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Hi,
Please take the time to read this. It's absolutely horrifying what the current Laos government is doing to children in Laos. It is a regime fueled by our hard earned Tax Payers dollars… .
Kay Danes
Advocate
Foreign Prisoner Support Services
http://www.foreignprisoners.com
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Laos: Atrocities Against Children Are War Crimes
Tuesday, 14 September 2004, 8:41 am
Press Release: Amnesty International
Laos: Military atrocities against Hmong children are war crimes
Amnesty International is horrified by recent reports, including video evidence and witness testimony, of an attack by Lao soldiers against a group of five children, four of them girls, in the Xaisomboune military zone on 19 May 2004.
The children, aged between 13 and 16 years old and part of an ethnic Hmong rebel group, were brutally mutilated – the girls apparently raped before being killed – by a group of approximately 30-40 soldiers. The victims – four girls, Mao Lee, 14; her sister Chao Lee, 16; Chi Her, 14; Pang Lor, 14; and Tou Lor, Pang Lor's 15 year old brother – were killed whilst foraging for food close to their camp. They were unarmed.
The attacks violate the most fundamental principles of international human rights and humanitarian law. These rapes and killings constitute war crimes. The Lao authorities must bring to justice those responsible for this atrocity and cease attacks on unarmed civilians.
A witness, who has subsequently fled the country and been recognized as a refugee by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, reported hearing one of the soldiers saying: “Meo (Hmong). Your kael ni (mouth) allows you to speak. Your hin (vagina) allows you to breed”.
He then heard moans and a gunshot.
Mao Lee was shot in each breast and the other bodies were mutilated by what appears to be high-powered rifle shots fired at close range. One of the girls was disemboweled.
Several other members of the group were seriously injured with gun shot wounds but managed to return to their encampment. The rebels have little if any medicine and rely on traditional treatments using plants found in the forest.
The Lao authorities must, as a matter of utmost urgency, permit UN agencies and independent monitors unfettered access to those rebels who are recently reported to have ‘surrendered’. They must also permit humanitarian agencies to provide medical and food assistance to those injured as a result of this and other military actions against the rebels.
Background
The Hmong ethnic minority group in Laos was allied to the US during the Viet Nam war and its spill-over fighting in both Laos and Cambodia. The Hmong people have a long history of resistance and aspirations of independence from Lao government control. Following the creation of the Lao People's Democratic Republic in 1975 and the fall of the former regime, as many as a third of the Hmong ethnic minority are believed to have fled the country. Most of these refugees resettled in the USA, but a large number spent many years in refugee camps in Thailand.
Sporadic military resistance to the government has continued among some ethnic groups, predominantly Hmong. There are also continuing allegations of serious human rights abuses against those Hmong perceived as still being opposed to the Lao government.
There have been increasing concerns over the last two years at an apparent increase in Lao government military activity against rebel groups, who along with armed adult men also comprise a large number of women, children, elderly and sick. The upsurge in military activity followed increasing international concern at the situation, which was triggered by a number of journalists visiting rebel groups and reporting their plight.
Credible sources have reported the deaths of scores of civilians, mainly children, from starvation and injuries sustained during the conflict. It is known that several of approximately 20 rebel groups with their families are surrounded by Lao military and prevented from foraging for food that they traditionally rely on to survive. Amnesty International has protested to the Lao authorities at what it believes is the use of starvation as a weapon of war against civilians.
Several hundred ethnic Hmong rebels are reported to have "surrendered' to the Lao authorities in recent months. UN agencies, diplomats and journalists have not been given access to these people and Amnesty International has received conflicting reports as to their reception and treatment by the authorities.
Amnesty International has also repeatedly condemned indiscriminate attacks by armed opposition groups that have reportedly killed and injured civilians in Laos. Amnesty International unequivocally condemns these acts and has and will continue to call upon the perpetrators to cease all activities that are in violation of human rights and international humanitarian law.
Laos in the AI Report 2004: http://amnesty-news.c.topica.com/maacDWkaa9WkEbb0hPub/
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New video shows murdered, starved children in Laos
Published on Sep 14, 2004
Newly released video footage of critically wounded Hmong rebels and their family members seems poised to set off another diplomatic storm between the Vientiane government and the international community on the issue of human rights violations. The hour long videotape, seen by The Nation, reveals graphic and disturbing footage of armed troops and dying children. The bodies of four girls and one boy, all said to be between the ages of 12 and 16, are covered with gunshot wounds and knife cuts, allegedly incurred during an ambush by the Laotian military in an ongoing war that the government continues to deny.
