Online reports – Society – Manhunt in the mountain forests of Laos

© Photos by Rebecca Sommer

“Murderous violence”: Hmong children in Thai prison, Hmong women

The persecution of the Hmong people: A German filmmaker forces the world to watch

From Ruedi Suter

A tragedy has been unfolding in the mountain forests of Laos for decades, and it has only now become known: government troops are using every means possible to wipe out groups of the Hmong minority, regardless of age or gender. The genocide is now beginning to concern the UN.

The horrors are unimaginable. Half-starved men, women and children are being attacked in the remote Laotian mountain forests by fighter planes and helicopters with machine guns, bombs and chemical weapons. Survivors who fall into the hands of the pursuing ground troops of the Laotian army suffer torture, mutilation, verification or are killed outright. International human rights organizations have been reporting this for a few months. They support their allegations with shocking films, photos and the desperate reports of survivors.

Not mentioned by the media

But the manhunt of the Hmong groups in the forests of Laos is only addressed by a few media outlets. Their attention is focused on the current “trendy topics” – the fighting in Afghanistan, the Middle East, the Horn of Africa and sometimes also the genocide in Darfur, which is far less followed. The most serious human rights violations such as genocide and mass killings tend to be noticed by the so-called global public with a considerable delay.

This also seems to apply to the persecuted Hmong in Laos. Their story of suffering goes back to the Vietnam War. In order to prevent the North Vietnamese from using their supply route, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which also runs through Laos, and to fight the communist Pathet Lao in Laos, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began to build a “secret army” of more than 10,000 men. The majority of the army consisted of representatives of a tough mountain forest population, the Hmong minority.

In the maelstrom of the Vietnam War

Trained by Americans and Thais in Thai training camps, these Hmong fighters operated in small units against the Pathet Lao rebels and the North Vietnamese. This, as well as the fighting between the Laotian government troops and the communists, and the unprecedented number of bombs dropped by the USA on a single country, meant that neutral Laos was drawn more and more into the maelstrom of the Vietnam War. The Hmong population also suffered as a result, numbering well over 120,000 refugees in 1973. Between 1960 and 1975 alone, around 30,000 Hmong are said to have died. And after the communists seized power in 1975, according to Hmong sources, around 50,000 members of the ethnic group lost their lives in the following three years due to poison gas and 45,000 due to hunger, disease and gunfire.

In particular, the fact that a relatively small proportion of the Hmong living in Laos took sides against the Pathet Lao over three decades ago seems to be the cause of the current persecution. “The authorities in Laos still want revenge for this,” concludes the Society for Threatened Peoples Germany (STP). In particular, her colleague, the filmmaker Rebecca Sommer, drew attention to the tragedy in the Laotian mountain forests last year with her research on site, interviewing 240 Hmong who had fled to Thailand and writing a 50-page report.

Thousands languish in Thai prisons

Since then, it has been trying to put international pressure on the persecuted minority by submitting petitions to the United Nations Human Rights Council and EU governments to put an end to the serious human rights violations against the persecuted minority. The UN's “Working Group on Indigenous Peoples” and the UN General Assembly are also aware of the dramatic situation of the Hmong in Laos – and in Thailand, where thousands of Hmong refugees are currently facing deportation in primitive prisons. Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Antonio Guterres, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, have also spoken out against these prisons.

According to the human rights organization Human Rights Watch, in December Louise Arbour explicitly declared from Geneva that Thailand's government would respect its international obligations towards refugees and asylum seekers. For the time being, this has been successful, even though the large exodus from Laos continues and traumatized refugees are settling on the side of the road in Phetchabun Province or as “illegal immigrants” in overcrowded refugee camps or detention centers. Things always seem to be moving: in mid-March, Thailand's Foreign Minister Nitay Pibulsonggram announced that they had agreed with the Laotian authorities to set up a committee (“General Border Committee”) that would work on improving the situation of the approximately 7,000 Hmong who have fled to Thailand on the basis of “transparency and mutual agreement.”

No access to the restricted area

However, the Laotian government in the capital Vientiane continues to deny all human rights violations in its own country. But no one can enter the restricted area of ​​Haysomboun, where Laotian and Vietnamese soldiers are supposed to hunt down the “rebels”: not Red Cross delegates, not UN observers and not journalists.

Meanwhile, the witch hunt against Hmong groups who have been hiding in the remote mountain forests of Laos for 30 years seems to be continuing unabated. On March 1, according to reports from human rights organizations, a warplane sprayed a previously unknown poison over the forests of Phoua Dapho, which did not cause any immediate deaths, but did affect more than 200 hidden Hmong patients. They were vomiting, suffered from dizziness and bloody diarrhea. A few days later, the area was attacked by ground troops, killing at least seven Hmong.

According to Rebecca Sommer, there are an estimated 20,000 Hmong, considered enemies by the Laotian government, hiding in the forests of Laos. Their livelihoods are being systematically destroyed. And they are dying, even though they no longer have anything to do with the former fighters. Most of them are second or third generation members. The sole aim of these farming families is to escape the murderous violence of the soldiers.

Hunted like animals

In order not to be tracked down, the Hmong cannot grow food or make fire. Most of them have been living off plants and roots for years. Many die of hunger, exhaustion, disease or, due to a lack of medicine and bandages, from untreated wounds. Rebecca Sommer has not shied away from using the Internet to show the public the suffering of these Hmong groups. Anyone who clicks on her page “Hunted like animals” and watches a few of the film clips, some of which have been smuggled out of the jungle, will not soon forget them. And that is intentional: the persecution of the Hmong in Laos should no longer be able to be ignored.

The ancient Hmong migrated from China

The Hmong originally come from China, where they still form one of the largest minorities today under the name Miao, with around nine million members. The farming Miao were once displaced by the Han Chinese from the north into the inhospitable regions of southern China. Their women developed a textile culture that can be counted among the highest in the world and that even survived Mao's egalitarian policy. In the 19th century, Miao groups emigrated to Laos, Vietnam and Thailand, where they are now known as Hmong.

There are widely varying estimates of their population size in Laos. They range between 200,000 and 430,000 members, and they live primarily in the mountainous regions of the provinces of Luang Prabang, Xien Khouang and Sam Neua. Thousands of Hmong from Laos have fled to the USA, Canada and France since the Vietnam War.

8 April 2007

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