Haaba

BANGKOK, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - Thai and Lao military officials met Monday to speed up the planned repatriation of almost 8,000 ethnic Hmong to the communist country, officials said, amid reports of abuses against the hilltribe minority.

Human rights groups and US congress members have criticised efforts to send the Hmong back to Laos after hundreds of Hmong detainees facing deportation recently staged hunger strikes and threatened suicide.

The meeting in the central Thai city of Phitsanulok came amid unconfirmed reports, all denied by Vientiane, that Lao security forces have cracked down on Hmong villagers in Thai border areas this year, and that they arrested three Hmong-Americans last week.

Thai Lieutenant General Nipat Thonglek, the joint chairman of the Thai-Lao border committee, said the two sides had agreed to restart the repatriation process for Hmong who volunteer to return to the homeland.

'The process is resuming now. We have discussed with Lao officials and have nearly reached a conclusion,' he told AFP.

'We confirm that the repatriation will be on a voluntary basis,' he added.

He declined to say when more of the 7,790 Hmong in Thailand could be repatriated.

Thai officials plan to make a three-day trip to Laos from September 19 to visit a group of 192 Hmong who have already been repatriated, to ensure they have not faced any abuse since their return, he said.

Laos consistently denies any abuses against the Hmong, many of whose members fought with the United States against communist troops when the Vietnam War spilled into the landlocked country in the 1960s and 70s.

The Lao delegation planned to hand the Thai side a video about Hmong resettlement areas in Laos, suggesting it be shown to the Hmong to reassure them it is safe to return, said Lao government spokesman Yong Chantalangsy.

One activist group, the Fact Finding Commission, claimed that Thai officials Sunday demanded eight Hmong leaders fingerprint documents indicating they would be willing to return to Laos, and that the Hmong leaders refused.

German-based human rights group the Society for Threatened Peoples voiced concern about the meeting of the Thai-Lao general border sub-committee.

'Many of the Hmong in the Thai refugee camp fled severe persecution by Lao authorities and had lived in hiding in the Lao jungles for decades,' the group said in a statement.

'If returned to Laos, they might have to face severe persecution, torture, arbitrary imprisonment.'

The group called on Bangkok and Vientiane to allow the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) agency or a similar body access to the Hmong refugees, some of whom had said 'they would rather die than go back to Laos.'

Amnesty International says Lao forces are still hunting scattered Hmong groups in hiding who are former fighters of the US-backed irregular wartime army led by Hmong General Vang Pao, or their descendants.

Vang Pao, now a US citizen, was arrested earlier this year in the United States, accused of plotting a violent coup in Laos.

US conservative group the Center for Public Policy Analysis, meanwhile, said three US citizens of Hmong descent were arrested on August 25 on unknown charges in Laos while on a sightseeing and business trip.

'Multiple and reliable independent eyes-on-the-ground human sources in Laos as well as immediate family members in the United States have confirmed that three Hmong-American citizens were arrested,' it said.

It named the men as Hakit Yang, 21; Conghineng Yang, 31; and Trillion Yunhaison, 41, all from the state of Minnesota, and said their Hmong tour guide, identified as Pao Vang, was also arrested.

The Lao spokesman denied that any US citizens were in custody in Laos, and a US embassy spokesperson declined to confirm or deny the reported arrests, citing State Department privacy rules.