NEIGHBORHOOD NOTES | Henry Asian Club Students Help North Minneapolis Hmong Tornado Victims

On Saturday, May 28, Henry Asian Club students joined other Hmong students in fanning out across north Minneapolis, visiting Hmong families devastated by the tornado.

Two days before, tornado rescue volunteers were reporting difficulties talking with some Hmong families when doorknocking stricken blocks, because of language challenges and some families being too scared to open the door.

The students visited Henry Hmong families they knew had suffered tornado damage, along with recent immigrant Hmong households most likely to have problems communicating in English. They also walked down blocks looking for telltale signs of Hmong households, such as shoes on the porch or red and gold rectangles on the front door.

They brought emergency supplies such as food, cleaning goods and diapers.

They wrote down the problems and needs of the families, so others could bring additional help later. And they provided phone numbers and emergency information for the families to get assistance.

One student did such a good job of handing out pampers that he was renamed Dr. Diaper.

After several hours of doorknocking Hmong houses, the students enjoyed pizza at the University of Minnesota building at Penn and Plymouth.

Some of the students out doorknocking had themselves suffered damage to their houses and cars.

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Breakthrough Saint Paul: A college prep program for low-income kids with high success

Maybe Nouchie Xiong's experience in becoming a teacher with Breakthrough Saint Paul tells this story best.

Xiong, an American woman of Hmong heritage, was headed toward her second year at the then College of St. Catherine, an education major looking for a summer job, when she heard of Breakthrough Saint Paul, an academic enrichment program aimed at helping high potential, low-income middle school and high school students on the path toward college. Most are students of color. The program aims, as well, to cultivate teachers.

We tell this story as Breakthrough St. Paul, a six-year college preparatory program, this spring graduates its first class of 11. All are going on to college, no small feat considering wide academic achievement gaps between white kids and students of color.

Each student, according to local executive director Emily Wingfield, has earned scholarship help, averaging $26,000, with, at last report, at least three students offered full scholarships (to Stanford, Carleton and the University of St.Thomas). The St. Paul effort is the only Breakthrough in Minnesota, though it is part of the national Breakthrough Collaborative.

Locally, the program includes six weeks of summer school as well as Saturday tutoring during the school year in a special collaboration between Saint Paul Public Schools and Mounds Park Academy. St. Paul provides the students and Mounds Park the facilities for classes. Teachers, including many education majors, are college students supervised by licensed teaching staff.

But back to Nouchie, 24, who faced stiff competition to become a teacher at Breakthrough Saint Paul's summer school a few years back. She and other applicants had been asked to come prepared to teach a lesson. She watched, impressed as one applicant taught how to properly swing a baseball bat and another how to make tissue paper flowers, and thought her lesson on origami would fall short.

"The last minute I switched it,'' Nouchie says, to a lesson in improvisation. She coached her fellow applicants on how to "act like a dog,'' and "fry like you're bacon."

"We can't just be regular teachers,'' she recalls saying. "We have to be kids ourselves.'' Her creativity and flexible response to the application situation — like any teacher in a classroom full of students — won her a teaching position.

Dynamic approach
That's the kind of dynamic, adaptable educational approach that makes Breakthrough a success, Wingfield says.

Just ask two very successful examples of the first graduating class.

Vietnamese-American Tho Bui, 19, is praises the program: "A lot of times, minority kids and kids of color don't really have the expectation of going to college. Breakthrough's message is: 'You are going to college. You can do it. This is how you do it.'''

Tho, who started his education in Saint Paul Public Schools and transferred to Mounds Park Academy after receiving financial support, is headed off to Carleton College in Northfield, thanks to a scholarship award from Carleton and financial help from the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation. The middle child in a family of five children, he came here at age 10 with his parents to live in Frogtown, one of St. Paul's poorest neighborhoods. He dreams of earning a PhD in neuroscience.

Pai Lee, 18, a Hmong woman who immigrated to the United States as a baby, is graduating from Johnson High School in St. Paul this spring. She's headed to St. Catherine University on full scholarship to study nursing. She made the decision to attend St. Catherine after being flown to both East and West coasts to be wooed by other colleges.

The oldest of 10 children, she is the first generation in her family to go to college, a feat she gives Breakthrough part credit for. "It's really hard for a first generation kid to go to college,'' Pai says, explaining that her dad works in a factory and her mom is a homemaker.

Breakthrough, she says, "is the best summer school ever" because of its summer-camp like atmosphere (one year there was a Super Heroes theme) with cheers and skits and the enthusiastic attitude of teachers as well as the high academic expectations for students. "They helped me a lot, especially with writing,'' Pai says.

Those summer school days included word and math problems of the day and composition lessons, as well as two hours of homework and lots of discussion about when, not if, students go to college.

Memorable moments
And there are memorable teaching and learning moments, Nouchie says, such as when her students read "If You Come Softly'' by Jacqueline Woodson, a book on race and youth. The book created educational and emotional connections related to their lives, Nouchie says and stimulated frank conversation.

"Breakthrough amplifies what you are, to be yourself and to love that,'' Tho told me. "You become a different person…a better person.''

Competition for limited spots in the program is keen, Wingfield says, with too many having to be turned away. For the last three years they've enrolled 60 students per cohort.

Applicants must qualify in at least two of the following categories: living in poverty, first generation in their family to attend college, coming from a home where English is not the primary language, and/or be from a racial or ethnic group underrepresented in American colleges.

One last thing, as for Nouchie, she's been employed in admissions at Hamline University, but plans a return to school for graduate work.

This article is made possible in part by the Don W. Taylor Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation.

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'True leader' of Hmong enshrined

Touby Lyfoung fought for education, civil rights

Hundreds of people turned out on Sheboygan's chilly lakefront at Deland Park Monday to celebrate the newest addition to the Lao, Hmong and American Veterans Memorial — a dedication to a man who championed civil rights and education for the Hmong people.

During the two-hour ceremony, a triangular granite panel was unveiled to celebrate the life of Touby Lyfoung, with four of his children joining the ceremony, which featured traditional dances and music and a flyover of a U.S. Coast Guard MH-65 Dolphin helicopter in the foggy sky above.
"I'm happy to be a part of this, to come here today," said Tou Xoua Lyfoung, one of Touby's surviving sons, following the ceremony. He traveled from Draveil, France, a suburb of Paris, to attend the celebration.

Also attending from the family were sons Touxa Lyfoung and Laurent Lenggao Lyfoung, and a daughter, Kouayao Lochungvu.

Touby Lyfoung was born in Laos in 1917, attended school at a time when few Hmong people were able to receive an education, and continued throughout his life to fight for equal rights and to better peoples' lives through schooling. Lyfoung also received many honors in France and in the Lao Nation, but in his final years following the end of the Vietnam War, he was tortured and then assassinated by Lao Communists in 1979. He was 62 years old.

"He was a great leader, a leader of people," Tou Xoua Lyfoung said in an interview, with Vue X. Yang, chairman of the Lao, Hmong and American Veterans Memorial, serving as interpreter. "He chose to stay on his own will to stay with the people, and that's why he died, for his legacy, and that's a great leader."

Vue Yang said that Touby Lyfoung was selected for the memorial after careful consideration, and his enshrinement in Sheboygan is well deserved.
"Ninety percent of Hmong that came from Laos knew about him," Yang said.
Touby Lyfoung is the second person to receive a panel in the circular memorial, which is 44 feet in diameter and was dedicated in 2006. The names of hundreds of solders that gave their lives during the Secret War are etched on other panels. Another complete panel is dedicated to Lee Lue, a T-28 pilot who died in 1969.

"He (Lyfoung) was the first Hmong diplomat, so to speak," said Mayor Bob Ryan, who spoke during the ceremony. "He was well educated … and was actually like the political leader of the Hmong."

The memorial honors those who fought in the Secret War from 1960 to 1975, during which Special Guerrilla Unit soldiers helped American soldiers and intelligence officials disrupt Communist supply lines, obtain intelligence and were instrumental in the rescues of American pilots.

Steve Schofield of Newton, a retired Army Reserve major who helped and worked with the Special Guerrilla Units in the 1960s and '70s, said Monday that he met Touby Lyfoung in 1969 in Laos, and called him "a true Hmong leader."

"There are others, like (the late) Gen. Vang Pao that were military leaders, but he (Lyfoung) was a leader of all the Hmong," Schofield said.

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Book Review: Examining the Hmong in America

Dr. Chia Youyee Vang, an assistant history professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, has produced a scholarly examination of the Hmong refugee experience.

Hmong America: Reconstructing Community in Diaspora, by Chia Youyee Vang, $25, University of Illinois Press, December 2010, ISBN-10: 9780252077593, ISBN-13: 978-0252077593, pp. 192.

Dr. Chia Youyee Vang only has hazy, disjointed memories of fleeing Laos with her family in 1979, waiting in a refugee camp in Thailand and coming to the United States when she was 9 years old.

“I often describe it as a film one had seen a very long time ago,” she writes. “One may be able to recall the themes and a few scenes here and there; however, one cannot accurately recount the entire story.”

Vang was one of more than 130,000 of her people who came to the United States in the late 1970s and early 1980s. From the early 1960s on, the United States had relied on the Hmong to fight against the North Vietnamese Army, which intruded into Laos during the Vietnam War.

After the U.S. pulled out of Vietnam in 1975, the Communist victors began enacting vengeance against those who had aided the Americans, including the Hmong. Thus began the exodus of the Hmong people.

