Laos, Vietnam: Mobilization to Kill Hmong
Release Date: 3-30.2008
Original Link:
http://presszoom.com/story_144108.html
Source: Center for Public Policy Analysis
The Lao Peoples
Democractic Republic (LPDR) regime, in cooperation with the Socialist Republic
of Vietnam (SRV), have issued a new order and drafted a comprehensive strategy
to mount a major military offensive to exterminate thousands of Hmong in hiding
in the jungles and mountains of Laos, including thousands of unarmed women and
children.
(PressZoom.com) - The Lao
Peoples Democractic Republic (LPDR) regime, in cooperation with the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam (SRV), has issued a new order and drafted a comprehensive
strategy to mount a major military offensive to exterminate thousands of Hmong
in hiding in the jungles and mountains of Laos. The offensive will involve
special battalions of troops and special operations commandos from Vietnam who
are now being deployed to the closed military zones of operation. The reported
object is to eliminate and exterminate some 15,000 Lao Hmong in hiding in key
areas of Laos by the end of April 2008. Hmong in Laos are bracing for these new
anticipated attacks by Laos and Vietnam which are expected to be massive and
ruthless.
“Reliable sources from inside Laos have stated that on March 23, 2008, the LPDR
regime under the direction of President Choummaly Sayasone and Prime Minister
Bouasone Bouphavanh as well as Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister
Douangchay Phichit, who is also a Member of the Politburo and Major General
Asang Laoly ordered the implementation of a comprehensive and deadly plan to
intensify and expand military operations to attack and kill thousands of
dissident unarmed Hmong civilians and opposition members in-hiding by the end of
April 2008,” stated Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public
Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. “These new and ominous military actions, in
cooperation with senior generals in Vietnam’s Ministry of Defense, against
unarmed civilians and the continued use of food as a weapon to kill thousands of
unarmed Lao-Hmong people constitutes a clear violations of international law and
rises to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity to which these
individual military leaders in Laos and Vietnam will need to be held accountable
and brought to trial, especially General Douangchay Phichit,” Smith concluded.
http://www.asiapacific.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGASA260042004?open&of=ENG-LAO
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/world/asia/17laos.html
Amnesty International has issued numerous reports about war crimes in Laos,
including a March 2007 report about the Lao military’s attacks and mass
starvation Hmong civilians and dissident and opposition groups. Independent
humanitarian and human rights organizations as well as journalists including
Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the New York Times, Time magazine (Asia-Edition),
Le Monde, Al Jazeera and others have documented the attacks by the Lao military
on Laotian and Hmong civilians, dissident and opposition groups in Laos.
http://www.english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/3901AC50-813C-409F-8F57-BEDF4930C28D.htm
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/003/2007
“The Lao Peoples Army (LPA) is reportedly mobilizing significant battalions of
fresh combat troops in key areas of Laos, at the direction and command of PAVN
units from Vietnam, and with the support of vintage, Soviet built MI-8
helicopter gunships equipped with rocket launchers and machine guns to launch
ethnic cleansing operations and military attacks against thousands of unarmed
Lao Hmong civilians at Phou Da Phao, Phou Bia Mountain area and elsewhere,”
Smith stated. “Two MI-8 helicopter gunships were reportedly deployed again by
the Lao military for several weeks to attack and kill the Lao and Hmong people
seeking refuge and sanctuary in the Phou Da Phao area,” Smith continued.
“We condemn this new military campaign, and these cruel attacks, atrocities and
war crimes by the Lao military and Vietnam on unarmed Hmong in Laos; we urge the
international community to provide emergency intervention to seek to draw
attention to this crisis and to stop this new round of upcoming military attacks
which we understand will me massive in terms of the troop levels and the
intervention of Vietnam to assist the Lao regime’s efforts to wipe out and
exterminate some 15,000 Hmong civilians in Laos,” stated Vaughn Vang, Executive
Director of the Lao Human Rights Council.http://www.presszoom.com/print_story_143358.html
Mr. Tong Pao Yang and Mr. Nou Mang Chang issued the following statement and
joint appeal from inside Laos to the international community:
“It is important to note, that the LPDR regime has reportedly suspended Colonel
Kham Xeng Yang, a communist officer in the Lao Peoples Army (LPA) because he
failed to complete the brutal order issued by the Lao Minister of Defense Lao
Deputy Prime Minister & Defense Minister Douangchay Phichit, who is also Member
of the Politburo, to kill or capture all Lao-Hmong civilians and dissident Hmong
groups in-hiding in key areas inside Laos. The Lao regime is using Hmong
soldiers to kill and commit war crimes against their fellow Hmong people, which
they are sometimes not capable of doing. These are terrible crimes against
humanity being committed by the military of Laos and Vietnam now against
thousands of unarmed Hmong civilians that are surrounded and under attack. ”
“Most importantly, however, on behalf of many thousands of Hmong groups now
hiding from ongoing LPDR military attacks in Laos, we are appealing to the
United States, U.S., U.S. Congress, United Nation, European Unions, ASEAN and
the international community, to demand the Lao PDR regime to stop its current
military offensive and ongoing attack helicopter and air force bombing. Major
military units, and fresh battalions of troops, of the Lao military and
Socialist Vietnam are now mobilizing for a new, upcoming planned ground
offensive which seeks to massacre all Hmong in hiding groups which our
information indicates will likely begin in early April of this year. We are
innocent civilians, women and children and we do not want to be killed or
captured by the Lao PDR government troops. All unarmed Hmong civilians,
especially women and children have the right to life, liberty and the rights for
a life free from persecution, torture and brutal human rights abuses currently
be directed against our Lao and Hmong people by the communist regime of Laos and
Vietnam.”
