Hmong move 'relief and headache'

The relocation will be a long one for many of the 7,000-plus Hmong. Thailand and Laos can repatriate about 2,000 only each year.

Thai-born Lao living at Ban Huay Nam Khao said the relocation was "a big relief" because it freed up room in the village.

Nevertheless, they are angered the refugees have been shifted to an area where they feed they animals. "This is a big headache," a village leader said.

"It's good they're leaving but it's bad they're now living in public and in a space where we feed our animals," explained village head Bee Sakcharoenchaikul.

State officials have allocated 1,500 rai for accommodation and cultivation for the 7,653 Laos-born Hmong.

The new site sports rows of bamboo huts surrounded by barbed wire for security.

Many of the Laos-born Hmong are happy because their huts are larger than before - they realise they may be there for years.

Many living in the camp claim they fought with the United States Central Intel-ligence Agency against the Communist Pathet Lao before the fall of Vientiane in 1975. They fled alleged oppression.

Thailand regards these refugees as illegal or economic migrants. Laos, too, rejects claims of persecution and is working with Thailand to take them back.

The chance of these people being accepted by a third country is slim. Most countries accept dozens of re-fugees only, not thousands.

Repatriation is a long and involved process as both countries screen each refugee for places of birth, explained Lao Foreign Ministry spokes-man Yong Chanthalangsy.

"Laos can take a maximum of 200 people each trip and there are fewer than 10 trips a year," he said. He, too, agreed with the relocation to a new site in Thailand because of the time it would take to process all the Hmong.

"Basically, we send them back to their original homes. But, if any has sold their property, the government will allocate space for them," Yong added in an interview in Laos.

The Lao government is constructing a village somewhere between Vang Vieng and Kasy for some 100 Hmong households, he said.

Supalak Ganjanahundee

The Nation