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Monday, Jan. 04, 2010
Hmong general cancels planned return to Laos
Communist government still considers Vang a war criminal sentenced to death
Gen. Vang Pao has canceled plans to stage a peaceful return to Laos this week after the communist regime announced he would be executed as a Vietnam War criminal if he goes back.
In a dramatic speech before 1,000 Hmong at the Big Fresno Fairgrounds on Dec. 22, Vang declared it was time to make peace with communist Laos for the sake of 4,500 Hmong who'd fled to refugee camps in Thailand and another 5,000 to 8,000 reportedly still hiding in the Lao jungles. He said he would return Jan. 10.
Vang had urged American Hmong to invest in Laos and "forget about the past -- Right now, the government of Laos thinks it's time to live together peacefully with equal rights and equal opportunities."
Vang's son Cha Vang and Vang's confidant Charles A. Waters of Fresno said they made several trips to Laos to negotiate the general's return.
He was to participate in a reconciliation event on the Friendship Bridge between Nong Khai, Thailand, and Vienntiane, Laos, after 35 years in exile.
The Lao Embassy knew nothing about it.
"We don't know what he wants to do here and we don't understand why," said Mai Sayavongs, deputy chief of mission for the Lao Embassy in Washington.
Another of Vang's 18 sons, Chai Vang, said the general's representatives apparently spoke with "the wrong people -- it wasn't the proper channel."
Vang's personal diplomacy apparently doesn't cut any ice with the Lao government.
"Vang Pao has been sentenced to death," said Sayavongs.
Vang was sentenced to death in absentia for Vietnam-era war crimes by the Lao People's Court after the communist takeover in 1975, Lao Foreign Ministry spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing told the Nation newspaper of Bangkok.
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