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US Congress asks Laos to halt violence against Hmong rebels
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WASHINGTON, May 6 (AFP) - The US House of Representatives passed a resolution Thursday urging the authorities in Laos to stop alleged violence against ethnic Hmong rebels.
The measure urges the Laotian government to provide human rights and humanitarian groups "unrestricted access" to closed military zones, where the rebels had allegedly been tortured after being lured to give up their struggle.
Rights groups claim hundreds if not thousands of the Hmong rebels have been missing, fearing they may have been killed by the military.
The American legislators also asked the US government as well as the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to prod the communist-run nation to embark on democratic reforms. The tiny and impoverished country is an ASEAN member.
"We must address the current human rights situation while pressing for real progress in Laos," said Republican Representative Dan Burton, the bill's sponsor.
The resolution calls on the Laotian government and international bodies to work toward "access for election and human rights monitors, genuine multiparty democracy, and the halt of violence against the Hmong, also the release of political and religious prisoners and the promotion of religious freedom throughout Laos."
Rights groups claimed the Laotian military was practicing "Kosovo-like" ethnic cleansing on Hmong tribesmen waging an ineffective, low-level insurgency for the nearly three decades since their US sponsors abandoned them at the end of the Vietnam War.
Philip Smith, executive director for the Washington-based Center for Public Policy Analysis, described the resolution as "historic" as it was only the second such measure specific to Laos passed by the House since the end of the Vietnam War.
"It also comes at a time when a serious crisis faces the Hmong people," he said. The last such bill was passed in 1999 when the Laotian government came under fire for launching a crackdown on student demonstrations, he said.
Several US lawmakers said many of Hmong emerging from the jungle might be under the impression that there was an amnesty program organized by the Laotian government.
But the Laotian government reportedly denies the existence of any such program. It also flatly rejects the charges of rights groups.
Journalists and humanitarian groups are not provided access to the prominent highland minority Hmong group.
The resolution passed Thursday claimed that tens of thousands of Laotian and Hmong people were killed or died at the hands of the military while attempting to flee since the communist regime took over the country in 1975. Many others died in reeducation and labor camps, it said.
An estimated 300,000 Laotians live in the United States.
Many of them fear that the former insurgents have been captured by the Laotian military and possibly killed.
The measure urges the Laotian government to provide human rights and humanitarian groups "unrestricted access" to closed military zones, where the rebels had allegedly been tortured after being lured to give up their struggle.
Rights groups claim hundreds if not thousands of the Hmong rebels have been missing, fearing they may have been killed by the military.
The American legislators also asked the US government as well as the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to prod the communist-run nation to embark on democratic reforms. The tiny and impoverished country is an ASEAN member.
"We must address the current human rights situation while pressing for real progress in Laos," said Republican Representative Dan Burton, the bill's sponsor.
The resolution calls on the Laotian government and international bodies to work toward "access for election and human rights monitors, genuine multiparty democracy, and the halt of violence against the Hmong, also the release of political and religious prisoners and the promotion of religious freedom throughout Laos."
Rights groups claimed the Laotian military was practicing "Kosovo-like" ethnic cleansing on Hmong tribesmen waging an ineffective, low-level insurgency for the nearly three decades since their US sponsors abandoned them at the end of the Vietnam War.
Philip Smith, executive director for the Washington-based Center for Public Policy Analysis, described the resolution as "historic" as it was only the second such measure specific to Laos passed by the House since the end of the Vietnam War.
"It also comes at a time when a serious crisis faces the Hmong people," he said. The last such bill was passed in 1999 when the Laotian government came under fire for launching a crackdown on student demonstrations, he said.
Several US lawmakers said many of Hmong emerging from the jungle might be under the impression that there was an amnesty program organized by the Laotian government.
But the Laotian government reportedly denies the existence of any such program. It also flatly rejects the charges of rights groups.
Journalists and humanitarian groups are not provided access to the prominent highland minority Hmong group.
The resolution passed Thursday claimed that tens of thousands of Laotian and Hmong people were killed or died at the hands of the military while attempting to flee since the communist regime took over the country in 1975. Many others died in reeducation and labor camps, it said.
An estimated 300,000 Laotians live in the United States.
Many of them fear that the former insurgents have been captured by the Laotian military and possibly killed.
