VIENTIANE : The Thai army has claimed that Hmong people repatriated from Thailand to Laos are happy with their new life, despite fears in the international community that they would be killed there.
Amountainous area inBanPaLak village in Vientiane province has becomehometo a community of Hmong repatriated from Phetchabun. SURAPOL PROMSAKANA SAKOLNAKORN
The claims were made by deputy supreme commander Montri Sangkhasap after he led a group of officers and journalists on a visit to a community of Lao Hmong in Ban Pa Lak village in Vientiane province in Laos.
The Hmong are an ethnic tribe in Laos. A number of them had moved to Thailand in the hope of being resettled in the United States or Europe.
Gen Montri said Thailand had given shelter to more than 7,800 Lao Hmong, with most of them staying at the Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee camp in Phetchabun's Khao Kho district.
The Hmong helped America's Central Intelligence Agency fight the communist Pathet Lao movement before the fall of Vientiane in 1975 and sought political asylum and resettlement in third countries. They feared being persecuted if they returned to Laos.
A total of 1,678 Hmong refugees were sent back to Laos from the Thai refugee camp between May 2007 and August this year amid protests and pressure from many international human rights groups, who feared they would be mistreated.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has also sought verification of their living conditions in Laos.
"I would like you all to see with your own eyes the repatriated Hmong have a good life here," said Gen Montri during his visit last month.
Hmongchildren repatriated to Laos from Phetchabun take a class at their school in their newly-established community over the border in Vientiane province.
His group was welcomed by Brigadier-General Buasiang Jampapun, a key Lao military officer who has coordinated with the Thai government in the repatriation process.
Gen Montri said the government of Laos has provided them with an area to begin a new life. These people also returned to their homeland of their own free will, he added.