Today, Vang is an assistant professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and holds a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, but this is not a memoir of her journey. It is the first scholarly examination of the Hmong refugee experience to come from within the Hmong community.

In the book, she brings the experience of this ethnic group into sharp focus, retracing its origins in southwestern China, its role in the Southeast Asian conflict and the journey out of the war zones.

Setting the context, Vang notes that the Hmongs’ arrival in the United States came at a “critical moment in U.S. history” — just in time for them to share in the benefits of the Civil Rights Movement. They also benefited somewhat from American depictions of them as “freedom fighters and … victims of evil communism.”

The author focuses on the large number of Hmong who came to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area — as her family did — initially under the auspices of resettlement programs. Her first book was “Hmong in Minnesota.”

Her work also reflects her visits to Hmong enclaves in Bangkok, Thailand; Argentina; France; and her native Laos. There, Vang says she discovered that the “life I was born to lead and the life I am currently living are clearly worlds apart.” She argues, however, that her status as a Hmong “insider” uniquely positioned her to draw out and interpret some things that outsiders could not.

Her primary aim was to describe how refugees build ethnic communities “from scratch” in their new environment. Indeed, how can people who “arrive with almost no material resources” rebuild their lives and their culture in unfamiliar and sometimes unwelcoming circumstances? These are questions that should be of interest to many other ethnic groups, she says.

To find the answers, Vang conducted extensive interviews with refugees and those who assisted them, searched immigration archives and observed numerous community events such as New Year’s celebrations and religious observances.

Thirty-five years after the Hmongs’ Great Migration, they remain one of the most impoverished groups in America and suffer from bias and stereotyping. However, many lead comfortably middle-class lifestyles and are increasingly obtaining higher education, Vang says.

She concludes that the Hmong have preserved many traditions, maintained an ethnic identity and formed communities that even allow some to navigate life without the need or desire to learn English. While some aspects of the culture have been transformed, Vang says the Hmong constantly struggle to retain others, like certain religious rituals.

Perhaps most important, Vang argues, far from being the victims other observers have described, Hmong people have exercised a high degree of control over their fate. Among other examples of movement in pursuit of economic opportunity, she cites the conscious choice of some to relocate to the South to buy and operate poultry farms in the 1990s.

“Notwithstanding continuing poverty and discrimination, the American Hmong community has made great strides,” Vang writes. “Not only are they changing their own culture and its traditions in order to exist in American society but also the unlikely places in which they have reconstructed community have undergone much transformation as a result of their presence.”

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Taking advantage of Hmong storytelling culture to teach conservation

Acting as squirrels in a modern-day fable to teach lessons about using national parks and other public lands are Kaylee Xiong, left, and Malina Moua with Phasoua Vang.

By Cynthia Boyd | Friday, May 20, 2011
In another sign of our diverse and changing times, Smokey Bear, in a locally produced video being distributed around the country, delivers his famous “only you can prevent wildfires fires” line in — wait for it — Hmong.

As it turns out, the anthropomorphism of animals to teach lessons of American land conservation, outdoor sport and more to Hmong refugees is a great fit for that storytelling culture. (And, given the lasting popularity of America’s iconic bear — first appearing on fire prevention posters in 1944 — the technique works for the rest of us as well.)

The 58-minute DVD production called “Yos Hav Zoov” was written, acted, produced and directed by Hmong Minnesotans mostly speaking in Hmong, but it’s the brainchild of a couple of other Minnesotans.

Project lead was Michele Schermann, a research fellow at the University of Minnesota and a public health nurse with a history of studying the Hmong and helping refugees learn American ways. She collaborated with David Bengston of the Northern Research Station of the U.S. Forest Service, which provided a $30,000 grant to fund the movie project, which features English subtitles.

Variety show format
Also titled “The Wild Fire and Wilderness Exploration Show,’’ the video uses a variety show format to showcase information about hunting and fishing regulations, seasons and safety practices, for instance, as well as wild fire prevention and plant and wilderness preservation principles.

The Forest Service sees it as a culturally appropriate tool for teaching about both enjoying and being mindful of the responsibilities of using public lands.

Though finished only recently, most of the 2,500 copies have already been distributed in major Hmong population centers, which include Minnesota, California and Wisconsin. There are more than 200,000 people of Hmong ancestry in the United States, with about 50,000 living in Minnesota.

“The Hmong have such a deep connection with the natural environment,’’ says Bengston. “They hunt, fish, gather wild, edible plants much more so than the average population, but there have been challenges because of their learning a new system, especially with elders and new refugees,’’ he says.

The Hmong culture is an outdoor culture, agrees Foung Heu, a Hmong outdoorsman as well as a scriptwriter, videographer and editor for this and other environmental videos. Still there are differences between Hmong and mainstream America, he says. The Hmong — many from Laos — come from a culture that hunts and fishes for food rather than recreation and are learning principles of public conservation.

Especially among its elders, the Hmong often rely more on oral language rather than a written language, so a DVD with audio and video seemed the best teaching approach, the DVD producers decided.

“It’s more effective to be oral in our culture,’’ says Heu, who is also known as Foung Hawj. (He says he used that name when he ran for the Minnesota Senate last year because English-speakers would more likely pronounce his name correctly when it’s spelled that way.)

Oral tradition
That oral tradition and the culture’s fable tradition suggested Heu’s cinematic approach.

“This is like ‘Sesame Street,’” says Hue, who’s been producing video for 15 years. Think of the teaching value of Big Bird and Burt and Ernie having a conversation over a letter of the alphabet, he suggests. There are people in costumes and masks, having teaching conversations. It’s a backdrop to the culture’s oral tradition and practice of using Hmong folk tales to make a point, Hue told me.


In a new DVD, Smokey Bear speaks Hmong and is here joined by actor Destiny Moua, right, and youger siblings who came to watch the show being videotaped.

For instance, there is a scene where a pair of dying squirrels, injured by a wild fire and halfway to “squirrel paradise,” pause to warn viewers of the danger of throwing a match into the forest, Hue says.

“It’s not like a little kid thing,’’ stresses Schermann, though it is fun to watch for all ages and is flavored with music and humor.

“We have characters telling a story and we’re educating,’’ says actor Tou Thai Lee, 35, who was born in Thailand. Plus, the video is being well received in the Hmong community for its entertainment value and the message to enjoy nature.

Generally, “people’s lack of connection with nature is a growing problem,’’ Bengston says, pointing to a downward trend in visits to national, state and local parks and public lands. That nature connection, he believes, is “an important part of people’s physical and emotional health and well-being.’’

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Vietnam protesters lured by doomsday cult

HANOI - HMONG people who staged a rare protest in north-western Vietnam were lured by a cult that says the world will end this Saturday, according to a pastor with links to the ethnic minority group.

Doan Trung Tin, who leads the nationwide Vietnam Good News Mission Church, told AFP on Thursday that about 60 families from his church went to the remote north-west for a gathering of Hmong awaiting the return of Jesus Christ.

He said some of his impoverished parishioners - about 300 people - sold their belongings to pay for the bus journey from their homes in the Central Highlands provinces of Dak Lak and Dak Nong to the gathering in Dien Bien more than 1,000km away.

They were lured in part by a translated document that spoke about the prophesies of Harold Camping, Pastor Tin said.

'Many of them, they received this' document, he said.

Camping operates an American-based Christian radio network that broadcasts in many languages, including Vietnamese, and claims the world will end on Saturday. -- AFP

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Alliance Pharmacy opens in St. Paul

Allied Pharmacy staff, from left, Mai Choua Lor, Pharmacy Technician, Philipp Yang, business manager, and Dr. Bee Her Vang, PharmD, MD.

Dr. Bee Her Vang, PharmD, MD opened Alliance Pharmacy about two months ago, where the physician-pharmacist is taking on plenty of new clients offering a personalized alternative to the big pharmacy.

Alliance Pharmacy is the newest addition to the St. Paul Family Medical Clinic building at 1239 Payne Avenue, St. Paul. The founding physician remains Dr. Phua Xiong, M.D., and a host of new modalities have come on board including a chiropractor Everett Wells and the Massage Therapy Clinic.

Dr. Vang said it will be a challenge to compete with the larger commercial pharmacies in the area, and that his advantage is his own service as a full-time Hmong and Spanish speaking pharmacist-physician, along with Hmong speaking technicians.

The big pharmacies offer phone translation and Hmong speaking staff but he will translate medication labels into Hmong or Spanish. He hopes to share the big demand for customers with just one other Hmong owned pharmacy in the Sunrise Building at 995 University Avenue, St. Paul.

Hmoob Pharmacy recently closed when the CVS opened on Maryland.

Alliance Pharmacy does not carry the inventory of the competition but Vang said he knows what to have on hand, and works with providers to ensure low cost alternatives. He said the elderly want to be sure that Medicaire will cover the cost of their prescriptions. He said the pharmacy role is to offer alternatives for them to take back to their doctor – or call them him self.

“The costs of competition are not difficult because we only order what we need,” he said. “They are bigger but we don’t have a big front-end.”

The younger generation is modern but he said there are still barriers to understanding and using medications, said Vang. Just as the mainstream, people still tend to take their medications as they see fit rather than according to the directions. When their condition worsens they go to Emergency Room.

The pharmacy has been open for just a couple of months and Vang said he is getting calls from Hmong clients and is transferring an average 30 to 50 prescriptions some days from profiles held at other pharmacies in addition to the new clients.

