Thailand Starts Repatriating Hmong People

[moe666]

When these people come to the US there are a few private agencies that help them for about 6 months. There are major resettlement problems, a lot of these people have been resettled in the northern US, about as different from Laos as you can find, most have no usuable skills that tranlates in the US.

Many of the Laotians I know are of chinese ethnic background and were wealty in Laos and have been sucessful in their resettlement. A woman I know was watching a Thai TV station and her fathers mug shot appeared and he is still wanted by the Laotian Government, he was an officer in the Lao army before take over by the communist, he has been safe in the US since the 80's

[junglist]

Without the help of these people Thailand would be called The Peoples Republic of Thailand. It is a sad way to treat the people how helped keep Communism out your country.

Why move them now? More to this story I bet then meets the eye. Some one is getting rich from this.

[DegenFarang]

"Washington has said it has no plans to resettle more of them in the U.S."

I think stating that was political or not wanting to advertise their willingness to repatriate people to the US - there was a high ranking US official in Thailand this past week trying to work with the Thai government to allow the US to assist in assessing whether these people were eligible for asylum in other countries, though the US was not stated as one of those countries I think we can read between the lines there. Another possibility is that the official US position is no more refugee's, with exceptions being made in extreme circumstances - and the possibility of a huge group of them being forcefully repatriated to Laos and facing possible persecution should certainly qualify as an exception.

[gotlost]

Yesterday on Highway 12 north of Phetchabun my wife an I witnessed 4 military convoys of approximately 30 trucks (120 trucks) in each unit transporting women and children heading east. You could see some Red Cross observers with them and the solders that we saw in the back of the trucks had rifles not buttons.

[reallyok]

Yesterday on Highway 12 north of Phetchabun my wife an I witnessed 4 military convoys of approximately 30 trucks (120 trucks) in each unit transporting women and children heading east. You could see some Red Cross observers with them and the solders that we saw in the back of the trucks had rifles not buttons.

Does anybody know the name of the Thai government official who inspected and approved the final reception arrangements for the Hmong victims when they arrive at their destination in Laos.

Surely no humane caring government would just pack them in trucks and ship them off, Hitler used to do that !

[geriatrickid]

The images of the crying children combined with Mr. Abhisit's dismissal of the multiple UN, EU &USA requests to respect the conventions and protocols on refugees just sealed Mr. Abhisit's fate. When the time comes for him to obtain international support, and it will come, he will not get it. Instead, the images of the crying kids will be shown. Very bad political decision that will cost Thailand dearly when it makes requests for aid and support.

[junglist]

The sadness grows.

[seanocasey]

are we all to busy drinking to see or even understand. I'm sickened

The Karen, Mien, Hmong, Lahu, Akha and Lisu... A 2,000 Year Journey to the Thai Payap.

Hilltribe People can trace their origin from the southern Sino-Tibetan geographical area. Though all have legends that speak of their particular tribe as being the "original people" of this area, it is more practical to think of them as part of a continuing exodus of ancient peoples out of China as far back as 2,000 years.

Their history is shrouded in myth and legend; a beginning as hazy and dim as the early morning mist that cloaks their valleys. Depending on the source of the information, most of the Hilltribesmen came from the interior of southern China. These semi-nomadic peoples moved slowly, driven by their need for new land to replace that exhausted by their slash and burn farming techniques. They eventually arrived on the northern borderlands of Thailand, called the Payap.

The gentle tribal people that occupy the lush hillsides and verdant valleys of the Payap, a section now called the Golden Triangle, have come from the south-west and south-central areas of China. All, that is, except the Karen: their origin remains one of conjecture and debate. All of the Hilltribes retain various aspects of their Chinese cultural heritage however the Karen seem to have a cultural background in common with the people of Tibet.

For the most part tribes still remain concentrated on the northern borders of Thailand but with the passage of time increased internal migration has gone as far south as Bangkok. It is now impossible to outline distinct areas of a particular tribe's district. Some places you may find all six major Hilltribes living on the same mountain side or valley.

