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Photojournalists in trouble for tackling Laos assignment

As two European journalists were trekking back from a 10-day assignment covering Hmong rebels in deep jungle in Laos, they came across a military patrol and witnessed a firefight with the rebels in which a local militiaman died.

Now the two freelance journalists and a US citizen who worked as their interpreter are being detained for alleged involvement in the killing.

That's the account given by a Canadian schoolteacher, Patrick Moisy, of the capture of Belgian photojournalist Thierry Falise and French cameraman Vincent Reynaud. Moisy, of Montreal, spoke at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand on Monday night.

Moisy met the two journalists a day after their arrest on June 4 in the northeastern Laotian province of Xieng Khouang.

After hiding during the fighting, the two attracted suspicion when they trudged, muddy and unshaven, toward the provincial capital Phonsavanh. They were stopped at a military checkpoint, arrested and stripped of their possessions.

It's not clear if they have yet been charged with any offense, but Laotian Foreign Minister Somsavath Lengsavad said Sunday that no leniency will be shown in their case.

Falise and Reynaud told Moisy that they had been reporting on the ethnic Hmong rebels fighting the communist government -- remnants of a CIA army that fought the communists during the Vietnam War before they came to power in 1975. The Laotian government denies the long-running rebellion even exists.

Moisy, who was traveling through Laos, met them at breakfast at a guesthouse in Phonsavanh where they were put up by the Laotian authorities after their arrest -- before they were due to be questioned for a second time.

"They felt really confident that everything was going to be alright," Moisy said.

But since meeting with police on June 5 they have remained in custody -- now in the Laotian capital Vientiane.

Reynaud's wife, who spoke briefly at the club, said her husband was not aware of the dangers he would face.

"They didn't go in as heroes for the Hmong. It was only an assignment for them," she said, voicing concern that the Laotian government will view them as supporters of the rebellion.

"The Hmong have been fighting for [their cause] for more than 20 years ... I started my war [to release her husband] a week ago," she said.

A French Embassy official met with Falise and Reynaud on Monday at police headquarters in Vientiane. Both "were examined by a doctor Friday and appeared in good health," according to a French Foreign Ministry statement released in Paris.
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