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Hmong dream of peace, not a democratic Laos

For many in this squalid settlement, the name General Vang Pao elicits memories of a time when the Hmong people fought encroaching communism in Laos as favored allies of the US during the Vietnam War.

Three decades later, aging and broken Hmong refugees like former battalion commander Vang Seng have given up dreams of a free homeland, and just want to live peacefully in Thailand -- where this makeshift settlement is -- or to be resettled in the US.

Some Hmong guardedly acknowledge they have heard about the arrest in California of Vang Pao, a near-legendary former CIA-backed guerrilla general who fought in vain to stop the communist takeover of his country.

Vang Pao, 77, who fled to the US after the 1975 victory of the communist Pathet Lao, was one of a dozen people charged in the US earlier this month with plotting to violently overthrow the Laotian government.

His indictment shocked the overseas Hmong community, of which he is the informal but widely acknowledged leader.

The refugees here insist they had no role in the scheme and say that even if asked, they would not cross the border to fight in the Laos jungles that most left behind a few years ago.

"I am already old. There is no way to win the fight," said former soldier Vang Seng, 57, the settlement's leader. "I only want to live in a peaceful place where I can find food to feed my children and send them to school."

Another former soldier, Yang Jo, concurred.

"I don't want to go back anymore," the 56-year-old said. "I was in the jungle for 32 years. That's enough. There was nothing to eat but potatoes."

Vang Pao and his co-defendants were charged with conspiracy to violate the Neutrality Act, as well as several other felonies associated with an alleged plot to purchase nearly US$10 million in weapons, including AK-47 rifles and Stinger missiles, and to hire mercenaries to help spearhead attacks.

According to a court document obtained by the press, the plan -- dubbed Operation Popcorn -- outlines a US$28 million budget to pay local mercenaries to carry out the plot, then shut down all access into or out of the country. Martial law would be established in the capital before Laos was transitioned to democracy.

Prosecutors say the group's goal was to bomb government buildings and shoot down military aircraft in an effort to topple the country's communist regime, which has persecuted US-sympathizing Hmong since the Vietnam War's end.

While the weapons were allegedly going to be shipped through Thailand on the way to neighboring Laos, it remains unclear what role, if any, the Hmong in this settlement were expected to play.

Thai authorities have dismissed the notion that weapons could pass through the heavily guarded camp, with a checkpoint and patrolling soldiers.

"How are they going to transport the weapons here?" said Lieutenant General Thiradej Kocharat, the northern region's army chief. "It is not easy to bring them in. We have imposed strict measures."

The dirty, crowded settlement in the village of Huay Nam Khao -- mostly bamboo huts with plastic sheeting in northern Thailand's mountains, about 100km from Laos -- has been home to some 8,000 Hmong who fled Laos since 2004.

About 300,000 Hmong poured into Thailand after 1975, many later resettling in the US and elsewhere. More than 15,000 from a refugee camp in Thailand were resettled in the US in 2005 in a last bid to pay the historical debt for their Vietnam War ties.

Washington says it has no plans to resettle more Hmong.

While many Hmong in Laos have reached an accommodation with the communist government, thousands remain on the run in the jungles, fighting a desperate rearguard battle against soldiers because they fear what might befall them if they surrender.

Others still stream into Thailand, lured by the notion they will get refugee status in a third country. Some are caught and sent back to Laos, but many others have managed to settle in Huay Nam Khao -- the only Hmong refugee camp in the country.

Life in the village for the mix of elderly soldiers and young families is a monotonous waiting game for word of their refugee status.

Barred from leaving the village and unable to work, they are forced to depend mostly on handouts from the humanitarian agency Medecins Sans Frontieres.

There are no schools. Homes have no electricity.

"The density of the population is very high, which has caused sanitation problems in the area," said Gilles Isard, chief of the group's Thai operation.

Authorities are planning to move the Hmong later this month to nearby locations where hundreds of new huts have been built in a compound surrounded by a barbed wire fence.

The move was planned several months ago over concerns that camp was becoming crowded.

Relations with Thai authorities are tense. Many Hmong fear they will be repatriated to Laos, where they could face persecution.

On June 9, about 160 were caught trying to sneak into Huay Nam Khao, and deported.

Thai authorities have insisted the Hmong in Huay Nam Khao are illegal immigrants, and have denied the UN refugee agency access to them.

Few Hmong in the village would talk about the alleged plot against Laos, and most said they never knew Vang Pao firsthand.

Former soldier Vang Yong Tong, 53, said he heard about the charges against Vang Pao -- whom he referred to as "father" -- on US-sponsored Radio Free Asia, which beams its broadcasts to authoritarian states like Laos.

But he too said it would be suicide to consider returning in a bid to overthrow the Laos regime.
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