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SEQfunbod
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From 7 News Australia.
April 16, 2011, 4:46 am
Laos troops kill four Hmong Christians: NGO
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Laotian and Vietnamese troops have killed four Hmong Christian women after confiscating their Bible, a US rights group said Friday, condemning growing persecutions of people for their faith in Laos.
The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) said the unarmed highland Hmong women were "summarily executed" on Thursday in northeastern Xieng Khouang province by soldiers from a special 150-member unit of the Lao People's Army (LPA) led by Vietnamese secret police and military advisers.
The government troops confiscated the group's only Bible, "brutally and repeatedly raped" at least two of the younger women before shooting them at point blank range with automatic weapons in the head and torso, it added.
Their husbands and 26 children were forced to witness the killings and have since disappeared after being beaten and tied up.
CPPA executive director Philip Smith denounced what he called a "tragic and major upswing" in religious persecution in Laos at the hands of Vietnamese and Laotian military and Communist Party officials over the past year.
"In a coordinated and expanded fashion, the Vietnam People's Army and LPA troops and security forces are especially determined to hunt down and kill independent Christian and animist believers in the highlands of Vietnam and Laos," he added.
Smith pointed to a "very dramatic" increase in persecution, imprisonment, torture and killing of Lao and Hmong Christians for celebrating Christmas or worshipping independently, as well as independent Buddhist and animist believers in the provinces of Vientiane, Khammoune, Saravan, Xieng Khouang, Luang Prabang and other regions in Laos.
Communist regimes have ruled in Vietnam and Laos since 1975. Many officials in Hanoi consider neighboring Laos an important part of their defense strategy, and the militaries of the two countries have long maintained close ties.
"We want the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and the Vietnam People's Army to remove all of its security forces and troops from Laos, and we want the Lao military and communist regime to respect the human rights and religious freedom of the Laotian and Lao Hmong people," said Bounthanh Rathigna of the United League for Democracy in Laos.
Laotian officials are also said to have destroyed crops in February to cut off about 60 impoverished Christians from their food supply in rural Saravan province. CPPA also cited reports of Christians being driven from their village at gunpoint.
#1 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 07:10
Rufus
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"The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA)"
And this organisation is? What? I doubt the veracity of your comments when you don't even know the country you are supposedly writing about. Where the hell is Loas? I looked it up in an atlas but couldn't find it
#2 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 08:03
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Rufus
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This is a right wing organisation. Do you realise that Kay Danes is associated with it? That automatically removes any semblance of credibility from the group. Ask long time Lao residents the real story about the Danes.
#3 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 09:16
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Rufus
Whenever you want to check on the veracity - check the source. Nailed that one on that head. Are there Christian Churches in Laos? As far as I know, Laos permits freedom of religion - or no? Now I would say it's possible such an incident took place because they were Hmong related in some way to the former Hmong fighters. Completely different motivation though.
#4 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 09:48
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somtam2000
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What Rufus said - especially given the Kay Danes connection.
#5 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 10:19
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Rufus
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"Are there Christian Churches in Laos?"
Yes Mac, there are. I have a number of friends who regularly go to Churches and have no problems whatsoever. Unfortunately we also have a number of God Botherer organisations here as well. Nonsense stories like these surface periodically from some Hmong living in the US who still think they have an axe to grind.
#6 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 12:22
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"Unfortunately we also have a number of God Botherer organisations here as well."
They're everywhere outside of Saudi Arabia.
"Nonsense stories like these surface periodically from some Hmong living in the US who still think they have an axe to grind."
They do have an axe to grind. But they will not get an opportunity to grind it. That conflict is settled.
#7 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 13:10
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caseyprich
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Best thing about this post - now I know about the Danes.
#8 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 14:52
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Rufus
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It is an interesting story, Casey. I suggest you read her first book. Talking to many people who were here when she was here, the book is a real embellishment of what actually happened. She has made a lot of money now from gullible people on the lecture circuit.
#9 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 15:11
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Wrong agitation by wrong agitator or a man(OP) who was influenced with the entirely false story.
#10 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 15:13
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Guess I won't buy the book.
#11 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 17:03
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somtam2000
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Yeah it was an interesting little saga.
#12 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 18:33
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Whenever you want to check on the veracity - check the source.
It's an interesting coincidence but I don't know if you can read much into it.
#13 Posted: 24/4/2011 - 21:49
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there has been a lot of discussion in the states lately on how press releases and stories like this one make their way into the media without proper scrutiny. the example that comes to mind was a recently issued press release about a chastity belt with a GPS tracking chip in it. it was sent as a joke to a few TV stations, but at least one of them aired the information with no questions asked.
i very much hope that the story in the original post never happened or was greatly exagerated. but the first thing i did was to wonder if there was an additional source for the information and to look up The Center for Public Policy Analysis to see what i could learn about the group. unfortunately, all i could learn about them was from their own website. and while they make an obvious effort to appear to be a Washington, DC-based think tank with an international focus, it is pretty obvious it is an anti-Lao Government group. if that is the case, then this article above is nothing more than propoganda, isn't it.
we need to be careful not to promote propoganda, don't we?
#14 Posted: 25/4/2011 - 01:09
caseyprich
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Yeah - never count on anything with a single source of information. Unless it's your mom - you can always trust your mom.
#15 Posted: 25/4/2011 - 08:15
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MADMAC
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There are a ton of those stories running around about ridiculous judicial decisions as well. Most of them are fiction too, and they often float around the net.
#16 Posted: 25/4/2011 - 10:45
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Rufus
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It is surprising that the OP's father is Bruce Moon, a former frequent and informed poster on this site. I am sure that he would be disappointed to know his son is posting unsubstantiated nonsense.
#17 Posted: 25/4/2011 - 13:39
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No kidding. That is a surprise.
#18 Posted: 25/4/2011 - 13:42
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Rufus
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SEQfunbod
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My dad - brucemoon - has travelled on the road from Huay Xai to Luang Nam Tha several times,
Yes mac, it is surprising.
#19 Posted: 25/4/2011 - 16:06
SBE
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We are assuming SEQfunbod is Bruce Moon's son. I think that's very debatable myself. Check out his post here, post #19
http://www.travelfish.org/board/post/idlebanter/6978_who-is-bruce-moon
I just want to say that I'm new here and I wasn't sure about the boat thing at luangparabang. After reading heaps I made a question and BruceMoon provided so much help. He really seems to know lots about the boats. I don't know who he is but he helped me heaps. And, he's helping other people too. BruceMoon you are a winner.
You know who I think SEQfunbod really is?
#20 Posted: 25/4/2011 - 16:46
MADMAC
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If it were Bruce he wouldn't be posting the other gibberish. He definitely knows better.
#21 Posted: 25/4/2011 - 17:38
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Rufus
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I notice the op has run away and not returned.
#22 Posted: 26/4/2011 - 11:13