With every ramshackle home that’s vacated at Wat Tham Krabok, Wa Leng Xiong is one step closer to his worst fear.
Xiong was a freedom fighter who helped lead Hmong in a CIA-backed secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War. Now, he hides with 12 family members on the grounds of the Buddhist temple in central Thailand.
He clings to the hope that the U.S. government and Hmong-Americans won’t forget him and thousands of other former Hmong CIA soldiers left in Thailand, when their refugee neighbors begin new lives in America.
The Thai government is closing Wat Tham Krabok, the last Hmong refugee camp in the country. When the 15,000 registered refugees there leave, Xiong said, he and other former CIA war leaders will be exposed to the communist forces that have been hunting them for decades.
“If America leaves us behind, death is inevitable for us here,” said Xiong, who is in his early 50s.
When the United States pulled out of Vietnam in 1975, the Hmong were left to fend for themselves against the Pathet Lao communist forces who wrested control of Laos from the Royal Lao Government. The Hmong became targets because of their allegiance to the United States during the fighting and their refusal to submit to communist rule afterward.
“When the United States … made peace negotiations after the war, it forgot to extend a word of protection to the Hmong who had fought on its side,” said Yang Thao, 47, a soft-spoken former CIA soldier and Hmong leader who is seeking political asylum from the United States because of assassination attempts against him. The U.S. government has yet to respond.
FREEDOM FIGHTERS
Thao said his people have suffered greatly at the hands of the Pathet Lao, describing as genocide what happened after the war.
“As long as they were Hmong, they were hunted down, tortured and killed like animals,” he said.
The Hmong sought cover in the mountainous jungles of Laos. Still, armies of the Pathet Lao chased them, by some reports spreading chemical toxins from airplanes. The former soldiers dug up old weapons, given to them by the CIA, and fought back.
Between 1975 and 1981, more than 100,000 Hmong in Laos united under the name Chao Fa, or freedom fighters, Thao said. The group later became the Ethnic Liberation Organization of Laos, and Thao served as chief of staff, he said. Later, it was renamed Democratic Chao Fa Party of Laos.
By the 1980s, freedom fighters in Laos had run out of food and ammunition. Many joined other Hmong who sought refuge in neighboring Thailand, including Thao and Xiong.
It wasn’t long, however, before the men were back in Laos with other former Hmong CIA soldiers to fight yet another secret war, this time for the Thai government.
Thai officials, fearing that the government might also fall to communists, enlisted the Hmong to help fight inside Laos, said Xiong and Thao. The Thais promised to help the Hmong return to Laos or gain Thai citizenship.
Thao said that a 1988 meeting between high-ranking Thai military officials and top Hmong leaders sealed the deal. It was identified as “secret business” or “special operation 3091.”
The Thai military recruited Hmong hiding in Laos and about 2,500 former Hmong CIA soldiers from Thai refugee camps along with soldiers from other ethnic groups in Laos, Thao said.
Thao said he worked with three Thai military units. He was commander of a camp the Thai government operated from 1985 to 1988 to train Chao Fa soldiers. A second camp was opened in 1988 to train Hmong soldiers from the refugee camps.
The Hmong were sent to Laos to disrupt Lao military operations, Thao claims in his asylum affidavit.
In 1991, Thailand and Laos began repairing diplomatic relations.
As part of negotiations, the Thai military revealed the locations of Hmong soldiers in Laos who were then attacked, Thao said. And, he said, the Thai military chased Chao Fa soldiers in Thailand into Laos where the Lao military was waiting.
“Many of the Hmong lost arms and legs during this period because they ran into landmines, and others became extremely ill from the chemicals, or ‘yellow rain,’ later identified as micro toxins,” Thao said.
The Thai government refused to treat the victims, he said. He and his men carried the wounded to the border and sought help from Chao Fa doctors.
Since 1975, ethnic cleansing in Laos has taken the lives of about 300,000 Hmong, Khmu and other insurgents associated with the former Royal Lao Government, said Pobzeb Vang, executive director of the Lao Human Rights Council Inc.
Thao, who became secretary-general of the Democratic Chao Fa Party of Laos, said he has photographs and videotapes to back up his words. The Thai government, however, denies that it had anything to do with sending Hmong refugees to fight in Laos.
“In hindsight, we were lied to by the Thai government,” Xiong said. “They made promises to us they never intended to keep and sought us out to fight with their neighbors because it was easier, when things went wrong, to blame it on the Hmong who had an interest in Laos because it was our home and we never liked living under communist control.
“But we never expected the extent to which they would use us.”
STILL HIDING
Because of stronger Thai-Lao political relations, Thailand is unsafe for Hmong who have past ties to the CIA, said Xiong and Thao.
As recently as July 31, Thai authorities arrested 70 freedom fighters along the border who had fled Laos seeking political refuge, Thao said. They are the children and grandchildren of former CIA Hmong soldiers. It’s possible they’ll be turned over to Lao authorities.
Not only are the Hmong from Laos considered illegal immigrants, but they also must be wary of Thais willing to help the Lao communists find them.
Thao has been on the run for two years. In 2002, he said, he received a death threat in a letter naming him along with three other Hmong leaders.
“The letter was sent by my pursuers. It said they were sorry to inform me that they were going to kill me,” Thao said.
In October 2002, seven months after Thao received the letter, the president of the Democratic Chao Party of Laos, Pa Kao Her, was shot and killed, pierced by 28 bullets in Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand.
Thao said Her was one of 10 Hmong leaders killed between 1999 and 2003. The Thai government has refused to investigate the deaths, he said.
Thao said he has had several close calls and remains in hiding, separated from his family, whose lives are also in danger.
In 2002, four attempts were made on his life. Three times, terrorists came to his house, his affidavit states. Once, he and his son were obstructed by a Thai policeman in Bangkok as Thao attempted to report his situation to the U.S. Embassy.
He said sources informed him that Thailand and Laos exchanged “black lists” last March, identifying former Hmong CIA leaders.
“I’m sure I’m on that list. If I wasn’t on the list before, I can guarantee you that I will be on it when these words reach the governments that I’m speaking out about the Hmong situation in the countries,” said Thao, who is hiding outside of Thailand.
Xiong, however, has lived in obscurity since 1993 with relatives at Wat Tham Krabok, where most of the Hmong refugees are approved for resettlement to America.
As his relatives leave and their homes are bolted shut, Xiong and his family will have nowhere to go. He is certain he will be arrested and likely tortured or killed.
Xiong estimates that 50,000 Hmong refugees from Laos are hiding elsewhere in Thailand, including thousands of former CIA soldiers in Chiang Rai.
“We are scared,” said Chai Yee Cha, a leader who looks out for the former Hmong CIA soldiers in the region. “Please don’t leave us behind.”
Teng Lee, 35, a Chao Fa soldier and son of a former CIA Hmong soldier, sees a dead end as he hides in Chiang Rai. “Our life is waiting and watching a darkness slowly creep in around us,” he said.
After nearly 30 years, Thao said, the Hmong are tired of fighting.
He said the children and grandchildren of veterans are unfairly paying the price for the decision to side with America.
“The Hmong people are not out to get anyone,” he said. “We just want to be left alone and allowed to live. That is and has been our only request.”
Xiong said America is a fair and just country with the power to save his people.
“A promise was made a long time ago between the Hmong and Americans that, as allies, we would help each other,” he said. “The Hmong have done their part a long time ago, and now we need the help of America.”
