmong Summer Festival.

"This is for the whole community, not just for our people," he said. "We always open the door to community … we really like to welcome everyone."

Reach Bob Petrie at bpetrie@sheboygan-press.com and 453-5129.

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South East Asian Nations: Laos Praises North Korea

Bangkok, Thailand and Washington, D.C.(RPRN) 7/25/2009–U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s participation in recent days at the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) conference in Phuket, Thailand, where she raised regional security and human rights concerns about North Korea and Burma, has been overshadowed, in part, by new revelations of neighboring Laos’ defiant ongoing support and solidarity for the Marxist-Leninist regime in North Korea (DPRK). ASEAN member Laos has organized high-level rallies and diplomatic missions in support of the Pyongyang regime in recent weeks.

“Now, unfortunately, the LPDR government in Laos continues to rally diplomatic and popular support for North Korea in Vientiane, Laos, and internationally in recent weeks, despite President Barrack Obama’s generous efforts to declare Laos as no longer being a Marxist-Leninist regime and to send Secretary of State Clinton to Thailand to address the security threat that North Korea poses armed with nuclear weapons and allied with Burma and other authoritarian regimes,” said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) in Washington, D.C.

Smith continued: “State-sponsored ceremonies in Vientiane, Laos, in support of North Korea, and its nuclear weapons development program, came less than ten (10) days after a U.S. Congressional letter was sent to Secretary of State Clinton opposing the forced repatriation of Lao Hmong refugees; In June, Laos’ support for North Korea was reasserted and reaffirmed by Vientiane in an apparent attack on President Obama’s and Secretary of State Clinton’s recent diplomatic efforts.”

“North Korea and Burma enjoyed the full and open support of Laos at the ASEAN meeting in Thailand, despite President Obama and Secretary Clinton’s best efforts,” Smith said.

Laos communist party and foreign ministry officials as well as Lao Peoples Army (LPA) military officers have repeatedly visited North Korea in recent months in support of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program and one-party, Marxist-Leninist regime. The LPDR regime in Laos is a staunch supporter and key ally of the military in junta in Burma. The North Korean embassy, and North Korean presence in Laos, is one of the largest in Southeast Asia, second only to Burma.

Laotian and Hmong refugees continue to flee horrific persecution and abuse in the LPDR regime in Laos years by the thousands, including over 5,500 Lao Hmong political refugees who are seeking asylum at Ban Huay Nam Khao, Petchabun Province and at Nong Khai, Thailand. http://www.media-newswire.com/release_1094929.html

From the CPPA offices in Washington, D.C., Philip Smith reflected further: “Most telling is that on June 26, 2009 just two weeks after President Barak Obama issued an Executive Order declaring that the Communist regime in Laos was no longer a Marxist-Lennist government for purposes of the Export-Import Act provisions, the LPDR regime responded in defiance by hosting an official rally and ceremonies in support of North Korea in Vientiane, Laos. DPRK, North Korea, diplomatic relations with the LPDR regime in Laos were lauded and hailed at this high-level rally and official ceremonies in Vientiane, Laos, that were attended by senior members of the Lao Foreign Ministry and Lao Communist Party’s Politburo to mark the 35th anniversary of North Korea’s relationship with the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party (LPRP), the Lao communist party which controls Laos.” www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

At the rally and ceremonies on June 26, 2009, senior Lao political and military leaders of the LPDR openly attacked and defied U.S. President Obama’s and Secretary of State Clinton’s policy in opposition to the regime in North Korea threat to international security.

The Lao military government’s ceremonies in Vientiane, Laos, in support of North Korea, and its nuclear weapons program, came less than ten days after a U.S. Congressional letter was sent to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in opposition to the repatriation of Lao Hmong refugees from Thailand to Laos. Thirty-two (32) Members of the U.S. Congress spearheaded by Representatives Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), James McGovern (D-Mass), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Howard Berman (D-CA), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Dana Rohrabacher (D-CA), James Costa (D-CA), George Radanovich (R-CA), Devin Nunes (R-CA), Steve Kagan (D-WI) and others sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the United States and Thailand to immediately intervene to halt the forced repatriation of Lao Hmong refugees from two of the remaining camps in Thailand back to the communist regime in Laos where they fled persecution.

“Mass starvation, ethnic cleansing, genocide and war crimes have been committed by the LPDR regime in Laos in recent months and years against its own citizens, including unarmed Lao and Hmong civilians as well as political and religious dissident and oppostion groups,” Smith said. “This has been documented by independent journalists and human rights organizations, including Amnesty International.” http://www.amnestyusa.org/document.php?lang=e&id=ENGUSA20070323001

http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/003/2007

In Laos, at the mass rally and ceremony in support of the Marxist-Leninist regime in North Korea Mr. Hiem Phommachanh, Laos’ Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Lao Ambassador to the United States stated in his official speech: “We honor and are grateful for…the long history of the friendly relationship and co-operation between Laos and North Korea, especially the assistance and support from North Korea offered to the Lao government and people during the Lao Marxist-Leninist revolutionary period… and since Laos liberation in 1975, the relation and co-operation between Laos and North Korea has been constantly developing…Laos expresses hope that under leadership of the North Korean Communist Worker Party, the people of North Korea would be successful in their task of national defense and construction of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea ( DPRK ), North Korea.”

The DPRK Ambassador to Laos was honored at the ceremonies and spoke about improved North Korea and Laos cooperation. Organizing and participating in the official state ceremonies in Vientiane, Laos honoring North Korea and its leaders were also key Stalinist leaders of the LPDR who rule the country, including Mr. Sisavath Keobounphanh, LPRP Central Committee Politburo member of the Lao Communist Party’s Central Committee who also serves as the Chairman of the Lao Front for National Construction (LFNC).

Philip Smith of the CPPA concluded: “Tragically, following the White House Executive Order by President Obama on Laos, the Lao Peoples Army (LPA) and LPDR militia and security forces responded in defiance by stepping up relentless military attacks on Laotian and Hmong political and religious dissident groups living independently of the communist regime in Laos in the provinces of Vientiane, Xieng Khouang, Khammoune, Luang Prabang, Savannakhet and elsewhere. On July 14 and 15, Lao LPA troops brutally attacked Lao Hmong groups in hiding at the Phou Bia Mountain area of Laos killing at least five (5) civilians, including an 18 year old Hmong girl who was gang raped and summarily executed.”

