Thai deportation raises fears for 8,000 Hmong

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070611/wl_nm/thailand_laos_hmong_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AmS1kw6qsCmbyShA51K5fuNn.3QA

The United Nations said on Monday it was "deeply concerned" about Thailand's deportation of 163 ethnic Hmong to communist-ruled Laos, where U.S.-based Hmong exile groups say they face persecution and torture.

Hmong groups are linking this weekend's deportation to the recent arrest in California of former guerrilla leader Vang Pao, 77, who led his people in an anti-communist jungle army trained by the Central Intelligence Agency during the Vietnam War.

Vang Pao, who was arrested along with nine others, including a retired U.S. Army officer and Vietnam War veteran, is accused of masterminding a plot to overthrow his lifelong foes in the Lao government.

The future of another 8,000 Hmong still in a makeshift refugee camp in Thailand now hangs in the balance.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said it did not know whether any political fugitives were among the group deported as its officials had been denied access to conduct screening interviews.

"It is highly regrettable that such screening did not take place before the deportation," spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey said.

A spokesman for Thailand's army-appointed government, which recently struck a deal with Vientiane to send back Hmong "no matter how many bullet wounds they have," according to the Nation newspaper, refused to comment on its future plans.

Human rights and exile groups accuse Vientiane of waging a campaign of vengeance against the Hmong, including sending in helicopter gunships against a ragtag band of rebels holding out in the landlocked southeast Asian nation's dense forest.

A Lao government spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.