The Editor
The Washington Times
Re: Articles by Mr Ben Barber 1st - 4th December
6/12/97
Sir,
Ben Barber's recent series of four articles on the Hmong and US policies towards Laos published in the Washington Times has generated notable reactions amongst the refugee Lao community. Personally I regard the first three articles as a non-event - characterised by lack of substantive information, a high incidence of factual errors and faulty understanding in what little substantive information is included, and a general lack of direction and logical argument. In short - the author successfully shows off his complete ignorance of the subject and his lack of research. I shall therefore concentrate on the final article in his series, "U.S. policy toward Laos divides Hmong community in America - War veterans' claims of genocide disputed. Part IV: Politics and the Hmong" published in the Washington Times on 4th December 1997.
Since Barber - and most readers of the Washington Times - have little understanding of the complex political and psychological situation in Laos today, I shall start by drawing an analogy with a situation that all Americans understand considerably better. Imagine Barber boldly striding into a busy café in Vichy Paris during the Second World War for an "investigative report" on allegations of Nazi persecution of Jews. With a US flag draped over his shoulders, carrying a large tape recorder and with a bulbous microphone in his hand all eyes focus on him as he barges up to the proprietor and in a loud American voice suggests a surreptitious interview behind closed doors, "in complete confidence".
Would such an approach inspire confidence in security? I am sure that
most of your readers will conjecture that most of the proprietor's answers
in this situation would be bland and misleading. "No, there is no persecution
of the Jews at all, I am sure. It is true that the Germans prefer to drink
beer with non-Jews than with Jews, but there's no real prejudice. We're
all one happy family really." Barber then interviews the Vichy French
authorities and the German Military High Command in Paris, to find out whether
there is any truth in the rumours that the Germans are searching for Jews
and sending them to concentration camps.
After a brief interview with the President of the Association of Swiss Bankers
and a briefing from the Swiss Embassy in Paris, Barber then talks to volunteers
from the Swiss Red Cross. "Well, we are a bit concerned about rather
rough treatment of the Jews by the Germans, but I wouldn't go so far as
to say that there is any abuse of basic human rights as such. There have
been some reports that large numbers of Jews have been sent to concentration
camps in cattle trucks and gassed, and some reports of Jews being forced
into hard labour in concentration camps and treated like animals, but we
have not yet seen any concrete evidence of this. We have not received any
complaints from Jews who have been gassed or sent to concentration camps,
nor have we seen any bodies. It all seems pretty far fetched to me."
Barber duly files his article by telegram to the Washington Post: "Some Jewish refugees fleeing from France and Germany have reported atrocities being committed by the Nazis and extremists are even talking of genocide, but the claims have been firmly denied by the Germans and by the French authorities. Foreign aid workers in Paris and the diplomatic community have denied that any abuse of human rights has taken place, and there does not seem to be any evidence to support the reports.
"A Red Cross official said it was aware of the report and others like it but that they could not be verified. 'Our embassy in Paris tried to run down reports and did not find any attacks on Jews or any of the things charged,' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"An investigation by The Washington Times in the Jewish regions of Paris, without a government 'minder' listening in, produced no evidence of systematic human rights abuses of the Jews.
"Interviews were conducted over a two-week period with Jews, repatriated refugees, businessmen, academics, educators, Jewish-American visitors, Vichy French government officials, and German military officials - often speaking behind closed doors and on condition of anonymity."
This will be seen by some as a very extremist caricature of Barber's article, yet it is exactly what he has done. He has gone into a highly complex political situation where lives are threatened and where powerful commercial interests are active without any sensitivity to the constraints that are operating. He has taken at face value statements which are blatantly false as a result of inadequate research and lack of scrutiny.
