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Lao insurgents thrust country into global spotlight

"The arrests in the north and this latest attack have thrust unwanted attention on an ongoing problem that has never been solved, namely the couple of thousand Hmong resisting military efforts to crush them."

Grant Evans, Laos-based academic

Sleepy Laos, a landlocked, impoverished country run by a secretive, communist government, rarely finds itself in the international spotlight.

The recent arrests, however, of two European journalists have focused unwelcome attention on an ongoing insurgency by a desperate band of Hmong minority fighters holding out against a regime intent on their elimination.

A bomb blast on a Vientiane-bound passenger bus in the southern province of Khammuan on Wednesday evening, in which one person was killed and 20 others injured, has also triggered debate over other pockets of instability.

The government has blamed that attack on "bandits" intent on robbery, consistent with its stance that Laos has never had an insurgency problem.

Two deadly ambushes in February and April this year along the same north-south highway were also blamed on "bandits," although diplomats believe they were the work of Hmong rebels trying to draw attention to their cause.

The official explanation for Wednesday's blast has convinced few, but analysts say it is too early to pin the blame on the Hmong insurgents, who have traditionally operated further north.

"I can't see any signs of general disaffection in that area. It could simply have been because the bus driver didn't pay his gambling debts," said Grant Evans, a Vientiane-based Lao academic from the University of Hong Kong.

"However, the arrests in the north and this latest attack have thrust unwanted attention on an ongoing problem that has never been solved, namely the couple of thousand Hmong resisting military efforts to crush them."

The events of the last few weeks are also likely to cast a further shadow over the country's tourism industry, a vital source of hard cash for Laos, already battered by the region's SARS crisis.

Members of the Hmong and other ethnic minority groups were recruited by the CIA to fight its secret war in Laos against North Vietnamese troops and Pathet Lao rebels during the Vietnam War.

But after the 1973 Paris Peace Accord, which paved the way for the US withdrawal from the region, they were abandoned to their fate in their hideouts in the northern mountains.

The ragtag militia, however, was never completely wiped out by the Lao army despite assistance from Vietnam, which officially maintained a military presence in Laos until 1989 and unofficially until at least 2000.

It was the plight of the Hmong resistance that lured Thierry Falise, a freelance reporter from Belgium, Vincent Reynaud, a French cameraman and photographer, and Naw Karl Mua, an American pastor of Hmong origin, to Laos.

Sneaking into the country on tourist visas, they were arrested with four Lao nationals, on June 4 in Xieng Khuang province, northeast of Vientiane, and accused of "cooperating with bandits" who killed a village security guard.

Subsequently transferred to the capital, the three men are being held at Phonthong Prison, an institution where Amnesty International says torture and ill-treatment is often meted out to prisoners regardless of their nationality.

Last week French and US diplomats visited the three men outside of the prison. They have yet to be informed of the charges against the trio.

The fate of the four Lao nationals remains unknown and the authorities have refused to release their names, revealing the sinister side of a country famous for its soporific atmosphere, beautiful temples and smiling faces.

Foreign ministry spokesman Sodom Petrasy sought Friday to play down fears expressed by human-rights groups over the safety of the detainees.

"I can assure you that the three foreigners and the four Lao will not be tortured or ill-treated in prison," he told reporters.

But Australian Kay Danes, who was detained in Phonthong with her husband Kerry on theft charges before being released in October 2001 after a 10-month diplomatic campaign, cast doubts on the assurances.

"Most prisoners are beaten, many are tortured," she said.

"The prisoners there will be pleading with the new arrivals to help them when they eventually go free. But most foreigners once released just want to get on with their lives and forget the suffering they saw," she said.

Despite the very serious murder allegations hanging over their heads, diplomats are hopeful that the three foreign detainees will be expelled from the country without being brought to trial.

"This would enable the government to make a point of deterring other journalists from entering Laos without getting the proper authorization," said one western diplomat requesting anonymity.

"It would also be a face-saving outcome because senior government figures such as Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavat have come out with fairly tough public statements on the case."

If this best-case scenario plays out, the two journalists and their American guide will emerge with an unanticipated tale or two to tell and Laos will probably slip back into obscurity again -- unless the Hmong have their way.
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