Overseas Hmong leader Vang Pao has dismissed an allegation that he was behind the migration of Hmong ethnic-minority people from Laos to Thailand.

Laos' ambassador to Thailand Hiem Phommachanh said in an address to the National Economic and Social Advisory Council on Thursday that Vang Pao, who now lives in the United States, had manipulated Hmong migration to Thailand.

"I reject such an accusation. I have never said anything (to the Hmong in Laos). Hmong refugees are an old problem since 1975. The government could not solve the problem until now," Vang Pao said on US-based Radio Free Asia, which can be monitored in Laos and Thailand.

Vang Pao is a former Hmong general who led the ethnic fighters in helping the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to wage a secret war against the communists in Laos before the fall of Vientiane in 1975.

Some 6,500 Hmong who claimed they were close associates with CIA fighters are now being sheltered in Phetchabun's Ban Huay Nam Khao. They said they fled from suppression in Laos and refuse to surrender to authorities in Vientiane.

Vang Pao blamed Vientiane's bad treatment as the cause of Hmong migration to Thailand

"They (the Hmong) continue seeking refuge because the Lao government never loves the people. The government arrests and executes people consistently," he said.

Hiem said in the lecture that his government had no political problem with minorities but the Hmong migrated to Thailand with the aim to resettle in the US for a better life.

Thailand's Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) is working to classify the Hmong in Phetchabun, as they are mixed with Hmong of Thai origin and the minorities who were left over following the closure of Saraburi's Wat Thamkrabok.

Thailand has sheltered many Hmong refugees since the end of the war in 1975. The last camp, in Wat Thamkrabok, was shut down in the middle of last year after the resettlement of 15,000 Hmong in the US.

An official at the ISOC said the Thai government would negotiate with Vientiane to repatriate the Hmong in Phetchabun who had nothing to do with the CIA's secret war in Laos.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation