Arrested Hmong 'not Vientiane's problem'
Laos said on Friday that a large group of Hmong refugees arrested earlier this week in Thailand's Phetchabun province were "probably not Laotian citizens" and the matter was an internal Thai affair.
Thai police said on Wednesday they had arrested more than 270 ethnic Hmong for illegally entering from neighbouring Laos and would send them back home."It is quite surprising that such a large group could cross the border unnoticed and enter" Thailand, Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman Yong Chantalangsy said. Asked whether Laos considered all the Hmong refugees Thai, he only answered: "It is not our problem. It is happening in Thailand. It does not concern us ... For us the Hmong issue is over." Thousands of Hmong hilltribe people allied with the United States during the Vietnam War and formed a Central Intelligence Agency-backed secret army when the war spilled into Laos. When the US withdrew in 1975, many Hmong feared persecution by the communist government of Laos and fled to Thailand, where they have been living in refugee camps. But thousands are believed to endure a bitter existence in Laos' isolated mountainous interior, mainly hiding and trying to avoid clashes with Lao and Vietnamese troops.
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