“On behalf of the Laos American community, we urge President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to support our cause to seek to stop the Laos government from supporting North Korea; As Lao-American citizens and taxpayers, we want all U.S. financial aid to be cut off to the corrupt and ruthless Communist regimes in Laos and North Korea, which work together to persecute and kill their own people,” said Boon Boualaphanh a Laotian-American community leader from Minnesota who has frequently testified in the U.S. Congress about human rights violations in Laos.

“We urge President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to challenge the role of North Korea in both Laos and Burma and to take new steps to challenge the Lao regimes’ recent diplomatic attacks on the policy of President Obama and the United States at the ASEAN conference in Thailand in seeking to oppose North Korea as a security threat to Southeast Asia and the region,” said Bounthanh Rathigna, President of the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc.

Bounthanh Rathigna stated further: “Currently, Laos under the LPDR communist regime is a terrible ally of Burma and North Korea, and we want President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, to press the Lao government to stop its oppressive and corrupt support for these two dictatorships; We want the LPDR regime to stop its continued persecution and oppression of the Laotian and Hmong people and to immediately release the Lao and Hmong political and religious dissidents and prisoners it has unjustly jailed, including the Lao Students Movement for Democracy leaders of the October 1999 movement.”

Recently, Laotian and Hmong Christians and religious believers have been subjected to an increased campaign of religious persecution by Lao military and security forces. In one case, LPDR officials confiscated the livestock of Laotian Christians in one area and ordered them to stop practicing their Christian faith or face eviction and lose their homes and property. Lao Hmong Christian and animist believers are being persecuted and killed in key provinces of Laos where they are in hiding from Lao military and security forces that continue to persecute, hunt and kill them according to refugee and non-governmental organization reports. http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090720/officials-announce-ban-on-christianity-in-lao-village/index.html

“Sadly, now it is clear that Laos, under the LPDR military junta, is still a communist country, Obama’s policy toward to Laos, given its renewed support for North Korea and Burma should take this into consideration so that we… ( the United States) can bring about positive change in Laos and end the LPDR regime’s corrupt and brutal monopoly on political power,” stated Khamphoua Naovarangsy, a Laotian America who heads the Lao Institute for Democracy.

In Geneva and Washington, D.C., 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 LPDR 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

www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA)

2020 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite No.#212

Washington, D.C. 20006 USA

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Dragon Boat: Culinary, cultural and competitive

’ve never tasted the Monkey Balls. The line is always too long.

But if you’re brave enough to wait it out and order these meatballs-on-a-stick, you’ll be honored with a clanging bell and a yell of “MONKEY BALLS!” from Thai Pepper’s servers that echoes throughout the food court of the Colorado Dragon Boat Festival.

Monkey Balls are just one of the culinary, cultural and competitive features of the festival, which takes place for the ninth year this Saturday and Sunday along the northeast shore of Sloan’s Lake in Denver.

The centerpiece, of course, is the series of dragon boat time trials and races that run throughout each day from about 9 am until 5:30 pm. More than 50 teams will compete in five divisions this year.

Want to try paddling a dragon boat yourself? Sign up for Dragon Boating 101, a class starting at 1 p.m. each day that ends with an actual race. Twenty bucks gets you a paddle, a lifejacket, a seat on a boat, and training. Register before class time at the team registration tent, or online.

Don’t miss the Awakening the Dragon ceremony Saturday morning, when Buddhist monks bless the boats and pupils are painted on the eyes of the figureheads to give them sight. A dancing 75-foot dragon leads the parade to the lake, following a “pearl” carried by one of the dancers.

Although dragon boat racing is Chinese in origin, the festival celebrates Asian cultures all around the Pacific Rim, from Indonesia, Thailand and the Hmong people to Korea, Japan and Hawaii.

In order to reduce the carbon footprint, the event no longer provides parking at Invesco Field with shuttle buses to the lake. Instead, the festival recommends biking, scootering, walking, or using scattered-site parking areas or using scheduled mass transit.

Be sure to bring lots of water, The best viewing areas for the races are along the shore with not much shade, and the forecast for the weekend is for hot and partly cloudy.

And tell me if the Monkey Balls are worth the wait!

Saturday update: PoweR3d By Chopstix, made up primarily of members of the Asian Student Alliance at CU-Denver, is one of the teams competing in the Adult Novice division of the Dragon boat competitions at Sloan’s Lake this weekend.

With a time of 1 minute, 19 seconds in their first 250-meter trial, they think they are in good shape for their competitions Sunday, “but we can do better,” says team member Joe Nguyen, also editor of AsiaXpress.com

This gallery of photographs shows how they spent the day Saturday. Tomorrow’s update will tell how they finished in the competition.

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Bus driver in Colusa crash pleads not guilty

The Associated Press
Posted: 07/24/2009 12:08:46 PM PDT

WILLIAMS, Calif.—The bus driver in a Colusa County crash that killed 11 people last year has pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter.

Fifty-three-year-old Quintin Watts was driving a charter bus crash shuttling a group to the Colusa Casino Resort on Oct. 5 when it veered off a rural road and flipped. Eleven people died and more than 30 others were injured, most of them elderly Hmong and Mien immigrants.

Authorities have said Watts apparently dozed off at the wheel, leading to the crash.

Watts entered his plea Wednesday in Colusa County Superior Court to 11 counts of vehicular manslaughter. He also refused to waive his right to a speedy trial.

A judge scheduled his preliminary hearing to begin next Friday.

If convicted of all counts, he could face nearly 20 years in prison.

Information from: Colusa Sun-Herald, http://www.colusa-sun-herald.com/

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Tagging along with Tory

Foraging at the Dane County Farmers' Market with L'Etoile's chef
Adam Powell on Friday 07/24/2009

"The most important thing is the relationships." It's 6:45 on a sunny Saturday morning, and I'm walking around the Capitol Square discussing how fresh food from Wisconsin farms gets to Tory Miller's kitchen — and finally to your plate. Miller is the chef of L'Etoile, one of the finest restaurants in the nation and one heavily invested in the local food movement. Nearly nine-tenths of the restaurant's ingredients come from local farmers.

Until the rise (only a couple of decades ago) of an international shipping infrastructure that has lately been shown to be highly vulnerable to the global economic downturn, local food was the only option people had. Considered in that light, Miller's emphasis on networking seems less modern.

We begin our Farmers' Market trek with two empty wagons, but immediately pick up 48 pints of plump fresh blueberries. "After the service on Friday night, we write the shopping list," says Miller, fingering a scrap of paper densely blotted with ink. "I always end up buying stuff not on the list."

