Two Hmong Arrested In Suspicion Of Spying

[george]

Two Hmong arrested in suspicion of spying

PHETCHABUN: -- Two Hmong ethnic minorities from Laos were arrested Wednesday while filming Hmong refugees shelter at Phetchabun's Ban Huay Namkhao.

Lee Tu, 35 from Lao northern province of Xiang Khuang and Loh Jer, 40 from Vientiane were now being detained in Lomsak district police station without charge as they have valid travelling document and entered the kingdom via proper channel, police said.

Military officers at Ban Huay Namkhao shelter nabbed the two in suspicion of spying on Hmong refugees at the camp.

Lee Tu denied the allegation saying that he and the other Hmong fellow entered Thailand to search for his wife who has been detained in Lomsak for nearly a year for the charge of illegal entry.

"I have already seen my wife at Lomsak police station and intend to take her back home but it would take time as she is under detention," he told reporters.

While waiting for his wife, Lee Tu and Loh Jer visited Ban Huay Namkhao to see the shelter and visit their Hmong fellows who fled from Laos.

Police said the two would be released soon unless the military could prove they are security threat and have spied on the refugee camp.

Lee Tu's wife known as Yong would be also freed if he could prove she is really the wife and willing to return home.

Ban Huay Namkhao is a shelter of some 7,000 Hmong who claimed they were associates of the United States Central Intelligence Agency's secret war before the fall of Vientiane in 1975. They fled from political suppression in Laos.

-- The Nation 2006-11-15