U.S. officials are right to be concerned about the fate of some 800 Hmong people who were forced to leave Thailand and return to Laos, where they believe their lives will be in danger.

This has been a continuing story. Hmong people had fought communist guerrillas in Laos during the Vietnam War, and also assisted downed U.S. pilots and operated remote radar installations for the American military. As such, they deserve support and consideration from the U.S. government.
About 3,000 Hmong people live in La Crosse, and some of them have relatives affected by the forced repatriation.

Amnesty International has questioned the repatriations. So has the humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres, or MSF in French). An official from that organization said, “The authorities claim that these were voluntary reparations. It is hard to believe. Families have been torn apart. One of our Hmong staff members who joined the protest has been sent back to Laos without her children, and we know of other similar cases. Many of these refugees have expressed grave fears at the prospect of being sent back to Laos.”

The fears are credible. Hmong soldiers fought against the communist guerrillas whose movement won the war and controls the government of Laos today.

The situation needs to be monitored by an independent force — and the rights and safety of the Hmong people need to be protected.

After the war ended in 1975, Hmong people fled Laos to go to neighboring Thailand, where they lived in refugee camps. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of Hmong people settled in the United States and other countries. But many thousands of others were either rejected for resettlement or chose to remain in the camps. Those are the people who now are in danger in the forced repatriation.

Seven U.S. senators — including all four from Wisconsin and Minnesota, which both have large Hmong populations — signed a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. They urged her to investigate and “obtain a comprehensive understanding of what occurred during the repatriation process.”

Secretary Rice should do just that, and the United States must do what it can to protect the lives of those repatriated and threatened with repatriation.

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