Vang Pao

"We praise the US government as the group committed wrong doing against the Laos government which has good relations with the US," said Lao Foreign Ministry's spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy.

Vang Pao, 77, a former military general helped the US Central Intelligence Agency in secret war against communist Pathet Lao movement before the fall of Vientiane in 1975 before resettlement in the US since then.

The Hmong group planned to use AK47 rifles, Stinger missiles rockets and other arms to topple the Lao government and reduce government buildings in Vientiane rubble.

The arms would be shipped via Thailand to Laos, according to US prosecutor statement.

Meanwhile Thai Foreign Ministry's spokesman Tharit Charungvat said the Thai government was acknowledged on the arrest and charge on the Hmong in the US.

The Thai security concerned agencies would take care of investigation on the plot if there would be any arm smuggling via Thailand to neighboring country, he said.

"Thailand has a clear policy not to allow any party to use our territory as a lunching pad against our neighbors," he said.

Thailand sheltered more than 7,000 Hmong, many of whom claimed they were closed associates with the CIA secret fighters left over since the Vietnam War and fled from suppression at home. They hoped to have a chance to settle in the third countries like other Hmong fellows earlier.

Laos spokesman Yong said the Hmong in Thailand were victims of trafficking syndicates, not fighters. There was no active dissident group in Laos, he said.

"The arrest of Vang Pao and his group might not have direct impact to Laos as we have nothing to do with them but it would be a good news for Hmong minorities since the traffickers would have no excuse to lure them to Thailand to seek resettlement in the US with Vang Pao," Yong said. 

Yong joined a Lao delegation to a meeting of General Border Committee (GBC) in Bangkok yesterday to discuss the border security and the Hmong issue. The two countries shared common agreement to deport the Hmong in Thailand to Laos, he said.

Earlier AFP reported that police arrested nine people, including Gen Vang Pao, on charged with plotting to use rifles and rockets to overthrow the communist government in the southeast Asian nation of Laos, a prosecutor in California said Monday.

The suspects, mostly members of the Hmong ethnic group, were seized after US authorities "interrupted a plot to overthrow the government of Laos by force and violence," the public prosecutor in the state capital Sacramento said in a statement.

The "Hmong insurgency planned to use AK-47 automatic rifles, Stinger missiles, LAW rockets, anti-tank rockets and other arms and munitions to topple (the) Lao government and reduce government buildings in Vientiane to rubble," it said.

Targets allegedly discussed by the plotters included the Royal Palace in the Laotian capital.

Hundreds of federal agents swooped on the suspects in pre-dawn raids across California.

Among the nine was Harrison Jack, a retired officer of the US Army.

The nine, most aged in their fifties and sixties, were heard during the covert investigation discussing plans to buy hundreds of rifles, rockets, mines, grenades and surface-to-air missiles and ship them to Laos via Thailand.

A 10th person was arrested but not yet charged.

Harrison, 60, is a graduate of the prestigious West Point US military academy, the prosecutor said. Local media said Harrison served in the Vietnam War.

The arrests followed a six-month investigation by police and anti-terrorism authorities dubbed "Operation Tarnished Eagle."

Rights groups have accused Laos authorities of persecuting the Hmong hill tribe groups, former resistance fighters opposed to the state's communist regime.

The scattered groups of Hmong in Laos are remnants and descendants of former fighters of a CIA-funded "secret army" who from the early 1960s fought communist Pathet Lao forces when the war spilled over from neighboring Vietnam.

"Fortunately, we were able to disrupt their activities before their plot evolved into a coup against a country with which the United States is at peace," said one of the federal police officials who headed the probe, Michael Sullivan.

"These defendants posed a substantial threat to public safety abroad."

They each face life imprisonment if convicted.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee/The Nation

Agence France Presse