The situation in Laos today bears comparison to that of Vichy France during the war. Firstly and contrary to public knowledge Laos is in a state of military occupation by foreign forces - since 1975 Laos has been occupied and controlled by Vietnamese troops, a fact conveniently ignored by Ms Wendy Chamberlain and her 365 day/year Christmas Party friends of the diplomatic community in Vientiane. In 1977 Vietnam signed a treaty with ethnic Vietnamese Kaysone Phomvihane * which transferred all aspects of sovereignty of Laos to Vietnam and gave Vietnam the right to station Vietnamese troops throughout Laos to protect their control over the country. The treaty was not approved by then President Prince Souphanouvong (the so-called Red Prince), who was furious that the treaty had been signed. Key Lao leaders were secretly executed by the Vietnamese in order to consolidate their control over the country, such as the key ethnic Lao Theung leader Sithon Khammadam who refused to accept Vietnamese control (murdered in 1979), Deuan Souvannarath (murdered in 1979 during a visit to East Germany; all his close friends were also murdered), Sali Vongkhamsao, and Dr Vannareth Rasapho (murdered in early 1996 after trying unsuccessfully to meet with Lao refugees from the former Czechoslovakia in August 1995. The Vietnamese could never have gained control of Laos without the help of Prince Souphanouvong; after he realised he had been tricked they did not dare kill him outright because he was so respected and trusted by his people - instead they caused paralysis by injection of dangerous chemicals and forced him out of public life. (* Then Prime Minister, later President - Kaysone Phomvihane and Nouhak Phoumsavanh were the only truly communist leaders of the Pathet Lao forces, and were both Vietnamese).
Any analysis of the political situation in Laos is grossly misleading without an acknowledgement of the fundamental fact that Laos is secretly controlled by Vietnam. The government ministers are but puppets (in most cases with only a primary school education) whose speeches are written for them by the special Vietnamese secret service PC38, whose headquarters are at Km 6 in Vientiane with overall command in Hanoi. All ministerial decisions are taken by PC38, not by the official government. (An identical secret service operates in Cambodia, also under the command of Hanoi; both Laos and Cambodia are treated by Vietnam as provinces of Vietnamese Indochina, modelled after the former French Indochina).
Barber claims that the Lao Loum refer to the Hmong derogatively as "Meo" (meaning barbarians), yet the word Meo is not Lao but Chinese, and virtually no Lao Loum know the meaning of the word. The Chinese have referred to the Hmong as Meo for over a thousand years, as can be seen from ancient Chinese manuscripts, and Meo is the normal accepted term in use in China today. The persecution of the Hmong in Laos is carried out not by the Lao but by the government - i.e. the Vietnamese. The Vietnamese are well known for their intense hatred of the Hmong. In their own country they have persecuted not just the Hmong but also many other ethnic minorities such as the Montagnards, who like the Hmong were trained as a secret army by the CIA, and who have since 1975 been massacred in large numbers by the Vietnamese. For example one group which numbered 12,000 in 1976 numbered only 550 by November 92.
The genocide of the Hmong is just as real as the Jewish holocaust, but it is carried out not by the Lao but by the Vietnamese. In a single day in June 1995 over 5000 Hmong women and children were murdered in two caves in the mountains of Xieng Khuang by burning sacks of chilli in the entrance to the caves (the burning chilli gives off poisonous dioxin gas, which kills within minutes). Large scale massacres were committed throughout Laos in 1995, 1996 and 1997 in almost every province including Xieng Khuang, Borikhamsay, Khammouan, Attapeu, Vientiane Province, Sayaboury, Luang Prabang and Phongsaly. In May 1995 three truck loads of armed Hmong drove into the centre of the normally sleepy town of Luang Prabang after very large scale massacres of Hmong women and children in the mountains to the North-East of the town. The total Hmong population of Laos and Vietnam in 1975 is tiny compared to the total Jewish population in Europe before the war, but the proportions of their numbers murdered since 1975 are considerably greater than the proportions of the Jews murdered in the Holocaust. The Germans were unusual in the meticulous records that they kept, but accurate figures are normally impossible to obtain in cases of genocide as the perpetrators go to great lengths to destroy the evidence as quickly as possible. To this day nobody has any good estimate of the numbers killed in the massacres of Tienanmen Square or Bangkok although both tragedies received very substantial global media coverage. Getting high quality evidence of massacres in the remote mountains of Laos is many orders of magnitude more difficult, which facilitates a policy of "plausible denial" for those whose commercial interests make such a policy expedient.
Despite these huge difficulties Dr Vang Pobzeb has managed to assemble a very substantial dossier of evidence of genocide committed by the (Vietnamese) Vientiane government which constitutes compelling evidence of ethnic genocide. This is a remarkable achievement. Evidence inevitably concerns only the tip of the iceberg, but some of the evidence is extremely detailed and comprehensive.
