VIENTIANE DIPLOMATS DISCUSS HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 06 VIENTIANE 000288

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS (BESTIC)
DEPARTMENT FOR PRM/ANE
DEPARTMENT FOR IO/UNP
DEPARTMENT FOR DRL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/05/2017
TAGS: KJUS LA PGOV PHUM PINR PREF PREL TH
SUBJECT: VIENTIANE DIPLOMATS DISCUSS HUMAN RIGHTS ISSUES
INCLUDING 26 HMONG CHILDREN, NONG KHAI DETAINEES, AND
RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

REF: A. VIENTIANE 0205


B. VIENTIANE 0110

C. BANGKOK 0816

D. BANGKOK 0596

E. VIENTIANE 0085

F. 2006 VIENTIANE 1205

G. 2006 VIENTIANE 1141

Classified By: AMBASSADOR PATRICIA M. HASLACH FOR REASONS 1.4 (B) AND (
D)



1. (C) Summary: Representatives of "like-minded" countries
and international organizations in Vientiane, including the
United States, EU, France, Australia, UNICEF, UNDP, and
others, met to review recent events on the human rights
front, including the recent visit by EU Parliamentarians to
Laos. Other topics included the status of the detained 26
Hmong children, the stalemate over the 152 ( 3) Hmong
refugees being held in Nong Khai, the 9th Sweden-Laos human
rights workshop, and some recent prison releases. End
Summary.


2. (C) Vientiane-based representatives of "like-minded"
countries and international organizations, including the
United States, EU, France, Sweden, Poland, Australia, UNICEF
and UNDP, met at the German Ambassador's residence March 30
for a stocktaking of recent developments on the human rights
front. The group discussed the recent visit to Laos by EU
Parliamentarians, reviewed the status of the detained 26
Hmong children, reviewed the ongoing stalemate over the 152
( 3) Hmong refugees being held in Nong Khai, Thailand, and
took note of reports of some recent releases of political
prisoners. The Swedish Political Chief reported on the 9th
Sweden-Laos human rights workshop which included a visit to
the prison in Pakse Laos.

The 26 Hmong Children
--------------

3. (C) Those attending the meeting agreed that the official
declaration in early March that the Government of Laos (GOL)
had "identified" the 21 girls out of the 26 Hmong children
and one adult "missing" since December 2005 and the GOL's
promise to reunite the girls with their parents, currently in
the Petchabun holding camp in Thailand, were major and
positive developments (ref A). Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MFA) officials told EU country representatives that the
families of the 21 girls will be coming to Laos from the
Petchabun to reunite with the girls. However, concern was
expressed over the fate of the 5 boys, especially since two
are no longer minors -- having reached age 18 in the sixteen
months since originally detained. There was also concern
about the status of the one female adult.


4. (C) Comment: We have continued to refer to these 26 as
"children" although that is changing with the passage of time
since the group was detained in late 2005. We tend to use
age 18 as the threshold for adulthood; the Lao tend to use
age 16. Of the five boys, two are already at least 18;
another is 16. Because of greater GOL suspicion about the
boys, their reaching adulthood may result in greater
difficulties about their being released. For the 21 girls,
however, there is no indication reaching adulthood is an
issue. One of the girls is at least 18, four are 17, and
three are 16. End comment.


5. (C) The German Ambassador reported that, unprompted, Lao
Deputy Prime Minister/Foreign Minister Thongloun Sisoulith
had told the German Foreign Minister, at the ASEAN-EU
meetings in Nuremberg, Germany, March 14-15, "we know human
rights concerns are high on the agenda; we are in the process
of resolving the case of the Hmong children." Thongloun
repeated the same line to the Italian and Luxembourg FMs.
The Italian FM pressed the Lao to also "find" the 5 boys and
not to take adverse action against the 152 Hmong (now with

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three babies = 152 3) being held in Nong Khai. Thongloun
responded that the fate of this group is a bilateral issue
being negotiated by the GOL with the Thai Government (despite
the fact that all in this group have UNHCR status as refugees
and third-country resettlement referrals -- refs C and D).


6. (C) The Lao Prime Minister also told the new Czech
Ambassador to Laos (based in Bangkok),who presented his
credentials to the Lao President this week, that "all" the
children had been identified. At a separate diplomatic
event, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
representative told the Ambassador that GOL drug chief
Minister Soubanh, during a trip to Vienna, had similarly told
UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa that "all" the
children had been located. However, the French Ambassador,
who is the best informed of Vientiane-based Ambassadors on
this issue, confirmed reports we have heard that the boys are
still being held in Phongsali prison and that their release
will be more complicated than that of the girls.