Vang said his future outreach would include the “Give Back” discounts based on the Target model. Patrons may direct a charitable portion of their purchase to the church or charity of their choice.

Vang was just a boy when his family moved to Minnesota as refugees in 1979. They would moved on to Stockton, California in 1982, where he was raised and graduated from UC Riverside in 1993.

After completing medical school in the Caribbean in 1999, Vang said he wanted to apply his medical knowledge toward pharmacy and studied for three years at the University of Southern Nevada in Las Vegas.

As a pharmacy student Vang worked for CVS and continued with them after graduation. He lived in Las Vegas from 2004 through 2011 when he returned to St. Paul with the idea of opening a Hmong speaking pharmacy.

“I came back want to see if I could serve the Hmong community and help a little bit,” said Vang.

Everett Wells, D.C. has twelve years experience as a chiropractor and has worked almost exclusively with a clinic that served the Hmong community. When he went out on his own, the Hmong clientele followed.

New chiropractor Everett Wells, DC and Tasha Lauj, officer manager at the St. Paul Family Medical Clinic

He said the specialty fields of chiropractic include injury and family practice, preventative and structural corrections and pediatric. They each have their own types of treatment and rehabilitation.

The chiropractic clinic is about working in unison with physicians and teaching patients a health perspective that discourages delayed treatment. He said people often discover that chronic pain may be symptoms of diabetes, kidney disease, cancers or other conditions that could do less damage with early detection.

Most of his musculoskeletal work comes from automobile accidents and domestic incidents such as hurting the back while doing yard work or gardening. Patients often need to be reminded to stay with a regimen of therapy, he said.

Tasha Lauj, officer manager, has worked with Dr. Wells for six years. She said a car accident resulted in her own continued therapy and that it has kept the recurring pain in check.

The St. Paul native lived for a time in Hickory, North Carolina, where she worked as an ESL teacher for the Hmong community. Her work expanded into health and education seminars on life skills training. When the jobs there dried up so did the new Hmong and she returned to Minnesota and began working for Dr. Wells.

She said her work begins with making people feel comfortable about chiropractic care.

“My grandfather said ‘you have to make way for friendship first before you can bond with someone’,” she said. “The Hmong love each other and take care of their own. That is the groundwork to work with patients professionally.”

St. Paul Family Medical Center was established in 2008 as the private practice of Dr. Phua Xiong, and it was here that she established “Quik Urgent Care Clinic,” the first Asian American-privately owned and operated urgent care facility.

Dr. Xiong came was a Hmong refugee as a child who went on graduate from Philadelphia Masterman Laboratory and Demonstration High School with honors in 1987. She received her undergraduate degree from Haverford College Pennsylvania and then her Medical Doctorate from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1996.

Dr. Xiong received the U of M’s Resident of the Year Award and went on to practice at Model Cities Health Center before opening the first St. Paul Family Medical Center on University Avenue.

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Vietnam vet honored after US burial snub

ARLINGTON, Virginia — A legendary Hmong general who led a CIA-backed "secret army" in the Vietnam war was honored at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, three months after US authorities refused his burial there.

In a move hailed by his family, the US Army sent an honor guard and wreath-bearer for the ceremony for General Vang Pao and other veterans at Arlington, the traditional resting place of US veterans.

"It is good that the US government, and the US Army sent an honor guard to participate in this ceremony," his 59-year-old son Chong Vang told AFP after the 90-minute ceremony at the Lao Veterans of America monument in the cemetery.

The 81-year-old general died on January 6 in California, and was buried near Los Angeles on February 9 after efforts failed to persuade US authorities to allow his burial at Arlington.

US intelligence agents tapped Vang Pao when they sought a force in Laos to fight off North Vietnamese communists, who along with the United States had turned the neighboring country into a battleground.

Vang Pao became legendary for his organizational skills from his mountain post, guiding everything from US air strikes to medical supplies and managing a motley army of Hmong, lowland Lao and Thai mercenaries.

North Vietnam triumphed in 1975 by seizing Saigon, and communists afterward took over Laos. Vang Pao was sentenced to death in absentia and became the leader for some 250,000 Hmong who moved to the United States.

But Vang Pao remained a controversial figure. In 2007, he was arrested in California on charges of plotting to overthrow a foreign government, although prosecutors dropped their charges in 2009.

Speaking after Friday's ceremony, Vang Pao's son said he still believed his father should be buried in Arlington, rather than in California where he died in January.

"He's almost like the US army, but he's not a US citizen, so that's why... they didn't allow my father to be buried in Arlington.... For myself I think he deserves to be buried in Arlington," he added.

Colonel Wangyee Vang of the Lao Veterans of America Institute (LVAI) was to pay tribute to Vang Pao at the ceremony.

"During the Vietnam conflict, we fought side-by-side the United States in Southeast Asia against the advancement of the communists? expansion," he was due to say, according to the text of his address.

"From the period of 1961 to 1975, we lost over 35,000 young brave men and women. And on January 6, 2011, we also lost our leader."

He added that, 36 years after the end of the war, "those veterans and their families who we left behind, in the jungle of the Kingdom of Laos, still struggle for freedom in that part of the world.

"They are being chased and killed by the current government of Laos because of they were allies with the United States during the war. The United States must not forget the loyalty of their allies," he added.

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Vietnam vet to get US honors after burial snub

LOS ANGELES — The legendary Hmong general who led a CIA-backed "secret army" during the Vietnam war is to be honored in a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, organizers said.

A US Army honor guard will join the ceremony for General Vang Pao and other military leaders at Arlington, three months after US authorities refused appeals for the veteran to be buried there, following his death in January.

An army wreath-bearer and bugler are also to help "honor the Laotian and Hmong veterans, and their American military and clandestine advisors, who served in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War," said organizers.

The event is being co-sponsored by the Lao Veterans of America Institute (LVAI), the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., members of the US Congress, and the US Department of Defense, according to a joint statement.

Vang Pao led his hill people in Laos in a CIA-backed campaign against communist forces during the Vietnam War. Thousands of Hmong later fled to the United States speaking of persecution.

After his death aged 81 in January in California, supporters appealed to bury Vang Pao as a hero at Arlington. The Pentagon said no, arguing that the limited spaces at Arlington were reserved for US combat veterans.

There was no immediate response to requests for comment on Friday's planned event for Vang Pao.

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Hmong veteran calls for GI benefits

WASHINGTON — Sheboygan resident Phia Lee, one of thousands of Hmong who aided the CIA during the Vietnam War, said Thursday that Laotian-Hmong veterans deserve GI benefits for their service.

Lee, who participated in a Capitol Hill forum on Laos and Vietnam with his son, Ge Lee, said through an interpreter that the “Hmong people and Laotian people have helped American people since the 1960s, and the United States government should give benefits to Lao veterans.”

Phia Lee came to the United States in 2004 as part of a wave of Hmong refugees who had been living at a Buddhist temple in Wat Tham Krabok, Thailand. After the communist takeover of the Laos and Vietnam governments, thousands of Hmong fled Laos, fearing persecution for their alliance with the U.S. during the war.

“He lived a long time in a cave,” Ge Lee said about his father.

Philip Smith, director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis, one of the sponsors of Thursday’s forum, said Phia Lee represented the Hmong story of “moral courage and fight for survival.”

The Hmong struggle to survive has again been in the news since early May, when the Vietnam government began cracking down on mass protests by Hmong people in the Dien Bien province near the border of Laos. The protesters have been demanding land reforms and religious freedom.

Smith said 72 demonstrators have been killed by the Vietnam military, including a woman who was bludgeoned with an AK-47 assault weapon. He said there also have been casualties on the Laotian side of the border. The death toll could not be independently verified. Foreign journalists have been barred from the area.

Smith and others said the crackdown underscores the abuses of human rights and civil rights that the Hmong have been subjected to since the communist takeover of the region. He said Hmong land is being confiscated by corrupt military officials, and Hmong Christians are persecuted for practicing their religion. Smith called on the Obama administration and Congress to investigate and impose sanctions.

“No Hmong Bible is permitted in Vietnamese language in this area,” Smith said. “Efforts to smuggle Bibles into that province have been met with severe repercussions.”

Thongchanh Boulum of the United League for Democracy in Laos Inc. told of life under an authoritarian regime. He said those in charge “rely on violence and terror to gain and maintain power. They use lies to justify violence.” The people, Boulum said, “have no right of expression, no right of assembly — nothing at all.”

Jane Hamilton-Merritt, an expert on Southeast Asia and Hmong and a human-rights advocate, said the current situation is a familiar one. She said what’s happening in Dien Bien is drawing little attention in the U.S. because of all the focus on Middle East uprisings and the war on terrorism.

“Hmong are once again being persecuted, and the worst part about it is the press can’t get in,” she said.

In reviewing a State Department file on Laos and Vietnam, Hamilton-Merritt said she found “page after page” of human and civil rights violations but nothing on freedoms enjoyed by Hmong people.

“If you’re on land that has the potential for a golf course ... your land is taken, and you’re not compensated,” Hamilton-Merritt said.

She praised the fortitude of Hmong people who have survived or escaped abuse and persecution, and she questioned whether she would be as strong in the face of such adversity.

“I don’t know if I would have the courage to do anything,” Hamilton-Merritt said. “But Hmong have courage. It is in Hmong DNA that they will not suffer for too long.”

