Page 2 of 2 Hmong still hinder Lao-Thai links By Brian McCartan
including as a source of hydropower produced electricity. Lao leaders, while
wary of the more freewheeling Thailand and its much larger population, see the
benefits from engaging with its neighbor and Thailand has recently become the
largest foreign investor in the country.
Bilateral trade reached US$800 million by 2007 and is expected to surpass
US$900 million once a new bridge connecting northern Thailand and Laos across
the Mekong River and a rail line connecting Vientiane with the Thai rail system
are completed. Already Thai goods make up 60% of the Lao market.
In addition to hydropower projects, Thailand has invested in Laos'
infrastructure, including an airport at Luang Nam Tha, several
bridges across the Mekong and the Route 3 road project linking Thailand and
China across northwestern Laos. Both countries are involved in the Asian
Development Bank's Greater Mekong Subregion plan which aims to connect China,
Laos, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam through road networks and more
efficient trade and immigration processes.
However, the Hmong remain a major diplomatic sticking point in the burgeoning
economic relationship. In the 1970s and 80s, Laos accused Thailand of allowing
refugee camps along their shared border to be used as bases for a Hmong
resistance movement that carried out guerrilla attacks in Laos. After initially
allowing the Hmong resistance movement to operate in its territory, Thailand
eventually cracked down.
The refugee camps were finally closed down in the late 1990s, with the final
remaining 15,000 Hmong refugees at Wat Tham Krabok granted resettlement in the
United States in 2003. Laos and Thailand both hoped that resettlement was the
end of the problem. In 2004 and 2005, however, several thousand more Hmong fled
from inside Laos to Thailand's northern Chiang Rai and Petchabun provinces.
The Thai and Lao governments claim this new wave of Hmong are illegal economic
migrants seeking work in more prosperous Thailand. The refugees claim they are
fleeing continued persecution at the hands of the Lao government. While
undoubtedly there are some who sought a better life in Thailand, or even
America if resettled to a third country, there were many others who bear the
scars of bullet and shrapnel wounds to back up their stories of persecution.
Thailand has all but buried its involvement in the US's "secret war" and few
Thais are even aware that some 30,000 Thais fought in Laos alongside the Hmong
and their CIA advisors. Although Hmong guerrillas were already fighting the
communists, it was the CIA, through the Thai Border Police's Police Aerial
Reinforcement Unit (PARU), that trained the Hmong both in Laos and at Thai
bases in Hua Hin, Pitsanulok and Lopburi beginning in 1961.
Fearful that a communist regime could emerge on its doorstep and might increase
support for its own insurgency problem with the Communist Party of Thailand,
the Thai government agreed in 1971 to provide "volunteers" to fight in Laos.
Known as Task Force 333, the Thais were headquartered at Udon Thani airbase.
Several Thai military officers who served in Laos went on to distinguished
careers, including privy councilor General Pichet Kullawanich and Air Chief
Marshall Kant Phimarnthip. People's Alliance for Democracy protest leader,
Major General Chamlong Srimuang, served as a communications officer in Laos.
According to a group of Thai veterans of the Lao conflict known as Unknown
Warrior 333, official records state that 1,944 Thais were killed in combat,
1,047 were wounded and 538 remain missing in action. According to one source
close to the Lao government, the Thai military put out feelers in 2008 for
information on their MIAs.
Open-book abuse
Laos, especially, would like to close the book on the Hmong situation before it
hosts the 2009 Southeast Asia Games in Vientiane this December. But the mere
fact that there are Lao citizens in Thailand claiming to seek political asylum
casts doubt on the on the one-party state's human-rights credentials.
It also gives credence to claims by Hmong groups of ongoing persecution. The
Center for Public Policy Analysis, an American group advocating for Hmong
rights, and the Hmong Human Rights Council Inc, both claimed the Lao army
launched military attacks against Hmong insurgents in Vientiane, Luang Prabang
and Xieng Khaung provinces in late December and early January that resulted in
the deaths and injury of several Hmong civilians.
If true, that could complicate Laos' bid to secure more foreign aid to steady
its teetering economy. The World Bank has estimated that Lao economic growth
may slow to 5% this year - the lowest level since 1998. A report by Bloomberg
last week highlighted the adverse effect that fast-declining global copper
prices have had on government revenues: an estimated 25% of government revenues
are derived from copper mining and prices have fallen by 61% since July.
Foreign investment in hydropower projects could also be in jeopardy due to the
global credit crunch.
Overseas direct assistance (ODA) to Laos amounted to $443 million in 2007, the
last year for which figures are available. But with countries increasingly
concerned about their own domestic economic problems, another blotch on Laos'
human-rights record could be enough to curb future disbursements. ODA
represents more than half of Laos' annual expenditures and 11% of gross
domestic product.
It may also put pressure on the Asian Development Bank, which is expected to
grant $1.2 billion to boost the economy and mitigate the effects of the global
economic downturn. Renewed attention to Laos' Hmong problem will also highlight
Thailand's controversial handling of refugees. Recent allegations that the Thai
navy towed a group of Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar out to sea in
rickety boats with little food and water represents the latest black mark on
Thailand's record.
Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban said that there could not have been
mistreatment of the Rohingya refugees because Thai officials have always been
"generous" to illegal migrants. He went on to say that any mistreatment would
reflect poorly on Thailand's international image. With that in mind, a messy
forced repatriation of the Hmong will likely have the same effect.
Brian McCartan is a Chiang Mai-based freelance journalist. He may be
reached at brianpm@comcast.net.
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