PRLog (Press Release) –
Hmong Peace Task Force Committee
&
Center for Public Policy Analysis
PRESS ADVISORY
For Immediate Release:
Sacramento, California & Washington, D.C.
Mon. June 11, 2007
Contact(s):
Ms. Anna Jones or Philip Smith (202) 543-1444
Center for Public Policy Analysis
Hmong Peace Task Force Committee
Contact: Stephen Vang (918) 237-2006
A Hmong and Laotian human rights rally and candle-light vigil will be held at the U.S. District Court House in Sacramento, CA (501 “I” St., Sacramento) from 9:00 A.M-8:00 P.M. on Monday, June 11, 2007, to draw attention to the current human rights crisis in Laos and protest ethnic cleansing, mass starvation and genocide in Laos by Lao military forces under the current Communist regime. Similar rallies are slated to be held in Fresno, California, Minnesota and Wisconsin as well at the same time.
The peaceful demonstrators will call for the intervention of international human rights groups in Laos to monitor Hmong and Laotian groups trapped in closed miitary zones; it will also call for the arrest of senior Pathet Lao communist officials currently engaged in war crimes and crimes against humanity in Laos as well as a plea for justice and a fair trial for General Vang Pao and several key community leaders who were recently arrested and are in imprisonment. Major emphasis will be on the many Laotian and Hmong families who continue to lose relatives in Laos at the hands of the one-party Communist Pathet Lao regime that like North Korea is using food as a weapon against innocent Hmong and Laotian civilians. The Paris-based "Journalists Without Borders" has again recently branded Laos' Communist leaders as "Press Predators" for preventing freedom of the press and press coverage of the mass killing and perscution of Hmong and Laotians. Amnesty International has released a new report (March 2007) on the crisis in Laos facing the Hmong.
"Senior Lao military officials and Communist politbureau members are engaged in Darfur and Bosnia-like war crimes and crimes against humanity in Laos by killing and starving to death thousands of unarmed Hmong and Laotian civilians, dissidents and opposition groups, including poltical and religious dissidents and minorities like the Hmong people," stated Philip Smith, Executive Director of the Center for Public Policy Analysis. "To be fair, and for their to be justice, the Pathet Lao generals who run Laos are indeed a group of serious war criminals and state terrorists who the United States government and international community should seek to bring to justice for their close cooperation with North Korea regime as well as the mass killing of thousands of unarmed Hmong and Laotian civilians as highlighted by the United Nations' human rights hearings in Geneva just several years ago; In light of the Vang Pao arrest and Amnesty International report regarding the crisis in Laos facing the Hmong people, the Bush Administration needs to take a serious and fresh look at the larger picture of what is actually going on in Laos to the Hmong people today; Moreover, it is also important to point out the Communist Pathet Lao regime's ongoing egregious violation of the letter and spirit of H.Res. 402 passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and Congress to help address this ongoing crisis in Laos that has cost the lives of so many innocent Hmong and Laotian civilians in recent years," Smith continued.
Smith concluded: It is my understanding that hundreds of Hmong and Laotian protestors in Sacramento, Fresno, Minnesota and Wisconsin will also rally against the threatened forced and involuntary repatriation of some 8,000 ethnic Hmong and Laotian refugees currently seeking asylum from persecution in Thailand and the continued jailing of peaceful Laotian student demonstrators arrested in 1999 in Vientiane; Indeed, for there to be justice in Laos and in the U.S. Court in Sacramento, it is important to put the current situation with General Vang Pao and the Hmong and Laotian people into context with the current human rights crisis and ethnic cleansing campaign since many Hmong and Laotian-Americans are still suffering as their relatives continue to be killed and persecuted by the brutal Stalinist regime in Laos."
"Many Hmong are calling for the release of General Vang Pao given criminal acts of ethnic cleasing, mass starvation and genocide now going on Laos that are being directed by senior Pathet Lao military and communist party officials against thousands of innocent Hmong civilians, Laotian and Hmong Christians as well as the jailing and killing of Lao student leaders who protested peacefully in Laos in 1999," stated Stephen Vang, a Hmong-American advocate and Hmong Peace Task Force Committee organizer. "We want the Pathet Lao officials responsible for these Bosnia-like crimes stopped and brought to justice in front of an international war crimes tribunal for their ongoing killing of so many innocent and unarmed Hmong and Laotian civilians and opposition group leaders," Vang concluded.
The rally will discuss the recent 28-age report released in March 2007 by Amnesty International (Lao Peoples Democratic Republic: Hiding in the Jungle, Hmong Under Threat) regarding the ongoing killing and persecution of Hmong civilians and opposition groups by the Pathet Lao communist regime and its military. They will also discuss H. Res. 402, passed by the U.S. Congress regarding the crisis in Laos facing the Hmong and Laotian people.. Hmong and Laotians advocating non-violence and peace will discuss and seek to further expose the cruel treatment of ethnic Hmong in Laos by the Lao communist regime and ask for the international community for the intervention to stop human rights abuses and genocide.
Lao and Hmong human rights advocates will demand access to Laos for international human rights monitors, peacekeepers and the news media to monitor and help stop the persecution, killing and ongoing military-backed mass starvation of Hmong civilians in the jungle and closed military zones and allow for human rights organizations to investigate human rights violations in Laos. Pursuant to the language of H.Res. 402, passed by the U.S. Congress, Hmong advocates and protestors will also demand access for UN agencies and the International Red Cross in Laos to provide humanitarian assistance such as food, medicine and clothing to the suffering Hmong and other ethnic groups as well as religious minorities trapped in the jungle. Hmong will advocate for human rights, freedom and democracy in Laos.
Laotians and Hmong will also call on the international community to the arrest as war criminals top Lao Communist and military leaders responsible for these Darfur and Bosnia-style war crimes against innocent Hmong and Laotian civilians.
Some of these Pathet Lao Communist leaders have been deemed “press predators” by “Journalists Without Borders” (Journalists Sans Frontiers) again this year by the Paris, France based organization.
Hmong and Laotian protestors and community advocates will also seek to discuss the honorable and important history of the Hmong and Laotian role with the United States during the Vietnam War and will carry copies of the book "Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, The Americans and the Secret Wars for Laos," written by historian and scholar Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt.
Thousands of Hmong and Laotian protestors are expected to participate in the rallies today in Sacramento, Fresno, St. Paul, Minneapolis, Green Bay, Milwaukee and Madison, Wisconsin.
The Center for Public Policy Analyssi is a Washington, D.C.-based think-tank and research organization that is focused on foreign policy and national security issues.
