Old Hippie Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 From the Bangkok Post... All Hmong must go By Post reporters The 7,700 Hmong refugees currently living in a make-shift camp in Phetchabun will be deported to Laos as no countries have come forward to offer them resettlement. Supreme Commander Boonsrang Niumpradit said on Saturday the Hmong living at the Ban Huay Nam Khao camp in Khao Kho district had little chance of being offered resettlement in a third country and therefore had no choice but to return to Laos. "None of them are allowed to live in Thailand anymore and Laos is ready to take them back," he said. Officials said it would take them two months to get the personal records in order for all the refugees after which they would be deported to Laos. Gen Boonsrang dismissed fears from human rights groups that the Hmong will be mistreated by the Laotian authorities if they were to return to Laos. Third Army commander Jiradet Khotcharat said the deportation of the Hmong was not a matter of concern because they had illegally entered Thailand and therefore had to be sent back. Many of the Lao Hmong were allies of the US and fought against the communists during the Vietnam War. After the 1975 victory of the communist Pathet Lao, about 300,000 Hmong poured into Thailand, many later resettling in the US and elsewhere. Lt-Gen Jiradet said the recent relocation of Lao-born Hmong at Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee camp to a new shelter, about two kilometres away, went well. Security is been heightened at the new camp, and access to the refugees is being very tightly restricted. The authorities want to ensure no new Hmong refugees sneak into the camp, he said. A security source said an average of about 12 Hmong babies are born in the camp every month, leading to increasing overcrowding. Not sure how I feel about this. By president, they should be allowed to enter/settle in the USA. The Hmong community here is spread out, and thus if they were dispersed over this area, it would not mean an impact on any one area. Sending them back to Lao could be very very bad... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickfarang Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 Back to Laos where the government will quietly slaughter them. They must be so grateful for the U.S. putting them into this position then abandoning them :-( Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted July 22, 2007 Author Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 Well, this is my point, they may have some family here, we took 5000 last year or so, so why not the rest? I mean if we are going to take in people, we should be taking in the people who helped us...this is the type of shit that really pisses me off about this government... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YimSiam Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 The solution is simple, but the current government is unable to perceive or act in any but the most simplistic way (i.e., 'they entered illegally, so they must go back' - okay, maybe a logic that works for the general, but not a logic that works with international law, which prohibits the return of any person to a country where he/she might face persecution.) What Thailand needs to do is either themselves determine who may be safely returned (the vast majority of this particular group have no reason to fear return to Laos, as most of them left Laos to try to piggy-back onto a US resettlement operation from Wat Tham Krabok, which is now finished, rather than due to fear of persecution), or - as is usual in countries where the government is unable or unwilling to do the job themselves - allow UNHCR to determine who may be returned, and who should not be sent back. Among the Petchaboon group, there are some who have been in the LPDR jungles since the Vietnam era, and most likely they should not be returned - they will probably face serious problems upon return. Once this group (and perhaps a very few others with reason not to be returned) is identified and separated, the rest should be sent back, no worries. Those who can't be sent back could be allowed to live in Thailand (like the KMT or various other groups), although security and political concerns would likely not allow this. If they can't stay in Thailand, the UN can arrange for them to be sent to various countries - however, there should be no mass resettlement before determining who can and cannot be sent back, as it will just lead to repetition of the same thing. If Thailand would let the UN go to the camp and start rejecting people and approving their return to Laos, the problem would eventually disappear, with most sent back to the PDR. Frankly, Thailand, the US and the Lao should be happy that this group has left Laos, as it may well represent the end of an active though pitiful 30+ years of Hmong resistance from the jungle. YimSiam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
elef Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 For once I agree with the thai government, this isn't a thai (or an UN) problem at all, it's just an american problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 The THAI GOVMT WAS ALSO SUPPORTING THE WAR AGAINST THE COMMIES IN LAOS. (Yeah, I'm shouting.) That effing makes it THEIR PROBLEM too. Ex-Bangkok governor Chamlong Srimuang was the general commanding the Thai troops in Laos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 http://www.visit-laos.com/sabbaidee/history.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Julian2 Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 Calm down Flash, you know the Thai Govt. cant be held responsible for anything they did yesterday, let alone 35 years ago. Their support for the US was all to do with those lovely money making airbases they allowed them to build here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 The Thais seem to have a very selective memory. Read through the Thai history texts and see if you can find it mentioned that the Pibunsongkram government declared war of the US and UK in WWII and made an alliance with Japan. I've seen Thai university students express shock and embarrassment when they found that out. The Thai goverment/military was deeply involved in the VN War and in supporting the anti-commies against the Pathet Lao (Hanoi's puppets) in Laos. Bet you won't find that in history books either. p.s. I read (in the Bangkok Post in the '70s) that the US bases were pouring something like US$1.5 million a week into the Thai economy during the war years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted July 22, 2007 Report Share Posted July 22, 2007 Flash, only reason Thailand is NOT a economic backwater is because the vietnam war both crippled the country that will eventually be the S E Asia power house, and the thais had huge US$ subsidies for helping doing it. USSR offered a free underground in the 60's, imagine how dam good that would have been in the 90's! Turned down though to USA pressure! I am tending towards YimSiam on this, most of them prob have no real fear of Laos government, some prob do. Separate and expatriate appropriately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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