Officials of the Third Army Region, which oversees security in the north, have finished classifying thousands of Hmong refugees, most of whom crossed the border from Laos in 2004 and 2005.

More than 4,000 out of 6,058 Hmong at Phetchabun's Ban Huay Nam Khao village were found to have come from Laos, while the rest were long-term residents of the recently closed Wat Tham Krabok refugee camp in Saraburi, a Thai official said.

Some of the Hmong with Thai citizenship had mixed with the refugees and were involved in trafficking fellow Hmong from Laos to Phetchabun, according to the official, who declined to be named.

The Lao Hmong paid the traffickers as much as Bt8,000 per head to get them into Thailand, he said.

A few hundred Hmong who have Thai nationality were willing to abandon their citizenship and mix with the other refugees in order to have a chance to resettle in the United States, the official said.

Most of the Hmong from Laos claimed they had fought for the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) during its "secret war" against the communist Pathet Lao in the 1970s.

But the official said only about 100 people could be identified (from their documents) as CIA fighters.

Lee Mua, 58, a Hmong fighter who was one of the first to arrive at Ban Huay Nam Khao in late 2004, said the CIA had abandoned him in the jungle after Laos fell to the communists in 1975. He was jailed for seven years by the Lao government after being captured in 1979.

"I left Laos because I feared for my safety, not because I wanted to settle in the US. But it's okay if my family and I can go, as many of my relatives are in America," he said.

Lee Mua said he managed to reach Ban Huay Nam Khao by himself, and not with the help of traffickers. He already knew the area because he went on a CIA-sponsored military training course in Phitsanulok in 1972.

He said he encouraged other Hmong from Laos to seek refuge in Ban Huay Nam Khao.

Yer Chang, 40, had a different story. He said he had escaped from Laos in 1978 and lived in the Ban Vinai refugee camp in Loei province.

After that, he had been in many other camps in Thailand, including Wat Tham Krabok, shut down last year after the resettlement of 15,000 Hmong to the US.

Despite having been in Wat Tham Krabok, Yer Chang said he failed to register for resettlement in the US last year because he obtained unclear information about the programme. Fearing repatriation to Laos, he sneaked out of the Saraburi camp to work in Phetchabun.

As the son of a CIA fighter, Yer Chang said he deserved to resettle in the US and many of his relatives in Minnesota would be able to help him there.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation

Phetchabun