The NEEG Online

Slaughter awaits Hmong troops
By Kimina Lyall, Southeast Asia correspondent
July 05, 2003

THEY number perhaps a few thousand men, women and children, with swollen bellies, rotting teeth and a desperation beyond despair.

Hiding in banana-leaf huts in deep jungle in northern Laos, they are encircled by an encroaching army. With little food and less ammunition, the once-fearless guerilla fighters – who claim to be fighting for US-style democracy – have nowhere to run.

Rarely seen by anyone other than the pilots of Laos army helicopters firing down at them from above, this ragtag army recently played host to four foreign journalists who wanted to tell their stories.

The first to arrive were Australian journalist Andrew Perrin and photographer Philip Blenkinsop, working for Time magazine, who trekked for seven days and spent three with 1000 warriors and their families, who scratch out a living from jungle potatoes and yams in the Xaysomboune special zone.

"Their mentality was still from the Cold War era," says Perrin, whose hosts were convinced they were Americans returning to save them. "We kept telling them we were Australian . . . but they thought if they continued to mouth democracy and freedom then we would free them. They don't know that the West has moved on from them."

A few weeks later, French cameraman Vincent Reynaud and Belgian photographer Thierry Falise and their Hmong-American translator, Naw Karl Mua, also trekked in. They too got a story but haven't yet been able to tell it.

Captured by police after a gunfight as they emerged from the jungle, they were this week sentenced to 15 years in prison, along with their driver, Pa Fue Khang. Local guides Thao Moua and Char Yang were imprisoned for 12 and 20 years respectively.

While diplomats continue to negotiate a post-sentence pardon to allow the foreigners to walk free, their arrests have drawn attention to the long-ignored group of resistance fighters.

Backed by powerful ethnic Hmong exiles in the US, the guerillas are mostly the children and families of a "secret army" trained by CIA agents in the 1960s and 1970s to support the US's fight against communism.

Ed Szendrey, of the US-based Fact Finding Commission, a group of Americans who believe their Government should negotiate safe passage for the group to the US to repay the rebels' loyalty, says the communists believe the fighters are "American nails that need to be driven out".

"It's revenge for their support of the US . . . they've been chasing them for 28 years," he said. "If they give themselves up they believe they will be killed."

But according to Grant Evans, a renowned Laos scholar and anthropologist, the situation is far more local. After the Americans left in 1973 many members of that army, which was strongly connected to the Royal Laos Army, also fled the country but some remained to fight on.

In the late 1970s, about 50,000 Vietnamese troops helped the Laos Government to launch a devastating offensive against the group but since then they have been largely living in the mountains.

About two years ago, for unknown reasons, the army decided again to attack the few thousand remaining rebels.

The group, which represents a tiny minority of ethnic Hmong in Laos, has since then become embroiled in a series of tit-for-tat revenge attacks with the local army commanders, Dr Evans said, dismissing any notion ideology plays a role.

"These people are not a threat to the Government. They are a tiny group," Dr Evans said.

"(The Government) don't feel threatened, they feel bloody annoyed with them and they wish they could shoot them all but they can't.

"Then these reporters come in and want to talk about the Government wanting to shoot them all."

MBA
is a small business development consulting, "specializing in Increased Services and Profitablity."

KajNtug Chidlren's Fund, Inc.
A non-profit charity helping "poor of the poor", disabiltiy, and orphanage children.

