To many Americans they have never heard of the Hmongs, a group of indigenous people to South East Asia, who we bribed/paid and or coerced to help Americans fight the North Vietnamese in Laos and Cambodia during the late 60s and early 70s. Many were brougt into the United States after the Vietnam War ended mainly thru camps in Thailand for refugees of the Vietnam war, Cambodia and Laos, many of them sought the safety of Thailand where we still maintained military bases well into the later 70s.
They were looking for the help in getting to the United States for them and their families, promises made and broken by people working in our government, pretty much the same thing we are doing today to the Iraqi citizens that work for our military and or State department. Due to aiding us they are now targets by certain members of their own population.
Why am I writing this story today, I read this story in the NY Times titled" Thailand Begins Repatriation of Hmong to Laos
Members of a mountain tribe that aided the United States in its secret war in Laos, the asylum seekers have said they fear retribution by the Laotian government, which continues to battle a ragged insurgency of several hundred Hmong fighters.
Thailand moved ahead with the repatriation despite complaints from the United States, the United Nations, and human rights and aid groups. It was doing so although it has determined that some asylum seekers were eligible for refugee status, human rights groups said.
"This forced repatriation would place the refugees in serious danger of persecution at the hands of the Lao authorities, who to this day have not forgiven the Hmong for being dedicated allies of the United States during the Vietnam War," Joel R. Charny, acting president of Refugees International, an advocacy group in Washington, said in a statement.
Even "Doctors without Borders" quit aiding these people in May 2009 due to the treatment of the Hmong refugees and them being forced thru Thai government checkpoints just to get in and out of the detention camps to visit the "doctors" who were providing them with medical care.
This week end before we celebrate the New Year, the 4000 Hmongs will be forced onto Thai military vehicles, buses, trucks, etc whatever transport can be found and forcibly taken into Laos, and whatever uncertain future awaits them.
The Laotian government states they will help them "resettle" I guess shooting them and dumping their bodies into mass graves is a way of resettling them, although not one I would want done to one of my family members.
Why isn't the State Department doing more to stop this atrocity, we spent millions upon millions of dollars on aid to Thailand, we promised the Hmongs assistance when they agreed to work with us or for us in the 1960s and 70s, so why can this nation turn it's back now? Why?
If this is how we treat people that trusted us and worked for us during an unpopular war, what are we going to do to or for the Iraqi's that trust and believe us now?
The last I have heard is there are about 2 and a half million Iraqi refugees, whatis to become of them, this nation takes very few of them, let alone the people who worked for us, we turn our back on them, why?
If this is how we treat our "friends" I wonder what we do to the people we don't like? Can these 4,000 Hmongs deserve to die, because the Thai govt wants them out of their jungle? Why can't the US fly them to Guam and then on into different states with large Hmong populations and assist them, it's the least we can do for our allies.
Happy New Year I think not, thinking about how we are treating our "friends" who helped us in a war, that all but destroyed their way of life. Which may very well cost them their lives.