STAFFDEL LEE: GOL SHOWS OFF HMONG RESETTLEMENT SITE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENTIANE 000335

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

STATE FOR EA/MOL - EMERY
STATE FOR PRM/A - BURKHARDT
BANGKOK FOR SCHERER

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: LA PHUM PREF PREL SOCI TH
SUBJECT: STAFFDEL LEE: GOL SHOWS OFF HMONG RESETTLEMENT SITE

REF: A. 08 VIENTIANE 658

B. VIENTIANE 332


1. (SBU) Summary: On July 6, senior Ministry of Foreign
Affairs officials accompanied House Foreign Affairs Committee
professional staff member Jessica Lee and Ambassador to the
Phalak village Hmong resettlement site. Phalak is used to
settle Lao Hmong who return from detainment in Thailand but
do not go back to their village of origin or a relative,s
village. The visiting group observed the progress in
infrastructure development since the Ambassador,s prior
visit (Ref A). Phalak now has cell phone coverage, and
villagers spoke of communicating with relatives in the United
States or still detained in Thailand. Several villagers
related their personal stories of how they came to be in
Phalak, and requested additional development assistance.
Comment: The Lao government (GOL) funded ) a rare
occurrence in itself - the helicopter visit to Phalak
village, in order to highlight the efforts and expense the
GOL is putting into resettling returning Lao Hmong. This
demonstrated the importance placed by the GOL on Ms. Lee,s
visit and the GOL,s growing acknowledgement that
transparency is the best response to international questions
regarding Hmong resettlement. End Summary.


2. (SBU) House Foreign Affairs Committee professional staff
member Jessica Lee and Ambassador were accompanied on a July
6 visit to Phalak by MFA Press Department Director General
Khentong Nuanthasing and MFA Europe and Americas Acting
Director GeneralThieng Boupha; the Thai defense attach to
Laos also participated. Phalak village is located in
mountainous northern Vientiane province, around 40 minutes
helicopter ride or seven hours drive from Vientiane
municipality.

Phalak Living Conditions
--------------

3. (SBU) After flying through rainy skies, the GOL-funded and
organized visit began with a report from the village,s
Oversight Committee. The current Phalak population is 446,
down from the 462 reported in Reftel A. Out of the 100 homes
constructed, 78 are occupied, but arable land is insufficient
for more families at this time. The decrease in population
can be attributed to the GOL,s stated policy of allowing
Phalak villagers to later move to villages where they have
relatives, if they choose do so. The Oversight Committee
representative provided a lengthy list of services and
projects provided by the GOL, including food, clean water,
temporary houses, health care, arable land preparation and
allocation, electricity, all-weather road access, irrigation
systems, cell phone coverage and a school. The U.S.
delegation confirmed cell phone coverage by calling Vientiane
city; villagers reported that they are able to both place and
receive calls from the United States, but only to receive
calls from Thailand.

Voices of the Resettled
--------------
4.(SBU) Following the report, Ambassador requested that
individuals in the audience share their stories. A U.S.
Embassy ethnic Hmong employee acted as interpreter, as
responses were given in the Hmong language. The two men who
volunteered to speak and the one man selected by the
Ambassador related similar experiences of either coming from
the &jungle8 (i.e. being Hmong fighters against the GOL
after 1975) or being directly linked to Hmong General Vang
Pao, who led U.S.-supported Hmong forces during the
Indochinese War. (Note: These are the two categories of
Hmong awaiting repatriation from Thailand that are considered
most at risk of GOL persecution. End note.) When asked, one
speaker said no villagers had been arrested or injured in the
two years his family had been in Phalak village.

5.(SBU) In answer to a question from the Thai defense
attach, another man said his family of six had paid two
million Lao Kip (around $240) as a fee for assistance from
the group who came to their original Lao village at night and
encouraged them to go to Thailand. This fee varied depending
on the size and wealth of the family, he added.

6.(SBU) One man asked the Thai attache about current
conditions at the Huay Nam Khao detainment camp in Thailand.
The attach responded that everyone in Huay Nam Khao camp had
entered Thailand illegally. The Thai and Lao governments are
prepared to assist in resettling those who agree to return to
Laos voluntarily. But even those who do not volunteer to
return to Laos will be sent back in accordance with Thai law.

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The attach added that the Thai and Lao prime ministers had
agreed that Lao Hmong who wish to emigrate to a third country
may do so, but must first return to Laos. (Comment: The
attache,s full response was recounted in the report on this
Phalak visit that appeared in the Lao-language press, though
his comments were not included in the English-language press
report. End comment.)

7.(SBU) Following the testimonies of the three men, Ms. Lee
asked to hear from the handful of women at the meeting,
noting that some women in Huay Nam Khao camp had expressed to
her their fear that they would be abused on returning to
Laos. One woman volunteered and became very emotional in
describing her May 2007 entry to Thailand with thirty other
people and the trauma of their subsequent arrest by Thai
police. The Thai attache was troubled by her account and
pressed for additional details, which she provided along with
a request for more development assistance. DG Khentong
closed the meeting with a statement to the villagers that
crossing borders illegally can result in arrest, just as Lao
authorities would arrest individuals who illegally enter
Laos. (Comment: Post is very familiar with the case of the
thirty-one Lao Hmong who entered Thailand in May 2007 and
were quickly arrested by Thai authorities and returned to
Laos, before ever reaching the Huay Nam Khao camp. End
comment.)

Touring Phalak Village
--------------
8.(SBU) GOL officials drove the delegation around Phalak
village to demonstrate the progress of various infrastructure
projects. The village irrigation system is nearly completed,
while the health clinic is finished but not yet equipped.
The village school, currently closed for the rainy/planting
season, is completed and staffed by teachers who accepted a
book donation from the GOL during the visit. The delegation
visited one pre-selected, typical &temporary8 home
constructed with thatch walls and a tin roof. Outside that
home, a villager from a nearby house tearfully described her
separation from her husband, who she said is afraid to return
to Laos from the camp in Thailand. Lao officials encouraged
the woman to tell her husband to return to Laos, and had her
speak into a tape recorder so that her message could be sent
to her husband.

9.(SBU) Comment: The GOL seized the opportunity of a visiting
Congressional staff member to show off its efforts to support
the resettlement of the small proportion of returning Lao
Hmong that are not sent back to their original villages. In
an unusual step, the visit to Phalak was entirely funded and
organized by the GOL, using only GOL transportation. Despite
poor weather conditions, MFA officials pressed ahead with
flying to Phalak rather than drive to see resettled Hmong at
a site near Vientiane city, which would have been more
convenient but only allowed a meeting with one or two Hmong
families. While services and infrastructure in Phalak
village are very basic from an industrialized country
perspective, they do significantly exceed the norm for upland
villages around Laos. The visit also demonstrated an
apparent GOL realization that greater transparency on Lao
resettlement policy is the most effective response to
international questions.
HUSO