Miller chats with one farmer, pays another he owes for tomatoes, picks up five pounds of sugar snap peas, then snags 20 boxes of succulent-looking raspberries from Young's Fresh Produce. He has an agility to his movements, the purposeful and sure touch of one completely in his element, as he rapidly selects the best ears of fresh sweet corn from Heck's farm.

One wagon is fully loaded after a stop at Door County Fruit Market for tart cherries. These will go into croissants and cherry clafouti. "I haven't seen these guys lately; Door County lost 90% of their cherry crop last year," Miller says.

Next on the list: beefsteak tomatoes from Don's Produce. "I buy about $100 of tomatoes a week from Don, who has a hothouse that sustains us through the winter. In the summer, when we start getting heirlooms grown outdoors, I'll choose other vendors, but since Don and I have a relationship, he doesn't get mad." Miller tells a story of how forging relationships can go well beyond being friendly to get the best produce. "My wife and I were married on the farm that sources L'Etoile's beef — we're friends. Our wedding present was 50 pork chops and two sides of bacon!"

We visit Tru Her for carrots and spinach, then Yang's for fennel. "There's a call for more biodiversity from the Hmong farmers," Miller relates. "They're all growing the same produce, and that's a problem. Some in the younger generation are saying, 'Let's grow early berries, find ways to stand out.' But many Hmong kids just aren't interested in farming." We get green onions, squash and red beets from Mao Xiang; then red radishes, baby carrots and bok choy from Sue Vang.

We're now nearly done, buying Greek feta for pizzas and Washed Bear (one of 31 variable artisan cheeses L'Etoile carries) from Capri Cheesery. I've been wondering how we are going to get all the food back — the wagons are overpacked, and we're now carrying bags of kale and Swiss chard — but we pull it off with the aid of two "assistant foragers," who also record each transaction.

Nearly two hours after we set off, we head back to the restaurant. "L'Etoile would go under without this supply of high-quality produce, but the Farmers' Market is really a social event too."

I ask the chef what he plans on doing with the freshly picked fennel. "I'm going to sauté it with white wine and summer squash, then serve it with snapper." Tonight? "Tonight."

L'Etoile's Grilled Pork Chops with Blueberry and Sweet Corn Relish

Pork chop brine (Makes 1 gallon)

* 1/2cup sugar
* 1 cup kosher salt
* 1 tablespoon coriander (whole)
* 1 tablespoon black peppercorn (whole)
* 1 tablespoon clove (whole)
* 1 tablespoon allspice (whole)
* 6 bay leaves
* 1 gallon water

Bring all ingredients to a boil. Stir to dissolve sugar and salt. Chill and pour over pork chops. You can keep pork chops in the brine for up to a week.

Pork chops

The chops we use at L'Etoile are bone-in and about 2-1/2 inches thick, so if you are using thinner chops, you will need to cook them less. In general, make sure to cook the chops until their internal temperature registers 155° degrees.

Heat your grill to high heat. Grill the chops on high for about 3 minutes per side, and then move the chops to a cooler part of the grill for about 8 minutes. Remove from the grill and let them rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.

Relish

* 6 ears of corn
* 1 small sweet onion (sliced as thinly as you can)
* 1 cup blueberries
* 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 3 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
* salt and pepper
* 1 teaspoon chopped cilantro

Place the onions in a bowl with the vinegar and honey. Season with a little salt and pepper and set aside. Remove the kernels of corn from the cobs. Heat a sauté pan on medium high and add one tablespoon of the olive oil. Add the corn and cook for 3 minutes, stirring often. Add the blueberries and cook for about 30 seconds. Place into the bowl with the onions and stir together with the remaining olive oil and cilantro. Serve hot or cold with the pork chops.

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Ma Yang tells stories of Hmong life then and now, there and here

A piece by Mai C. Vang on display in the Homewood show. Image courtesy Homewood Studios.

By Jeanette Fordyce , TC Daily Planet
July 24, 2009

On Friday, July 17, at Homewood Studios in North Minneapolis, Ma Yang, a Hmong elder and storyteller, told stories to an mixed audience of 15 people spanning races and generations. Curators Beverly and George Roberts hosted as if the gallery was their home and the audience members were their neighbors.

Yang is the mother of “Sai the Funny Guy”, a Hmong comedian in the Twin Cities. Yang herself seemed at ease in front of an audience. With an interpreter translating, she told two stories of her ancestors and one from a dream. Yang prefers, however, to tell stories of her life in America today.

The stage backdrop was a quilt-sized textile depicting the first story of the evening. With her children translating Yang’s story into English, the whole story had been embroidered into English words and pictures of village life. Yang’s stories told of marriage problems and times of war. After her presentation, others from the audience were encouraged to tell their stories. Seven other people told stories.

Dyan Garvey from Hmong Arts Connection was Yang’s translator. “Storytelling entertains, teaches family values, preserves Hmong history as told by the Hmong people themselves, and creates membership into a community,” said Garvey.

Presently, the gallery houses a display of seven Hmong artists who are exploring themes of identity in an American cultural setting. The art is modern, differing from their elders’ traditional textiles.

Upcoming events associated with the Homewood exhibit include a story cloth workshop on Saturday, July 25 at the Northside Arts Crawl at Penn and Broadway. Also, Patch Xiong reads from his novel Dead Promise on Friday, July 31 at the Homewood Gallery.

Jeanette Fordyce contributes regularly to the Daily Planet.

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Laos Support for North Korea in Opposition to Obama, Clinton

Thursday, July 23, 2009

"...the relation and cooperation between Laos and North Korea has been constantly developing… Laos expresses hope that under leadership of the North Korean Communist Workers' Party, the people of North Korea would be successful in their task of national defense and construction of the DPRK," said Hiem Phommachanh, Laos' Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs at a rally in support of North Korea in Vientiane, Laos on June 26, 2009.

(Media-Newswire.com) - Bangkok, Thailand and Washington, D.C., July 22, 2009 - Despite Secretary Hillary Clinton’s participation today in the ASEAN conference in Phuket, Thailand where she is raising regional security and human rights concerns about North Korea and Burma, the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic ( LPDR ), continues to openly reaffirm their solidarity and support for the Marxist regime in North Korea.

“Laos’ support for North Korea has been reaffirmed in an apparent attack on President Obama’s and Secretary of State Clinton’s recent diplomatic efforts,” observed Philip Smith, Executive Director for the Center for Public Policy Analysis ( CPPA ) in Washington, D.C.

