Persecution of the Hmong tribe, Laos (1 Viewer)

[La La]

Excellent story in the Sunday Times Magazine on July 30.
god i've got tears all down my face. the accompanying link doesn't have any pictures, but the magazine hard copy had some heartwrenching images.
i'd like to know your opinions on this story. The Hmong fought on the US side during Vietnam, and have since been largely forgotten. They're now literally being hunted to the point of extinction because of their role in the war.
The UN has shown 'concern' but has done nothing to mobilise, and other governments, including the US, don't see enough trade opportunity with the country to step in.
Laos, of course, is denying its role in the killings.
i've included a tear-jerker of an extract here, and the link to the full yarn is after it.

Last year he had a call from one of the Hmong, Moua Toua Ther, via a satellite phone from his hiding place in the mountains. Blenkinsop enlisted the help of a neighbour who speaks a little Laotian. The words that were slowly translated were devastating: “Philip, we are dying. Please, you must help us. Today we are running and have been mortared and attacked by helicopters. Today we lost five people, two women and three children.” Had he not had a translator at all, he says, the tears and desperation would still have been enough to depress him utterly.


The morning Blenkinsop left the camp, at first light, a crowd of women had gathered, infants strapped to their backs, meagre possessions, a pot or a pan, hanging from their sides, spindly fingers clutching at his arms and clothes, imploring him to lead them out. He had to prise open their fingers to get away from them. The route out was long and depressing. Hiking out of the mountains over the next days, he was shot at twice. “In parting I offered my hiking companion and M-79 [grenade launcher] operator, Thao Ut, my old worn toothbrush and a pair of old river-crossing-soaked boxer shorts. He hugged me with tears in his eyes. I could feel his gaze long after I turned to leave.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2099-2278657.html

(this man was killed shortly after this was taken..............and most of the people in this picture have since been killed.)

 

[Janer]

including the US, don't see enough trade opportunity with the country to step in.
(

These days no-one is shocked by that !ironyyy

Ta for link, I didn't know one thing about the situation there.

 

[La La]

These days no-one is shocked by that !ironyyy

Ta for link, I didn't know one thing about the situation there.

i had no idea either. i've been really affected by reading that story. i'd almost hop on a plane and go out there myself. while i don't believe the suffering of the people in the middle east is in anyway less than that of the Hmong, the latter, up until now, have had little to no spotlight on them at all. if you saw all the pictures that ran with that yarn you'd be horrified. most of these people are maimed by shells, starve for a few years, then are picked off by mortars. it's truly terrible what is going on there. and the systematic denial of the laotian government is sickening.

what makes it even sadder is that the first story ran three years ago with those pictures. i think they called them the 'ghosts of the apocalypse."

fuckin hell im welling up again.

 

[Jerry Twig]

There was a great article about the Hmong written for Time about three years ago by a journalist called Andrew Perrin. A much more detailed and informative article than this, not that this isn't distressing enough. I'll try and track it down for you, although it may be subscription only.
Your statement about the US and trade is not quite right. Firstly, Laos was one of five or so nations worldwide denied 'Most Favourable Nation' status by the US alongside (as far as I remember) Burma, North Korea, Cuba, Libya, Iran and formerly Iraq. This effective trade sanction was lifted in late 2004/early 2005 as a 'miscellaneous' provision attached to a trade bill that could not be voted upon in elements. It was pushed through the back door as a appeasement to the Pathet Lao's co-operation on the "war on terror". For real.
Having said that, there are over 5000 Hmong refugees living in St Paul, Minnesota. The US is the only country in the world that fast-tracks Hmong asylum applications. They do have a historical sense of obligation to the Hmong after having used them in the 'secret war' and them left them high and dry.
Bush, however, has a different way of looking at things.

 

[La La]

Having said that, there are over 5000 Hmong refugees living in St Paul, Minnesota. The US is the only country in the world that fast-tracks Hmong asylum applications. They do have a historical sense of obligation to the Hmong after having used them in the 'secret war' and them left them high and dry.
Bush, however, has a different way of looking at things.

i believe it was during Clinton's reign that there was a fast-track process in which the Hmong were forced back to Lao - by the US.

but yeah i'd love to have a read of that story if you can track it down.

 

[Jerry Twig]

i believe it was during Clinton's reign that there was a fast-track process in which the Hmong were forced back to Lao - by the US.

but yeah i'd love to have a read of that story if you can track it down.

I've never heard that allegation at all. In fact I doubt that that is true.

Here's that article

Andrew Perrin, “Welcome to the Jungle,” Time (Asia edition), vol. 161, no. 17, 5 May 2003.

http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501030505-447253,00.html

 

[La La]

thanks for the article link.

not that you can believe everything it says, but i found this on wikipedia.
the article i read yesterday citing this i cannot find right now, but will keep looking. and i noticed i said US instead of UN.

During the 1990s, the United Nations, with general support from the Clinton Administration, began to forcibly return many Hmong refugees to Laos. The decision to do so was controversial, with many Hmong alleging that they were persecuted by the Laotian regime upon their return. See Genocides in history.

The forced return of the Hmong was staunchly opposed by many American conservatives and human rights activists. In a 1995 National Review article, Michael Johns labeled the decision to return Hmong veterans to Laos a "betrayal"

 

[MAX_CAVALERA]

ONCE ALL FREE TRIBES CHAINED DOWN LED LIVES
BLOOD BOILS INSIDE ME - WE'RE NOT SLAVES - WE'RE FREE

FACE - THE ENEMY
STARE - INSIDE YOU
CONTROL - YOUR THOUGHTS
DESTROY - THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!!

 

[La La]

ONCE ALL FREE TRIBES CHAINED DOWN LED LIVES
BLOOD BOILS INSIDE ME - WE'RE NOT SLAVES - WE'RE FREE

FACE - THE ENEMY
STARE - INSIDE YOU
CONTROL - YOUR THOUGHTS
DESTROY - THEM ALL!!!!!!!!!!

soulfly are a shit band.

 

[Jerry Twig]

"Roots, bloody roots"

 

[MAX_CAVALERA]

soulfly are a shit band.

PAIN MAKES ME STRONGER EVERYDAY
LIFE IS CHAOS

YOU GOTTA DEAL WITH IT!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Buzzo]

I don't know much about the situation. I only read that article in the times, but in the context of that article, what they've been through and what they will have to endure in the future it's one of the most helpless, hopeless images I've seen. It made me cry when I saw it first. It's hundreds of people falling to their knees with joy because they thought he was the first of the Americans coming to save them.

 

[La La]

it's one of the most helpless, hopeless images I've seen. It made me cry when I saw it first. It's hundreds of people falling to their knees with joy because they thought he was the first of the Americans coming to save them.

isn't is just terrible?
it still sends chills down my spine. of all the images of war and sadness i've seen, these will haunt me for the rest of my life. i want to know if i can do anything, anything at all to help. i hate feeling like a stupid dork seeing these things and posting threads about them and not actually doing anything.
fucking hell.
as one of the girls in one of those war blogs i posted about wrote, there's no honey on the moon anymore.

 

[The Schnapper]

Laos is a lovely country. Must go visit it again at xmas

 

[La La]

Laos is a lovely country. Must go visit it again at xmas

while you're there will you go and check on these poor people? please.

 

[Janer]

Bloke can't even check on himself......................

 

[The Schnapper]

while you're there will you go and check on these poor people? please.

I wish I could!

 

[The Schnapper]

Bloke can't even check on himself......................

My mother figure will be home on Friday to look after me