The Hmong are not alone in Laos in suffering from persecution from the Vietnamese mafia who have controlled the country since 1975: over 90,000 political prisoners were officially executed in concentration camps between 1975 and 1994 according to reliable sources (this figure excludes the ethnic genocide of the Hmong which was carried out exclusively in the mountains, and many extra-judicial killings of Lao Loum and other ethnic groups). Many of these 90,000 were Lao Loum, imprisoned only on the charge of being "anti-Vietnamese". The total population of Laos in 1975 (including Lao Loum, and all ethnic minorities) was a little over 3 million; between 1975 and 1986 when the borders were closed over one million fled - a third of the population.
Those murdered by the regime even include many foreigners. In late 1994/early 1995 two Australian development workers and a number of Lao working for the Palavec opium crop replacement programme were murdered by drug baron General Cheng Sayavong as a warning to the UNDCP to limit their activities. Officially the series of incidents were ascribed to bandits but senior sources within the project have privately disclosed that the attacks were closely related to opposition from within the Vientiane government to the drug control programme. Also in 1995 French businessman Claude Vincent was murdered, in the same region as the Australians, on the Route 13 highway between Vientiane and the former Royal capital Luang Prabang, between Kasi and Phou Khoun; the killing was almost certainly the result of a clash of business interests with the state monopoly BPKP, run by drug baron General Cheng Sayavong. I can personally testify that on 30th June 1996 the Toyota land cruiser of a Swedish forestry consultant working for the Swedish aid organisation SIDA was sprayed with bullets by uniformed government soldiers using AK47's, almost killing the driver. This was also on Route 13 between Kasi and Phou Khoun, the favourite extra-judicial killing ground.
On 17th May 1997 two Czech citizens were shot on the same site, 9 Km south of Phou Khoun, by the Vietnamese army using a 12.7 mm calibre cannon. One of the Czechs was killed, the other was imprisoned and only released 3 weeks later after the intervention of the Cuban Ambassador following unanimous protests from the diplomatic community in Vientiane. As a condition of his release the surviving Czech was forced to sign a fabricated "confession" that he and his father - armed only with two small pocket knives, carrying 30kg backpacks, and wounded from the 12.7 mm cannon - had chased a group of soldiers armed with AK47's. We have crucial video and documentary evidence proving that the army admit to having intentionally carried out the Czech murder using the 12.7 mm cannon, and that it was premeditated.
Other killings committed in recent years by the Vientiane government include American citizens, Swiss, Japanese and others. Many Americans and Australians and several other nationals have also been illegally imprisoned by the Interior Ministry, mostly in order to be held hostage for ransom.
Your intrepid Washington Times reporter is very pleased with himself
after meeting the American Ambassador and several Congressmen, and believes
the Foreign Vice-Minister's flattering claims that he was the first accredited
journalist allowed to travel freely in Laos without a government "minder"
since the 1975 communist victory (not remotely true - the regime have more
effective ways of discretely limiting what journalists see and hear). However
if he genuinely believes that his sources were any more inclined to talk
openly than the Paris café proprietor described above then he is
seriously deluding himself.
It is difficult to realistically convey the complex drama of intrigue and
fear that underlie the placid exterior of life in Laos to someone who has
not had intimate first hand experience of the covert methods of the Vietnamese
communists, but the following incident goes some way to illustrating the
nature of the problem. A close friend of mine moved from his native Huapanh
Province to Vientiane a few years ago, and tried to find his sister's house.
He knew roughly where to look, and soon found himself on the doorstep of
(as it later transpired) his sister's own next door neighbour asking for
directions. The owner of the house flatly denied any knowledge of my friend's
sister, even though in reality they were next door neighbours and friends.
It took my friend two weeks of further searching before he found his sister,
living next door to the first house he had asked. My friend explained to
me that people in Vientiane are automatically very suspicious when a stranger
comes asking questions about a neighbour because it may be a government
agent trying to create problems. Although my friend explained that he was
looking for his sister, the neighbour did not know him and therefore did
not trust him. Even I as a foreigner once had exactly the same experience
looking for another Lao friend, where the next door neighbour (whose entrance
was only 5 yards away) claimed not to know my friend.