There is a cultural tendency for the earliest tribes, like the Karen, to have ventured into Siam and lowland valleys. Other tribes, like the Hmong, moved into the more mountainous regions of the borderlands of the Payap. All of the Hilltribes have traveled vast distances to find more areas suitable for their swidden-fields (slash & burn farming techniques). These swiddens can supply enough fertile growing seasons for only a few years before villages have to move on. The Thai government is attempting to change this pattern with crop rotation.

Now living in close approximation to their Thai neighbors, the Hilltribes are in danger of being completely assimilated into the general culture; losing their heritage, self-identity and expressive artifacts, so long a part of their life. Another generation will likely see most of the Hilltribe culture vanish, like most ancient peoples, and their rich legacy a matter of history.

The Mien (Yao)

* TRADITIONAL LOCATION(S): Northeastern Borderlands, some villages located south to Nann, west to Chiangrai

* Major Tribal Divisions: Only clan names within the villages; clan membership carried by the male line only

* POPULATION: (1992) est. Approx. 40,000 settled in villages not counting refugee camps on the borders

* LANGUAGE(S): Miao-Yao, related to the Sino-Tibetan with many words coming from Chinese

* FAMILY GROUP: Huge Extended Family; not unusual for 20 or more members per household.

* RELIGION: Interrelated system of Spirits and Taoist teachings (from China).

* VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS: Mid-slope areas, near water source. Ill defined village areas, no gates.

HISTORY:

The Mien likely originated from southern China about 2,000 years ago via Hainan, Guangxi and adjoining provinces. They were referred to by the Chinese as "barbarians", which is reflected in their name. These tribal peoples are the only ones to have a written language, Chinese. In recent years, both a Romanized and Thai-based script have been added by Western missionaries.

These peoples have a series of ancient writings which organize their day to day living and include items such as worship and medicine. A series of pamphlets have been devised over the centuries to help their groups become accustomed to their environment and the people they have lived beside.

More is known and understood of the Mien because of their written language, hence their history is more readably available to both scholars and students of Asian Culture. From such rich chronicles we have been able to save the legend of the Mien's beginnings.

The Emperor Pien Hung of China, was attacked by the very powerful Emperor Kao Want and faced defeat. The dog, Phan Hu, was able to get through the lines, kill the aggressor, and bring Kao Wang's head back to the Emperor Pien Hung. Phan Hu was rewarded with one of Pien Hung's daughters as a wife, whom he took up to the mountains to live with him. They produced 12 children, six boys and six girls, from whom sprung the 12 clans of the Mien as we know them today. Or so the legend goes.

THE LAHU (Mussur)

* TRADITIONAL LOCATION(S): Central Highlands of the Payap

* MAJOR TRIBAL DIVISIONS: Black Lahu (77%) and the Yellow Lahu (23%) or the Mussur Daeng and Mussur Kwi

* POPULATION: (1992) est. approx. 40,000 in Thailand and 300,000 in China, Burma and Laos

* LANGUAGE(S): Yi branch of Tibeto-Burman family; Lahu Na (dominant) & Lahu Shi (occasionally).

* FAMILY GROUP: Extended family unit with an emphasis on the grandparents sharing raising of children

* RELIGION: Spirit worship with heavy overtones of Christianity in nearly all villages

* VILLAGE SETTLEMENTS: Prefer living above 1200 meters but many have now moved to lowland areas.

HISTORY:

Like most Hilltribes, the Lahu have their origin in southwestern China. In about 1830 there were already some Lahu villages located in the Kengtung State of Burma. By 1870 the Lahu had moved across the northern Burmese border in fear of their lives from the government of Burma. They moved into the northern highlands and valleys of Siam. By the 20th century Lahu villages were discovered as far south as Fang, just 70km north of Chiangmai.

