Aug 13, 2008

Hmong: War Crimes Trial Urged for Lao Military and Party Officials


Active ImageHmong National Development (HND) urged the international tribunal and court in The Hague, Netherlands to immediately investigate and indict Lao military officers for crimes against humanity among others.

 

Below is an article published by Presszoom:

Hmong National Development, Inc. HND a Washington, D.C. non-profit corporation, again urged the international war crimes tribunal officials  in The Hague, Netherlands, to investigate and indict key Lao military and communist party officials in Laos for recent crimes against humanity, including, ethnic cleansing, genocide and war crimes, especially against the Hmong people.

Hmong National Development, Inc., HND, continues to highlight and condemn, in the strongest terms, the ongoing war crimes of  key Lao military officials and communist party officials for their  brutal military attacks, ethnic cleansing campaign and atrocities directed against thousands of unarmed Laotian and Hmong villagers and civilians in parts of  Xieng Khouang Province, Luang Prabang Province, Vientiane Province, Saysamboune Special Military Zone, Sam Nuea Province and elsewhere in Laos, including other closed military zones. For more information visit: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/004/2004

Hmong National Development, Inc. (HND) continues to urge senior-level officials in The Hague to investigate and name Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR) Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphanvanh for crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, genocide, war crimes and other violations of international law.  HND further urged that Lt. General Choumaly Sayasone (also spelled Choummali Saignason), who serves as President of the LPDR regime in Laos and be indicted on the same charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.  

Hundreds of Lao Hmong refugees recently forced back to Laos from a refugee camp in Thailand’s, Ban Huay Nam Khao, Petchabun Province, have been sent to harsh and isolated political reeducation camps in Laos where they are being persecuted and suffer. Hundreds of Hmong refugees forced back to Laos have been tortured, summarily executed or have disappeared in Laos.

HND urged the Hague to indict other LPDR officials for the recent campaign of mass starvation and killing of the Hmong, including summary executions of hundreds of innocent women and children, including:  Deputy Prime Minister, Major General Asang Laoli and Defense Minister, Major General Douangchai Phichit and others.

Due to pressure from international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the international community, former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic was recently flown from the Serbian capital Belgrade to the The Hague where he will face trial before a UN war-crimes tribunal.  HND in cooperation with other human rights and non-governmental organizations has documented the massacre and killing of thousands of innocent and unarmed Hmong and Laotian civilians by key Lao military and political leaders of the communist party in recent months.

Karadzic, like the current military and communist officials in Laos [is accused of being] directly responsible for ordering the killing and attacks against thousands of Bosnian people, including a massacre and summary execution of over 8,000 Bosnian soldiers and men who were captured fighting against Karadzic’s soldiers at a U.N. protected safe haven overrun by Karadzic’s military troops.  

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Christy Lee stated further:  "As a Hmong person, and on behalf of the Hmong community, we are urging war crimes tribunal officials in the international court in The Hague, Nettherlands, to immediately take action against Laos Prime Minister Bouasone Bouphanvany and other LPDR officials such as they are now doing to bring Radovan Karadzic to justice for his role in the massacre of thousands of people;  HND is calling for the Hague war crimes officials to investigate and bring these Lao military and party officials before and international tribunal in the Hague; we want the LPDR regime and these officials to immediately cease these deplorable attacks against Laotian and Hmong civilians in Laos that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of innocent Hmong women and children in recent months."

In June, the U.S. Congress, lead by Rep. Patrick Kennedy, Rep. Chris Shays, Rep. Frank Wolf, Rep. Tammy Baldwin, Rep. James Moran, Rep. Ron Kind, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and fifteen Members of  Congress have recently introduced and  cosponsored House Resolution 1273 (H. Res. 1273) which urges the LPDR regime in Laos to immediate cease its military attacks against  the Laotian and Hmong people.

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"At this very moment in the Phou Bia area, Vang Vieng and Phou Da Phao and elsewhere in Laos, the Lao regime is engaged in massive military and ethnic cleansing operations against unarmed civilians and is engaged in crimes against humanity; according to Amnesty International and other independent human rights organization the Lao regime is starving and killing thousands of its own people in the jungles and mountains of Laos, especially innocent Hmong women and children, who wish only to live in peace and freedom," stated Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C.

The Lao military, supported by the military and special forces units of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) is waging a war of ethnic cleansing and mass starvation according to recent reports by Amnesty International, the Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), the Hmong Lao Human Rights Council (HLHRC), the Laos Institute for Democracy (LID), United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. (ULDL) and others.

According to independent non-governmental organizations and religious believers, the LPDR regime in Laos is also engaged in intensified religious persecution, especially against independent Protestant Christian and Buddhists groups practicing their faith outside official government control and oversight, against Laotian and Hmong believe.  This is being conducted by special units of the Lao and Vietnamese security and military forces.

Three (3) Hmong-American citizens from St. Paul, Minnesota, including Mr. Hakit Yang, have been imprisoned in Laos without charge for nearly one year, after being arrested by Lao military and security forces in 2007.  Shortly after arrival in Laos from St. Paul, they were arrested in Xieng Khouang Province Laos.  They were moved to the capital and jailed, tortured and subject to brutal interrogation in Ponthong Prison in Vientiane, Laos, before being handcuffed, placed in hoods and thrown on trucks and moved to another location in Laos in the summer of 2007.

Thousands of Laotian and Hmong civilians have been killed in Laos in the last year [2007] from combined LPDR military and security force attacks, mass starvation, summary executions and harsh imprisonment.  Thousands have disappeared, and are feared dead, at the hands of Lao security and military units, including elite and special "hunter killer" units engaged in hunting and killing Hmong living independent outside the LPDR regime's control.

Hundreds of Hmong forcibly returned to Laos in the last several months.