Smith continued: “Unfortunately, the LPDR government in Laos continues to rally diplomatic and popular support for North Korea in Vientiane, Laos, and internationally in recent weeks, despite President Barack Obama’s generous efforts to declare Laos as no longer being a Marxist-Leninist regime and to send Secretary of State Clinton to Thailand to address the security threat that North Korea poses armed with nuclear weapons and allied with Burma and other authoritarian regimes.”

The LPDR regime in Laos is a staunch supporter and key ally of the military in junta in Burma. The North Korean embassy, and North Korean presence in Laos, is one of the largest in Southeast Asia, second only to Burma. Senior Lao communist party and foreign ministry officials as well as Lao Peoples Army ( LPA ) officers have repeatedly visited North Korea in recent months in support of North Korea’s nuclear weapons development program and one-party, Marxist-Leninist regime.

Thousands of Laotian and Hmong refugees have fled the LPDR regime in Laos in recent years, including over 5,500 Lao Hmong political refugees who are seeking asylum at Ban Huay Nam Khao, Petchabun Province and at Nong Khai, Thailand.

Smith said further: “On June 26, just two weeks after President Obama issued an Executive Order declaring that the Communist regime in Laos was no longer a Marxst-Lennist government for purposes of the Export-Import Act, the LPDR regime in Laos responded in defiance by hosting an official rally and ceremonies in support of North Korea in Vientiane, Laos. North Korea diplomatic relations with the LPDR regime in Laos were hailed at this high-level rally and official ceremonies in Vientiane, Laos, that were attended by senior members of the Lao Foreign Ministry and Lao Communist Party’s Politbureau to mark the 35th anniversary of North Korea’s relationship with the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party ( LPRP ), the Lao communist party which controls Laos.”

At the rally and ceremonies on June 26, 2009, senior Lao leaders of the LPDR openly attacked and defied U.S. President Obama’s and Secretary of State Clinton’s policy in opposition to the regime in North Korea threat to international security.

The Lao military junta’s ceremonies in Vientiane, Laos in support of North Korea, and its nuclear weapons development program, came less than ten days after a major U.S. Congressional letter was sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in opposition to the repatriation of Lao Hmong refugees from Thailand to Laos. Thirty-two ( 32 ) Members of the U.S. Congress spearheaded by Rep. Dennis Cardoza ( D-CA ) Rep. Patrick Kennedy ( D-RI ), Representative James McGovern ( D-Mass ), Rep. Frank Wolf ( R-VA ) and others 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 Lao Hmong refugees from two of the remaining camps in Thailand.
http://www.media-newswire.com/release_1092956.html

In an official statement delivered at the rally and ceremony in support of the Marxist-Leninist regime in North Korea Mr. Hiem Phommachanh, Laos’ Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, and former Lao Ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C., stated: “We honor and are grateful for…the long history of the friendly relationship and co-operation between Laos and North Korea, especially the assistance and support from North Korea offered to the Lao government and people during the Lao Marxist-Leninist revolutionary period… and since Laos liberation in 1975, the relation and cooperation between Laos and North Korea has been constantly developing…Laos expresses hope that under leadership of the North Korean Communist Workers' Party, the people of North Korea would be successful in their task of national defense and construction of the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea ( DPRK )—North Korea.”

Attending the official ceremonies in Vientiane, Laos honoring North Korea were key Stalinist leaders of the LPDR who rule the country, including Mr. Sisavath Keobounphanh, LPRP Central Committee Politbureau member of the Lao Communist Party’s Central Committee who also serves as the Chairman of the Lao Front for National Construction.

Laos’ official state-controlled propaganda and news agencies, including KPL, reported much of the information regarding the June 25-26, 2009 rallies and ceremonies in support of North Korea.

Philip Smith of the CPPA concluded with these observations: “Tragically, following the White House Executive Order by President Obama on Laos, the Lao Peoples Army ( LPA ) and LPDR militia and security forces responded in defiance by stepping up relentless military attacks on Laotian and Hmong political and religious dissident groups living independently of the communist regime in Laos in the provinces of Vientiane, Xieng Khouang, Khammoune, Luang Prabang, Savannakhet and elsewhere. On July 14-15, Lao troops attacked Lao Hmong groups in hiding at the Phou Bia Mountain area of Laos killing at least five civilians, including an 18 year old Hmong girl who was gang raped and summarily executed.”
http://media-newswire.com/release_1094929.html

Many Lao Americans are also concerned about Laos’ recent openly declared support for the military dictatorships in Burma and North Korea and its political and religious persecution of the Laotian and Hmong people.

”On behalf of the Laos American community, we urge President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to support our cause to seek to stop the Laos government from supporting North Korea; As Lao-American citizens and taxpayers, we want all U.S. financial aid to be cut off to the corrupt and ruthless Communist regimes in Laos and North Korea, which work together to persecute and kill their own people,” said Boon Boualaphanh a Laotian-American community leader from Minnesota who has frequently testified in the U.S. Congress about human rights violations in Laos.

“We urge President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to challenge the role of North Korea in both Laos and Burma and to take new steps to challenge the Lao regimes’ recent diplomatic attacks on the policy of President Obama and the United States at the ASEAN conference in Thailand in seeking to oppose North Korea as a security threat to Southeast Asia and the region,” said Bounthanh Rathigna, President of the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. “Laos under the LPDR communist regime is a terrible ally of Burma and North Korea, and we want President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, to press the Lao government to stop its oppressive and corrupt support for these two dictatorships; We want the LPDR regime to stop its continued persecution and oppression of the Laotian and Hmong people and to immediately release the Lao and Hmong political and religious dissidents and prisoners it has unjustly jailed, including the Lao Students Movement for Democracy leaders of the October 1999 movement.”

“Laos, under the LPDR, is still a communist country, Obama's policy toward to Laos, given its renewed support for North Korea and Burma should take this into consideration so that we can bring about positive change in Laos and end the LPDR regime’s corrupt and brutal monopoly on political power,” stated Khamphoua Naovarangsy, a Laotian America who heads the Lao Institute for Democracy.

In recent weeks and months, Laotian and Hmong Christians and religious believers have been subjected to an increased campaign of religious persecution by Lao military and security forces. In one recent case, LPDR officials confiscated the livestock of Laotian Christians in one area and ordered them to stop practicing their Christian faith or face eviction and lose their homes and property.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090720/officials-announce-ban-on-christianity-in-lao-village/index.html

Contact: Maria Gomez
Tele. ( 202 ) 543-1444

info@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

www.cppa-dc.org

Center for Public Policy Analysis
2020 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Suite No.# 212
Washington, D.C. 20006 USA

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Nichols' conviction

Updated: Thursday, 23 Jul 2009, 8:16 AM CDT
Published : Thursday, 23 Jul 2009, 8:10 AM CDT

The State Supreme Court has decided not to review a high profile murder case.

