Reply With QuoteIt's 4,000 people, not "40k".
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/wo...html?ref=world
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8432094.stm
Thailand send 4k Hmong to Laos
First, I would be all for bringing all 4,000 of these Hmong to the USA and giving them govt help in settling here, getting jobs, learning the language etc. They helped us tremendously during the Vietnam war. Thailand, IMHO has shown itself to be real pricks by sending 40 thousand people to Laos where they will surely face severe punishment, perhaps even death. Article source:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091228/...thailand_hmong
May the Thailand govt suffer boils on their anus and blisters on their ****s.
(my error, 4,000 people, not 40 thou...sentiments still hold)
Last edited by commanding; 12-28-2009 at 10:01 AM.
It's 4,000 people, not "40k".
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/28/wo...html?ref=world
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8432094.stm
they helped the US and its Thailand duty to give them refugee status.They helped us tremendously during the Vietnam war. Thailand, IMHO has shown itself to be real pricks by sending 40 thousand people to Laos
When you point one finger towards someone remember three fingers pointing back towards you.
That's one of the things that caught my eye when going through my interview for citizenship.The Hmong have pretty much got a free pass to come to the US and live, which I'm all for, considering the help and aid they gave the US and what they have to put up with now.
Last edited by Geezah; 12-30-2009 at 12:28 AM. Reason: s/p
This sucks, but to be fair, bringing in the their assistance during Vietnam means jack**** as Thailand doesn't have a debt to the Hmong the way the US does. If they assisted Thai forces directly, or if it was the US deporting them/refusing to take them in, that would be another thing. To the Thai gov, they are just another refugee group creating an economic burden.
However, on humanitarian grounds, that is a really ****ty thing for Thailand to do considering the status of Hmong in Laos.
Why doesn't the US step up to take them in?
Article continued at http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N29393657.htmUN demands access to Lao Hmong deported by Thailand
29 Dec 2009 19:00:03 GMT
Source: *******
* Over 4,000 Hmong asylum-seekers deported by Thailand
* UNHCR urges Thailand to reveal assurances given by Laos
(Adds U.N. statement, paragraphs 6-8)
GENEVA, Dec 29 (*******) - The U.N. refugee agency said on Tuesday it had asked Laos to grant it access to more than 4,000 Hmong asylum-seekers deported from camps in Thailand.
In a statement, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees also urged the Thai government to detail assurances it had received from the Laos communist government on future treatment of the Hmong, who say they face oppression if sent back.
"The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has today formally approached the government of the Lao People's Democratic Republic seeking access to Lao Hmong who were deported from Thailand on Monday," the Geneva-based agency said.
Some of those sent back were recognized by the UNHCR as having refugee status and needing international protection, it said. The expulsion sparked criticism from the United States and Europe.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was concerned about the expulsion of the Hmong, who "included individuals the Thai government had reportedly assessed to be in need of protection," his office said in a statement on Tuesday.
Ban "regrets that these deportations have taken place in the face of appeals from the (UNHCR) and despite the availability of third country resettlement solutions for those recognized as refugees," U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said.
Effing shame!!
Now seeing that the Thai gov denied other countries to resettle the Hmong, the unbelievably corrupt cesspool that is known as the government of Thailand exemplifies that shamfulness knows no bounds.
As much love I have towards the country of my heritage and respect towards Rama IX, I would applaud it if commanding's curse upon the parliament comes true.
I think these are the same people in power that return boatloads of Muslims from Burma to the sea with little water or food. Many died and they ended up in India and Indonesia. IIRC.Originally Posted by IraGlacialis
QFT -
Maybe its because no one REALLY ever cared about the people of SE Asia, be it 4,000 Hmong; 50,000 M'yards; 2 mil C'bodes.
Maybe it has always been about the power; politics; money; etc.
Too bad the Hmong don't have oil in a sandbox; admit they have WMD; maybe even offer to lead someone who has an interest in that sort of thing into the Golden Triangle to the K'mingtang growing the same cash crop that A'stan has. THEN they might gain some support - some positive attention; some real help rather than nothing. I mean even the ones who went before to Mpls, MN in ice, snow and temps never, ever seen in Laos at least had a place to go other than being returned to what will probably be a final and deadly fate for many of them!
Sucks!
Last edited by JUNKHO; 12-29-2009 at 09:02 PM. Reason: sp
Yeah, it was at the beginning of the year; many were reportedly bound as well.
Are the Hmong the people that Eastwood has beef with in Gran Torino?
So is this ethnic cleansing or is the government just returning refugees?
Yes. The Thai government is returning people back to a hostile government.
The government is returning refugees so that they can pretty much be ethnically cleansed by another government, while formerly-mentioned government plays ignorant.
http://www.time.com/time/world/artic...950590,00.html
Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2009
The Hmong and the CIA
By Christopher Shay / Hong Kong
On Dec. 28, Thailand's military packed more than 4,000 Hmong asylum seekers into trucks and drove them from refugee camps to neighboring Laos, a single-party state that's been accused of persecuting the Hmong since they backed U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. Thailand maintains that Hmong living illegally in Thailand are economic migrants, not political refugees in need of international protection — but the decision to forcibly repatriate them drew international condemnation. Human Rights Watch called the expulsion "appalling," while the U.S. State Department argued that the refugees deserved to be protected from threats they faced in their homeland.
The incident is the latest step in a decades-old dance involving Laos' communists, the Hmong and the U.S. In the lead-up to the Vietnam War, North Vietnam carved a maze of transportation routes through the jungles of Laos, creating a crucial supply link later known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Laos was in the middle of a civil war between the Royal Lao government and the communist Pathet Lao. Seeking to disrupt the North's supply routes, the Americans enlisted the help of the Royal Lao government's highest-ranking Hmong leader, Vang Pao. He welcomed American guns, money and expertise, assembling thousands of Hmong fighters from the hills. Together, they would tackle a common enemy, the communists. (Read "Welcome to the Jungle.")
The partnership worked — to a point. Vang Pao's troops gained a reputation for being fierce jungle fighters who rescued downed U.S. aircrews, gathered military intelligence and fought the communists to a stalemate. The effort was for many years the CIA's largest covert operation, until the agency funded the mujahedin against the Soviets in Afghanistan. In 1969, Richard Helms, director of the CIA, told President Richard Nixon that Vang Pao had 39,000 troops engaged in active fighting. But casualties were so bad, he wrote, that Vang Pao's forces were using teenagers as young as 13 to fill their lines. This massive effort was hidden from the American public for years. It became known as the secret war, and the Hmong mercenaries as the secret army.
After Saigon fell, America abandoned the secret army, and in 1975, as many as 10,000 Hmong were slaughtered at the hands of the ascendant Pathet Lao, according to Roger Warner, an author who is researching a book on Vang Pao. Others fled to neighboring Thailand and the U.S., where about 100,000 were eventually resettled. It was not until 1997 that Washington officially acknowledged the valor of the Hmong soldiers. A small stone with a copper plaque was placed in their honor between the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame in Arlington National Cemetery. (Read "A Blackbird's Song.")
The plaque has done little to resolve the Hmong's plight in Southeast Asia. Thousands live in poverty in Thailand, and a few armed bands still live in the Laotian highlands, refusing to surrender to the government of Laos. Earlier this month, there were signs that the conflict might be easing: Vang Pao, now 80 and living in California, said he wanted to return home and help reconcile the Hmong and the Communist government in Vientiane. But officials reportedly replied that they'd welcome him back by executing him. It's no wonder Thailand's Hmong refugees are worried that the rulers of their homeland still hold a grudge.
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