U.S. Congress: Crisis in Laos and Thailand Facing the Laotian and Hmong People
The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) in cooperation with Members of Congress, Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Hmong Lao Human Rights Council, the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc., Lao Veterans of America, and others organizations held a U.S. Congressional briefing on the crisis facing Hmong refugees in Thailand and Laos. The event occurred at 11:00am to 12:00pm, Friday, June 27, 2008, in the Cannon House Office Building, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
(Media-Newswire.com) - The Center for Public Policy Analysis ( CPPA ) in cooperation with Members of Congress, Non Governmental Organizations ( NGOs ), Hmong Lao Human Rights Council, the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc., Lao Veterans of America, and others organizations held a U.S. Congressional briefing on the crisis facing Hmong refugees in Thailand and Laos. The event occurred at 11:00am to 12:00pm, Friday, June 27, 2008, in the Cannon House Office Building, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, D.C.
The panel of speakers, including Philip Smith, Executive Director, CPPA, Schuyler Merritt, Research Director, CPPA, Vaughn Vang, Lao Human Rights Council, Bounthanh Rathigna, of the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc., discussed the forced repatriation of over 800 Laotian and Hmong political refugees from Thailand back to Laos on June 22, 2008. This repatriation, reported by Doctors Without Borders ( MSF ), Amnesty International ( AI ) and other independent organizations, led to the release of several urgent action appeals, including appeals from MSF and AI which were discussed at today’s U.S. Congressional briefing.
The key presentation of the event was the recent legislation regarding the human rights crisis facing the Laotian and Hmong people in Laos and Thailand introduced and cosponsored in the U.S. Congress, H. Res. 1273, by U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy ( D-RI ), U.S. Congressman Frank Wolf ( R-VA ), U. S. Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin ( D-WI ), U.S. Congressman Dana Rohrabacher ( R-CA ), and U.S. Congressman Ron Kind ( D-WI ), U.S. Congressman Jim Costa ( D-CA ), U.S. Congressman James Langevin ( D-RI ) and others.
Philip Smith, Executive Director of CPPA, stated that: “This bi-partisan Congressional effort to bring, not only attention but, important and long overdue justice to the suffering Laotian and Hmong people in Thailand and Laos, is a first step in returning U.S. foreign policy toward a more rational and humanitarian basis.”
On behalf of the U.S. Senate, the event also presented a recent U.S. Senate letter signed by seven ( 7 ) U. S. Senators to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice urging her to act to help urge the Royal Thai Government to stop the forced repatriation of Hmong refugees from Thailand to the communist regime they fled.
Vaughn Vang, Director of Hmong Lao Human Rights Council praised the U.S. Senate’s, “swift reaction and condemnation of the Thai military’s ambush of peaceful demonstrators.” Vang continued: “With the U.S. Senate calling to U.S. Secretary of State Rice and His Majesty, The King of Thailand to grant sanctuary the Hmong refugees in Thailand, further forced repatriation of Hmong back to the persecution of the Lao government can be prevented. “
The U.S. Congressional briefing on the crisis in Laos and Thailand facing the Laotian and Hmong people also gave an updated report on the emergency crisis events of last weekend, initiated on June 20 when Hmong refugees began their attempted march 150 miles to Bangkok and the United Nations High Commisioner for Refugees ( UNHCR ). “The situation is so chaotic in Huay Nam Khao refugee camp, that Doctors Without Borders, the sole international aid organization allowed in the camp, is having trouble identifying how many Hmong are missing from the camp roster. The current count estimates that almost 2,000 refugees, including at least 150 with severe bullet and shrapnel wounds from Lao military attacks in the past few years, are missing. Furthermore, UNHCR has reported that 1,000 of these people have been forcible returned to Laos, separating parents from children and violating the internationally accepted practice of non-refoulment,” stated Schuyler Merritt, Research Director for CPPA.
“We are urging the Royal Thai government to immediately cease the forced repatriation of the Laotian and Hmong people in Thailand back to Laos,” stated Bounthanh Rathigna, President of the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. “These 8,000 Lao Hmong refugees at Huay Nam Khao are clearly political refugees and asylum seekers. We applaud the introduction of the House and Senate, especially the introduction of H. Res. 1273 regarding the human rights crisis in Thailand and Laos facing the Laotian and Hmong people.”
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Contact:
Anna Jones or Philip Smith
Center for Public Policy Analysis Tele. ( 202 ) 543-1444
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