Laos Army Targets Hmong Christian, Shaman Believers in Thailand
ICC Note:
"'Colonel Bounloune, a Laos Peoples Army officer, has been secretly posted to Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee detention center in Thailand with the support of Thai Third Army commanders, where he has overseen the forced closing of Lao Hmong Protestant Christian and Catholic house churches as well as Hmong animist shrines,' said Philip Smith, of the CPPA."
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5/7/09 Laos (MediaNewswire) In Laos, the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic ( LPDR ) has stepped up persecution of independent Lao Christian, Catholic, Buddhist and animist believers according to the Lao Movement for Human Rights ( LMHR ), the Hmong Lao Human Rights Council, Inc. the United League for Democracy in Laos, the Center for Public Policy Analysis ( CPPA ) and others. http://www.media-newswire.com/release_1090417.html
"It is obvious that, despite its cynical denials, the LPDR government has never been capable, or willing, to end its repression on religious freedom against religious minorities, especially the Christians," said Vanida S. Thephsouvanh, of the Lao Movement for Human Rights ( LMHR ) in Paris, France.
Vanida S. Thephsouvanh continued: "If some religious practices have been eased in some cities under the strict control of the Party-State, threats, intimidation, use of starvation, arrests, displacements and violence remain the authorities’ tools to force the Christians to renounce their faith.
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"Lao and Hmong Catholics and Hmong Christians and animists, as well s many dissident Buddhists are suffering and dying under the LPDR regime's religous persecution, especially as a result of Vietnam's large-scale military and security force intervention and oppression of the Lao people, and their ruling Laos as a proxy regime, which they control and dominate in terms of policy, security and politically."
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“The Lao and Hmong religious community in Ban Huay Nam Khao, Thailand, and its religious leaders are being targeted by the LPDR regime and Colonel Bounloune for persecution; the Lao Hmong religious believers are being attacked by him each day with threats, intimidation, and forced repatriation; he is taking away their families for torture, deportation, and he is overseeing and helping to direct the closing of the independent Hmong tradition animist and shaman shrines and house churches of Hmong Christians and Catholic believers; Colonel Bounloune is trying to destroy the faith and take away the hope and beliefs, of the Lao Hmong refugees in the refugee camp and replace it with a utopian Marxist belief in the LPDR regime and its leaders instead of traditional Hmong beliefs and any trust they may have in Jesus Christ and their churches and families and religious traditions.”
Philip Smith, of the CPPA, in Washington, D.C., further noted: “Colonel Bounloune, a Lao Peoples Army and LPDR intelligence service officer, has been secretly posted to Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee detention center in Thailand, in recent months, with the full support of Royal Thai Third Army commanders and officers of the Thai Ministry of Interior ( MOI ), where he has personally directed and overseen the forced closing of over one dozen Lao Hmong Protestant Christian and Catholic house churches as well as Hmong traditional animist shrines that the refugees had set up in the camp to worship, pray and conduct religious ceremonies.”
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Thousands of unarmed Lao Hmong civilians, including women and children, have died in recent months at the hands of the Lao Army and LPDR regime, including hundreds of Christians and animists specifically targeted for their faith and independent religious practices, including membership in dissident independent churches and sects, or with independent animist shamans.
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“The Lao and Hmong organizations are urging the USCIRF to list Laos as a Country of Particular Concern ( CPC ) along with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam ( SRV ) which has intervened military, politically and with its security forces in recent years in Laos. High-level military intervention by Hanoi in Laos, and senior level defense ministry meetings and newly concluded agreements, are further evidence to many observers that Vietnam and the SRV again largely control and exploit Laos and the LPDR leadership and LPA as a proxy regime for its strategic, tactical and policy ambitions,” Smith concluded.
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