Hmong in Laos mercilessly hunted

The cries for help reaching the Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) from Laos are getting ever more desperate. Laotian and Vietnamese troops in the prohibited area Haysomboun are hunting members of the Hmong, who are hiding in the forests. In recent months the violence has increased dramatically. Refugees who could escape to Thailand reported to the GfbV of the violations of human rights, which are unbelievably cruel and which are not far short of genocide. The Hmong groups, consisting for the most part of half-starved women and children, are first pinpointed by fighter aircraft and helicopters and then bombed with chemical warfare agents or grenades. Those who fall into the hands of the advancing ground-troops are cruelly toprtured, mutilated, raped and murdered. Not even to babies is any mercy shown. On 6th April 2006 near the town of Vana Vieng at least 26 women and children were murdered. Twelve children were below the age of ten.

Humanitarian catastrophe in the rain forest

The Hmong could neither plant food nor make fire for fear of being detected by the soldiers. M;ost of them have for years now been eating nothing but roots and plants. Many die of starvation, exhaustion, sickness or because injuries cannot be attended to. "We saw old people being carried on the backs of younger ones, we saw children with a haggard appearance, all in rags, many were dirty. "I have never seen anything so sad in my life”, reported a representative of the UN, who have not been allowed to take even food for the Hmong.

"All we want is to survive!”

For the Laotian government the Hmong hiding in the woods are rebels. From 1960 until 1975 many Hmong were recruited by the CIA and used in the fight against the Communist Pathet Lao. Many people in Laos have not forgiven them this to the present day. About 30,000 Hmong were killed at that time and about 300,000 fled to the USA. Some 20,000 Hmong still remain in hiding in the rain forest. Their only aim is to escape the murderous violence of the soldiers and survive. Most groups are made up of relatives of the second or third generation of the former fighters or of simple farmers, who are suspected by the military of supporting groups in hiding. To the present day the government of Laos denies any violations of human rights against the Hmong, but it also refuses the UN and journalists access to the crisis area. Statements collected by the GfbV and shocking film reports which could be smuggled out of the jungle make it quite clear: the Laotian government has committed the worst crimes and the threatened Hmong are in need of urgent help! Many refugees told the GfbV of the use of chemical weapons, which cause diarrhoea, stomach-ache and blindness. Some victims swell up monstrously and die a slow, very painful death. Women suffer most of all Hmong women and children wandering through the jungle in search of food and water are constantly being seized, raped and murdered. Many newborn children die because their half-starved mothers do not have enough mild for them. This has been reported by many refugee women, who have been in tears during the GfbV interview.

Flight to Thailand

Thousands of Hmong have managed to escape to neighbouring Thailand. There they are held as "illegal immigrants” in over-filled refugee camps or arrest centres and are threatened with being deported to Laos, where prison and torture are waiting for them. So 26 Hmong refugees, who were deported in December 2005 to Laos, are still in custody – 20 of them being girls aged 12 to 16, who according to the reports have been severely mishandled and raped. 29 Hmong refugees – mostly children – had been held in the police-station of Phetchabun for three months under inhuman conditions when our representative, Rebecca Sommer, visited them in August 2006. She alarmed the UN and the press and got help on the way.

Statement of a witness, TZENG LOR

"I was born while my family was hiding in the jungle. When I was still very small the Pathet Lao killed my father. ...When I was five years old my mother died of starvation and I was an orphan. I lived with my uncle Yia Vue in the jungle. The Laotian military hunted and killed our people like animals. We were so afraid. We will never go back. My mother and father never did anything wrong. They were just simple farmers and brought up their children. My parents never went to school, they worked hard and led a simple farming life. When the military fired at our village they all fled into the jungle. We are human beings, why do they make us suffer so much, why are we being killed and tortured? Please tell the people who make the decisions that we are starving, here in the refugee camp.” Statement of a witness, Wameng Thao "About the chemical weapons which they have sprayed on us, and their victims. The children suffered most. Two were my own. They are both dead. Pheng died hier in the refugee camp as a result of the chemicals, there are witnesses of that. My first child died in the jungleof Laos (...) My parents are still living in the jungle. (...) Please speak about it and help to save our lives!”

The Hmong

In the region where four countries meet – Thailand, Laos,

Vietnam and China – the Hmong are one of the largest indigenous peoples. There are nine million of them in China. There they are called Miao. In Laos with about 424,000 members they make up about eight percent of the 5.3 million citizens. While the Hmong in the rain forest are being hunted by the military other members of this people complain of massive discrimination. Thousands have been forcibly resettled.

What is the GfbV doing for the Hmong?

Our representative, Rebecca Sommer, visited the Hmong refugee camp in Thailand, interviewing 1,100 refugees (video and written interviews). She made an extensive documentation of the violations of human rights, took pictures and wrote on the basis of these depositions a dramatic report, which we have presented to the relevant offices of the United Nations and numerous foreign governments and embassies. At a press conference in Bangkok, which raised considerable attention, and attended by United Nations representatives, she warned at the end of August 2006 of the threat of deportation of the Hmong refugees to Laos. Media from all over the world reported on the cry for help of the Hmong and the GfbV report. In many applications to the Human Rights Council of the United Nations, to the EU governments and to the German government we have called for more international pressure to end the severe violations of human rights against the Hmong. In the "Working Party for Indigenous Peoples” of the United Nations and in the UN Plenary Assembly Rebecca Sommer carried out tireless lobbying, in order to draw attention to the dramatic situation of the Hmong.

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