Release Date: 2008-03-19
Original Link: http://presszoom.com/story_144049.html
Source: Center for Public Policy Analysis
The Center for Public Policy Analysis and the families of three Hmong-American citizens from St. Paul, Minnesota, along with a coalition of Lao and Hmong organizations condemned the visit of Ambassador Ravic Huso to St. Paul, Minnesota while Lao troops are engaged in ethnic cleansing and military attacks against the Hmong people in Laos.
(PressZoom.com) - Rep. Betty McCollum (D-MN), Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) and Ambassador Ravic Huso were slammed for excluding from events today in St. Paul, Mrs. Sheng Xiong, wife of Hakit Yang, and not inviting the families of the three Hmong-American victims from St. Paul that are currently being jailed in Laos where they were arrested some seven months ago.
The Center for Public Policy Analysis and the families of three Hmong-American citizens from St. Paul, Minnesota, along with a coalition of Lao and Hmong organizations condemned the visit of Ambassador Ravic Huso to St. Paul, Minnesota while Lao troops are engaged in ethnic cleansing and military attacks against the Hmong people in Laos. They blasted Rep. Betty McCollum ( D-MN ), Senator Norm Coleman ( R-MN ) and Ambassador Ravic Huso for excluding, and not inviting the families of the three Hmong-American victims from St. Paul that are currently being jailed in Laos where they were arrested some seven months ago.
In recent weeks and months, The New York Times, and other independent news media and human rights organizations have documented the Darfur and Bosnia-like ethnic cleansing, mass starvation and military attacks in Laos directed at the Hmong people.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/003/2007
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/004/2004
“We simply cannot think of a more offensive and inappropriate time for Ambassador Ravic Huso to be hosted in St. Paul by Rep. Betty McCollum and Senator Norm Coleman and to be seeking to promote the twisted logic of increased travel, tourism and business investement in Laos while the Lao military is attacking and starving to death thousands of unarmed Hmong civilians hiding in the jungles of Laos,” stated Philip Smith, Executive Director for the Center for Public Policy Analysis in Washington, D.C. “The Bush Administration’s policy failure in Laos and the stench of appeasement that hangs over the head of Rep. Betty McCollum and Ambassador Ravic Huso are simply unbearable and have cost the lives of tens of thousands of innocent Hmong and Laotians who have been killed and starved by the Lao military regime; moreover, Ambassador Huso, in Neville Chamberlain-like fashion, continues to seek to white-wash the Lao regime’s atrocities against the Hmong and appease the corrupt Lao military regime with U.S. taxpayers’ money. Additionally, it is unforgivable that on Ambassador Ravic Huso’s visit to St. Paul, Minnesota, he has utterly failed to telephone, contact and meet with the three St. Paul, Minnesota Hmong families whose loved ones were arrested and jailed in Laos and raise the case of Hakit Yang and the others, at the highest ambassadorial and diplomatic level with the Lao regime; he is acting in bad faith and it rises to the level of scandal along with the mishandling by the Bush Administration of the Bosnia and Darfur-like crisis facing the Hmong people in Laos,” Smith concluded.http://www.presszoom.com/story_144026.html
“We want Vietnamese and Laos troops to stop attacking the Hmong people and to stop the illegal logging and exploitation of the freedom-loving Lao and Hmong people in Laos,” stated Bounthanh Rathigna, President of the United League for Democracy in Laos, Inc. “We urge the Bush Adminstration, Ambassador Ravic Huso, and especially Rep. Betty McCollum and Norm Coleman to work to immediately stop their appeasement of the Lao regime and to aggressively work to free the peaceful Lao pro-democracy student leaders as well as Mr. Hakit Yang and the other three Hmong Americans from St. Paul that the regime continues to imprison without charge,” he continued. http://www.media-newswire.com/release_1061830.html
Mr. Kenton Kue Xiong, President of the Lao Human Rights Council, Inc. of Minnesota and Wisconsin stated: “On behalf of the Lao Human Rights Council, we are gravely concerned about the atrocities taking place against our people in Laos by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, LPDR. As our U.S. Ambassador to Laos, we want to know what efforts you have taken on these humanitarian issues. Your U.S. tour agenda indicates that you will be promoting travel and business investment in Laos. . We believe that saving the lives of our relatives should take precedence over promoting LPDR interests.” http://www.media-newswire.com/release_1062130.html
Kenton Kue Xiong continued: “fearful of ill-treatment, arrestments, violence, retributions, and persecutions by the LPDR were factors driving thousands of Hmong families to inaccessible forest areas, which are strictly isolated from outside world.”
"We want the Lao government to release the Lao students pro-democracy demonstrator from the 1999 Lao Students Movement for Democracy peaceful protests in Vietiane, Laos," stated Boun Boualaphan, Minnesota Lao Community leader. "The Lao people are demanding that the Lao regime stop its army from attacking the Hmong people and we want Vietnam to withdrawal its many battalions of troops from Laos immediately.
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