Tong Pao Yang and Nou Mang Chang continued their statement from inside Laos and
joint appeal to the international community:
“Our information and field intelligence sources indicate that they have
appointed Colonel Boa SaVan as one of the key commanders of the Lao PDR
government to carry out this deadly operation which includes plans to continue
to encircle, trap, kill and starve to death thousands of Laotian and Hmong
civilians. The Lao PDR government has given the order to Colonel Boa SaVan’s
troops to slaughter or capture all remaining Hmong groups in hiding by the end
of April 2008. Civilians will not be spared. A food is being used as a weapon to
kill and starve our people who only seek to live in peace and freedom.”
Mr. Tong Pao Yang and Mr. Nou Mang Chang concluded:
“The LPDR’s Colonel Boa SaVan has already worked to order new air attacks and
the deployment of ground troops in Xieng Khouang Province to prepare for new
attacks on Lao-Hmong groups in Phou Da Phao, Phou Bia and in Vang Vieng
province. His military trucks have begun carrying his troops at night to the
locations where Hmong groups in hiding are located and are standing by to launch
fresh military attacks against these innocent Hmong groups in hiding in Vang
Vieng Province. Large numbers of troops from Vietnam are also being deployed now
to attack and kill our people.”
In response to these developments, Vaughn Vang, Director, of the Lao Human
Rights Council made the following four point statement:
“We the Lao Human Rights Council propose the following four points to end the
genocide, ethnic cleansing war, human rights violation, and mass starvation
directed against some 15,000 Lao-Hmong civilians now hiding from attack and
persecution in key jungle and mountain areas in Laos:
• We urgently appeal to the United States, United Nations, the world community,
European Union, ASEAN and international human rights and humanitarian
organizations, to investigate and stop the communist Laos government’s ethnic
cleansing war, genocide, oppression and human rights violations, and campaign of
mass starvation directed against dissident Lao and Hmong civilians and religious
and minority opposition groups; and to press the LPDR regime to immediately end
all military attacks from ground and air troops against the innocent, unarmed
Hmong civilians, women, and children in-hiding in the jungle of Laos.
• We urgently appeal to the United States, United Nations High Commission for
Human Rights and the international community, International Human Rights
Commission (independent commission) and other international human rights
organizations to investigate and stop the ethnic cleansing war, human rights
violation, and genocide, against the Lao-Hmong in-hiding in the jungle of Laos;
• We urgently appeal to the United States, United Nations, the International Red
Cross and international relief agencies to send food, and medical supplies, and
to provide other basic human needs to the 15,000 Hmong who are being attacked
daily and facing mass starvation, ethnic cleansing war and human rights
violations against them in the jungle of Laos;
• Finally, we urgently appeal to the United States, United Nation, and ASEAN
Nations to bring true peace, democracy, human rights, stability and national
reconciliation to Laos and the Lao-Hmong dissident and opposition groups who
seek an open and free society.”
Vaughn Vang continued : “Some 15,000 Hmong civilians, women and children,
trapped and surrounded by Lao and Vietnamese military units that seek to kill
them are now urgently appealing to the United States, U.S. Congress, United
Nations, and the international community to intervene in an emergency manner to
save their lives. Without emergency intervention, the Hmong in-hiding in the
jungle of Laos will continue to be starved to death, killed and subjected to
atrocities, torture and war crimes by the Lao PDR government regimes by the end
of April 2008.”
“This cry for help continues to come from the mountains and jungles of Laos due
to the LPDR regime and Vietnam’s continued brutal persecution and killing of
freedom-loving Laotian and Hmong people. Your immediately attention to the
desperate lives of these innocent, unarmed Hmong civilians, women, and children
in-hiding is demanded and necessary to give them the life, liberty and human
rights they all, as human beings, deserve,” Vaughn Vang, said in conclusion.
Contact: Ms. Anna Jones
Center for Public Policy Analysis
2020 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
No. #212
Washington, D.C. USA 20006
Tele. (202)543-1444
Fax (202)207-9871
info@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org