James Nichols was sentenced to 69 years for killing Hmong hunter Cha Vang in Peshtigo in 2007.

Nichols appealed, claiming the judge should not have allowed some statements he made to police.

A state appeals court upheld his conviction in March of this year. The appeals court ruled the statements were relevant to whether Nichols killed Vang in self defense or out of hatred towards Hmong people.

Wednesday, the Supreme Couty declined to review the case, which leaves the appeals court ruling in place.

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At last, a wealth of Hmong recipes has been collected into a cookbook, 'Cooking From the Heart'

From egg rolls to noodle soups, Hmong historically have passed recipes through word of mouth, not recipe cards. But as more time passes, there's fear things might get lost in translation.

So, Sheng Yang, who is Hmong and grew up in the United States, decided to write a cookbook and record the recipes. 'Cooking From the Heart' (University of Minnesota Press), co-written with family friend Sami Scripter, was released this year.

Ilean Her, executive director of the Council for Asian Pacific Minnesotans, agrees it's important to record Hmong culture. St. Paul has the largest Hmong population — 25,000 — of any city in the country.

'In Minnesota, Hmong culture has gone mainstream. You can easily get ingredients you need at stores and farmers' markets,' Her says. 'You can even find people to ask for cooking advice. It's one of the best places in the country for Hmong cuisine.'

Hmong food is influenced by Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and southern China, countries where Hmong have lived. So, Yang thinks people who like those cuisines may enjoy Hmong dishes.

'People will be surprised to find they're already familiar with many of the ingredients,' Yang says. 'But some of the cooking techniques will be different.'

Q&A WITH COOKBOOK AUTHOR

Sheng Yang, a California mother of six, worried Hmong cooking traditions would die out. She set out to preserve the recipes and the traditions behind them in Cooking From the Heart," a collection of classic Hmong recipes. Here, Yang, 39, talks about what it took to get it all down.

Question: What made you decide to write this cookbook?

Answer: (Co-author) Sami Scripter and I used to live in Portland, Ore. I introduced her to Hmong food, and she loved it. Hmong culture doesn't write everything down, so there weren't recipes to pass on. We decided to record them for the next generation of Hmong as well as those who want to try cooking the cuisine for the first time.

Question: Without any previous recipes to build on, was it tough putting together this cookbook?

Answer: It was quite challenging. Hmong people don't measure things when cooking. We had to guess how many tablespoons or cups something was until we got the flavors right. Some of the dishes took a few tries.

Question: Hmong food isn't celebrated in the culinary world. Why not?

Answer: Hmong people haven't had tons of opportunities to introduce people to our cuisine. There aren't a lot of Hmong restaurants or recipes. Hopefully, that will start changing a little with this cookbook. Title: "Cooking From the Heart"


ABOUT THE COOKBOOK

By: Sheng Yang and Sami Scripter

Publisher: University of Minnesota Press

Price: $29.95

Where to find: Widely available, including at Barnes & Noble bookstores or online at www.upress.umn.edu

For more information: hmongcooking.com

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Hmong worldwide revere Vang Pao, 'the General'

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

By Stephen Magagnini
The Sacramento Bee

WESTMINSTER – "The General," now 79, no longer commands battalions of Hmong guerrilla fighters or the fawning attention of U.S. lawmakers and heads of state.

For years, Gen. Vang Pao has made his headquarters in a ranch-style home on an Orange County cul-de-sac. It's a world away from Long Chieng, the secret CIA base in the mountains of northern Laos known as "Spook Heaven," where he lived from 1963 to 1975, waging war on Lao and Vietnamese communists with his jungle army of Hmong and Iu Mien warriors.

The face of Hmong people worldwide holds court here on his beige sofa, his brown eyes still shooting fire, his will and wits unblunted by a barrage of health and legal problems.

His former patron, the U.S. government, charged him and 10 others in June 2007 with plotting the violent overthrow of their old enemy, communist Laos.

After a six-month undercover investigation known as Operation Tarnished Eagle, more than 200 federal agents and police fanned out to arrest Vang and 10 other suspects.

The federal indictment filed in Sacramento accuses them of conspiracy to "kill, kidnap and maim" by financing a mercenary force armed with AK-47s, Stinger and anti-tank missiles, rocket-propelled grenades, Claymore mines and other explosives.

The co-conspirators allegedly commissioned one of the suspects, Fresno businessman David Dang Vang, to draft "Operation Popcorn (Political Opposition Party's Coup Operation to Rescue the Nation)." The 18-page blueprint outlines how Laos could be transformed into an American-style democracy with free elections, freedom of speech, a constitution and judiciary, and a congress that included Hmong and other ethnic minorities.

The group, according to federal court documents, had no weapons or soldiers of its own – the alleged co-conspirators were offered a menu of munitions and mercenaries at a Sacramento Thai restaurant by an undercover Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent posing as an arms dealer with CIA connections.

If convicted, Vang could die in prison, an ignominious end for the man former CIA officers have called the greatest general of the Vietnam War.

And yet Vang's profile has never been higher in the Hmong community. He's made several trips to Merced, including a December visit to ring in the Hmong New Year.

His arrest has rallied a new, much larger army of Hmong Americans. Vang has become the emblem of a Hmong civil rights movement fighting for public acknowledgment of the Hmong role in the Vietnam War and liberation of those still living in the jungles of Laos.

"It's not just about a human being that brought us over to America; it's a whole social justice movement," said Louansee Moua, 33, chief of staff to San Jose City Councilwoman Madison Nguyen. "People are going to rallies because they want the Hmong to be recognized for what they've done for the country."

This past May, in the biggest demonstration ever at Sacramento's federal courthouse, 8,000 Hmong marched from the Capitol chanting, "Free Vang Pao."

The general, flanked by security guards, was treated like a rock star as he made his way through the arcade of American flags and outstretched arms.

That shining moment of validation reinvigorated Vang, who has battled diabetes, heart problems, cataracts and a growing belief among young Hmong that his time had passed.

"I feel great for all their support," Vang said in his living room, framed by photos of his glory days in Laos. "But since 1944, all I've been doing is helping my people progress forward in life, whether it's finding food to eat, or education.

"Now we're able to stand with other people at their height, and achieve and succeed beyond my wildest dreams."