The communist administration in Laos is structured in such a way as to allow the State apparatus to monitor the population right down to the village level, without even the villagers knowing who is reporting on them. For example each village has its own village police force, acting under the command of the Head of the village. At least two of the village police and one of the deputy Heads of the village also report directly to the Interior Ministry, but even the Head of the village himself is not allowed to know which of his deputies and police also spy for the Interior Ministry. In addition many ordinary villagers are recruited to spy for the Interior Ministry, reporting to the Interior Ministry spy network. The rural Lao villagers will talk freely at a superficial level about their lives and problems, but invariably keep silent about the most sensitive political problems, especially the role of Vietnam in controlling Laos.
The fact that the US State Department's 1996 Human Rights Report on Laos
claims that: "There were no reports of political or extra-judicial
killings … there were no reports of politically motivated disappearances
… there have been no allegations concerning the detention of citizens
for political reasons for several years" is an indictment of the Clinton
administration's scant respect for the rights of US elected representatives
to accurate information on the operations and policies of the executive
arm. The above-mentioned report is a gross mis-representation of information
in the possession of the US State Department.
We have strong evidence that Ambassador Chamberlain has attempted to lessen
or at least not identify the problems within Laos through her country reports
to the US State Department and other government departments and elected
officials. At the same time we have strong evidence that notwithstanding
the omissions of Ambassador Chamberlain the US State Department are well
aware that their report is a gross mis-representation of the facts. For
example they are well aware of the regular shootings on Highway 13, and
they are well of the regular illegal detention of businessmen of US and
other nationalities in Vientiane, usually to be held hostage for ransom.
They are well aware for example of the payment of US$ 55,000 to a very senior
Interior Ministry official in 1996 for the release of a US citizen (US$
125,000 was originally demanded). Why then do they deliberately deceive
US Congressmen and US citizens?
Similarly the DEA report on Laos for 1996 claims that "there is no evidence that the Lao government is involved in the trafficking in narcotics at a high level" - yet the DEA are well aware that narcotics trafficking in Laos is controlled by General Cheng Sayavong, General Sisavath Keobounphanh, General Khamtay Siphandon (Prime Minister of the Lao P. D. R.), and Nouhak Phoumsavanh (President of the Lao P. D. R.). Not only do these four men produce 200 tons of opium per year in Laos, but more importantly act as brokers for the sale of 2000 tons of Burmese opium on the international markets. The drugs pass from Burma through Lao and Cambodian territory into Thailand for distribution around the globe. The DEA are also well aware that these four men have massive deposits of drug revenues in secret bank accounts in Switzerland, Australia, Singapore and Thailand. In 1991 a young Lao government official Khinthavone Bounthakhom was ordered by the Vientiane government to market several tons of opium left over from the previous year's crop. Although he had heard many stories about government involvement in narcotics he was shocked to be confronted with the harsh reality of official involvement, and fled to political asylum in the United States. By 1992 he had filed an extremely detailed report on government involvement in the trade in narcotics with the State Department, but to this day the State Department have declined to take the matter further. Why then do they deliberately deceive US Congressmen and US citizens?
President Clinton and his Cabinet are hell-bent on awarding Most Favoured Nation status to Laos no matter what terrorist crimes they commit and no matter what abuses of human rights they commit. In early November Assistant Secretary of State Talbot visited Vientiane and told the Vientiane government that the US administration is committed to developing trade with the regime. The US administration is currently effectively prevented from doing so however, in part by the presence in the US Federal Courts of major legal proceedings against the Lao government which are likely to have a major impact on perception of the regime over the coming months. Other important legal proceedings against the Lao government are currently being discussed with lawyers in the US, including prosecution for genocide.
Taken as a whole the article comes across as a rather clumsy attempt at the manipulation of a naïve and inexperienced journalist by representatives of the US administration and international organisations with frankly rather farcical results. Laos is the forgotten country of Asia - it was forgotten (for the convenience of the superpowers) during the American secret war in Laos in which the US dropped two million tons of bombs on a peace-loving country that was not at war with the US - and today it is forgotten (for the convenience of transnational corporations) while the Vietnamese army commit ethnic genocide in Laos and while the Lao Prime Minister and the Lao President send heroin to the drug dealers on the streets of New York.
As long as the international media decline to take a serious interest in Laos such manipulation will continue to be an easy task for them. Narcotics will continue to pour out of Laos, thousands of innocent women and children will continue to be murdered each year, and the transnational corporations will rub their hands with glee as they rape Laos of its exceptionally rich natural resources.
Yours faithfully,
Jonathan Brown
Chairman, Lao Houn Mai