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Many Vietnamese Hmong 'in hiding'

Hundreds of Hmong people are still in hiding in north-west Vietnam a week after an outbreak of unrest, a priest has told the BBC Vietnamese service.

Hmong Pastor Thao A Tham said the security forces had arrested more than 100 people over the violence.

Officials said "extremists" had been detained - but gave no exact figures.

Thousands of Hmong people clashed with security forces in Dien Bien province last week, in the worst ethnic violence for seven years.

Pastor Tham said thousands of Hmong had travelled to a small area in Dien Bien province late last month because they had heard a rumour that the second coming of Jesus Christ was imminent.

But the Communist authorities sent in the security forces to break up the gathering, sparking days of violent confrontations.

Earlier reports said the protests by the Hmong were politically motivated, and that their demands included more religious freedom, better land rights and more autonomy.

Poverty

Pastor Tham - one of the few outsiders to have reached the area where the violence broke out - said at least 600 people had fled into hiding after the unrest.

"There are people in hiding and I still don't know what needs to be done to persuade them to go home," he said.

He said many Hmong returned to their home villages to find that their houses had been looted.

"It will take at least six months for things to get back to normal," he said.

"The Hmong people are in a difficult situation now, especially when it comes to making a living."

The Hmong communities in Vietnam's mountainous north-west are among the poorest people in the country.

They have a relationship of mutual mistrust with the government.

Many of the Hmong fought on the side of the United States during the Vietnam War, and they feel they are discriminated against because of their past.

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Vietnam: 'extremists' detained in Hmong gathering

Vietnam's government said Thursday it detained "extremists" after rare unrest involving thousands of ethnic Hmong belonging to a religious group that assembled to await the arrival of their God.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga's statement Thursday is Vietnam's first acknowledgment of arrests in the incident. Nga did not say how many were detained or whether there were deaths or injuries as has been alleged by overseas Hmong groups.

Officials in northwest Dien Bien province have accused overseas groups of using the incident to influence some Hmong to call for an independent state.

Vietnam has not granted foreign journalists or diplomats access to the area since security forces broke up the gathering in Muong Nhe district in early May. Nga said the Hmong have all returned home.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has called for a full investigation and for journalists and diplomats to be allowed access.

Up to 5,000 Hmong had gathered in the district town to await for God, expected to take them to the promised land on May 21.

There is a long history of mistrust between the government and many ethnic hilltribe groups, collectively known as Montagnards. Many anti-communist hilltribe fighters were allied with the United States during the Vietnam War, and many Hmong refugees resettled there after the war.

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Unique Fabrics Tell the Story of a People

RECENT HISTORY: Details from a figurative Hmong drawing, made in Laos, describe recent events in the people's history: the escape from Laos, life in refugee camps in Thailand, and the new start in countries like the United States. (Maya Mizrahi/The Epoch Times)

With its large quantities of multicolored fabrics and accessories, walking through the nighttime market in Luang Prabang—known as Laos’s sacred city—feels like stepping into a highly colored watercolor. Particularly eye-catching are the unique fabrics handmade by the Hmong people.

The Hmong’s historical origin is uncertain. The first evidence of their existence goes back to 2700 B.C. with descriptions of their life in China. Their legends and folklore point to probable origins in Mesopotamia. From there, they migrated progressively through Russia and Mongolia to mainland China.

Later the Hmong people had to move on toward South China’s mountain regions, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. The Chinese call them “Miao,” a name given to people belonging to immigrant minorities. They call themselves “highlanders.”

In the 19th century, the Hmong settled in the mountainous region of Laos where they were farm workers—first for the Chinese, later for the French.

Artistic Talents
Despite their many migrations and the influences from the different countries that they were governed by, the Hmong always preserved their customs, culture, and art. They have performed the same songs and ceremonies down the ages, but they are particularly known for their artistic skillfulness. Hmong embroiderers would embroider traditional symbols carrying cosmological and religious meanings on each and every accessory and piece of clothing.

Today, Hmong women continue to master several techniques. One of them consists in overlapping pieces of fabric. They use geometrical designs, drawing from nature (for example, snails and elephants), mythology (dragon scales, labyrinths, stars), and objects used in daily life (fishing poles, wheels). Some patterns’ meaning is still unclear to today’s researchers.

Another technique is called “batik.” A cloth is weaved by the women, using a thread made out of plant fibers. Wax is then used to draw the desired shapes. Then they color the fabric with a dye prepared with the indigo plant. The last step in the process is to remove the wax: the patterns come out white on a background color of their choice. The technique is usually transmitted to the wife, after the wedding, by her mother-in-law.


HMONG EMBROIDERY: Hmong women pass down their people's history in unique and rich embroidery and thus preserve their cultural heritage despite the discrimination the Hmong people still face today. (Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty Images)

Figurative Drawing
Life for the Hmong changed in Laos after the French occupation. At first, it provoked many revolts on the Hmong’s part. But little by little, cooperation increased, and the Hmong were entrusted with responsibilities in the French Army and were given some social status. It is at this time that their oral language appears in a written form.

In 1954, the French occupation in Indochina was over, and a civil war broke out in Laos between the Loyalists and Communists. In 1961, the Americans fighting in the Vietnam War asked the Hmong to fight along with them against the region’s Communists.

After the war was over, the Americans left the region, and the Communists took over power in Laos. Thousands of Hmong men became refugees in their own country. Some attempted to return to their village, while others fled to Thailand.

In Laos, still today, Hmong men are persecuted and suffer from discrimination. Those who arrived in Thailand were locked up in refugee camps.

It is in these refugee camps that a new and original figurative style appeared. The Hmong women started to illustrate their life as refugees in embroidery pieces. Every piece created is a personal testimony and signed with the embroiderer’s name.

In this way, the collective and cultural history of the Hmong is transmitted through personal stories. In the late 1970s, the designs were embroidered spontaneously, following the need to immortalize daily life in the camps, but also experiences—difficult or pleasant.

In the 1980s, the patterns became more elaborate and were drawn on the fabric before being embroidered. Later on, a cohesive link was created between the different illustrated scenes.

The figurative style was developed on one hand in order to preserve the Hmong identity and culture, and on the other hand, to tell the world about the destiny of the Hmong people from Laos.

An important creative dynamic has appeared in the last few years: tourism. The art created by the Hmong is their main source of income, and with this the status of the Hmong women changes, thanks to their art.

Today, a large Hmong population has immigrated to the United States and to France, but many in the Laos region still experience a life of discrimination and exclusion.

According to Kao-Ly Yang, a Hmong doctor of anthropology, on the Hmong Global Community Web Directory website, “Wherever countries we may live either in the East, in the Southeast or in the West, whatever word we may use to call ourselves, either ‘Miao,’ ‘Hmong’ (Hmoob), ‘Mong’ (Moob), or ‘Méo,’ we all shall remember and cherish our common cultural heritage made of sub-cultures and of diverse dialects, and the fragments of our history that we have kept in memory.”

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Vietnam Army Kills 14 More Hmong Prostesters, Hundreds More Missing

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) has announced that it has sealed off the area of the demonstrations to independent journalists and news media, baring journalists from covering the events involving thousands of protesters, and has deployed army troops to end the public rallies and appeals. At least sixty-three Hmong have been killed by the Vietnam People's Army to date.

Today, fresh regiments of Vietnam People's Army troops in military trucks and vehicles are converging in greater force strength at the sites of the Hmong demonstrations in Dien Bien province from key highways leading to the area including the strategic Route 6 and Route 42

“The mass demonstration for reform in Vietnam's Dien Bien province included nearly 5,000 peaceful Hmong Protestant Christians and 2,000 Hmong Catholics with the rest being peace-loving Hmong Animists," according to Christy Lee of Hmong Advance, Inc.

Online PR News – 09-May-2011 –May 9, 2011, Washington, D.C., Dien Bein Phu, Vietnam, and Phongsali, Laos

Today, fresh combat regiments of Vietnam Peoples Army's soldiers are now converging in a key province of Northern Vietnam to attack and arrest thousands of Hmong Catholic, Protestant and independent Animist religious believers demonstrating for human rights, religious freedom, land reform and an end to illegal logging and deforestation. Fourteen (14) more Viet-Hmong people were confirmed dead in overnight clashes between Vietnam's army and ethnic Hmong demonstrators who are Vietnamese citizens. At least 63 protesters have been killed since the outbreak of the peaceful, mass demonstrations, according to the Center for Public Policy Analysis, Hmong non-governmental organizations, and Hmong, Vietnamese and Laotian sources in Dien Bien province, and along the Vietnam- Laos border, where the demonstrations began over a week ago..

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) has announced that it has sealed off the area of the demonstrations to independent journalists and news media, baring journalists from covering the events involving thousands of protesters, and has deployed army troops to end the public rallies and appeals. Thousands of Vietnam People's Army troops have been deployed to the area in recent days.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1105/S00082/vietnam-crackdown-more-hmong-killed-as-army-deploys.htm
http://www.onlineprnews.com/news/136155-1304626071-vietnam-peoples-army-attacks-peaceful-hmong-demonstrators.html

“On completely false pretext, and wrong information, the military generals in Hanoi have sent more army troops to attack and arrest our freedom-loving Hmong people which it continues to falsely accuse with wild distortions and misinformation, while at the same time not allowing independent news media and journalists to visit the ordinary Hmong people in Vietnam who have protested against the current injustices, suffering, and religious persecution,” said Christy Lee, Executive Director of Hmong Advance, Inc. in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Lee asked: “Why are Vietnam's Party leaders afraid of the truth as to why the people are demonstrating in Dien Bien for meaningful and real change and reform in Vietnam ?”

