Vientiane willing to take Hmong back
The Lao People's Democratic Republic is willing to take back Hmong refugees now sheltered in northern Phetchabun province if a Thai-Lao joint verification can prove they have fled from Laos.
"We have suggested that the Hmong problem could be solved only with co-operation between Thailand and Laos," Lao Deputy Prime Minister Somsavat Lengsavad said in an interview. The two countries needed a joint effort to verify the place of origin of the Hmong in Phetchabun, he said. More than 7,000 Hmong are now sheltered in Ban Huay Nam Khao in Phetchabun province. Most claim they were from groups associated with the United States Central Intelligence Agency's "secret war" in the 1960s and 70s - and have fled from suppression at home. Lao authorities admitted there might be some Hmong who came from Laos to seek better opportunities to join their families in the US, Somsavat said. But he said his government had never suppressed the Hmong. The refugees in Ban Huay Nam Khao wanted the chance to resettle in the US like the 15,000 Hmong from Tham Krabok, he claimed. Washington took in a large group of Hmong refugees from Saraburi's Tham Krabok camp last year, more than 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War. Hundreds of thousands of Hmong from Laos have been living in the US since Vientiane fell to the communist Pathet Lao movement in 1975. Somsavat, who was formerly the foreign minister, said the US should make a clear policy not to take any more Hmong from Southeast Asia and allow Thailand and Laos to work together on a bilateral basis. "If any of them clearly came from Laos and are willing to return home, my government has no problem in taking them back," he said. Officials from the Thai and Laos military would seek to jointly verify the identity of the Hmong "refugees", a Thai official has said. Supalak Ganjanakhundee The Nation Vientiane
|
