Opinion Editorals / Columns

Laos must abide by European resolution

By Philip Smith

 The Nation, Bangkok, Thailand, February 15, 2013 (Opinion Editorial)

We are encouraged that the terrible plight of Sombath, who [it is alleged] was extrajudicially abducted and "disappeared" in December, was discussed at the highest levels of a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg on February 7. The result was the unanimous and historic passage by the parliament...

• Lao govt must release political prisoners

• By Philip Smith,
• The Nation, Bangkok, Thailand, March 18, 2011

The Centre for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) and a coalition of Lao and Hmong NGOs have issued an international appeal urging Laos to release political and religious dissidents, and jailed Americans, prior to the beginning of the ninth Lao Communist Party congress in the coming days.

 The appeal also requests that the Lao government halt illegal logging by Vietnamese military companies in Laos and release nearly 8,000 Hmong political refugees and asylum-seekers forcibly repatriated from Thailand to Laos in December of 2009.The Lao Communist Party is losing more credibility with the Lao..

A new era of abuse in Southeast Asia

By Philip Smith

June 6, 2011, Minneapolis Star Tribune

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/124518218.html

Religious persecution and human- rights violations continue for many in Southeast Asia, especially the ethnic Hmong minority of Vietnam and Laos, who are now suffering from egregious abuses.

After deploying the military and sealing off the area to journalists last month, Vietnam People's Army (VPA) special forces have pursued ethnic Hmong involved in mass protests.

 Hmong demonstrators, including many honoring the beatification of Pope John Paul II last month in Vietnam's largest Catholic diocese, Hung Hoa, have fled a violent army crackdown that continues in northeastern Vietnam's Dien Bien Province, along the border with Laos.

Hmong-Americans, and other Southeast Asians in the Twin Cities, are concerned about recent developments and fear for their families overseas who are facing greater  religious persecution.

Contrary to some reports, many of the Hmong now facing persecution are Catholics, Protestants or Animist believers who gathered to appeal to Hanoi for land reform, religious freedom, human rights and an end to illegal logging by VPA-owned companies.

One overlooked factor, however, that brought many of the Hmong together and helped spark the mass protests was the beatification of the late Pope John Paul II in Rome on May 1, the day the Hmong gathered in full force in Dien Bien province.

The peaceful mass gathering involved 8,500 ethnic Viet-Hmong protestors. It is the same area where French forces suffered defeat at
the hands of the Viet Minh guerrillas in May 1954, at Dien Bien Phu.

The Hmong in Vietnam and Laos have often resisted the Communist Party's restrictions on human rights, religious freedom and civil
liberties. Pope John Paul II inspired many in The recent Hmong protests continued for nearly a week until VPA soldiers and police were finally ordered in to crackdown on the outpouring of religious and political dissent. (For The Full Text of This Piece Visit the Star Tribune at http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/124518218.html

Guest column: U.S. policy failure had hand in Hmong refugee crisis

GUEST COLUMN:  US POLICY FAILURE HAD HAND IN HMONG REFUGEE CRISIS

BY PHILIP SMITH

Green Bay Press-Gazette, January 15, 2010

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com

Hmong-Americans in Green Bay are suffering because of the recent mass forced return of their loved ones from refugee camps in Thailand back to Laos over the holidays. Tragically, with the help of Washington bureaucrats, America once again has helped betray many of its former Hmong allies who served with U.S. clandestine and military forces during the Vietnam War.

More than 4,700 Hmong were forced by the Thai Army back to Laos, where they had fled political and religious persecution. Journalists from "The Age" in Australia have now discovered that many Hmong returnees are being held in secret razor-wire ringed camps far from the "Potemkin Village" model, propaganda camps Laos shows to foreign visitors.

Key U.S. diplomats have chosen to ignore overwhelming evidence of human rights abuses against the Hmong people, including horrific attacks by the Lao military on civilians and dissidents, and instead stressed promoting free trade with the one-party, communist regime in Laos. Tragically, these officials, including the current U.S. ambassador to Laos, Ravic Huso, helped facilitate the forced repatriation policy, despite opposition by key members of Congress as well as human rights and refugee organizations.

Huso has encouraged the return of Hmong refugees from Thailand to Laos despite concerns raised by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Doctors Without Borders (MSF). He has repeatedly ignored human rights violations against the Hmong in Laos and returnees from Thailand, who have disappeared or have been imprisoned, tortured or killed at the hands of Lao military forces in recent years.

After repeated State Department stonewalling and mixed messages on this plight of the Hmong refugees, nine senators including U.S. Sens. Russell Feingold, D-Middleton, Herb Kohl, D-Milwaukee, and Richard Lugar, R-Ind., sent a letter on Dec. 17 directly to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit urging him to halt the forced return of the Hmong to Laos.

On Christmas Eve, the State Department finally issued a long-overdue public statement urging Thailand to cease the forced return of the Hmong. It lacked teeth. The Thai Army and Prime Minister Abhisit ignored the State Department appeal. It was too little, too late.

Clearly, the State Department's public message to Tha iland should have been articulated at a higher level, much sooner, to seek to reverse this policy failure and help save the Hmong from forced repatriation to Laos.

Philip Smith is executive director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. E-mail info@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org.