“The mass demonstration for reform in Vietnam's Dien Bien province included nearly 5,000 peaceful Hmong Protestant Christians and 2,000 Hmong Catholics with the rest being peace-loving Hmong Animists.” Ms. Lee said. “The Vietnam People's Army has now killed at least 63 people who were unarmed and peace-loving citizens of Vietnam, many hundreds have been injured or have now disappeared at the hands of the Army which has loaded the Hmong people onto trucks with the soldiers beating them”

Ms. Lee stated further: “The Vietnamese and Viet- Hmong people in Dien Bien province and along the Vietnam – Laos border area in Northern Vietnam have told us that are poor people simply calling on the government in Hanoi, and Communist politburo officials, to restore basic human rights and justice to the Vietnamese common people, and minority citizens, in the province of Dien Bien.”

“The Vietnamese Hmong want Hanoi to institute land reform policies and grant them greater freedom of religion and basic human rights, including an end to oppressive religious persecution as well as halting illegal logging in the province whereby the government is driving the Hmong people from their sacred forest and mountain homelands in Vietnam and Laos,” Lee concluded.http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1105/S00090/vietnam-laos-uprising-28-hmong-protesters-killed.htm

“Today, local sources have reported that fresh regiments of Vietnam People's Army troops in military trucks and vehicles are converging in greater force strength at the sites of the Hmong demonstrations in Dien Bien province from key highways leading to the area including the strategic Route 6 and Route 42,” said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) in Washington, D.C. http://centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

“We are concerned that many hundreds of Hmong protesters, who are Vietnamese citizens, are being arrested, beaten and forced onto Army trucks by soldiers where they are disappearing after being transported out of the area to unknown locations in Vietnam or Laos,” Smith said.

“The new Vietnam People's Army (VPA) army units deployed against the protesters include regimental-strength convoys of military trucks and armored personnel carriers targeting the Hmong demonstrators for arrest and transport,, by force, to unknown locations,” Smith said.

“At least eight more Hmong Christian demonstrators, five men and three women, were killed overnight in clashes with the Army and Vietnamese security forces in Dien Bien province,” Smith said citing Hmong, Vietnamese and non-governmental sources on location in Dien Bien province and the Laos and Vietnamese border area of Northern Vietnam.

“Fresh regiments of Vietnam People's Army soldiers are being deployed to Dien Bien province and are continuing to attack and pursuing many of the peaceful Hmong Catholic and Protestant demonstrators pursuing them into their villages and the mountains,” Smith stated. “ Heliborne combat troops have been deployed as well as M-8 helicopter gunships to attack and pursue the Hmong in the highland areas.”

“Additionally, early this morning, five Hmong demonstrators, 3 men and 2 women, were machined gunned to death by an armored personnel carrier when the were caught fleeing the protest region, on Route 42, and had the misfortune of running into a mechanized regiment of Vietnam People's Army troops that were being newly deployed to the area,” Smith commented.

“Unfortunately, the group of five Hmong who were machine-gunned to death this morning by the Army were ordinary and poor people— mountain-dwelling, Animist believers who had joined the demonstrations only to seek land reform, human rights and greater religious freedom for their suffering people in this neglected area of Northern Vietnam,” Smith said.

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Vietnam security forces break up Hmong gathering

HANOI, Vietnam – Thousands of ethnic Hmong have returned to their homes after Vietnamese security forces broke up more than a week of religious activities near the northwestern border with Laos, a church official said Monday.

Nguyen Huu Mac, head of the northern Evangelical Church of Vietnam, said he has been in regular contact with church members who were involved in the gathering in Muong Nhe district of Dien Bien province starting April 30. Little information about the incident has been released by the Communist government, and foreign media and diplomats have not been granted access to the area.

Provincial officials have said the Hmong gathered after a rumor spread that a supernatural force would arrive and take them to a promised land where they would find health, happiness and wealth. They accused overseas groups of using the incident to influence some Hmong to call for an independent state.

Mac said church members reported that up to 5,000 Hmong rode horses and motorbikes to the district town and camped out to await for God, expected to take them to the promised land on May 21. He said that while some participants attend his congregation in Hanoi, this was a separate millenarian movement with beliefs not connected to his church.

Mac said the church members reported that military helicopters arrived to disperse the crowd, with some security forces in uniform and others in plain clothes. He said he had received no reports of injuries or arrests related to the dispersal. He said buses were called to transport the remaining Hmong home on Sunday.

The U.S. Embassy said Monday it was aware of reports alleging a clash had occurred between security forces and Hmong followers and urged restraint while trying to verify whether any casualties occurred.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch called for a full investigation and for foreign journalists and diplomats to be given access to the area.

The state-run Vietnam News said Monday at least one child had died from illness and several other followers had become sick after being exposed to bad weather during the gathering.

There is a long history of mistrust between the government and many ethnic hilltribe groups, collectively known as Montagnards. Many anti-communist hilltribe fighters were allied with the United States during the Vietnam War, and many Hmong refugees resettled there after the war.

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Preacher: Hmong cult meeting broken up in Vietnam

Preacher: Hmong cult meeting broken up in Vietnam
(AP) – 2 hours ago

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A church official says security forces broke up a gathering of thousands of ethnic Hmong in northwest Vietnam where believers had been waiting for their God to appear and take them to the promised land.

Nguyen Huu Mac, head of the northern Evangelical Church of Vietnam, said Monday he has been in regular contact with participants in the cult gathering. Little more is known about the group.

The Communist government has released very little information about the gathering, and foreign media and diplomats have not been granted access.

The believers started arriving April 30 in Muong Nhe district of Dien Bien province.

Mac says church members said up to 5,000 Hmong waited for their God to appear and take them to the promised land May 21.

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Vietnam troops 'use force' at rare Hmong protest

HANOI — Vietnamese soldiers clashed with ethnic Hmong after thousands staged a rare protest in a remote mountain area calling for greater autonomy and religious freedom, a military source said Thursday.

The Vietnamese army sent troop reinforcements after the demonstrations broke out several days ago in Dien Bien province in the far northwest of the communist nation, near the border with China and Laos.

Soldiers "had to disperse the crowd by force", according to the military source, who did not provide details of any casualties or the number of troops involved.

"Minor clashes occurred between the Hmong and security forces," he added.

Protesters numbered in their thousands and "the army had to intervene to prevent these troubles from spreading", the source said.

It is Vietnam's worst known case of ethnic unrest since protests in 2001 and 2004 in the Central Highlands by the Montagnards. About 1,700 of them fled to Cambodia after troops crushed protests against land confiscation and religious persecution.

In a statement citing Le Thanh Do, a senior provincial official, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Hmong had gathered since early May and camped in unsanitary conditions believing that a "supernatural force" would arrive to lead them to "a promised land".

"Abusing the information, some people instigated and campaigned for the establishment of a separate kingdom of Hmong people, causing disorder, insecurity and an unsafe situation," it said.

The mainly Christian Hmong, among Vietnam's poorest people, are a Southeast Asian ethnic group who helped US forces against North Vietnam during the secret wartime campaign in Laos. They faced retribution after the communist takeover.

A foreign diplomat said he heard "that all of a sudden some guy sort of declared himself king and gathered people together."

Some Hmong have previously called for a separate Hmong Christian state, he said.

A local official in Muong Nhe district, about 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of Dien Bien town, told AFP that more than 3,000 Hmong were still gathered on Thursday.

The scenic Dien Bien region is normally popular with Vietnamese travellers, some of whom warned each other on a Web chatroom to stay away from the area because of a "Hmong uprising".

The US-based Center for Public Policy Analysis, an outspoken supporter of the Hmong cause, said 28 protesters had been killed and hundreds were missing. The claims cannot be independently verified,

In a statement from the Center, Christy Lee, executive director of the Washington-based campaign group Hmong Advance, cited "credible reports" of a major crackdown.

The operation was in response to Hmong people's protests for land reform, their opposition to illegal logging, "or because of their independent Christian and Animist religious beliefs", Lee said.

Local authorities had detained several people and opened an investigation, the military source said, adding the Hmong were "incited" by local people wishing to exploit the May 7 anniversary of Vietnam's victory over French colonial forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

"We are very concerned," the military source said. "The Hmong called for freedom of belief and the setting up of a locally autonomous region."

Carl Thayer, an Australian-based Vietnam analyst, said sending military reinforcements would be "quite extraordinary" given Vietnam's multi-layered security apparatus which includes local militias and troops, and mobile riot police.

The foreign ministry statement made no mention of military involvement. It said "cadres" were dispatched to persuade the people not to believe "distorted" information.

"At present some of the people have returned home," it said.

Vietnam is a one-party state where public gatherings are strictly controlled and all traditional media are linked to the regime.

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Thousands of Hmong stage rare Vietnam protest

HANOI (Reuters) - Vietnam has deployed troops to contain a rare protest by ethnic Hmong Christians, some of whom were calling for an independent kingdom, diplomatic and other sources said on Friday, and the government indicated the unrest was still going on.

The demonstration by as many as 7,000 people in the far-flung mountains of Dien Bien Province, near the northwestern border with Laos and China, began several days ago, but details were scant from the hard-to-access region.

Several officials in the area were contacted by telephone but declined to comment.

A Catholic priest based close to the region, citing followers in the area, said troops had been deployed and the protesters had detained at least one government official sent to negotiate.