'Brother Number Two' appears at Khmer Rouge trial
By Ek Madra

PHNOM PENCH, Dec 12 (Reuters) 'Brother Number Two' Noun Chea, the Khmer Rouge's top surviving leader, made a surprise appearance in a Cambodian court on Thursday in support of a former colleague accused of murdering three Western backpackers.
Sam Bith, 70, a former general with the Khmer Rouge, the ultra-Maoist guerrillas responsible for the genocide of the "Killing Fields," is charged with the 1994 kidnap and execution of three backpackers from Australia, Britain and France.
Few predicted the ailing Noun Chea - sporting a pair of natty 1960s-style sunglasses - would trun up in the back of an ambulance from the old Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin, some 300 km northwest of Phnom Penh, to protes Sam Bith's innocence.
Appearing as a withness, however, the 77-year-old's only words were to confirm his name and age. Soon after his taking the stand, the hearing was adjourned until Friday morning because of the ill-health of the defendant, the judge said.
Following 'Brother Number One' Pol Pot's death in 1998, Noun Chea, widely seen as the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologue, became the prime target for those pressing for an international tribunal for Cambodia's genocide, in which 1.7 million died from 1975-79.
Thursday's case, although concerned with crimes committed well after the Khmer Rouge's ousting, is a closely watched barometer of Phom Penh's willingness to establish a United Nations-backed genocide trail.
"KEEP THEM SAFE"
Sam Bith is the most senior of three commanders charged with abducting Briton Mark Slater, Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet and Australian David Wilson following a train ambush in southern Cambodia in 1994.
About a dozen Cambodians died in the attack. The three backpackers were killed wekks later as government troops tried to storm the mountain stronghold where they were being held.
Appearing at the Phonm Penh municipal court amid tight security, the ageing former guerrilla, who spent eight years on the run before being arrested in May this year, looked frail and declined to respond to questions from reporters.
"I did not order the attack, but I told Noun Paet to keep the three Westerners in safety and advised him to release them so they could go and see their families back home," Sam Bith told the court.
Field commander Nouon Paet, who served under Sam Bith, was jailed for life in 1999 for his part in the murders. Chhouk Rin, one of Noun Paet's subordinates, also received a life sentence in September but remains free pending a lengthy appeal process.
Jean-Claude Braquet, the father of the murdered Jean-Claude, who has embarked on a personal quest to see his son's killers brought to justice, was also in court along with representatives of Britain and Australia.
"I have been waiting for the prosecution of Sam Bith for eight years now. That is a very long time," he said.

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© 2002, Neeg Magazine P.O.Box 4071 Appleton, WI 54914-4071 (920) 997-9319
All rights reserved. All parts of this service shall not be reproduced in any form without a written consent express to NEEG Magazine, except that an individual may download and/or print of articles for personal use such as reference, non-commercial purpose. Neeg values all writers with deserved knwoledge of their credibility. Thank You.


