AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INFO ON LOCATION OF MISSING

C O N F I D E N T I A L VIENTIANE 000316 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, PRM, S E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/03/2016 TAGS: PGOV PREL PREF KCRM TH LA SUBJECT: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INFO ON LOCATION OF MISSING CHILDREN REF: VIENTIANE 298 AND PREVIOUS Classified By: Ambassador Patricia M. Haslach, reason 1.4 (b) and (d). ¶1. (C) Amnesty International analyst Brittis Edman (please protect),in Thailand recently to gather details about the deportation and subsequent disappearance of the 27 Hmong, called us from Bangkok March 30 to report on her visit to Petchaboon province, where she met with family members of the children among the group. Edman told us she had spoken with several parents of the missing children. One of the parents told Edman she had been called by a relative in Laos three days earlier, who reported he had just been to Paksane, in Bolikhamsai province, where the children had been held. The relative had said the children were still in Paksane, the girls in one detention facility near the town (the same facility they have been in since their deportation) and the boys in a separate military camp just outside town. The relative said he had limited access to the girls, but none to the boys. Edman stressed that this was new information, and she believed it was credible. ¶2. (SBU) On a separate note, AI has issued an internet appeal to its membership to write to the Lao government about the missing children. The AI internet appeal asks its members to contact the Lao Prime Minister and Minister of Justice to express concern about the missing children, urge the Lao government to establish their whereabouts, release them immediately and launch an independent investigation of their detention, and uphold its obligations as a state party to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. HASLACH