Demonstrations on this scale are rare in Vietnam, where the ruling Communist Party brooks no opposition.

Dien Bien is one of Vietnam's poorest provinces and people who have travelled there say road, water and power infrastructure in rural areas is rudimentary.

Vietnam has 54 recognised ethnic groups including numerous minorities in its northern and central mountains, some of whom opposed the central government in the years after the end of French colonial rule.

Hmong are hill people, originally form southern China, some of whom have migrated to mountainous parts of Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand.

"We urge all parties involved to avoid violence and resolve any differences peacefully and in accordance with Vietnamese law and internationally recognised human rights standards," the U.S. embassy spokesman said.

Vietnamese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga said in a statement, quoting a government official from the region, "several" Hmong had gathered under the belief that a "supernatural force" would lead them to the promised land and they would have health, happiness and wealth.

"Taking advantage of the situation some bad elements tried to provoke the crowd and mobilise to establish an independent 'kingdom' of the Hmong, disturbing the social order, security and safety of the locality," Nga said in the statement late on Thursday.

Authorities in the region sent officials to "convince" the demonstrators that they should not believe in fabrications and that the push for independence led by bad elements went against Vietnam's policy of national unity, she said.

Some of the Hmong demonstrators had returned home, she said, but "the situation in Muong Nhe is still being resolved by all levels of party and government so that the lives of the compatriots there can return to stability at an early time."

A diplomatic source said 5,000-7,000 people had been involved in the unrest and one of the demonstrators had apparently proclaimed himself king.

The BBC reported in Vietnamese that army units had been sent to quash the demonstration, which started on April 30, a national holiday in Vietnam to celebrate the liberation of the Saigon, as the main city in the south was known, at the end of the Vietnam War in 1975.

The BBC quoted an official in the area as saying authorities had tried to negotiate with the demonstrators.

On May 7, 1954, Communist guerrillas defeated French colonial forces in the fabled battle of Dien Bien Phu, in Dien Bien. Almost exactly 21 years later the Communists went on to depose the U.S.-backed South Vietnam government.

(Editing by Martin Petty and Robert Birsel)

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Vietnam: Hmong Protest Quashed

Security forces quashed a rare protest of hundreds of ethnic Hmong calling for an independent state, officials said Thursday. Giang Thi Hoa, vice president of the People’s Committee in Dien Bien Province, said the situation near the border with Laos was brought under control after several days. She did not provide more details.

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Vietnam People's Army Attacks Peaceful Hmong Demonstrators

The impoverished Viet-Hmong people of Dien Bien in Vietnam and northern Laos are merely seeking relief from religious, economic and political oppression under the communist regime in Hanoi, as well as more basic human rights and fundamental liberty and autonomy, and an end to the corrupt and illegal logging of their sacred mountain homelands; that is all, so the Hanoi regime's propaganda against them is simply false and an untrue distortion," Christy Lee, Executive Director, of Hmong Advance, Inc., said.

Online PR News – 05-May-2011 –Vientiane, Laos, Bangkok, Thailand, and Washington, D.C. - Thousands of peaceful, unarmed Viet-Hmong minority political and religious dissidents along the Laos-Vietnam border, who are staging mass protests demanding religious freedom and land reforms from the communist regime in Hanoi, have been attacked by Vietnam People's Army (VPA) troops and security forces in the remote Dien Bien province of Vietnam. At least, twenty-eight ethnic Hmong people, engaged in staging protests against government policies, are confirmed dead in recent days, with hundreds more missing, along the Laos -Vietnam border area of Vietnam, according to Lao Hmong non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. http://www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

The Socialist Republic of Vietnam's (SRV)information ministry, and military officials charged with suppressing the open uprising against the government in Northern Vietnam, have accused the protesters of being irredentists, which the Hmong in Dien Bein province have denied and deemed propaganda.

Significant numbers of Vietnam People's Army infantry, as well as hundreds of mechanized troops, in cooperation with Lao People's Army (LPA) soldiers, were rushed to the Dien Bein border area at the direction of the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the SRV on May 3-6, 2011.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1105/S00090/vietnam-laos-uprising-28-hmong-protesters-killed.htm

Ground attack helicopters were also reportedly dispatched from bases in Laos and Vietnam by the VPA, at the direction of the armed forces Chief of Staff of Vietnam. Lt. General Tran Quang Khue, and other VPA generals, who dominate the military and politburo in Vietnam, have reportedly played a major role in the crack-down, and deployment of the armed forces, against the peaceful Hmong protesters.

Deputy National Defense Minister, Senior Lieutenant-General Nguyen Huy Hieu, was reportedly consulted, along with other officials in Hanoi, prior to the bloody crackdown against the unarmed Hmong.

Vietnam People’s Army Chief of the General Staff, Do Ba Ty, was reportedly summoned in an emergency session regarding the Hmong crisis in Vietnam and Laos, in the Dein Bein Province area, as well as Vietnam Defense Minister General Phung Quang Thanh.

“We are concerned about credible reports that many poor and ordinary Hmong people in the Dien Bein area, as well as other people along the Vietnam and Laos border, have been arrested or killed by Vietnamese Army, and Lao Army, soldiers and police because of their protests for land reform to Communist officials in Hanoi, their opposition to illegal logging, or because of their independent Christian and Animist religious beliefs ,” said Christy Lee, Executive Director of Hmong Advance, Inc.(HAI) in Washington, D.C. http://www.hmongadvance.org

Ms. Lee continued in her statement about the crisis in Vietnam facing the Vietnamese people and Hmong: “Ordinary Hmong people, and other highland and forest-dwelling minority peoples in Laos and Vietnam, have also been subjected to a new and increasing injustice by the authorities and Vietnam People's Army-owned companies, which continue their oppressive methods, religious persecution, and to engage in illegal logging in Vietnam and Laos, including the Dien Bien area in Vietnam, as well as the Laotian provinces of Xieng Khouang, Khammoune, Luang Prabang and elsewhere.”

“The Hmong, and other minority Christian and Animist religious believers, are being driven of their lands and killed and persecuted by corrupt Vietnamese Communist party officials and the military elite in Vietnam and Laos,” Ms. Lee stated.

"Currently, the impoverished Hmong people of Dien Bien in Vietnam and northern Laos are merely seeking relief from religious, economic and political oppression under the communist regime in Hanoi, as well as more basic human rights and fundamental liberty and autonomy, and an end to the corrupt and illegal logging of their sacred mountain homelands; that is all, so the Hanoi regime's propaganda against them is simply false and an untrue distortion," Lee concluded.

“At least 28 Viet-Hmong are confirmed and known to have been killed, as well as 33 Hmong people wounded, in recent attacks by Vietnam People's Army troops in the Dien Bien province area of Vietnam,” said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) in Washington, D.C. http://www.cppa-dc.org

The non-governmental organizations, including the CPPA, HAI, Hmong Advancement, Inc., and the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. and others, cite Hmong, Vietnamese and Lao sources inside the area of Dien Bien provice where the Hmong are currently staging mass protests against Vietnam's communist and military authorities. http://www.hmongadvancement.org

“In the last 48 hours, the Viet-Hmong people fleeing to Laos from Dien Bien province, during the recent anti-government protests and crackdown in Vietnam, have also been arrested by Lao security forces and VPA troops who are working closely together to jointly seek to arrest, persecute and kill them,” Smith further stated.

"Vietnam military and security forces are openly operated in Northern Laos in key border areas as well as in Dien Bien province and the border areas," Smith continued.

“In recent days, significant numbers of Vietnam People's Army troops from Hanoi, and security forces from Laos, have been deployed for special military operations directed against the Hmong minority people, and independent religious believers and political dissidents, along the Vietnam – Laos border and the Dien Bein province area of Vietnam,” Smith observed.

"Special heliborne VPA combat units were also deployed to attack Hmong villagers suspected of supporting independent Christian and Animists calling for an end to religious persecution, greater religious freedom and human rights," Smith noted.

Mr. Smith continued further in his statement: “At least seventeen Viet-Hmong Christians were killed and 33 wounded on May 3rd in the Dien Bien Province, and Dien Bein Phu, areas of Vietnam bordering Laos n attacks by VPA military forces. All of these people were independent Catholic and Protestant Christian believers. Additionally, eleven independent Viet-Hmong animist believers were also known, and confirmed, to have been killed on the same day by Vietnam People's Army forces.”

“Hundreds of Viet and Lao-Hmong minority peoples are also missing after the attacks directed against the peaceful protesters by the Vietnamese government forces in the Dien Bein area,” Mr. Smith said.

“In addition to the seventeen Hmong Christians, an additional eleven independent Viet-Hmong animist believers were also confirmed killed on the same day by VPA forces because they also were accused of worshiping outside of the communist government's control in Hanoi and because they were standing up for land reform and the religious freedom of the Viet-Hmong and Lao-Hmong people,” Smith continued.

“Currently, Lao-Hmong forest and highland-dwelling people who have fled horrific religious persecution, as well as illegal logging by Vietnam People's Army-owned companies in Laos, continue to flee to Vietnam and Thailand as political refugees by the hundreds each year,” Smith stated further.

"Oppressive military actions in Vietnam and Laos to suppress popular dissent and the free will of the people, including the Viet and Laotian Hmong, has resulted in political and institutional violence that is perpetuated by the politbureau in Hanoi," Smith observed further.