Burma has long been the oppressor of Hilltribe people, and it is not only the Lahu who have experienced their wrath. In order to make these independent peoples succumb to a despotic rule, many Hilltribe people have been killed.

The Lahu have always referred to themselves as the "people of Blessing". That is, they have always thought that the blessings of health, sufficient food to eat and security for their families were the greatest gifts that their Creator could bestow. They have used the term, Boon (or merit) to denote the form in which this Blessing is given. Lahu often refer to themselves as Bon Yu or the "children of the Blessing."

The Lahu have now embraced many of the ways of missionary peoples that have lived among them since the end of World War Two. It is a fact of social change that in the near future many of the customs of the old Lahu will have given way to the "consumer passion" that is now evident in Southeast Asia. Radio, television and print media are fast altering this tribal peoples.

[buddy]

seanocasey,

Very informative, Do you know where can I gleen more knowledge about these peoples from the internet?

I had an unpleasant experience in Bangkok once where a Falang evengelical Christian missionary blatantly lied to me (and others) for months about his real purpose in Thailand, told us and kept up the pretence that he was a lawyer.

He was only exposed by the fact that his Falang girlfriend visited him when taking a break teaching the Gospel in Cambodia?

They were then going up north together to the Chang Rai area to err "work" with the hill tribes.

Quality people huh?

Why cant these Monothiestic Religions just leave people be?

[churchill]

The Hmong and the CIA

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8...1950590,00.html

[britadders28]

Yesterday on Highway 12 north of Phetchabun my wife an I witnessed 4 military convoys of approximately 30 trucks (120 trucks) in each unit transporting women and children heading east. You could see some Red Cross observers with them and the solders that we saw in the back of the trucks had rifles not buttons.

Does anybody know the name of the Thai government official who inspected and approved the final reception arrangements for the Hmong victims when they arrive at their destination in Laos.

Surely no humane caring government would just pack them in trucks and ship them off, Hitler used to do that !

Hitler invented the smoking ban too!! how times change hey

[sharecropper]

Yesterday on Highway 12 north of Phetchabun my wife an I witnessed 4 military convoys of approximately 30 trucks (120 trucks) in each unit transporting women and children heading east. You could see some Red Cross observers with them and the solders that we saw in the back of the trucks had rifles not buttons.

Does anybody know the name of the Thai government official who inspected and approved the final reception arrangements for the Hmong victims when they arrive at their destination in Laos.

Surely no humane caring government would just pack them in trucks and ship them off, Hitler used to do that !

I just read that toothless fool Sec Gen Ban Ki-Moon wants access to he refugees and the UN want to see details of the (made up) assurances Laos gave to Thailand about their safety.

Ironically the Americans wanted a wishy-washy lily-livered wimp as the new Secretary General after the more robust Kofi Annan, who oppsed the illegal war in Iraq. With Ban KM the world has got a really bad deal, as has anyone who needs UN assistance.

[Jai Dee]

THAILAND: With Hmong Expulsion, Army Asserts Foreign Policy Role

Analysis by Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Jan 6 (IPS) - The recent deportation of Hmong asylum seekers to Laos has shown that Thailand’s powerful military remains the dominant player in shaping the relationship between this South-east Asian kingdom and its immediate neighbours.

Thai analysts are hardly surprised, given the long history of the Thai army calling the shots to determine Bangkok’s foreign policy with neighbouring Laos, Cambodia, Burma and Malaysia. It is rooted in military thinking that was dominant during the Cold War, when Thailand was a strong ally of the United States government’s war in Indo-China.

"The army has always sought to be in charge of Thailand’s foreign policy with regards to its immediate neighbours," said Sunai Phasuk, Thailand researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), the New York-based global rights lobby. "The treatment of the Hmong reflects this. It carries a lot of Cold War baggage to some extent."

Such power enables the Thai military to "verify who can stay and who cannot stay in the country," Sunai told IPS. "The deportation of the Hmong reveals the new relationship between the Thai army and the Laotian government."

