Hmong refugees returned to Laos

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Thai troops have completed the repatriation of more than 4000 ethnic Hmong to Laos, amid criticism by the United States and other nations fearing that the returnees could face persecution by the Laotian government.

The repatration on Monday and Tuesday all but ended the Hmong's three-decade search for asylum following their alliance with the US during the Vietnam War.

The United States and rights groups have said the Hmong could be in danger if returned to the country that they fought, unsuccessfully, to keep from falling into communist hands in the 1970s.

The European Union said it was "deeply dismayed" by the forcible deportation and issued a statement that urged Laos to ensure the Hmongs' human rights are protected and international observers are granted "unfettered access" to them.

Colonel Thana Charuwat said no weapons were used in the repatriation and the Hmong offered no resistance. The last of the group crossed the border early on Tuesday.

Many Hmong, an ethnic minority from Laos' rugged mountains, fought under CIA advisers during Vietnam to back a pro-American Lao government - Washington's so-called "secret war" - before the communist victory in 1975.

Some former American soldiers and civilians who developed close bonds with the Hmong during the war believe that the United States should have done more to help its one-time allies.

Since the war, more than 300,000 Lao, mostly Hmong, are known to have fled to Thailand and for years were housed in sprawling camps aided by international agencies.

Most were either repatriated to Laos or resettled in third countries, particularly the United States. Smaller numbers found refuge in France, Australia and Canada.

Among those deported were 158 Hmong who had been identified by the United Nations as refugees and were being held separately from the larger group at a detention centre near the Lao border.

"This is a departure from Thailand's long-standing humanitarian practice and it sets a very grave example," said Ariane Rummery, a UNHCR spokeswoman in Bangkok.

According to recent reports, some may be able to resettle in the United States, Canada, Netherlands and Australia, but that process is now complicated by their return to Laos, where the UNHCR has no presence.

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said that it was now up to those countries and the Lao government to work out their futures.

The Thai government claims most of the Hmong are economic migrants who entered the country illegally and have no claims to refugee status.

New York-based Human Rights Watch on Monday called the deportation "appalling" and a low point for Abhisit's government.

US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in a statement that the United Nations and Thailand in the past had deemed that many of the Hmong in this group were "in need of protection because of the threats they might face in Laos."

Abhisit, however, said that Thailand had received "confirmation from the Lao government that these Hmong will have a better life."

The Hmong were driven out of the camp in military trucks and were then to be put on 110 buses going to the Thai border town of Nong Khai. Their final destination was the Paksane district in the central province of Bolikhamsai, Thana said.

Thana said 5000 soldiers, officials and civilian volunteers were involved in the eviction. He said the troops carried no firearms and that their shields and batons met international standards for dealing with situations in which people are being moved against their will.

Journalists and independent observers were barred from the camp.

Laos Foreign Ministry spokesman Khenthong Nuanthasing rejected international concerns, saying the government has a "humanitarian policy" for resettling the Hmong.

- AP