More than 150 Hmong people who fled Laos claiming to be family members of CIA-backed guerilla soldiers from the Vietnam War have arrived at the crowded shelter of Ban Huay Nam Khao, in northern Phetchabun province, in the past few months.

Their arrival means mounting troubles for Thai authorities, as the shelter was already crowded - with about 6,500 Hmongs living there since late 2004 - with no clear government policy of what to do with them.

Shelters have been built along the roadsides in Ban Huay Nam Khao village to accommodate them, and even schools are now being used as shelters.

Their numbers are growing fast, as more flee oppression at home to seek protection and perhaps resettlement in Thailand or third countries, said community leader Vang Seng.

Yang Lor, 56, fleeing a military crackdown in Xieng Khuang province, northern Laos, arrived in Ban Huay Nam Khao on February 22 with his wife and two children.

He claimed to have fought in a band of 173 CIA-backed Hmong fighters who surrendered to Vientiane in the middle of last year.

"It took me months to get out of the detention centre in Laos before crossing the Mekong River at Loei's Pak Chom district to Ban Huay Nam Khao," he told The Nation at the shelter.

Thousands of Hmong from groups that joined the US Central Intelligence Agency's secret war against the Communist Pathet Lao before the fall of Vientiane in 1975 are now headed for Thailand, he said.

Of the newest arrivals, Li Hu and his family made it from Xieng Khuang in the country's north, where he said he had faced constant harassment because his late father was a former CIA fighter.

"I come out to appeal to the international community - including the United Nations - to help the abandoned Hmong in Laos," said 50-year-old Li.

The Thai military is now working hard to maintain order among the Hmong in the village, as the population swells with new births and new arrivals. Soldiers from the Third Army Region are surveying and registering the Hmong, a task that should be completed by the middle of this month, an official said.

The National Security Council previously instructed local authorities to repatriate the Hmong but Vientiane rejected the move, saying Bangkok had failed to prove they were Lao citizens.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

Phetchabun