The World Factbook 2021. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2021. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR), or Laos, is a Communist state in Southeast Asia, bordered by Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, Myanmar, and the Mekong River. It is rich with gold, silver, tin, gypsum, gemstones, and rubber. The population numbers about 7.6 million; the Lao are the majority ethnic group, composing 53% of the population.  

The Hmong are the third largest ethnic group, composing 9% of the population.  

In 1954, Laos gained independence from France and became a constitutional monarchy. Civil war soon broke out between right-wing royalists and the Communist Party, the Pathet Lao. The US wanted to prevent the Pathet Lao from taking control of the country, so the CIA trained and supported a small resistance force known as the ‘Secret Army,’ comprised mostly of ethnic Hmong. At its peak, the Secret Army had 30,000 soldiers. 

In 1975, the Pathet Lao seized power and the U.S. military withdrew from Laos, leaving Secret Army soldiers defenseless. Up to a third of Laos’s Hmong population fled to Thailand. The Pathet Lao imprisoned Secret Army leaders and soldiers in ‘re-education camps.’  Prisoners faced forced labor, political indoctrination, and starvation.  

Meanwhile, communist soldiers invaded Hmong villages, where they raped, arrested, and slaughtered civilians, sparing only those Hmong who had supported the Pathet Lao. Tens of thousands of Hmong, now known as the ‘Jungle Hmong,’ fled to the jungle and engaged in sporadic resistance against the government. They have lived in scattered groups and faced brutal attacks from the Lao military for over four decades. 

Since the end of the civil war, the Laotian government has denied the existence of the Jungle Hmong while also giving military orders to shoot them on sight. To avoid being identified and massacred, the Jungle Hmong often stayed in temporary shelters for very short periods. They were therefore unable to grow crops or to have access to basic education, medical care, or sanitation. The media and the government characterize them as armed rebels, but the surviving Jungle Hmong are mostly starving women and children, estimated at 3,000-17,000, without the capacity for organized resistance.  

Over the years, many Jungle Hmong have surrendered to Lao authorities. Many of them were arrested and held without charge in appalling conditions for months. Others attempted to flee to Thailand and elsewhere. Hmong refugees in Thailand are treated as illegal immigrants and are kept in isolated refugee camps. Thousands have been forcibly repatriated to Laos, where they often are ‘disappeared.’  

China and Laos share a border as well as Communist-style governments. Over the last decade, Chinese investment in Laos increased dramatically as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative, a global infrastructure development project. China invested in a railway, a hydroelectric power plant, schools, roads, military hospitals, and mining and tourism projects.  

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The Lao government is seeking to develop natural resources around Phou Bia Mountain in the Xaisomboun Province of central Laos. This isolated region is inhabited by ethnic Hmong whom the government continues to distrust as a legacy of the Secret Army. The Congress of World Hmong People has accused the Lao government of uncompensated land grabs and forced displacement to make way for Chinese-funded development projects. 

In 2021, the government sealed off the area around Phou Bia Mountain and launched a military clearance operation. A recent report by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) describes massacres, hunger, and many Hmong surrendering to only be ‘resettled’ in military-controlled camps. Upon arrival in the camps, men are often detained and interrogated for several months. Women report sexual slavery by law enforcement officers. Families lack safe drinking water and cultural rights, and they must barter labor for bare necessities. 

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The natural environment for the Hmong in the Phou Bia region faces significant degradation through the construction of the hydroelectric dam, the mining of precious metals, and logging. 

Outside the country there is little information about the situation. The government blocks access for journalists and human rights groups. In 2020, nine UN Special Rapporteurs and the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances wrote a letter of concern over the situation to the government of Laos. There is increasing fear among the Hmong and the international community that the government is building to more exterminatory actions. 

Updated 2021 

References

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Currie, Catherine. “The Vanishing Hmong: Forced Repatriation to an Uncertain Future.” North Carolina Journal of International Law and Commercial Regulation, 2008. 

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