Monday, Aug 09, 2004
The orphans of Laos
By Jason Burke
Thirty years ago the Hmong tribe fought for the Central Intelligence Agency. Now all the future holds is exile in the United States.
THE RED mud glistens with recent rain, half-naked children play with the chicken that rush between the close-packed bamboo-walled huts and the women, their multicoloured umbrellas lurid against lush green foliage, walk past the young men lounging beneath the trees.
It is noon in Wat Thamkrabok camp and the 15,000 displaced tribespeople who live in the compound, 90 miles northeast of the Thai capital Bangkok, are sleeping, eating, talking, working and, above all, waiting.
They are waiting to go to America. Within a year almost all the people in Wat Thamkrabok — many of whom have never travelled farther than a few miles from the camp in their lives — will be flown to new homes in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin. In three weeks the first major charter flight is scheduled to depart. Few of the refugees will ever return.
They come from the Hmong hill tribes of Laos who were recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency to fight the North Vietnamese, but after the communists seized control of Laos many were forced out of their villages. A small group of Hmong still maintains a campaign of insurgency from high in the hills of the isolated South East Asian state.
For men like Yang Pua Ba, 42, memories of the Vietnam conflict are still fresh. Mr. Ba's father fought the North Vietnamese, and Mr. Ba remembers what happened to the family when they were stranded by the U.S. withdrawal.
"We fled to the jungle and then crossed into Thailand. We lived in different camps and then came here 10 years ago," he says.
Mr. Ba and his 15 children are headed for Wisconsin.
"We have relatives who live in America who say it is a decent life there. But I am worried about getting a job and getting my children into school," he said. Tsong, 37, the mother of seven of Ba's children, is keen on going.
Only 50 per cent of the camp's population can read or write Hmong, let alone English. They have lived in a mild tropical climate all their lives but many will be heading to St. Paul, Minnesota, where winter temperatures can plunge to 20 degrees below zero.
"We tell them that snow looks like salt but that it is cold," said one camp official.
Kaying Kay, 36, moved from Thailand to America in 1975. She has returned to teach the Hmong in Wat Thamkrabok camp how to cope.
"I try to encourage them to think about rights and responsibilities," she said.There are more than 200,000 `Hmong-Americans', many of whom arrived between 1979 and 1982, so most refugees have relatives who can help. They have assimilated well, but 38 per cent still live in poverty.
There are social problems including teenage prostitution among runaway Hmong girls, drug abuse and the growing cultural gaps between the older generations who remember Laos and young people who have known nothing but America. Though many families use traditional shamans and herbal medicine to help cure their children, they will also own a state-of-the-art computer. Many differences will be difficult to resolve. Yang Pua Ba has two wives — illegal in America but not among the Hmong. "I am sure we'll sort something out," he said.
Nor do all the 15,000 refugees in the camp want to go to America — although they have little choice. Many men do not want to go, though their wives do. Arguments frequently result in domestic violence.
Many of those in the camp have been offered resettlement before, but have refused to move. A sticking point has been that many Hmong did not want to give up their dreams of returning to their native land.
The Thai Government is keen on being rid of the Hmong. The refugees were given refuge at Wat Thamkrabok by local monks. The temple — or `wat' — is better known for its drug rehabilitation programme. The military took over the administration of the camp last year alleging that it was used for widespread drug dealing. Colonel Bok, the camp commander, said that drug testing had found very high rates of opium use among older people and amphetamine use among the young, but arrests and education programmes had brought the problem under control. So, aid workers at the camp say, has the fact that a clear blood test is necessary to board the flights to America.
The U.S. is also keen on bringing out the Hmong as increased security vetting has meant a shortfall in refugees.
— Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.