In fact, the operation that saw more than 4,000 Hmong men, women and children deported on Dec. 28 last year had all the flair of a military operation. An estimated 5,000-strong Thai force, armed with batons and shields, ensured that all the members of this vulnerable ethnic minority were transported in a convoy of some 100 military trucks and buses to Laos.

A Thai military officer saw the issue in a different light. It was a "voluntary" effort by the Hmong to go home, Thai Armed Forces Headquarters’ deputy chief of joint staff, Gen. Worapong Sanganetra, was quoted as having told the local media.

Thailand’s civilian government has echoed similar sentiments in statements that also sought to characterise the Hmong as "illegal migrants," not as a group that had fled their homeland in search of political asylum.

"Thai authorities managed the safe and orderly return of some 4,300 Laotian Hmong illegal migrants in the shelter at Huay Nam Khao in Petchaboon Province and in the Immigration Detention Centre in Nong Khai Province to the Lao People’s Democratic Republic in accordance with the Thai Immigration Act," stated the Thai foreign ministry.

The deported Hmong belong to a minority ethnic tribe living in the mountains of northern and central Laos. Their fear of persecution at home by the authorities of Laos, a communist-ruled country, stemmed from the Hmong’s ties with the U.S. government’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). They fought alongside Washington’s spy agency to stop Laotian communist guerrillas taking power in a clandestine war from 1961 to 1975.

At the time of the CIA ‘secret war’ in Laos, the Thai military was very much on the side of the Hmong fighters and the CIA’s operatives. Such ties continued even after the communists triumphed in Laos – becoming a bone of contention between Vientiane and Bangkok.

September 2007 marked a decisive end to this Cold War legacy and gave rise to a new relationship that the Thai military wanted to cultivate with Laos. Gen. Surayud Chulanont, the prime minister at the time, headed a military government that had come to power following a September 2006 coupd’etat that overthrew a popularly elected administration.

A bilateral agreement signed in September 2007 between Laos and Thailand sought to classify the Hmong who had fled Laos for safety to Thailand as "illegal immigrants" and threatened them with deportation. It consequently ruled out a role for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which had been involved in aiding, till then, some 300,000 Hmong who had sought refuge in Thailand since the end of the Indo-China conflict in the mid-1970s and subsequently resettled in the United States.

Thai journalists who had reported about the Hmong fleeing persecution in Laos had to capitulate to the new regimen. "The military has slapped stiff restrictions on news coverage" of the Hmong asylum seekers, wrote senior journalist Supalak Ganjanakhundee at the time.

"The restrictions include no reporting of events or incidents that may shed bad light on Thailand or its officials or anything that may encourage Hmong to enter this country."

"We had to ask permission from the military after these new guidelines to cover the Hmong," Supalak, who writes for ‘The Nation’, an English-language daily, said in an interview with IPS. "I was surprised by this because before we had easy access to the Hmong refugee camps. Many of my requests were rejected."

The media blackout, which remained in force till the latest deportation, confirmed that the military, rather than the civilian government, was in charge of the Hmong policy, added the journalist of over 20 years, who has covered regional issues. "It was the National Security Council and later ISOC (Internal Security Operations Command), and not the ministry of foreign affairs, that had a greater say in the Hmong case."

Yet that is to be expected in Thailand’s current political context, where the coalition government headed by Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was formed a year ago with political deals shaped by the military. "It shows that Abhisit is beholden to the military on certain policy issues," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University. "The civilian government and the military have cooperated in dealing with the Hmong."

Such cooperation has marked a shift from foreign policy being a "contested area" between the military and civilian governments since the early 1990s, when Thailand began moving away from military regimes to civilian administrations, Thitinan explained.

"The post-Cold War era saw an uneasy relationship between the military and civilian governments on foreign policy as the country became more democratic. The military’s role had begun to diminish till the 2006 coup."

The military has been "emboldened" since then, he added. "Yet that exposes the Abhisit government, which is trying to build an image of respecting human rights and international law."

