http://www.asianews.it/view.php?l=en&art=3662
(AsiaNews/Agencies) Thailand had decided to repatriate more than 6,000 Hmong refugees who had fled to the Khao Kho district in its northern province of Phetchabun, Thais security authorities reported. After a meeting of security agencies last week, they resolved that all Hmong present in Khao Kho would be forced back over the borders to Laos , General Pallop Pinmanee, deputy director of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC), said. “If Laos refuses to take the Hmong back, [Thai] authorities will take all means necessary to push them back across the border, he said. The government has no policy to open a refugee camp to house the illegal immigrants, he added
The refugees have refused forced repatriation denouncing the lack of human rights protection, freedom and democracy in Communist Laos. In Laos , most ethnic minorities are Christian and Hmong are doubly persecuted. Not only does the Laotian government consider Christianity a violation of Laotian customs, but also sees it as a foreign imperialistic religion backed by Western and US political interests.
