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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Laos
Index
The Hmong are one of the principal ethnic minorities
inhabiting
the higher elevations of Laos, living in mountain villages
situated
above 1,000 meters where they grow rice and corn using
swidden
(shifting, or slash-and-burn) agriculture, raise
livestock, and
grow opium as a cash crop. Several million Hmong also live
in
Thailand, Vietnam, and China
(see Population
, ch. 2). The
Hmong
traditionally have aggressively protected their
independent lifestyle , and their independence has kept them at odds with
the
central government.
Throughout the twentieth century, the Hmong maintained
their
tradition of rebellion. In the 1920s, successful Hmong
uprisings
against the French colonial power in northeastern Laos led
to
negotiated settlements rather than defeat. The French
colonial
government later used the Hmong to help subjugate lowland
Lao
dissidents. In the mid-1960s, the United States,
recognizing the
Hmong's tenacious fighting ability and superior knowledge
of
mountainous terrain, employed them as irregular mercenary
units
against the Pathet Lao
(see The "Secret War,"
ch. 1).
Hmong forces,
trained and supplied by the United States, fought
alongside the
Royal Lao Army and were used extensively in many of the
most
pitched battles of the Indochina wars. As a consequence, a
disproportionate number of Hmong were wounded and/or died
in combat
(see Historical Background
, this ch.).
After the disastrous defeat of two major Hmong armies
in March
and April 1975 at Sala Phou Khoun by North Vietnamese and
Pathet
Lao forces, the United States evacuated Vang Pao from
Longtiang to
Thailand on May 14, 1975. Thousands of his followers were
left to
their fate because the United States evacuation aircraft
requested
by Vang Pao did not materialize. The vast majority of
Hmong who
made it safely to Thailand did so on their own. This
defeat left
the Hmong who had not fled to Thailand in great disarray.
One group
of Hmong, after a long and dangerous march through hostile
countryside, fled to Thailand, where 25,000 persons
reached safety.
But a larger group of some 60,000 persons retreated to the
heights
of the Phou Bia Massif south of the Plain of Jars, where
they set
up defensive positions. Aside from occasional harassing
attacks by
Pathet Lao forces, no serious attempt was made to
interfere with
the Hmong for more than a year after the communist
takeover.
In 1977 Vietnamese troops backed by Soviet 130mm
long-range
artillery encircled and attacked the Hmong sanctuary in
the Pho Bia
Massif. Hmong defenses held and drove off the attackers.
Later that
same year, however, Vietnamese forces, unable to penetrate
the
Hmong ground defenses, began to overfly the redoubt,
reportedly
dropping napalm, gas, and a mycotoxin known as
trichothecene, or
"yellow rain," on Hmong villages
(see Bilateral Relations
, ch. 4).
An unknown number of Hmong died, while others tried to
escape into
Thailand.
As a result of decades of warfare, dislocation, and a
campaign
mounted against them by Vietnamese and RLG forces in the
late 1970s
and early 1980s, the Hmong population was reduced to
approximately
200,000 in Laos and about the same number in Thailand in
the early
1990s. From their sanctuary in Thailand, the Hmong
continued their
armed resistance efforts against the communists throughout
the
1980s and into the 1990s. Many thousands of other Hmong,
however,
had sided with the Pathet Lao and were living peacefully
in Laos,
particularly in the northeastern provinces; others went to
Thailand
and then the United States. Nevertheless, by 1992,
cross-border
Hmong raids into Laos were reduced to little more than
banditry--a
casualty of wavering Thai support and apathy among the
Hmong
themselves.
In 1992 a major Hmong refuge, the Ban Vinai Hmong
refugee camp
in Thailand, was closed as part of a Thai effort to close
all camps
holding Laotian refugees. In late 1992, there were an
estimated
30,000 Laotian refugees in Thailand, and about 1,700 in
China. In
March 1993, Thailand announced that it was closing two
more refugee
camps, one in Nakhon Phanom Province, the other in Phayao
Province.
These two camps held more than 27,000 Laotians, the
majority of
whom were Hmong. Although the government is making
attempts to
reintegrate the Hmong, the lack of resources limits these
efforts.
Continuing participation of Hmong in resistance activities
poses no
threat to the stability of the government of Laos, but it
does
complicate the repatriation process.
Data as of July 1994
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