I posted this story so that American readers might learn about one of their lesser-known ethnic communities. The Hmong are a Laotian ethnic group that assisted the US during the Vietnam war, at great cost to themselves. They are still persecuted back home. Many refugees have settled in the US in Minnesota, California, and some other Midwestern towns, and I believe there's an enclave in Detroit. Asian-Americans are considered a "model minority," but Asian-Americans are very diverse, and that image doesn't hold true of every ethnic group, or of everyone within the more successful ethnic groups. While they are Asian, the Hmong are not one of the well-off minorities. They weren't rich to begin with, and fleeing a homeland because of persecution tends to have an adverse effect on well-being.
By GARANCE BURKE Associated Press Writer
FRESNO, Calif. Jun 5, 2007 (AP)
Many of the thousands of Hmong refugees who fled to the United States following the Vietnam War never accepted the communist government that took power in their native Laos.
And if federal prosecutors are right, some apparently never abandoned their dream of toppling it.
A revered leader of the Hmong-American population was among 10 men charged this week with plotting to overthrow the Laotian regime in a case that has shaken the growing immigrant community.
Many Hmong credit Vang Pao, a former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led Hmong counterinsurgents, with helping them build new lives in the U.S. In California and Minnesota, where the first large wave of refugees settled in the 1980s, Hmong-American politicians are rising quickly through political ranks.
Despite that momentum, some in the community say elders still long to return to their highland villages.
"People of my father's generation have hoped one day that they could go back to a free Laos and farm the plot of land they left 30 years ago," said state Rep. Cy Thao, of St. Paul, Minn. "Vang Pao is sort of their last hope. You hear them talk about it, but you don't ever think it will come to this point."
An undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives secretly recorded a Feb. 7 luncheon meeting with Vang Pao, former California National Guard Lt. Col. Harrison Ulrich Jack and others at a Thai restaurant a few blocks from the state Capitol in Sacramento, according to the agent's affidavit. They then walked to a recreational vehicle parked nearby to examine machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank rockets, anti-personnel mines and other weapons, the agent wrote.
Hmong leaders had agreed to buy $9.8 million worth of military weapons, Jack said in a recorded conversation, with much of the money coming from immigrants throughout the United States, the affidavit states.
Vang Pao appeared briefly in federal court Tuesday in Sacramento.
"General Vang Pao has worked actively to pursue peaceful solutions to the problems in Laos and has disavowed violence," his attorney, John Balazs, said afterward. "We look forward to a trial where we can demonstrate General Pao's innocence."
An attorney for Jack declined comment after a court proceeding Monday.
Vang Pao and the other nine defendants were scheduled for detention hearings later this week. Prosecutors recommended that all be held without bail until their trials.
"People don't know right now whether the charges are justified or a witch hunt. We just want people to remember that for 20 years the Hmong community has worked to make sure that this is our home," said Peter Vang, refugee community liaison for Fresno County, home to about 30,000 ethnic Hmong.
After fighting as U.S.-backed guerillas in Laos, members of the ethnic minority were all but abandoned when the country fell to communist forces in 1975. More than 300,000 Laotian refugees, mostly Hmong, fled into Thailand.
About 145,000 members of Laotian ethnic groups resettled in the U.S., establishing large enclaves in Fresno, St. Paul, Minn., cities across Wisconsin and in small towns throughout Arkansas' Ozark mountains.
Among those charged Monday were the founder of Fresno's annual Hmong International New Year celebration, a former police officer from the nearby suburb of Clovis and a former aide to a Wisconsin state senator.
Federal prosecutors said the men conspired with a Laotian liberation movement, led in the U.S. by Vang Pao, who splits his time between homes in the Twin Cities which has the largest concentration of Hmong in the United States and Southern California. The group raised money, directed surveillance operations and organized a force of insurgent troops within Laos, according to the complaint.
Somphet Khoukahoun, the permanent secretary for the Lao Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Tuesday he would wait to comment until authorities were briefed by U.S. officials.
Like many of their counterparts in the U.S., Hmong leaders in Thailand said they found the charges unbelievable.
"I think the charges are meant by rival Hmong in the United States to smear him," said Ming Wui, a Hmong Christian minister.
In Laos, Hmong people are still subject to detentions and human rights violations, according to the U.S. Department of State. Many recent immigrants arrive still traumatized by war and decades of persecution, said Sharon Stanley, director of Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries.
Vang Pao's arrest has crushed families struggling to assume a new, American identity, said Blong Xiong, a Hmong-American city councilman in Fresno, where Hmong grocery stores and restaurants are fixtures in most shopping malls.
"I'm hoping that the mainstream understands that our community continues to share the American ideals we defended," Xiong said.
Associated Press writers Sutin Wannabovorn and Ambika Ahuja in Bangkok, Don Thompson in Sacramento and Gregg Aamot in Minneapolis contributed to this report.
So, many Hmong question whether the charges are true. Somehow, I think they're going to be disappointed. However, this does raise two questions. Vang Pao's alleged purchase of firearms (and we're talking machine guns and assault rifles, not handguns) would be illegal. But if he's going to overthrow an oppressive regime, wouldn't that be potentially acceptable under just war theory?
More importantly, even if he is guilty, was arresting him the right thing to do? He was clearly led into a sting. These guys did have to flee their homeland for fear of persecution. Even if he is guilty (he probably is), I don't think imprisoning him is the right thing to do, either.
Incidentally, there are cases where Southeast Asian kids, often children of refugees, who have grown up here but are not citizens (ie, parents weren't citizens and the kids were born abroad) are arrested for geniune crimes, and after their jail terms are deported. They grew up in the US, not in, say, Laos or Cambodia. They don't know the language. As I said, refugee status is a major psychosocial and financial stressor, and many of these kids would be fine if they weren't born to refugees. Deporting them for their crimes isn't exactly the just thing to do, either.
1 comment:
what...aren't your ancestor immigrant too...so you shouldn't be saying all those thing...acting all smart...also he was just trying to help...just as the president when they sent they army to war...dur...and ii think your trying to say that all hmong people are bad in which ii think thats not true because there are many race that do bad things too...ppsshhh
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