Some of the victims appeared to have been shot at pointblank range, while the girls were visibly mutilated and shaken allegedly after being raped by their captors. The footage also showed scenes of parents and relatives weeping as they inspect victims bodies. The film is believed to have been taken from a restricted area in northern Laos, in the region of Xaysomboune, in May. It shows a group of 200 ethnic Hmong, some of them armed, wandering through remote jungles and living out of makeshift camps with virtually no form of contact with the outside world.
London based Amnesty International has expressed concern over the possibility that the Laotian government may be using starvation as a weapon of war, a claim that the Vientiane government vigorously denies. But footage filmed in late June 2003 goes some way to undermining this by clearly showing emaciated Hmong children in advanced stages of starvation.
This weeks edition of Time magazine quotes the country's foreign ministry spokesman as calling the tape “a fabrication harming the good image of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic by ill intentioned groups”.
The Hmong in the latest video appeared to be connected to the militia, and family members interviewed and photographed by Time in early 2003.
They were said to be descendants of the guerrilla army that had sided with US personnel to fight against the communists in Laosso called “secret war”.
“The US has an obligation to help these people. They are dying because their parents helped the US in the war. Its not right,”said Va Char, 39, a travelling salesman from Laos who took the footage and was quoted in Time.
Va Char was arrested last year while escorting two European journalists and their American translator to the Xaysomboune special zone to investigate the alleged atrocities. He escaped shortly after his arrest and fled to the mountains.
He was sentenced in absentia to 20 years in jail for possession of illegal drugs and weapons. US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said his trial fell “well short of international standards of jurisprudence”, according to Time.
Va Char told the magazine he had escaped from custody two days after his arrest and spent the next year on the run before reaching Thailand and the US, where he was granted political asylum.
In a statement to Time in reference to the claims made by Va Char, the US State Department said it had no “independent information about the alleged atrocity”, but added that “such allegations were serious and we will look into them and respond appropriately”. They also urged the Laotian government to launch an investigation into the incident. The country has consistently denied the existence of armed Hmong rebels on its soil, despite carrying out an unofficial amnesty programme to persuade the rebels to put down their arms. Last month in Bangkok, Laotian Defence Minister Douangchay Phichit described reports on the rebels existence and the alleged atrocities as ‘fabrications’ by the Hmong and other anti Vientiane elements living in exile. Moreover, the Vientiane government played up a so called ‘surrender’ by some 200 ethnic Hmong in Xiang Khuang last year, which informed sources insisted was just a coverup for their mass capture following a government led attack.
Don Pathan
The Nation
http://203.150.224.53/page.post.php3
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RESPONSE TO ARTICLE : New video shows murdered, starved children in Laos
KAY DANES - Former Political Prisoner Laos - 2000/2001
Laotian Defence Minister Douangchay Phichit described reports on the rebels existence and the alleged atrocities as ‘fabrications’ by the Hmong and other anti-Vientiane elements living in exile.
As a former political prisoner of Laos I can confirm that there are many Hmong labelled as ‘Freedom Fighters’ jailed in Laos. They are in Phonthong prison and Somkhe and other locations in the capital and in the countryside. I have sat and talked with them myself. I have given their details to Amnesty International and the Western Embassies in Laos. But still they sit rotting in these death camps without a sentence, without a charge,without hope to ever be free again. They are being starved to death and when they are gone… who will remember them?
I will never forget these Hmong and Laotians who are arbitrarily detained in Violation of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. They helped me survive a nightmare from hell as I witnessed prisoners being tortured and their genitals burned with fire. I will never forget their plea that I tell the world what I saw there in Phonthong.
They said to me “don't worry if Laos calls you a criminal because you will never leave this place… innocent. The main point is to tell the world they we suffer needlessly… that we are bound inhumanely, and that we are being killed for no reason other than that we are Hmong people”.
Please, do something to help those I left behind. The US Embassy knows that they are in those dark places. The Australian Embassy and other governments know they are there and suffer still. where is the justice for them? Where is humanity? You can see their names on my website. http://www.foreignprisoners.com
-KAY DANES
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