VZCZCXRO5087
PP RUEHCHI
DE RUEHVN #0413/01 1250948
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 050948Z MAY 06
FM AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9881
INFO RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 6544
RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 2635
RUEHGO/AMEMBASSY RANGOON 2097
RUEHPF/AMEMBASSY PHNOM PENH 1753
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0868
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0362
RHHMUNA/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENTIANE 000413 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EAP/MLS, DRL, PRM 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/05/2016 
TAGS: PINS PHUM PREF PREL LA
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR RAISES HMONG MASSACRE WITH VIENTIANE 
GOVERNOR 
 
REF: A. VIENTIANE 390 
     ¶B. VIENTIANE 405 
 
Classified By: Ambassador Patricia M. Haslach, reason 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
Summmary 
-------- 
¶1. (C) Amnesty International has issued a statement 
condemning the April 6 killing by Lao soldiers of Hmong 
civilians in northern Vientiane province (ref A). Ambassador 
called on Vientiane province's Governor May 4 to discuss the 
killing; the Governor professed ignorance of the event but at 
least didn't dismiss it out of hand, instead promising to 
look into the report. Meanwhile, to keep the aid flowing, the 
Lao paid lip service to human rights. The latest iteration: 
UNDP's "Rights-Based Approach to Development," which the GoL 
has endorsed even as it ignores egregious human rights 
violations on the ground. End summary. 
 
AI's statement 
-------------- 
¶2. (C) AI issued a statement May 4 strongly condemning the 
April 6 massacre of ethnic Hmong civilians in northern 
Vientiane province.  Detailing what is known of the massacre 
(26 dead, almost all of whom were women and children and all 
of whom were allegedly unarmed), the report also noted the 
continued detention by the Lao of 27 Hmong deported from 
Thailand in December, and concluded with a hard-hitting 
critique of the GoL's handling of the Hmong issue. AI called 
on the government to launch a prompt inquiry into the April 6 
massacre in order to bring those responsible to justice, and 
also urged the immediate release of the detained Hmong to 
allow them to rejoin their families in Thailand. 
 
Meeting with Vientiane governor 
------------------------------- 
¶3. (C) Also on May 4, Ambassador traveled to Vientiane 
province's provincial office to meet with Governor Somphet 
Thipmala about the massacre. Somphet took over the Vientiane 
portfolio at the beginning of this year, after having 
overseen the Saisomboun Special Zone for over a decade, until 
its dissolution in late 2005. With most of Saisomboun now 
melded into Vientiane, he continues to reign over the areas 
of the former Saisomboun where insurgents are active.  He had 
allowed the Ambassador to visit Long Cheng, the old "Secret 
War" airbase -- the first visit by an official American since 
¶1975. 
 
¶4. (C) The Ambassador raised the massacre in the course of a 
meeting we billed as a courtesy call on the newly-appointed 
governor. She described the circumstances of the massacre, 
gave its rough location (along with a map) and stressed that 
our objective in raising the case was not to embarrass the 
government but to encourage an impartial investigation of the 
incident and to punish those found responsible.  She also 
urged the Governor, who has experience with resettlement, to 
peacefully resettle Hmong "remote people" coming out of the 
forest, and repeated the offer of international assistance to 
new settlers. The Governor convincingly professed complete 
ignorance of the event, saying he had heard of nothing 
unusual happening in the province in January, beyond the 
death of a Canadian citizen of a drug overdose in Vang Vieng. 
However, he did not dismiss the report out of hand as we had 
expected, but promised to look into it and inform MFA of the 
results. 
 
Rights-based approach to development 
------------------------------------ 
¶5. (C) While they blithely ignore our many approaches on 
specific concerns like the massacre, the Lao government talks 
a good game about respect for human rights.  The UN has 
recently introduced a "Rights-Based Approach to Development" 
to its development program, intending to include human rights 
components (i.e. ensuring respect for UN conventions) in 
future projects. While selling the Lao on the idea was 
somewhat contentious, the GoL has in theory bought off on the 
rights-based approach in principle.  Last week UNDP and MFA 
jointly hosted a workshop on the new approach, designed to 
explain to government officials involved in development work 
how to include human rights components in their planning.  A 
UNICEF representative in a donor meeting today, however, 
noted that in the UN,s last joint document with the GOL, the 
GOL insisted in the end that the word "rights" be removed in 
 
VIENTIANE 00000413  002 OF 002 
 
 
every instance it occurred. 
 
Comment 
------- 
¶6. (C) AI's statement on the massacre will focus more 
attention on the incident, which will get the wheels moving 
within the Lao bureaucracy to counter the story.  That's 
already happening: our Australian colleagues, doing a round 
with MFA's Human Rights Department today, said the MFA flatly 
denied any reports originating from outside the country of 
human rights problems.  Only reports "from the Lao people" 
were deemed worthy of investigation. We won't hear anything 
from the GoL other than flat denials of the incident, but the 
attention may at least generate some momentum within their 
system to look into the report and with any luck put the 
spotlight on those guilty of the massacre. 
 
¶7. (C) We support the UNDP's effort to incorporate a 
Rights-based approach to development in its program. By 
inches the Lao are being moved in the right direction in 
regard to giving attention to human rights. But in view of 
recent egregious human rights violations -- the detention of 
27 Hmong by Lao authorities, a new bout of religious 
intolerance, and now this massacre -- it is hard not to 
conclude that the government is paying anything but lip 
service to human rights to mollify the international 
community in order to keep the aid flowing (see Ref B). End 
comment. 
 
HASLACH