Source: IPS - 2010-01-06

[toptuan]

Hmong are a bright and energetic people. Why they are an international pariah remains a mystery to me. Yes, they have added to the welfare rolls in the United States, but they have also added to the political and economic vibrancy of my state (California). They are more an addition, rather than a subtraction, to the welfare of any state. My wish is that Thailand takes the lead in offering these beset-upon and energetic people an opportunity to add to the wonderful mix that is Thailand.

Hear hear! Well-said. I worked closely with Hmong in my state, and they brought a wonderful and rich mix to our community. I taught them English and they were my best students (among Japanese, Chinese, Mexican, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai). Hard workers and disciplined students. It's been so sad to see them imprisoned in the concentration camps of N. Thailand for these many years. Many of my students came from this specific camp and the conditions are much worse from an inside perspective than what the world sees/knows. Thailand continues to slide down the scale of human rights--hence their keeping UN and human rights groups at a distance where fact-finding is hindered concerning this forced expulsion.

[Davidusaf99]

I do hope that the hmong can be treated humanly in Laos. Its a sad situation, and i know its much more complicated than the news stories I've been reading imply. Hope for the best, fear for the worst. Go with God.

[churchill]

Fallen pawns in US's strategic game

By Brian McCartan

CHIANG MAI - Thailand's recent decision to send back more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong refugees to neighboring Laos has raised hackles with human-rights groups and stoked tensions with the United States and United Nations. The forced repatriation marks a controversial closure to the US Central Intelligence Agency's Vietnam War era support for the rebel Hmong, who continue in small numbers to resist the communist-run Lao government.

The Hmong have been a sticking point in normalizing Thai-Laos bilateral relations, which have gradually improved since the end of the Cold War and a brief border war fought in 1987-1988. For Thailand, the repatriation removes a potentially destabilizing factor in its continued internal political battle between the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and supporters of ousted former

premier, Thaksin Shinawatra. Appeals to Thai nationalism have already inflamed a row with neighboring Cambodia, which Thaksin's operatives have exploited to their political advantage.

At the same time, the move seemingly puts Thailand at odds with the US, though Washington may allow the issue to fade into the background as it bids, in its campaign to counterbalance China's growing influence in the region, to improve relations with Laos. The US has made overtures on several fronts to woo the government in Vientiane, including a decision in June to remove the country from a trade blacklist drawn up against communist nations.

On December 28, the Thai military, under the command of 3rd Army chief Lieutenant General Thongsak Apirakyothin, deported 4,371 ethnic Hmong from Huay Nam Khao camp in northern Petchabun province, where many had lived since 2004. About 5,000 officials, civil volunteers and soldiers carrying shields and batons rounded up the camp's residents and sent them across the border, where they were taken to the central Lao province of Bolikhamsai.

Prior to the operation, mobile phone signals in the area were cut and journalists and non-governmental organization workers were denied entry to the camp. Another 158 ethnic Hmong who had been held since December 2006 at a Thai immigration detention center situated at the border province of Nong Khai were deported later the same day. The group had earlier been recognized by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as "persons of concern" due to fears of government reprisals for their past involvement with the Hmong insurgency.

The detainees were the subject of several critical reports by human-rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, which detailed the abysmal conditions of their detention. The group was allegedly held in two cramped cells with poor sanitation and little access to sunlight, clean clothing or mosquito nets. They suggested the poor conditions were a cynical attempt to coerce the group to return voluntarily to Laos.

There are also as-yet unconfirmed reports that suggest an additional 450 Hmong living in Thailand's Lopburi and Bangkok provinces will be deported to Laos later this week. Between 250 and 300 of that group have been designated by the UNHCR as "persons of concern". The expulsion, observers believe, will be done on the quiet, since the Lao government announced on January 4 that it considered the repatriation of Hmong to be complete.

continued .. http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/LA08Ae01.html