In December of 2009, Thailand's Royal Thai Army forced some eight thousand (8,000) Lao Hmong political refugees back to Laos, despite international protests. They were put under the direction of the Deputy Chief of the Lao Armed Forces who was previously accused by human rights and international humanitarian organizations of taking a leadership role in perpetuating atrocities and egregious human rights violations against Lao Hmong civilians, including the rape, murder and mutilation of Lao Hmong women and children.

In recent months, the VPA and SRV have played a significantly increased role in Laos, with hundreds of additional troops and security forces from Vietnam being deployed in Vientiane and elsewhere in Laos in recent months.

Thousands of additonal VPA troops, and security force members, have been deployed in Laos against Laotian and Hmong minority political and religious dissidents, as well as unarmed civilians and independent religious believers, including Christians, Animist and independent Buddhists.

Senior VPA and SRV Defense Ministry officials have met with their Lao counterparts in recent weeks and months. Vietnam Defense Minister General Phung Quang Thanh paid an official visit to Laos from March 7-9, 2011 to conclude military operations for the year, including internal suppression efforts.

###

Contact: Ms. Helen Cruz
Center for Public Policy Analysis
info@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org
Tele. (202) 543-1444

2020 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Suite No.#212
Washington, DC 20006 USA
http://www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

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Vietnam, Laos Uprising: 28 Hmong Protesters Killed

Thursday, 5 May 2011, 5:19 pm
Press Release: Centre for Public Policy Analysis
Vietnam, Laos Uprising: 28 Hmong Protesters Killed

Thousands of Viet-Hmong minority political and religious dissidents along the Laos - Vietnam border, who are staging mass protests demanding religious freedom and land reforms from the communist regime in Hanoi, have been attacked by Vietnam People's Army (VPA) troops and security forces in the remote Dien Bien province of Vietnam. Twenty-eight (28) ethnic Hmong people, protesting against government policies, are confirmed dead in recent days, with hundreds more missing, along the Laos -Vietnam border area of the the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), according to Lao Hmong non-governmental organizations, and the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C.

Large numbers of Vietnam People's Army infantry and mechanized troops, as well as Lao People's Army (LPA) soldiers, were rushed to the Dien Bein border area at the direction of the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the SRV on May 3-5, 2011. Ground attack helicopters were also reportedly dispatched from bases in Laos and Vietnam by the VPA, at the direction of the armed forces Chef of Staff of Vietnam. General Tran Quang Khue, and other VPA generals, who dominate the politburo in Vietnam, have reportedly played a major role in the crack-down, and deployment of the armed forces, against the peaceful Hmong protesters.

“We are concerned about credible reports that many poor and ordinary Hmong people in the Dien Bein area, as well as other people along the Vietnam and Laos border, have been arrested or killed by Vietnamese Army, and Lao Army, soldiers and police because of their protests for land reform to Communist officials in Hanoi, their opposition to illegal logging, or because of their independent Christian and Animist religious beliefs ,” said Christy Lee, Executive Director of Hmong Advance, Inc.(HAI) in Washington, D.C.

Ms. Lee continued: “Ordinary Hmong people, and other highland and forest-dwelling minority peoples in Laos and Vietnam, have also been subjected to a new and increasing injustice by the authorities and Vietnam People's Army-owned companies, which continue their oppressive methods, religious persecution, and to engage in illegal logging in Vietnam and Laos, including the Dien Bien area in Vietnam, as well as the Laotian provinces of Xieng Khouang, Khammoune, Luang Prabang and elsewhere.”

“The Hmong, and other minority Christian and Animist religious believers, are being driven of their lands and killed and persecuted by corrupt Communist party officials and the military elite in Vietnam and Laos,” Ms. Lee stated.

“At least twenty-eight Viet-Hmong are known to have been killed, and 33 wounded, in recent attacks by Vietnam People's Army troops in the Dien Bien area of Vietnam,” said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) in Washington, D.C.

The non-governmental organizations, including the CPPA, HAI, Hmong Advancement, Inc. and others, cite Hmong, Vietnamese and Lao sources inside the area of Dien Bien provice where the Hmong are currently staging mass protests against Vietnam's communist and military authorities.

“The Viet-Hmong people fleeing to Laos from Dien Bien province, during the recent anti-government protests and crackdown in Vietnam, have also been arrested by Lao security forces and VPA troops who are working closely together to jointly seek to arrest, persecute and kill them,.” Smith stated.

“In recent days, significant numbers of Vietnam People's Army troops from Hanoi, and security forces from Laos, have been deployed for special military operations directed against the Hmong minority people, and independent religious believers and political dissidents, along the Vietnam – Laos border and the Dien Bein province area of Vietnam,” Smith observed.

Smith continued: “At least seventeen Viet-Hmong Christians were killed and 33 wounded on May 3rd in the Dien Bien Province, and Dien Bein Phu, areas of Vietnam bordering Laos n attacks by VPA military forces. All of these people were independent Catholic and Protestant Christian believers. Additionally, eleven independent Viet-Hmong animist believers were also known, and confirmed, to have been killed on the same day by Vietnam People's Army forces. .”

“Hundreds of Viet and Lao-Hmong minority peoples are also missing after the attacks directed against the peaceful protesters by the Vietnamese government forces in the Dien Bein area,” Smith stated.

“In addition to the seventeen Hmong Christians, an additional eleven independent Viet-Hmong animist believers were also confirmed killed on the same day by VPA forces because they also were accused of worshiping outside of the communist government's control in Hanoi and because they were standing up for land reform and the religious freedom of the Viet-Hmong and Lao-Hmong people,” Smith continued.

“Lao-Hmong forest and highland-dwelling people who have fled horrific religious persecution as well as illegal logging by Vietnam People's Army-owned companies in Laos continue to flee to Vietnam and Thailand as political refugees by the hundreds each year,” Smith concluded.

In December of 2009, Thailand forced some eight thousand Lao Hmong political refugees back to Laos, despited international protests. They were put under the direction of the Deputy Chief of the Lao Armed Forces who was previously accused by human rights and international humanitarian organizations of taking a leadership role in perpetuating atrocities and egregious human rights violations against Lao Hmong civilians, including the rape, murder and mutilation of Lao Hmong women and children.

Lately, the VPA and SRV have played a significantly increased role in Laos, with hundreds of additional troops and security forces from Vietnam being deployed in Laos in recent years.

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Hmong credit union seized by regulators

The Hmong American Federal Credit Union in St. Paul was seized by federal regulators Wednesday because of operational weaknesses.

The credit union, which has 716 members and has served the Hmong community since its opening in 1984, is now being operated by the National Credit Union Administration, a federal agency. The credit union's sole office on Western Avenue in St. Paul has been moved to 56 E. 6th St. in St. Paul, an existing branch of Spire Federal Credit Union.

David Small, a spokesman for the NCUA, said regulators "had concerns over their operations." He declined to be more specific. The credit union did not respond to calls for comment.

Hmong American, with $2.7 million in assets, appeared to be in healthy condition. Last year, the credit union's profit more than tripled to $48,482. The credit union net worth, as a percentage of its assets, was a healthy 15.98 percent as of March, well above the regulatory minimum of 6 percent.

"This is another reminder that you can't always trust the numbers," said Marvin Umholz, a consultant to credit unions in Olympia, Wash.

The NCUA has seized nine credit unions nationwide so far this year, and 43 since the beginning of 2009.

This is the first Minnesota credit union to be taken over by regulators since the financial crisis began. However, several have been forced to sell themselves after losses on real estate-related loans wiped out much of their capital.

In early 2009, Fort Snelling Federal Credit Union in Minneapolis was on the verge of failure when regulators stepped in and arranged a sale to Hiway Federal Credit Union of St. Paul.

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Vietnam: Ethnic Hmong 'in mass protest in Dien Bien'

Thousands of ethnic Hmong people in Vietnam are holding a protest calling for autonomy in a rare outbreak of unrest, a local official tells the BBC.

The district administrator told the BBC the protesters had kidnapped a group of local officials during the unrest.

Soldiers have been drafted in from neighbouring areas in the remote Dien Bien province.

It is unclear whether those taken captive have been released, or whether there are any casualties.

The Dien Bien region is one of Vietnam's poorest areas, with Hmong people living on less than $100 (£60) a year. It is also remote and mountainous, making it difficult to verify reports.

The demands of the protesting Hmong - who are mostly Christians - include more religious freedom, better land rights and more autonomy.

Local administrator Giang A Dinh - who is himself Hmong - told the BBC's Vietnamese service that many compromises had been made to try to accommodate their requests but the protest had continued.

Vietnam's communist rulers keep a tight control on dissent and protests of any kind are extremely rare.

Analysts say the central government in Hanoi will be furious - and its most likely response will be to remove the administrator.

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APPEASEMENT TOWARD LAOS

Relatives and supporters of three Americans jailed and tortured in Laos are appealing to the Obama administration to put high-level pressure on the communist government for their release.

However, one of the leaders of the campaign for their freedom suspects that President Obama might ignore their plea, as he seeks better relations with the Southeast Asian nation despite its brutal human rights record.

When they heard that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton sent greetings on behalf of Mr. Obama on the Laotian new year earlier this month, “we were appalled,” said Philip Smith, director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington.

He added that the new year’s message, which also expressed hopes for expanded bilateral military relations, makes him worry that the White House is drifting toward “total appeasement of a military dictatorship.”

