THAILAND: U.S. ACTIVISTS SAY THOUSANDS OF ETHNIC HMONG ARE READY TO SURRENDER AFTER 30 YEARS ON THE RUN IN THE JUNGLES OF LAOS

Record ID: 646662

  • Title: THAILAND: U.S. ACTIVISTS SAY THOUSANDS OF ETHNIC HMONG ARE READY TO SURRENDER AFTER 30 YEARS ON THE RUN IN THE JUNGLES OF LAOS
  • Date: 9th June 2005
  • Summary: (BN10) BANGKOK, THAILAND (JUNE 9, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. VARIOUS OF MEDIA CONFERENCE WITH U.S ACTIVISTS ED AND GEORGIE SZENDRY (3 SHOTS) 0.16 2. SOUNDBITE (English) U.S ACTIVIST ED SZENDRY, SAYING: "Our estimates are that there are 15 to 17 thousand of these people in the mountains. We believe they could have as many as 10,000 surrender if the conditions were right and all they would need in the condition, really that condition is to know that there are U.N observers in place and that there would be food and clothing and shelter for their children" 0.38 3. WS: AUDIENCE LISTENING 0.42 4. SOUNDBITE (English) SZENDRY, SAYING: "We have left this, these are their choices. We have just been here to try and facilitate their choice and make sure their choice to come down and surrender. Again, I think they made that choice rather than to, well they felt they would die of starvation, at least they felt that maybe there was some hope for their women and children if they put themselves in the hands of the Lao government" 1.05 5. PAN: MEDIA CONFERENCE 1.14 SARABURI, THAILAND (FILE) (REUTERS) 6. HMONG REFUGEE CAMP IN NORTHERN THAILAND, STREET SCENE WITH MARKET STANDS 1.21 7. SV/CU/SCU: GIRLS SEWING (2 SHOTS) 1.35 8. PEOPLE IN THE STREET 1.40 9. CHILDREN PLAYING 1.45 10. SCU: BABY IN A CRADLE 1.50 11. WOMEN WITH CHILDREN IN THE STREET 1.54 12. SCU: MAN WITH YOUNG CHILD 2.00 13. MORE OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN (2 SHOTS) 2.09 14. LV: STREET SCENE 2.13 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 24th June 2005 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BANGKOK AND SARABURI, THAILAND
  • Country: Thailand
  • Reuters ID: LVAIA3IVK86O357DBGQLBRUJ6EW
  • Story Text: Forgotten U.S. allies ready to emerge from the
    jungles of Laos.


    Thousands of ethnic Hmong are ready to surrender
    after 30 years on the run in the jungles of Laos, according
    to U.S. activists who have just returned from the southeast
    Asian country of Laos.

    Ex-California police officer Ed Szendry and his wife
    Georgie, who were detained at the weekend by the Laotian
    government for helping 173 women, children and elderly
    people give themselves up, said up to 4,000 Hmong were
    waiting to surrender and thousands more could join them if
    the conditions were right.

    "Our estimates are that there are 15 to 17 thousand of
    these people in the mountains, we believe they could have
    as many as 10,000 surrender if the conditions were right
    and all they would need in the condition, really that
    condition is to know that there is U.N observers in place
    and that there would be food and clothing and shelter for
    their children," he said.

    The Szendrys told reporters in Bangkok on Thursday
    (June 9) that they had built up clandestine satellite phone
    links with the poorly armed jungle guerrillas who are
    remnants of a U.S.-backed anti-communist guerrilla army who
    fought in the Laotian jungles during the Vietnam War.

    Publication in the past two years of photographs of
    malnourished, wounded and disfigured Hmong fighters and
    their families, who were abandoned by the U.S. after the
    war, prompted Ed Szendry and his wife, Georgie, to try to
    broker their surrender on humanitarian grounds with the Lao
    government.

    "We've left this, these are their choices. We've just been
    here to try and facilitate their choice and make sure
    their choice to come down and surrender...again, I think
    they made that choice rather than to, well they felt they
    would die of starvation, at least they felt that maybe
    there was some hope for their women and children if they
    put themselves in the hands of the Lao government," said Ed
    Szendry.

    With assurances of aid from Washington and the United
    Nations, but no official diplomatic support, the Szendrys
    organised a daring midnight rendezvouz with the group of
    173 refugees by a road near Xaisomboun "Special Zone", a
    region off-limits to foreigners.

    Shortly after dawn, the rag-tag group made its way from
    the trees to a nearby village, where they were welcomed
    with open arms by residents and officials with offers of
    food and water, Szendrey said.

    If the initial group were well treated, and he could get
    word through to the 15,000 Hmong still believed to be
    hiding in the dense jungle, Szendrey said thousnds more
    were ready to give themselves up.

    However, soldiers arrived and the refugees were taken
    away. State media say they are being cared for in a village
    near the northeast town of Phonsavanh. There is no
    independent verification of their condition.

    Szendrey, his wife and two U.S.-Hmong activists were
    then arrested on their way back to the capital, Vientiane.

    One of the Hmong-Americans is still in custody.

    A Laotian Foreign Ministry spokesman said the U.S.

    group had been deported for interfering in a government
    scheme to move Hmong villagers into larger, centralised
    communities to give them with better access to food, water
    and electricity.

    After the Vietnam War, some 130,000 Hmong fled to the
    United States, while thousands of others lived for decades
    in refugee camps in Thailand.

    Last year some 4,000 ethnic Hmong were resettled in the
    U.S.
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