Plight of Hmong in Washington Post Op-Ed

Outside a very few, my pleas for support of the persecuted, tortured, raped, murdered hills peoples of Vietnam and Laos seem to fall on deaf ears. Their lands have been confiscated and denuded of its valuable trees and resources, to enrich the “new class” of government and lackey businesspeople within and abroad.

The U.S. State Department removed Vietnam from its list of nations persecuting non-state religions, despite the reporting of virtually every world human rights organization. Pathetic is the paltry $1 million the State Department pledged (AP report; free registration) “to pay the short-term bills for people who take great risks by defending human rights ‘in countries where tyranny persists,’ the department said.”

Anna Husarska, senior policy adviser at the International Rescue Committee, gets her say in today’s Washington Post. The U.S. is denying entry to the U.S. by Hmong who fought with us during the Vietnam war who are able to flee from Laos, labeling them “terrorists,” in apparent cooperation with the Laotian designation of them as “bandits.”

The United States has not had much luck in winning hearts and minds as it wages what President Bush calls the "war on terror." But it could at least make an effort to stand by those whose hearts and minds it won decades ago in other conflicts. Instead, it is turning its back on them.

The anti-terrorist laws introduced after Sept. 11, 2001, are keeping thousands of bona fide refugees from places around the world out the United States, on the grounds that their past participation in armed insurgencies, even those friendly to (and sometimes supported by) the United States, makes them a threat to American security. Perhaps no group is more harmed by this legislation -- with its absurdly broad definition of "terrorist activity" -- than the Hmong, a hill tribe of northern Laos.

The U.S. can issue a waiver, and admit them. It should do no less. Why should anyone stand with the U.S. in desperate struggles when we don’t stand with them? $1 million doesn’t buy off our responsibilities.

FOR current events, see the Hmong International Human Rights Watch.

Here’s my two most recent posts on the Hmong: December 12 and December 14.