WASHINGTON, May 24 - Thailand's Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej ordered Thai Third Army troops to use tear gas and pepper spray today to seek to force hundreds of Lao Hmong refugees onto eleven buses to repatriate them back to the communist regime in Laos that they fled. On May 16, eight members of the U.S. Senate wrote a letter appealing to Prime Minister Samak and U.S. Secretary of State Rice to grant asylum to some 8,000 Hmong refugees and not force them back to Laos.
The letter was sent to U.S. Secretary of State Rice by Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Senator Russell Feingold (D-WI), Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN).
"The Hmong people are joining with the U.S. Senate and House to appeal to the King of Thailand to stop the repatriation of the Hmong people back to Laos. The Thai military is now using tear gas and pepper spray to force hundreds of Lao Hmong political refugees onto 11 buses at Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Thailand to force them back to the brutal communist regime in Laos that they fled," stated Vaugh Vang, Director of the Lao Human Rights Council. "The Hmong refugees do not want to return to Laos; the Thai military's use of tear gas, pepper spray and army troops to force the Hmong onto buses is deplorable, and constitutes serious human rights violations.
"In reaction to the Thai troops now deployed to the Hmong refugee camp, the Hmong refugees have laid down on the road and are refusing to move, waiting instead for the buses or trucks to run them over so they can die in Thailand instead of returning to Laos," stated Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt, Southeast Asia Scholar. http://www.tragicmountains.org/
Large numbers of Thai troops were deployed to the Hmong refugee camp prior to fires and protests that rocked the camp and set it ablaze after refugees staged protests and a week-long, 7,000-strong hunger strike opposing forced repatriation back to Laos. The protest and hunger strike, which began on May 16, followed the earlier arrest of Hmong human rights monitors and the subsequent arrest of camp leaders.
"We urge the Thai government and Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej to honor the recent letters by the U.S. Senate and U.S. Congress and immediately halt the forced repatriation of the 8,000 Lao Hmong refugees at Petchabun and Nong Khai," stated Philip Smith, Executive Director for the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. "The U.S. Congress has urge Prime Minister Samak, and appealed to His Majesty, the King of Thailand, to give the Hmong sanctuary in Thailand until they can be resettled in third countries that have agreed to grant them asylum as political refugees," Smith concluded.
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