www.jefflindsay.com/Hmong_tragedy.html
However, Thailand appears to be turning on remaining Hmong refugees in that nation, preparing to force them back to Laos unless the US takes action to rescue them.
missed a deadline to register for immigration to the US and are now in limbo. In Laos, the brutal Communist government may continue its campaign of vengeance against Hmong soldiers who supported the US.
The Great Betrayal: Laos' Hmong Tribe Faces Death in Forced Repatriatio n" by Anthony LoBaido. Hmong baby Hmong baby in Thailand: Courtesy of Anthony C LoBaido Sept.
Children of Laos tribe 'butchered by soldiers'" is a disturbing story reported by K im Sengupta in The Independent (United Kingdom) on Sept. The t orture and slaughter of Hmong children, for example, is one aspect of th e state-sponsored terror from the brutal Laotian regime.
Communist Government in Laos Continues to Bu tcher Hmong People." I hope the United States will take action against L aos and not reward that terror regime. Several million Hmong people re main in China, Thailand, and Laos, speaking a variety of Hmong dialects. The Hmong language group is a monosyllabic, tonal language (7-12 tones, depending on the dialect), with features that may make it an important bridge (according to some people) between Thai, Burmese, Chinese, and ot her Austro-Asian languages. The written language is said by some to have been eradicated over centuries of persecution in China (though it is no t certain that there ever was a unique written language for Hmong). Acco rding to some traditions, Hmong women once sought to preserve their bann ed Hmong writing by stitching stylized characters into their dresses. So me of the symbols may have been preserved, but their meaning was lost. It was not until late in this century that a writing system for Hmong was introduced. Several forms were attempted, but the dominant method is a romanization system in which pronunciation seems highly nonintuitive for English and Hmong speakers alike, though it seems to be based on sound linguistic principles. Tones are indicated by one of the consonants j,g,b,v,s or d at the end o f each word, or no consonant for the mid-range level tone. A Hmong Response to this Page ----- "MrLindsay your fantastic homepage touched to the deep core of my Hmong heart, and it brought tears to my eyes. At one point of my reading, I co uldn't go on anymore but forced myself to because I had to finish the re ading. Thank you so much for the remarkable true information about Hmong history. My fat her was a soldier in Laos at the time, and I was born on the way to Ban Vinai Refugees camp. It's quite amazing how I can tell an American these stories and he would know exactly what I'm saying. Thank you for giving us credit in the war when most Americans lack the knowledge of it. Than k you for being on our side, and creating the homepage. I will give out your homepage's URL so everyone will realize why we are here in America. Hmong refugees in the US struggle with our unusual ways, thoug h the rising generation of youth have melted in well with American cultu re, even at the risk of losing touch with their heritage. For the older generation, adopting the new ways has been painful. The language is a gr eat barrier to the elderly, many of whom have had no schooling and had n o reading skills prior to coming to the US Simple things like going to a store or walking through town can be terrifying experiences for the e lderly. The Hmong in the US came mainly from Laos as refugees after the Vietnam War. They once lived idyllic agrarian lives in the hills of northern La os, but that changed once many of them were recruited by the CIA to figh t for us in the once-secret wars in Laos. They fought bravely and suffer ed many causalities, but once we pulled out from Vietnam and left them i n the lurch, the North Vietnamese and their puppet government in Laos ma rked the Hmong for genocidal extinction. Many of the Hmong fled from inv aders (and from chemical weapons, including "yellow rain" and other toxi ns), losing many lives as they traveled through the jungle and swam the Mekong river to Thailand. It seems like everyone lost a mother, father, brother, sister, or spouse during the war and during the escape to Thailand and the US The stories told by young people, de scribing what they experienced at age 4 or 5, are especially chilling. of the problem is that many Americans do no realize how t hey Hmong got here. Many think they are just flooding our borders to get welfare benefits.
Hmong veterans are aware that many Americans do not welcome refugees who do not speak English. They know that many are unaware of how the Hmong took orders from Americans, cooked food for them, guarded them, carrie d them when they were wounded, wrapped their bodies when they were kill ed. When their American friends left in 1974, Hmong hopes for a free Laos we re dashed. Tou Yang, 41, constantly relives the years after the America n pullout, when he and the other Hmong resisters were trapped in the mo untains, valleys, and jungles that teemed with hostile troops. Though h is body is here in Minnesota, Tou Yang's spirit walks in post-1974 Laos . "The Americans left and we felt abandoned and there was no escape. Now that we are in America, we still feel like we've been abandone d," he said.... While serving in special guerrilla units during the Vietnam War, between 10,000 and 20,000 Hmong men, women and children were killed, and more than 100,000 fled to Thai refugee camps. There are 27,000 Hmong in Minn esota, and an estimated 5,000 to 7,000 of them fought in the CIA's spec ial forces.... Vietnam veteran Bob Anderson is deeply involved with the local Hmong pop ulation and often travels to Laos.... "The Hmong who fought in (General ) Vang Pao's army understood they were fighting for the Americans and t hat they were in some sense an American army. It's not clear who made it and when, but some prom ise was made that if the war went badly, the Hmong would be taken care of," Anderson said. Hmong familie s grow many flowers and vegetables for sale at my local farmers' market. I had just purchased these flowers from this couple and had their permi ssion to take a photo. Two beaut iful Hmong sisters from Menasha, Wisconsin in elaborate Hmong clothing s hortly before performing a beautiful dance in Appleton at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sept. Two beautiful Hmong sisters from Menasha, Wisconsin in elaborate Hmong cl othing shortly before a dance performance in Appleton at the Church of J esus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Sept. A Tragic History: From Laos to the US I recently finished the most disturbing book I have ever read and have to speak out. The book is Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos, 1942-1992, by Jane Hamilton-Merritt (Indiana U niversity Press, 1993). This book documents the genocide that has been p racticed against the Hmong people by the tyrannical governments of Laos and Vietnam. Many people think that the Hmong came here to enjoy US ec onomic benefits, but in fact, most are here to escape the death and horr or of a genocidal war against them. The long campaign of the Laotian and Vietnamese governments to destroy the Hmong is vengeance for Hmong supp ort of the United States in the Vietnam war. For many years, the Hmong people fought at our request with incredible br avery and tenacity, greatly slowing the advance of the North Vietnamese into Laos and South Vietnam. Their fighter pilots, some of the most dazz ling aces ever, fought until they died in a desperate war with inadequat e support. They sacrificed thousands of their lives in deadly missions t hat ultimately saved thousands of American lives. The US got them into war against our enemies, trained, them, urged them to fight, depended o n their bravery, then broke our promises to them as we pulled out withou t doing anything to protect them against the terrible revenge that was p romised and has been delivered. As overwhelming evidence came in of the chemical and biological warfare t hat was used against the Hmong, our State Department ignored the situati on and for years refused t...
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