Thailand refuses to send Hmong refugees to communist Laos

[amadeus]

Some good news, for a change.

Thailand halts Hmong repatriation

Thailand has suspended plans to forcibly repatriate 153 Hmong refugees to Laos, after the US and other Western countries agreed to take them.

The refugees had been resisting efforts to send them back, saying they face persecution at home.

Fifty-four men had locked themselves into their detention centre in a border town in northern Thailand.

The US, the UN and international human rights groups have criticised Thailand's repatriation plan.

The 153 refugees were arrested in Bangkok two months ago. They were later taken to the Nong Khai detention centre on the Thai Laos border, pending deportation.

The UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has said the Hmong's forcible return would be "a major breach of international law".

The US ambassador to Thailand, Ralph Boyce, said he had urged Bangkok to allow the refugees "to be resettled in another country where they will be safe".

Later the Thai foreign ministry said the deportation had been put on hold indefinitely after the US, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands had given assurances that they would take the Hmong.

The Hmong are a minority hill tribe people whose members fought alongside the US against communist forces in Laos in the 1960s.

Groups of Hmong fighters still remain in the Lao jungle, where they fled after the communists took over the country in 1975 .

They are still said to clash occasionally with Lao government forces.

Up to 9,000 Hmong immigrants live in Thailand, which has been trying to work out a long term solution with Laos.

Finally!

The news also has local significance, as St. Paul actually has the largest urban Hmong population in the world.

 

[Nuka-sama]

That is indeed good news

 

[CCA]

Wait till Pasi Numerem reads this article...
Doesnt he live in Laos, or was it Cambodia

 

[Babbler]

Wait till Pasi Numerem reads this article...
Doesnt he live in Laos, or was it Cambodia

He one of those hitchhikers going through Asia.

 

[Winner]

Where is Pasi? I wonder what he has to say to this.

"Those evil imperialist criminals must be repatriated to face a just and fair trial!"



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[Tee Kay]

@Francisco Pasi lives in Laos I think.

Laos is treating their minorities not as good as they should be treated. The Hmongs helped the Thai, Lao and US government fought the Pathet Lao guerrilas so it's no wonder the Lao PDR doesn't like them very much. But that was 20 years ago and things have changed. If Laos want to be recognise as a modern country then they will have to improve their treatment of minorities.

 

[amadeus]

Pasi is a joke, and I won't allow his neo-Stalinism to upset the good nature of this thread.

Moderator Action: Warned, trolling.
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[Immortal Ace]

Very good.

*claps*

Gotta love when things like this happen. But no, we are the evil imperialistic jingoist yadda yadda, right?

 

[CCA]

I seriously doubt that Laos is that bad, If Pasi Numerem can get a computer that can handle CIV IV and post here rather frequently then it cant be all that bad

 

[Winner]

I seriously doubt that Laos is that bad, If Pasi Numerem can get a computer that can handle CIV IV and post here rather frequently then it cant be all that bad

What the fact there is an internet connection has to do with the state of democracy and human rights in a country?

 

[Babbler]

I seriously doubt that Laos is that bad, If Pasi Numerem can get a computer that can handle CIV IV and post here rather frequently then it cant be all that bad

Just because you post on the OT doesn't mean you are play any civ actively.

 

[CCA]

What the fact there is an internet connection has to do with the state of democracy and human rights in a country?

No, im saying that the fact that Laos has an Internet connection means that it can't be a backward communist state that some people seem to think it is...

 

[Drewcifer]

I seriously doubt that Laos is that bad, If Pasi Numerem can get a computer that can handle CIV IV and post here rather frequently then it cant be all that bad

He is Canadian.

 

[CCA]

He is Canadian.

His location says Laos

 

[Drewcifer]

This story is more about bringing closure to an era that is comming to an end than anything else. When the US pulled out of Vietnam Vang Pao's Hmong guerilla army lost to the Pathet Lao. Many Hmong started to flee the country for fear of their lives, the Pathet Lao sent death squads into the villages that supported Vang. This is what caused large numbers of Hmong to flee through the jungles to Thailand in the mid-70s. At that point there were large refugee camps on the Laos/Thailand border. Over time those camps have emptied as the refugees relocated elsewhere, now they are closing the last of the camps.

That is where these people are from, probably Thailand was threatening to send them back to Laos because they knew the US and the rest of the west would then take them. I don't think the Thais wanted them to settle in Thailand.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

The Lao People's Democratic Government is going to great lengths to encourage and develop a distinctly "Lao" identity, which included choosing Vientiane's Lao dialect as the national language and a massive nationwide advertising campaign aimed at promoting national pride.

In other words, something that people like rmsharpe and Winner would absolutely love their governments to be doing with regards to hispanics and muslims respectively.

None of you have any clue about the region of Thailand in question. Isaan is all historically Lao, and everywhere in that part of Thailand, the dominant language is Lao, not Thai, and the dominant ethnic group is Lao, not Thai. It was conquered from Lan Xang when Thailand saw the French eating up Lan Xang and the Khmer kingdom and decided they wanted a piece, so they took all Lan Xang land west of the Mekong. This has created a lot of tension since 1975 with Laos every so often demanding cession of some territory that is rightfully owed to them.

And, for the record, I do have Civ 1V, but I never play it because it doesn't work on my nearly five year old computer and the retailer I originally bought it from in Canada when it was released didn't take back opened software.

 

[bhsup]

It's a stain on America's honor that they were not allowed to come here long ago. Valiant allies left to twist in the wind.

 

[CCA]

It's a stain on America's honor that they were not allowed to come here long ago. Valiant allies left to twist in the wind.

Didn't the US do that in the aftermath of Vietnam ?

I see the same thing happening when AMerica abandons Iraq

 

[Drewcifer]

The Lao People's Democratic Government is going to great lengths to encourage and develop a distinctly "Lao" identity, which included choosing Vientiane's Lao dialect as the national language and a massive nationwide advertising campaign aimed at promoting national pride.

In other words, something that people like rmsharpe and Winner would absolutely love their governments to be doing with regards to hispanics and muslims respectively.

A better analogy would be the anti-Jewish pogroms in Tsarist Russia.

The Hmong are a people without a country and are spread throughout southern China and southeast Asia due to having lost a large number of wars. Most of them were run out of Laos after the Secret War. Most Hmong I have met consider what happened to them to be genocide. Every Hmong in Minnesota has harrowing and bloody tales of the migration and scores of relatives and friends who didn't make it. There are now more Lao Hmong living in the US than in Laos, they didn't come here as economic migrants.

It is not a mainstream site but the history in this link is fairly accurate as far as 20th century Hmong history goes:http://www.greenanarchy.org/index.php?action=viewwritingdetail&writingId=145

 

[Kraznaya]

Then I'm sure y'all will have no problem declaring war on every state in the region to carve out a ambigious Hmong homeland, then supply it with superior weapons and technology to create a new conflict zone in Indochina, right? Cuz, thats whats right. They support America over those damn pinko gooks and those weirdos with weird beliefs and we have to support em. Countries for all stateless people!