7. (C) All of this appears to confirm what MFA Spokesman Yong
Chanthalangsy told Pol/Econ Chief at lunch on March 13: that
the situation of the 21 girls will be resolved "quite soon."
Yong added that some, perhaps even a majority, will elect to
stay in Laos because they were "traumatized" or even
"extremely traumatized" by the Thai police in Petchabun.
According to Yong, the ones whose parents are in Petchabun
will be reunited with them, even if only for a short time
before the repatriation of the Petchabun group to Laos.
(Comment: both the GOL and the Thai Government would like to
resolve the Petchabun situation and the decades-long flow of
Hmong from Laos into Thailand. End comment.) Although
perhaps more complicated, Yong told the P/E Chief there is
"no barrier" to the situation of the 5 boys being resolved.
However, it will have to be done step-by-step (apparently in
sequence following the resolution of the situation of the 21
girls).


8. (C) The like-minded discussed next steps and agreed that
applying pressure on the GOL at this time would be
counterproductive and could jeopardize a resolution of the
boys, detention. By publicly stating that it will allow the
voluntary reunification of the girls with their families, the
GOL would not risk losing face by not following through on
this reunification. According to the French Ambassador, the
girls are being well treated and are attending school.

Visit to Bolikhamsai
--------------

9. (SBU) The like-minded group also reviewed the visit,
organized by the MFA Press Department, to Bolikhamsai
Province on March 7. This visit was arranged for members of
the international community to meet three Hmong men who had
been repatriated with their families (a total of 16 people)
from Thailand in January. The three men described themselves
at the briefing for the visitors as victims of human
trafficking who had been misled into believing they could be
resettled in the United States if they were able to enter
Thailand. (Comment: an earlier MFA tour had taken
international community representatives in February to meet a
family of five in northern Vientiane Province who said they
had entered Thailand as economic migrants before being
repatriated to Laos as part of a group of 53 in November --
ref B).


10. (SBU) The names of the three men were given at the
briefing as Ga Long Va, Nhia Long Lor, and Yong Hua Yang
although subsequent press reports gave their names as Kua
Long Vang, Nia Nong Lor, and Toou Hua Yang respectively. Ga
said each family had paid a trafficker $210 for transport to
Thailand in November, but the group was arrested and detained
a short time after reaching Thailand, detained in Nong Khai
for more than a month, and then returned to Bolikhamsai in
January. They claimed they were happy to be back, and Ga
expressed appreciation to what he described as "a government

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that loves us." Ga noted rumors that the group members had
been killed after being returned from Thailand but told the
audience "we are alive and the Hmong in Thailand should not
be afraid to return to Laos."

Comment: More Than Meets The Eye In Bolikhamsai
-------------- --

11. (C) Since the GOL's decision to accept that at least some
portion of the Hmong in Thailand -- including the 8000 at the
holding camp in Petchabun -- are from Laos (ref B),we have
seen three events: the well-publicized repatriation of 53
"economic migrants" in November (reported on the front page
of Vientiane newspapers); the January return of the 16; and
the failed attempt to return the 152 3 -- all given refugee
status by UNHCR -- from Nong Khai on January 30. While no
one has raised questions about the return of the 53 in
November (they appear actually to have been economic
migrants),the repatriation of the group of 16 caused much
concern among Hmong activists who claimed all had links with
the insurgency and should have been interviewed by UNHCR (and
given refugee status) rather than being returned to Laos by
the Thais.


12. (C) One prominent Hmong activist visited the group of 16
in Nong Khai before the repatriation. He tells us that all
three were insurgents captured during the past few years:
Nhia Long Lor was captured in November 2004; Ga Long Vang in
late 2005; and Yong Hua Yang in May 2006. All had been
resettled at the Sob Na lowland village in Bolikhamsai's
Viengthong District; they had managed to slip away from Sob
Na and make it to Thailand before being arrested there by the
Thais and sent back.


13. (C) The activist notes that both Ga and Yong showed him
scars from bullet wounds they had received fighting against
the Lao military when the activist met them in Nong Khai.
Moreover, Yong Hua Yang (whose name was Jia Yang before he
was married) is the son of former insurgent leader Wa Meng
Yang. Wa, now living quietly in Thailand, told the activist
the GOL has relocated 70 Hmong insurgent families to the Sob
Na Village and uses it as a detention location. Although
telling the international visitors that the three men they
were meeting lived in Sob Na, the MFA Press Department took
the group only as far as neighboring Borikhan District town
for the briefing "due to poor road conditions."


