A desperate life for survivors of the Secret War in Laos

Post by **UdonExpat** » December 17, 2007, 9:51 am

Interesting story about the Hmong CIA fighters from the 60's & 70's campaign to protect SE Asia from communism.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/12/16/asia/laos.php

Post by **aznyron** » December 17, 2007, 11:31 am

thank you for that post I found the story very interesting and I want to ad if i can help with food & clothing I will I feel that USA does owe these hero's some thing other than forgotten promises

Post by **UdonExpat** » December 17, 2007, 1:58 pm

I agree. Our government has reneged on its obligation to these people. Even those in the refuge camp in Thailand can't go to the US. It sucks. No wonder people don't like or trust the US.

The guys in this story are certainly of greater moral standing than our government, much more forgiving of their mistreatment.

I'm sure the refuge camp in Petchubun could use donations. Medecins Sans Frontieres provides some care there as well as having AID's projects in Thailand.
http://www.msf.org/msfinternational/inv ... =full_html

I don't know how one could help the freedom fighters still in Laos. Perhaps the person who wrote the story could help you.

Post by **marjamlew** » December 17, 2007, 2:47 pm

Thanks for the informative and educational article. Imagine what the world would be like if we treated our allies and brothers in arms as well as we do our enemies.
I taught a family of Hmong kids a few years ago. Their old man was a veteren and I saw their mum's refugee id and esl certificaite from a Nong Khai refugee camp. The old man was a good breeder and the family had 5 kids in the school and their names were like Lee Khao, Lee Chao, Lee Tu, and so on... I used to think that Lee Tu was more suited to the jungle than the classroom as he had too much life in him to sit around and learn.

On a similar topic I saw this documentry on the ABC a few weeks ago. Don't know how anyone's gonna get their hands on it but it was a good watch:

http://www.abc.net.au/programsales/s2103455.htm

Bomb Harvest DVD (Short Version)

Year of Production: 2007
Duration: 55mins
© Lemur Films

Post by **arjay** » December 17, 2007, 3:50 pm

Agreed, both interesting and sad.

It's also worth noting that the Lao government denies their existence, asserting instead that there are only bandits.

My Laos GF says that the Lao people tend to be scared of Hmong and view them as bad and dangerous people and that they are bandits; and they did bad things with Lao people before/in the past and so they are afraid they may do so again.

Post by **arjay** » December 17, 2007, 4:09 pm

Here's a couple more similar articles I found through google:-

http://kinchendavid.wordpress.com/2006/ ... os-border/

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/worl ... hmong.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNew ... 2620070611

This last one is very unsavoury:-

http://www.gfbv.de/pressemit.php?id=614

Post by **Aardvark** » December 17, 2007, 4:29 pm

What annoys me the most is that my govt imports so called refugees from places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia etc who all respect the Muslim faith before there adopted countries and as a result cause nothing but problems in our community. As a part of the War in Indochina we have a responsibility to the people who fought on our side, and yet we ignore them and hope the problem goes away. Maybe someone like me should grow up and bring this situation to the attention of my local MP, and maybe I will, but I hold little hope for these people this far down the track

Post by **marjamlew** » December 18, 2007, 4:24 pm

Aardvark wrote:What annoys me the most is that my govt imports so called refugees from places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Somalia etc who all respect the Muslim faith before there adopted countries and as a result cause nothing but problems in our community. As a part of the War in Indochina we have a responsibility to the people who fought on our side, and yet we ignore them and hope the problem goes away. Maybe someone like me should grow up and bring this situation to the attention of my local MP, and maybe I will, but I hold little hope for these people this far down the track

I think they are all genuine refugess. They come from dismal, war torn countries. I believe we have an oligation to offer refuge and resettlement without regard to race and religion.
I also think we did a lot for refugees from Indonchina. Don't know what it's like in Perth Aardvark but out in the wild west of Melbourne where I operate,in Sunshine and St Albans,the evidence bashes you over the head no matter where you go. The school I work at has second generation Vietnames kids eating meat pies and vegimite sandwiches for lunch.
We in the west should be embarressed about all the refugees in Thailand be they Loas or Burmese. They deserve at least the same as those from the above mentioned countries.
Thanks for the other articles too Arjay.