Hmong fighters left in lurch

On a weekday morning last month, Vang engaged The Bee in a spirited three-hour conversation in Hmong, French and English. Vang's lawyers would not let him talk about his legal case or the politics of Laos. Instead, he passionately recounted the evolution of his people from farmers to freedom fighters, illiterate hill people who crossed mountains, rivers and oceans to be reborn in the United States.

The "King of the Hmong," as Vang is called by veterans, learned how to lead from his father, Neng Chu Vang, a county leader from Nong Het, Laos.

"The Hmong people didn't know how to read and write, but he knew about laws and was able to help them," Vang said.

Vang's dad sent him to school from ages 10 to 15, when the Japanese invaded Indochina – the French colonial peninsula that includes modern-day Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – and the French turned him into a soldier.

In 1960, President John F. Kennedy feared Laos would be the first domino to fall to the communists and authorized the CIA to recruit Hmong jungle fighters. About 25,000 were shaped into Special Guerilla Units, and over the next 15 years the CIA armed an additional 95,000 Hmong partisans with rifles and machine guns, Vang said.

"The war in Laos was my business," said Bill Lair, the CIA case officer who recruited the Hmong and now lives in Texas. "While they were largely uneducated, they were extremely intelligent people and we knew they would do well."

Vang said the Hmong were given three objectives: to disrupt communist troops and supplies moving from North to South Vietnam; to save downed U.S. pilots; and to protect strategic U.S. installations in Laos and South Vietnam.

At first, "there were no real tactics, we were doing everything in the blind and in the dark, and we had to have the guts to push forward," Vang said.

The guerrilla war forged the Hmong farmers into fighters who learned to recalibrate machine guns and assault rifles, throw grenades, drive jeeps and fly helicopters and planes, Vang said proudly. "We came up with tactics to attack the enemy because we knew the terrain better."

"Without the Hmong, the U.S. would have to lose 300,000 minimum, absolutely," instead of 58,000, Vang thundered in the same baritone that inspired fear and respect in his troops.

But in 1973, the United States withdrew its planes and special forces officers from Laos, and the Hmong were left to fend for themselves against superior communist forces. By the end of the war, the Hmong guerrillas had suffered 35,000 casualties.

When Laos fell in May 1975, U.S. aircraft evacuated Vang and 2,500 of the Hmong and Iu Mien guerrillas living in and around Long Chieng.

Vang was resettled on a Montana ranch before moving to Orange County.

Left behind were thousands of Hmong freedom fighters and their families, who fled into the jungles with communist forces at their heels. Many were shot to death. Others drowned trying to cross the Mekong River into Thailand. Those who made it spent years behind barbed wire in Thai refugee camps.

Since the war's end, about 250,000 Hmong have been granted refugee status in the United States. Most settled in poor neighborhoods in Sacramento, Fresno, Merced and St. Paul, Minn. Soldiers and farmers by tradition, many of the adults were ill-equipped for American urban life. Some of their children excelled in school; others felt like outsiders in both cultures and formed street gangs for a sense of identity.

To help his people cope, Vang established a chain of Lao Family Community centers in Sacramento and nearly a dozen other cities. The centers offered English and citizenship classes and provided Hmong social workers.

Hmong who had entrusted "the General" with their lives in Laos continued to follow his orders here, relying on him to resolve disputes and solve an array of problems.

"For the past 35 years in this country the Hmong communities have been calling me constantly about education, health, social services, employment and just about every aspect of life here," Vang said.

Dreams of return fade

Vang, who's put on a few pounds and is on a restricted diet because of his health problems, still speaks with volume and clarity.

He says he gets about three hours' sleep and does his clearest thinking at 5 a.m., a legacy of the war, "when I was always up directing aircraft on reconnaissance missions and bombing runs."

He has 25 children from several wives – in Laos, Hmong men of status often had multiple wives and married their relatives' widows. He jokes that he can't keep track of his grandchildren, though he still knows the names of all his commanders.

The general retains the moral authority he earned as a warrior. Many at the Sacramento rally brandished the classic photo of the handsome, supremely confident young major general in his Royal Lao Army uniform circa 1965.

That Vang Pao – who Hmong believed possessed a tiger's spirit that protected him from bullets – hangs in thousands of Hmong American homes, just as Catholics hang pictures of President John F. Kennedy.

A large print sits over Vang's couch.

Hmong veteran Chue Lor, 62, has the same photo, said his daughter Koua Jacklyn Franz, executive director of the Sacramento Hmong Women's Heritage Association.

Franz, 29, has a different Vang Pao photo in her office, "a poster of him reading to children as part of a statewide literacy campaign."

That's the Vang Pao who beats the drum of education and hard work.

"How you feel about him varies from individual to individual, but I have great respect for the man," Franz said. "An entire population was on his shoulders, and he had to make decisions based on what opportunities were available to him."

For decades, as he watched elder Hmong struggle in America, Vang would declare "Next year in Laos!" at Hmong New Year's celebrations.

Louansee Moua remembers her parents' generation literally buying into Vang's promises of reconquering Laos someday. Thousands of Hmong Americans would buy promissory notes from Vang's organization in exchange for promises of commissions or political appointments in the new, free Laos.

Hmong youth – many of whom had no interest in a return to Laos – often saw their family's hard-earned savings go to the promissory notes instead of their college educations.

"My parents were part of this over the years," Moua said. "When I was young, idealistic and straight out of college, and being in the midst of this stuff, of course I was angry."

"Obviously, they learned they're not going back, but they didn't know any better – you're still trying to establish yourself in this country and trying to get jobs."

Even Vang seemed to abandon that dream when he met with Vietnamese officials in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 2003.

The deal: If Vang supported normalizing U.S. trade relations with Laos, Vietnam would lean on Laos to stop persecuting several thousand Hmong still living in the jungles.

On Nov. 23, 2003, Vang and his eldest son, Cha Vang, unveiled Vang's "New Doctrine" before nearly 1,000 stunned Hmong in St. Paul.

Vang declared, "It is time to let the past stay in the history books and to let a new era of peace, prosperity and reconciliation return to Laos."

In recent years, if the Hmong dream of a triumphant return has faded, concern has intensified for distant Hmong relatives still living in the jungles. Though the Lao government denies the charges, human rights groups say jungle Hmong are being shot or starved to death by Lao soldiers who regard them as rebels.

A searing documentary released in 2006 by Brooklyn-based filmmaker Rebecca Sommer includes footage of emaciated Hmong living on the run in jungle camps, foraging for food and shelter.

The film's title – "Hunted Like Animals" – has become a rallying cry for Hmong young and old.