14. (C) No mention was made during the briefing -- by the
three Hmong men or the MFA officials -- that these were
former insurgents much less that one is the son of a
prominent insurgent leader. The MFA was "selling" the image
of innocent victims of human traffickers even though the
Hmong community apparently knows the difference. This raises
questions not only about the value of the MFA trips on this
side of the border but also about the willingness of Thai
officials to repatriate former Lao insurgents rather than
allowing them access to UNHCR screening. For the moment, the
attempt by the MFA Press Department to lump together the
November group of 53 economic migrants and the January group
of "trafficking victims" has run into the angry buzz saw of
information available on the Internet.

The Nong Khai 152 3
--------------


15. (C) The like-minded group also discussed the still
uncertain fate of the 152 Hmong refugees (plus their three
new babies) being held in detention in Nong Khai, Thailand,
across the bridge from Vientiane. The GOL has not backed
away from its position demanding the return of all 152 3,
including two insurgent leaders -- Chong Lee Lor and Blia
Shoua Her -- despite a request from the German Foreign
Minister to Lao FM Thongloun, when the latter was in
Nuremburg for the ASEAN-EU meeting March 14-15, to focus GOL
attention on the Petchetbun Hmong and not on the Hmong being
held in Nong Khai who have already received UNHCR refugee

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status.

Comment: More Than Meets The Eye In Nong Khai Also?
-------------- --------------

16. (C) In ref E, the Embassy examined the "material support"
issue as it relates to the Hmong. Although establishing the
identities of perpetrators of past attacks has always been
difficult, all information held by the Embassy pointed to
several violent attacks in 2003 -- including the 02/06/2003
attack on a bus in northern Vientiane Province that killed
two passing Swiss cyclists in addition to nine others -- as
having been carried out by the insurgent group led by Yang
Toua Thao. However, at their March 13 lunch, MFA Spokesman
Yong told P/E Chief that Blia Shoua Her was the insurgent
leader whose group carried out the 2003 attacks. According
to Yong, Blia's group was located in northern Vientiane
Province while Yang's group was further north -- in southern
Luang Prabang Province. The desire to bring to justice the
leader of the 2003 attacks may be at least part of the reason
for the GOL's insistence on the return of the Nong Khai group
to Laos despite its UNHCR status. Minimally, spreading the
accusation -- even if untrue (and we have no way to confirm
Mr. Yong's claim) -- that Blia was the insurgent leader
responsible for the 2003 attacks may be an attempt to derail
Blia's planned resettlement to Australia.

Possible Political Prisoners Released
--------------

17. (C) The like-minded group discussed conflicting reports
about whether four of the remaining five "student" agitators
(in fact hired laborers) who were arrested and incarcerated
in 1999 for attempting to organize a pro-democracy
demonstration in Vientiane were released from prison as part
of the Lao President,s annual amnesty granted to prisons in
December. Ministry of Justice officials told visiting EU
Parliamentarians that the four had been released. When
questioned, Vice Foreign Minister Phongsavath Boupha,
however, expressed ignorance of their release and promised to
check on their status.


18. (C) The French Ambassador reported that Laos's most
prominent political prisoner -- condemned killer Colonel Sing
Chanthakoumane, a former government official who is serving a
life sentence after a 1990 trial that was not conducted
according to international standards -- had also been
released. He did not have information, however, on the
status of the three Hmong porters, who were arrested in Xieng
Khong Province along with French and a Belgian reporter and
their interpreter. The journalists and interpreter were
released, but the three porters were charged with having
conspired with ethnic Hmong villagers in the killing of local
militia member and given long prison sentences. One later
escaped, but at year,s end the other two remained in
custody.


19. (C) Comment: The Embassy's information does not have COL
Sing being released. We are still trying to clarify the fate
of the remaining prisoners from the 1999 trials of the
pro-democracy demonstration organizers. The Embassy's
information is that one of the five laborers who were
incarcerated for this event has already died in prison and
the other two were released in amnesties in previous years.
In our Human Rights Report, we still list the remaining two
incarcerated laborers as Thongpaseuth Keuakoun and Sengaloun
Pengboun.


20. (C) Comment continued: The GOL announced pardons and
commutations of sentences on December 11, 2006. Three
political prisoners were among the 117 persons pardoned and
released from prison; most were pardoned because they had
turned 60 and were considered too old to be in prison. None
of the three (arrested in 1996 for spying, in 2003 for
betraying the nation, and in 2006 for spying) were previously
known to the Embassy in this still very secretive society.
Among those also described as political prisoners, ten had

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sentences reduced. Two were indeed jailed in 1999 for
"gathering a group to cause trouble" but neither name (Mr.
Khamlaab and Mr. Phavanh) matches those of the two
incarcerated laborers we attempt to monitor.