Mr. Smith joined a coalition of organizations representing Laotian-Americans and Laotian Hmong refugees in writing to Mr. Obama and Mrs. Clinton to seek “higher diplomatic” attention to the plight of the three naturalized U.S. citizens of Hmong descent.

The three Hmong-Americans have been “interrogated, beaten and tortured, according to eyewitness and multiple sources,” Mr. Smith said.

Congshineng Yang, 34, Hakit Yang, 24, and Trillion Yunhaison, 44, visited Laos with valid tourist visas in July 2007. Laotian soldiers and secret police arrested them the next month in northeastern Laos.

“They were arrested without charges and for unknown reasons,” Mr. Smith said.

The secret police later moved the three Americans to Lao’s notorious Phonthong Prison in the capital, Vientiane. Their families believe the three are now being held in a secret military prison in the northeast of the country.

Mr. Smith said the families initially appealed to Ravic Huso, the U.S. ambassador to Laos at the time, and urged him to raise a diplomatic protest to the foreign ministry.

“He did almost nothing,” Mr. Smith said.

Mr. Huso assigned the case to a consular officer, who confirmed the arrests, Mr. Smith said.

“We wants answers now …,” said Shen Xiong, a spokeswoman for the families and the wife of Hakit Yang. The three Hmong-Americans had relocated from Laos to Minnesota, where their families still live.

The State Department cited a privacy act that restricts what they can say about Americans imprisoned abroad.

“We are unable to confirm claims that U.S. citizens were ever or still are in the custody of the Lao government,” an official said.

The Laotian Embassy declined to respond to an e-mail request for comment.

The State Department’s latest human rights report calls Laos “an authoritarian one-party state” where prison conditions are “harsh and, at times, life threatening.”

The Hmong people have long been the target of repression by Laotian communists because they sided with royalist forces, organized by the CIA, in the Laotian civil war, which ended in 1975.

The same day that a top Chinese official praised U.S. Ambassador Jon Huntsman as a friend of China, the outgoing envoy denounced the communist government for imprisoning a prominent artist.

“It is very sad that the Chinese government has seen a need to silence one of its most innovative and illustrious citizens,” Mr. Huntsman wrote in an introduction to a Time magazine profile on Ai Weiwei.

The artist, also an outspoken government critic, was included among Time’s 100 most influential people last week.

On the day of the April 21 publication, Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping expressed his regret that Mr. Huntsman will resign from his position later this month.

“You are an old friend of the Chinese people,” Mr. Xi said.

Mr. Huntsman, a former Republican government of Utah, is considering seeking the GOP nomination to challenge President Obama, who appointed him ambassador in 2009.

Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297 or e-mail jmorrison@washingtontimes.com


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A Hmong Boy's Story

A Hmong Boy's Story by Yakao Yang



During the Vietnam War, the Hmong people helped the United States fight the Vietnamese communist regime. As you know the U.S. did not win the war and only prolonged the inevitable advance of communism. The Vietnamese were very cruel to the Hmong people who fought against them and as a result many Hmong people entered refugee camps and tried to find a way to live the rest of their lives here in the United States. Today, their are still Hmong waiting in Refugee camps in Thailand.

A Hmong Boy's Story chronicles the life of a young boy growing up during this conflict of political powers. This is Yakao Yang's memoir which details the racism and prejudice he faced as a Hmong boy trying to get an education (when education wasn't valued by Hmong people). He had to attend school where at times he was the only Hmong child in the classroom. He made friends, learned as much as he could and overcame many obstacles.

What I enjoyed most was learning about the Hmong culture and history, from their lifestyle in the mountains, their courting and marriage rituals, to life in the refugee camps and the migration of the people from place to place. I really learned a lot and feel I know the history and culture of my Hmong students better. Every year I attend Hmong New Year at my kids school and participate in the ball toss and the traditional New Year's feast. I feel that I truly understand the surnames and the rituals behind the Hmong New Year.

Yang's memoir is very detailed and hard to read at times because English is not his native language. Yet, it is very readable and entertaining for those willing to persevere. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about the Hmong culture. I think he has created a unique memoir and his family would be very proud of all he accomplished in his life. Yakao is a man who values education and loves his family and it shows in his book. Thank you Yakao Yang for sharing your personal story.

Buy book at Amazon here
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Laos Urged to Grant Amnesty for Wrongly Jailed Hmong- American Citizens from Minnesota

"Our families in Minnesota, and many in the Laotian and Hmong-American community, are appealing to President Barack Obama, the White House and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to press the Lao government to immediately release the three Hmong men who were arrested and wrongly imprisoned in Laos for over three and a half years, without charges being filed," said Sheng Xiong of St. Paul, Minnesota, who is the wife of imprisoned Hmong-American Hakit Yang and a spokeswoman for the families of the three Americans being held in Laos."

Minnesota Twin Cities' Hmong-American families have renewed an international plea for amnesty for their wrongly-jailed family members in Laos. St. Paul, and Minneapolis, Laotian and Hmong-American families, community members and human rights organizations, continue to speak out requesting the release of three Hmong-American citizens who were arrested in Laos by Lao People's Army soldiers and secret police in August of 2007. The families, joined by Laotian and Hmong non-governmental and non-profit organizations, have appealed to U.S. President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Lao President and communist party leader, Lt. General Choummaly Sayasone,

General Choummaly Sayasone heads the one-party military junta in Vientiane and also serves as the President.

“Our families in Minnesota, and many in the Laotian and Hmong-American community, are appealing to President Barack Obama, the White House and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to press the Lao government to immediately release the three Hmong men who were arrested and wrongly imprisoned in Laos for over three and a half years, without charges being filed,” said Sheng Xiong of Minnesota, a spokeswoman for the families of the men.

The three American citizens of ethnic Lao Hmong descent, Congshineng Yang, Trillion Yunhaison and Hakit Yang, traveled from Minnesota in July of 2007 to Laos as tourists, and to seek potential business investment opportunities in Laos.

Mrs. Sheng Xiong recently voiced a renewed international appeal for the families, and many in the Lao Hmong-American community, to Scoop News in New Zealand, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) in Minneapolis, Businesswire in Washington, D.C., the Washington Times and other newspapers and radio stations..
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1104/S00536/laos-appeal-for-release-of-3-hmong-americans.htm
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/04/21/hmong-americans-held-in-laos/

"We want answers from the Lao government about Hakit Yang, and the other Hmong-Americans, that were arrested while traveling with him in Laos," Mrs. Xiong stated.
http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110423005016/en/Laos-Obama-Urged-Rights-Groups-Hmong-Free
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/apr/26/embassy-row-852424642/

The Australia-based Foreign Prisoners Support Service (FPSS), and author and human rights activist Kay Danes, has repeatedly raised the case of the three jailed Hmong men in Laos. Danes was a keynote speaker at the World Affairs Council and public policy events in Washington, DC in 2009, held in the U.S. Congress and National Press Club, to discuss the plight of the three men jailed in Laos and other human rights and refugee issues regarding Laos, Thailand and Southeast Asia. Mrs. Danes, Sheng Xiong, and others, spoke about the three American's arrest in Laos, imprisonment in Phonthong Prison in Vientiane, and later forced move to a secret Lao People's Army (LPA) military prison in Sam Neua province in the Northeastern part of the Southeast Asian nation. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1001/S00247.htm

Mrs. Danes is also the author of “Standing Ground” ( New Holland Publishers, Australia ) a book about her ordeal as a political prisoner suffering, and witnessing torture, in Vientiane's Phonthong Prison in Laos. Kay and Kerry Danes were jailed by corrupt Lao communist party officials, who sought to seize the assets for foreign investors in Laos. The Danes were released after the high-level intervention of human rights activists, the Australian Embassy in Laos, Australian Foreign Ministry and others. http://www.newholland.com.au/product.php?isbn=9781741107579

The Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) and its Executive Director, Philip Smith, as well as others concerned about human rights and foreign policy issues in Laos, and Southeast Asia, continue to raise concerns about this humanitarian case and other issues.
http:www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org

“We are concerned that the White House, and President Barack Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton, appear to be unaware of the serious human rights violations being committed by the Lao People's Army, and senior communist party officials, against American citizens traveling to Laos as well as independent Laotian and Hmong religious believers, student leaders, political refugees, dissidents and peaceful opposition groups,” Smith said.

“We are requesting that the White House, President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, vigorously and repeatedly address this terrible injustice; We want the Obama Administration and U.S. Embassy in Laos to raise the issue of the ongoing imprisonment of the three Hmong-American citizens from Minnesota, at the highest diplomatic levels with the Lao government, and urge that the three American men be immediately released from Laos' notorious and secret gulag system,” Smith stated.

“The continued imprisonment of American citizens in Laos-- and other critical human rights, religious freedom, refugee and other issues -- should be raised with the Lao President Lt. General Choummaly Sayasone , and other senior LPA military generals and communist politburo members at meetings with Obama Administration and State Department officials,” Smith said.

“Unfortunately, corruption and human rights violations in Laos, by Lao communist party and military officials is rampant, and we are concerned that the White House, President Obama and Secretary Clinton, not be perceived as appeasing the Lao military junta while it continues to wrongly jail and abuse American citizens and many of its own Laotian people, including the Hmong and Lao student pro-democracy leaders; Currently, the one-party regime in Laos is a close ally of authoritarian regimes in Burma and North Korea, which is another serious concern,” Smith concluded.

###

Contact: Maria Gomez
Center for Public Policy Analysis
2020 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 220
Washington, D.C. 20006

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


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