Their plight inspired two of the defendants in the conspiracy case – Harrison Jack, a Vietnam veteran from Woodland, and Lo Cha Thao, a Vang confidant – to form a humanitarian organization to raise money for aid, according to one of Jack's former lawyers.

Federal prosecutors allege the goal was more violent.

Documents filed in the federal court case describe Jack and Thao discussing details of a military coup, down to which Laotian government buildings should be blown up. Thao allegedly said he wanted another "9/11" in Vientiane, the Laotian capital, and joked that "Col. Jack is going to be my prime minister."

Conspiracy or betrayal?

Larry Brown, the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento, said his office understood Vang's stature when the investigation was launched and the charges filed.

"Prosecution decisions can't be based on popular opinion," Brown said. "It would be wholly inappropriate to have a different standard of justice for those who are iconic or beloved."

The defendants are charged with violating the Neutrality Act, "which stands for the proposition that one cannot conspire to overthrow a foreign government we are not at war with," Brown said.

The defense, led by San Francisco attorney John Keker, claims the suspects were entrapped by an undercover agent who led them to believe he was backed by the U.S. government. Keker maintains Vang was brought to the table at the agent's request and opposed any violence.

For many Hmong Americans, whether there was or wasn't a conspiracy doesn't matter – the case, they say, is another example of betrayal by the government that recruited them to give their lives for freedom. Why, they ask, after years of using the Hmong to fight communism, would the U.S. government conduct a sting operation? Why didn't federal agents just tell Vang to make any talk of a plot go away?

Brown's office has gotten sacks of mail asking for Vang's release.

"There are approximately 3,761 letters, plus about 25 petitions ranging from 18 names to 4,110," reported Brown's secretary, Mary Wenger. "Letters came from as far away as Australia and France and all across the United States."

Vang has been out on bail for a year, resuming his schedule as Hmong royalty crisscrossing the nation. By summer's end, he will have toured communities in Oklahoma, Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Alaska.

Wherever he goes, Vang has audiences with clan leaders, said Paula Yang, a Fresno community leader.

At a recent wedding in Fresno, "he spoke to a young couple in a very open manner, what responsibility the man should take as a stepfather, to provide a career and respect your woman and not raise your hand on her," Yang said.

On another Fresno stop, to ward off evil spirits, he tied a white good luck string on an elder who had recovered from cancer.

"It's all part of the psychological effect," Yang said. The older generation "love the general more they love their own parents."

A voice for the younger generation, comedian Tou Ger Xiong, said Vang's case has inspired the greatest wave of Hmong activism in 35 years in America.

"This is great synergy, where Hmong leaders have coordinated peaceful rallies around the country at the same time," said Xiong, 35, who lives in St. Paul.

Many elders "owe this guy their lives and feel like he's a god or a king – when you arrest him, you arrest everything they believe in. This is coming from the same government who actually paid him and hired him to fight on their side."

Vang understands the power of the movement and hopes to use it to get his troops U.S. veterans' benefits.

Though he respects new leaders such as Mee Moua and Cy Thao, Hmong Americans serving in Minnesota's Legislature, he still relishes his role as leader of the once and future Hmong, taking on gangs, gambling addiction and other social ills as he awaits his next court appearance in October.

"I've been running around addressing those issues and keeping everybody's hopes up," he said. "I think 10 generations from now you cannot find another V.P. I tell you true. They cannot work 16, 17 hours a day, they are not high-powered enough."

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St. Paul school board moves toward closing Roosevelt, Longfellow schools, keeping Sheridan open.

The St. Paul school board formally adopted measures to close Roosevelt and Longfellow elementary schools after next school year, and to keep open Sheridan Elementary School, which had faced closing.

The board put off until next year deciding upon closing a third school, which it must do to cut more than $500,000 from its annual budget that would have been saved had it adopted an earlier plan to close and repurpose Sheridan.

About 30 people from the Roosevelt school community attended Tuesday's board meeting to argue against its closing; several formally addressed the board. Most said that Roosevelt, on St. Paul's West Side, is a community anchor to the Hispanic and Hmong immigrants it serves.

"If we keep closing down schools on the West Side, there's not going to be a West Side community," said Ginny Almquist, a former Roosevelt student and recent high school graduate.

Board member Keith Hardy led the opposition to Roosevelt's closing, but he stood out as the lone dissenter. Others complained that the process hadn't included sufficient community input.

But board Chairman Kazoua Kong-Thaou spoke passionately about how closing any school is difficult. She had been to Roosevelt and attended the Hmong New Year celebration there, but still favored closing it. "If not Roosevelt, then who?" Kong-Thao said. "We have to make a very tough decision tonight."

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News From Concordia University, St. Paul

For more information contact: Jill Johnson, 651-641-8755, jjohnson@csp.edu

Concordia University, St. Paul Hosts Culture and Language Camp

ST. PAUL, MINN. (07/21/2009)(readMedia)-- The Concordia University, St. Paul Hmong Culture and Language Program and Dual Language Learner Academy will host its sixth summer camp with a current registration of over 600 students from local metro, state-wide and students from at least five other states, with over 20 language groups represented. The day camp which becomes a mini-United Nations runs July 27-August 7, 2009, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., on the university campus and in an inter-district partnership as a means of forwarding its mission of preserving Hmong and other cultures through storytelling, gardening and the arts, and planting the seeds of academic achievement and higher education attendance for k-12 students. Students will be involved in literacy, science, computers, tennis, heritage music, dance and historical simulations as a means of strengthening ethnic identity and bridging to American culture. We will have local storytellers, musicians, writers and artists as part of our program this year, including: Dyane Garvey, Diego Vasquez, Seexeng Lee and Jen Yang, Bounthavy Kiatoukaysy and Tsong Sawh Lo, as well as Lee Pao Xiong, Director of the Center for Hmong Studies and Dr. Paul Hillmer, Director of the Hmong Oral History Project.

Recently, the program was listed in the Johns Hopkins University National Center for Summer Learning's excellent summer programs. President Obama's proclamation and the information regarding the summer programs are on the John's Hopkins University website.

Our program is funded through the Travelers Foundation, Minneapolis Foundation, the school inter-district partnership and general registrations, as well as having food provided by SODEXO through the USDA Summer Food Program, and directed by Professor Sally Baas and Nao Thao, SEAT Program Associate.

Concordia University, St. Paul is a comprehensive, private university of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and one of 10 schools that comprise the Concordia University System. Established in 1893, Concordia offers more than 40 liberal arts majors, including business administration, education, fine arts, the sciences and church professions. Concordia is a regional leader in accelerated, cohort-delivered, undergraduate degree-completion and master's degrees in business administration, organizational management, criminal justice and human services. Concordia is the only private university in Minnesota to offer NCAA Division II athletics for men and women. On the Net: www.csp.edu.