	People		Hmong



		Slaughter awaits Hmong troops By Kimina Lyall, Southeast Asia correspondent July 05, 2003 THEY number perhaps a few thousand men, women and children, with swollen bellies, rotting teeth and a desperation beyond despair. Hiding in banana-leaf huts in deep jungle in northern Laos, they are encircled by an encroaching army. With little food and less ammunition, the once-fearless guerilla fighters – who claim to be fighting for US-style democracy – have nowhere to run. Rarely seen by anyone other than the pilots of Laos army helicopters firing down at them from above, this ragtag army recently played host to four foreign journalists who wanted to tell their stories. The first to arrive were Australian journalist Andrew Perrin and photographer Philip Blenkinsop, working for Time magazine, who trekked for seven days and spent three with 1000 warriors and their families, who scratch out a living from jungle potatoes and yams in the Xaysomboune special zone. "Their mentality was still from the Cold War era," says Perrin, whose hosts were convinced they were Americans returning to save them. "We kept telling them we were Australian . . . but they thought if they continued to mouth democracy and freedom then we would free them. They don't know that the West has moved on from them." A few weeks later, French cameraman Vincent Reynaud and Belgian photographer Thierry Falise and their Hmong-American translator, Naw Karl Mua, also trekked in. They too got a story but haven't yet been able to tell it. Captured by police after a gunfight as they emerged from the jungle, they were this week sentenced to 15 years in prison, along with their driver, Pa Fue Khang. Local guides Thao Moua and Char Yang were imprisoned for 12 and 20 years respectively. While diplomats continue to negotiate a post-sentence pardon to allow the foreigners to walk free, their arrests have drawn attention to the long-ignored group of resistance fighters. Backed by powerful ethnic Hmong exiles in the US, the guerillas are mostly the children and families of a "secret army" trained by CIA agents in the 1960s and 1970s to support the US's fight against communism. Ed Szendrey, of the US-based Fact Finding Commission, a group of Americans who believe their Government should negotiate safe passage for the group to the US to repay the rebels' loyalty, says the communists believe the fighters are "American nails that need to be driven out". "It's revenge for their support of the US . . . they've been chasing them for 28 years," he said. "If they give themselves up they believe they will be killed." But according to Grant Evans, a renowned Laos scholar and anthropologist, the situation is far more local. After the Americans left in 1973 many members of that army, which was strongly connected to the Royal Laos Army, also fled the country but some remained to fight on. In the late 1970s, about 50,000 Vietnamese troops helped the Laos Government to launch a devastating offensive against the group but since then they have been largely living in the mountains. About two years ago, for unknown reasons, the army decided again to attack the few thousand remaining rebels. The group, which represents a tiny minority of ethnic Hmong in Laos, has since then become embroiled in a series of tit-for-tat revenge attacks with the local army commanders, Dr Evans said, dismissing any notion ideology plays a role. "These people are not a threat to the Government. They are a tiny group," Dr Evans said. "(The Government) don't feel threatened, they feel bloody annoyed with them and they wish they could shoot them all but they can't. "Then these reporters come in and want to talk about the Government wanting to shoot them all." MBA is a small business development consulting, "specializing in Increased Services and Profitablity." KajNtug Chidlren's Fund, Inc. A non-profit charity helping "poor of the poor", disabiltiy, and orphanage children. 'Brother Number Two' appears at Khmer Rouge trial By Ek Madra PHNOM PENCH, Dec 12 (Reuters) 'Brother Number Two' Noun Chea, the Khmer Rouge's top surviving leader, made a surprise appearance in a Cambodian court on Thursday in support of a former colleague accused of murdering three Western backpackers. Sam Bith, 70, a former general with the Khmer Rouge, the ultra-Maoist guerrillas responsible for the genocide of the "Killing Fields," is charged with the 1994 kidnap and execution of three backpackers from Australia, Britain and France. Few predicted the ailing Noun Chea - sporting a pair of natty 1960s-style sunglasses - would trun up in the back of an ambulance from the old Khmer Rouge stronghold of Pailin, some 300 km northwest of Phnom Penh, to protes Sam Bith's innocence. Appearing as a withness, however, the 77-year-old's only words were to confirm his name and age. Soon after his taking the stand, the hearing was adjourned until Friday morning because of the ill-health of the defendant, the judge said. Following 'Brother Number One' Pol Pot's death in 1998, Noun Chea, widely seen as the Khmer Rouge's chief ideologue, became the prime target for those pressing for an international tribunal for Cambodia's genocide, in which 1.7 million died from 1975-79. Thursday's case, although concerned with crimes committed well after the Khmer Rouge's ousting, is a closely watched barometer of Phom Penh's willingness to establish a United Nations-backed genocide trail. "KEEP THEM SAFE" Sam Bith is the most senior of three commanders charged with abducting Briton Mark Slater, Frenchman Jean-Michel Braquet and Australian David Wilson following a train ambush in southern Cambodia in 1994. About a dozen Cambodians died in the attack. The three backpackers were killed wekks later as government troops tried to storm the mountain stronghold where they were being held. Appearing at the Phonm Penh municipal court amid tight security, the ageing former guerrilla, who spent eight years on the run before being arrested in May this year, looked frail and declined to respond to questions from reporters. "I did not order the attack, but I told Noun Paet to keep the three Westerners in safety and advised him to release them so they could go and see their families back home," Sam Bith told the court. Field commander Nouon Paet, who served under Sam Bith, was jailed for life in 1999 for his part in the murders. Chhouk Rin, one of Noun Paet's subordinates, also received a life sentence in September but remains free pending a lengthy appeal process. Jean-Claude Braquet, the father of the murdered Jean-Claude, who has embarked on a personal quest to see his son's killers brought to justice, was also in court along with representatives of Britain and Australia. "I have been waiting for the prosecution of Sam Bith for eight years now. That is a very long time," he said. Terms of Use \| Privacy Notice © 2002, Neeg Magazine P.O.Box 4071 Appleton, WI 54914-4071 (920) 997-9319 All rights reserved. All parts of this service shall not be reproduced in any form without a written consent express to NEEG Magazine, except that an individual may download and/or print of articles for personal use such as reference, non-commercial purpose. Neeg values all writers with deserved knwoledge of their credibility. Thank You.











Purpose The purpose of NEEG Magazine is to foresee and respond to the communities need for information about: People, Arts, Infomation, and News(PAIN). Promoting Hmong's Linguistic, Social structure, and Cultural values (Txuj Ci).