Prison Access
--------------

21. (C) The Swedish Political Chief reported to the
like-minded that his country had wrapped up round nine of
their twice-yearly human rights dialogue with the GOL -- held
in Pakse in Champhasak Province in late March. The theme of
the Swedish-Lao workshop, part of the dialogue process, was
juvenile justice. UNICEF also participated in these
meetings. The GOL presented to the Swedes the first draft of
its National Action Plan on Human Rights in preparation for a
regional workshop on the subject. The Lao officials also
discussed human rights indicators, which are now a required
part of Swedish bilateral assistance. The GOL agreed to
create a sub-group within the workshop setting to discuss the
indicators.


22. (C) The Swedes were able to visit a district prison but
could not go inside. They also went to the Pakse detention
center, where they were able to go inside and see the
prisoners but not talk to them. They saw about 400 prisoners
-- 300 men repairing fishing nets and 100 women cleaning
rice. The prison officials told the visitors that 100
prisoners lived in each of the four dormitories and received
kip 2,000 (USD 0.20) each month for food etc. The Swedes
reported that the prisoners looked disciplined and relatively
well fed.

French Progress with Security Forces
--------------

23. (C) The French have begun a dialogue with the Lao
security forces emanating from their workshop on trafficking
held with Lao and Vietnamese police and immigration officials
in February. At that time, French Ambassador Maurice
Portiche invited the Minister of Public Security (MOPS)
Thongbanh Sengaphone to a working lunch. While he declined
the invitation at that time, the Minister recently contacted
Ambassador Portiche and accepted lunch with him at his
residence on March 26. The lunch included the Minister, who
was accompanied by the Director of the MOPS Cabinet and the
MOPS Director for International Relations.


24. (C) According to Ambassador Portiche, the atmosphere was
open, and they discussed human rights and other sensitive
subjects. The Minister asked for training and seemed
particularly concerned that Laos could in the future face a
hostage-taking situation -- similar to what occurred in Peru
a number of years ago. Ambassador Portiche followed up the
lunch with a visit to the National Police Academy, where the
Director repeated the Minister,s request for training.


25. (C) Ambassador Portiche told the like-minded that this
new relationship has already paid some tangible benefits.
The GOL responded when the French asked the Lao to detain and
extradite a French criminal to France, despite the lack of an
extradition agreement between the two countries. Ambassador
Portiche opined that the Politburo has clearly decided to let
the security forces work with non-traditional partners by
allowing Minister Thongbanh to dine at the French
Ambassador,s residence. Thongbanh is rising in the Party
Central Committee and is relatively young (born in 1953). He
has already served as governor in the key province of
Bolikhamsai. (Note: The Embassy included then-Governor
Thongbanh in a 2003 International Visitor Governors Group on
"Sustainable Development.") Bolikhamsai has been the site of
several skirmishes with the Hmong insurgents and is where
many insurgent families from nearby Xieng Khong Province have
been resettled, so Thongbanh is well aware of these issues.
Ambassador Portiche also reported that the GOL has given a
French non-governmental organization permission to work with
resettled insurgent families in Poukout District in Xieng

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Khong Province with the Lao Red Cross. This is close to the
area where the ICRC has also received permission to work --
Poukoun District.

COMMENT
--------------

26. (C) We were pleased to see some positive signs relating
to the complicated and sensitive set of human rights issues
in Laos. The Swedish dialogue process seems to be making
slow progress, and the MOPS contact with the French is a step
toward opening up this silent giant. However, the reluctance
of the like-minded to press on anything at this time,
including throwing their support behind the proposed visit of
UNHCR's Assistant High Commissioner for Protection Ericka
Feller to Laos April 25-26, remains a bit uncomfortable.
(Note: The Lao MFA on April 3 sent a formal diplomatic note
"welcoming" Ms. Feller's visit.) While we agree with the
group's assessment that public statements might be
detrimental at this point to the release of the 26 children,
the Lao need to be told privately to keep to their word. The
Lao also need to be told that focusing on the return of the
152 3 in Nong Khai will not be supported by the
international community since they have UNHCR refugee status.
The fact that the Lao and Thai were able to quietly
repatriate the group of 16 to Bolikhamsai without a great
deal of attention at the time since none had UNHCR status
seems to have given them both a false sense of confidence.
It would be good to nip that in the bud.
HASLACH