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

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

"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

Center for Public Policy Analysis
2020 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Suite No.#212
Washington, DC 20006 USA

www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

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POV: The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)



Editor’s note: PopMatters originally ran this review on 21 November 2008, when The Betrayal opened theatrically.

There is a story that Thavi told that still haunts me. He said that during the time of the Pathet Lao, when they had closed the country down and there were a lot of people being killed especially the Hmong, he went out fishing with his grandfather and, in the blue mist, they saw something floating in the water. So his grandfather paddled over to see what it was and they saw a whole family floating, dead in the water and tied together, these Hmong people floating down the river. always wanted to put that in the film, because then, when Thavi actually gets in the water to go swim across the river, people would have that in their mind to know what the horror was of trying to escape.
—Ellen Kuras

The first images of Nerakhoon (The Betrayal) are both lovely and weighty. Sunlight dances across a river’s surface as a fisherman draws up his net, alive with shimmering little fish. A next cut shows children atop water buffalos, their silhouettes fluid and harmonious, accompanied by Thavisouk Phrasavath’s narration. As a child in Laos, his grandparents passed on a story of the future: “The time will come,” they said, “when the universe will break. It will break piece by piece, country by country, religion by religion. Husband and wife will break into two, the children will escape into the wind, they will scatter to hide on islands like frightened deer hunted by evil men. The world that we know now will change beyond recognition.”

As the river and light suggest a complex continuity between humans and their environments, so too does Thavi’s story, looking forward and back, traversing times and possibilities. “The world that we know now” is ever shifting, ever unlike the world we will know eventually. Just so, when he first appears in Nerakhoon, premiering 21 July as part of PBS’ POV documentary series, he is traveling, returning to Laos, the land he left as a child. His memories are both poetic and harsh, tied up in the war he left behind but also never escaped. As the film shows colonial photos of natives, archival footage of soldiers, homes in ruins and landscapes decimated, he recalls, “Almost every morning on my way to school, I remember seeing the wounded soldiers crying in pain on the stretchers. They were all surrounded by the body bags laying on the field by the army hospital. Days and nights, planes and jets flew over the roof of my house on their way to targets.” He pauses. “This was war explaining itself to me. I thought killing and dying was only a normal thing.”

On its face, Thavi’s story is like those of many other survivors of the U.S. war in Vietnam, which bled into Cambodia and Laos even as the U.S. denied it. The war was, as he says, ongoing and insidious, affecting millions. The film includes speeches by John Kennedy ("I want to make it clear to the American people and to all the world that all we want in Laos is peace, not war, a truly neutral government, not a cold war pawn") and Richard Nixon ("There are no American combat forces in Laos. At the present time we are concerned about the North Vietnamese move into Laos - providing logistical support and some training for the neutralist government…") even as it makes clear that the West (France as well as the U.S.) considered Southeast Asia a resource, exotic and ripe for exploitation. Thavi’s mother Orady recalls that her life as the wife of a soldier—with 10 children—was “full of struggle” ("I was so afraid to be killed by a rocket, leaving my children behind"). Today, she sighs, “I never dreamed my life would be what it is now.” After Thavi’s father spent years fighting with the Americans, helping them to bomb communist targets, he was, like other Laotians, abandoned by the U.S., which pulled out of the region in 1975. Arrested by the pro-communist Pathet Lao, he was lost to Orady and her children; she was in turn rejected by neighbors who believed her husband was a traitor to the government now in place.

Betrayal—deliberate and accidental, deep and devastatingly trivial—is pervasive in Nerakhoon, which title translates to “those who betray.” the film goes on to reveal the brutal dimensions of Thavi and Orady’s stories. At age 12, he crosses the Mekong River into Thailand, where he lives on the streets of Bangkok for two years, awaiting his family. Orady decides to move everyone to America, believing the country her husband served will look after them. Perhaps needless to say, their arrival in Brooklyn is something of a shock ("My family and I started to panic,” Thavi says, the camera looking out on sidewalks filled with black people. “We thought we had gotten on the wrong plane and landed on the wrong continent"). They settle into a two-room apartment they must share with a family of six Cambodians and “a Vietnamese guy” as well ("People," Thavi observes, “who are not always friendly in history").

As their lives take a turn into yet another new world, Thavi meets Kuras. She films him throughout his adolescence and young adulthood, their collaboration taking shape over some 23 years. Footage of Thavi during the ‘80s show his long hair, dragon tattoo, and skinny jeans, standing on sidewalks with other kids, sucking on cigarettes and drinking beer in plastic cups. His brothers and sisters appear as well, their eyes heavily mascaraed and their attitudes vaguely rebellious, even as they are also haunted by the Asian gangs who regularly rob and murder in their neighborhood. Having escaped the wars in Southeast Asia, Orady worries about her children on Flatbush Avenue. She frets that they have become aliens in America. “They ignore me, they refuse me,” she says, picking at her red sweater. “Every time they turn on the music, their eyes glaze over, they are lost in their own world, all of them.”

Even as their world remains unknown to her, Thavi does his best to balance his sense of responsibility and his resentment. As long as he believes his father is a hero who fought valiantly on front lines (it doesn’t matter, Thavi says, that his side “lost” the war), Thavi sees his siblings as his responsibility, an extension of his respect for his father. When they learn that the father is in fact alive, surviving years in a prison camp and since living in Florida with a new family, Thavi feels cheated and hurt—again. Though he feels sad and anger for his mother ("No words could describe my lost heart,” she says), he is aggrieved as well. “I didn’t create these children,” he says, the angles of his face circled in cigarette smoke. “I took his place for so many years, now he has a life with another wife.”

Thavi doesn’t need to articulate how he comes to terms with his father’s own gruesome experiences his betrayals by others turning into his betrayals of his family. And the film doesn’t need to underline how his experience is like that of other war victims, today, in Iraq or Afghanistan, children surrounded by chaos and bloody violence, betrayed repeatedly, whether by accident or intention.

Nerakhoon looks forward to an unknown future as it also looks back on events obscured by history and media images."I run between what I remember and what is forgotten,” Thavi says, “searching for the story of our people whose truth has not been told. As we move further from the Laos of our past, we are travelers moving in and out of dream and nightmare. What happens to people without land, a place to call home?” It’s a question Nerakhoon cannot possibly answer. But asking it is one way to initiate a sense of recovery and responsibility.



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