Hmong accuse Army of trying to starve them out of camp

 They said the Thai military, who oversee the camp, have blocked food supplies since Friday to leave them in starvation.

 A Thai military officer at Ban Huay Nam Khao camp denied authorities had blocked the food. The military had not intervened in food deliveries made by Medicine Sans Frontieres, a French NGO taking care of food and medical supplies for the Hmong, he said.

Each adult refugee receives six kilograms of rice per week and children get three km each per week.

 An aid worker said there was a problem during food delivery on Friday after the military wanted to count the population receiving the food. The Hmong was in panic and resisted the counting, with a few groups walking out, fearing the tally would be part of a repatriation process.

 However, as of Monday morning, the food delivery had resumed.

 To put more pressure on the Hmong, authorities had arrested a number of refugees at the request of Lao officials, said Hmong leader Lee Sue.

 "We will not return to face punishment in Laos. I will fight until the end of my life to resist the repatriation," he said in a phone interview.

 The military officer confirmed local police arrested 13 Hmong ethnics from the camp two weeks ago, but on charges of illegal gambling.

 The officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, dismissed the Hmong allegations of receiving orders from Laos to arrest the 13 Hmong.

 Lao Deputy chief of staff Brig-General Buaxieng Champaphan visited the Hmong at the camp last month and handed Thai authorities a list of 13 people whose families in Laos wanted them to return.

 "Yes, we have contacted all of them (on the list) to ask whether they want to rejoin their families in Laos, but they refused and we didn't force them," the Thai officer said in a phone interview.

 Neither Lee Sue nor the military officer could confirm whether the arrested 13 Hmong were the same people requested by Buaxieng.

 Lee Sue said Thailand should be grateful to the Hmong who helped in the fight against the Communist threat more than three decades ago, and should not force them back to Laos.

 Lee Sue urged the National Human Rights Commission to investigate the military's conduct in the camp.

 Thailand has sheltered more than 5,000 Hmong ethnics from Laos since late 2004. They claimed they were close allies of United States CIA secret fighters against the Communist Pathet Lao, before the fall of Vientiane in 1975.

 However, Thailand and Laos regarded the group as normal illegal migrants seeking better lives in Thailand, and perhaps third countries, with help from human traffickers. The two countries have agreed since 2007 to repatriate all of them to Laos.

A total of 2,057 Hmong have been repatriated since May 2007, leaving 5,474 remaining in Ban Huay Nam Khao.