AP Reports on Hmong, Sort of

Last Sunday, I wrote “Hmong Need AP” as Google News didn’t show any Associated Press coverage of the horrible persecution, torture and murder by the Laotian government of our Hmong allies in Laos during the Vietnam war. Nor, has there been reporting of the cooperation among Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia to persecute the hills peoples, and to line the rulers' pockets from raping their lands.

I have no reason to believe anyone at the AP acted on my post, and I do thank them if they did, but at least AP did have a story yesterday, although the AP skipped the gory details of how the Lao military treats the Hmong except to refer to Amnesty International’s condemnation, and skips the economic motivations for persecuting the hills peoples. The Hmong still need AP's help, with more depth reporting.

More than 400 members of the Hmong hill tribe minority who have been on the run for decades from the communist government of Laos surrendered to the authorities there on Wednesday, supporters of the group said….

Fifty Lao government soldiers showed up a couple of hours after the group arrived and began interviewing and registering those who surrendered, in preparation for resettling them, the commission said. At the same time, the village chief served them a meal of rice and pig.

The mood turned cooler as soldiers separated the Hmong from the villagers and refused to say to where they would be moved, according to the latest information the commission received….

Thousands more Hmong are believed to have remained in the jungle, and unconfirmed reports say they continue to face attacks by the government.

The two founders of the Fact Finding Commission, Ed and Georgie Szendrey of Oroville, Calif., witnessed a similar surrender in June last year of about 170 people, also from Moua Tua Ter's group.

That was also accomplished peacefully, and the returnees resettled. However, independent aid agencies and foreign diplomats were not allowed access to that group, and the Szendreys said that many fled to Thailand afterward because of poor living conditions….

Several highly critical reports by Amnesty International accused the Lao government of gross human rights violations in persecuting the Hmong.

The Lao government denies any human rights violation and usually labels the armed Hmong groups as "bandits."