VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBK #2594/01 1292335
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 092335Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY BANGKOK
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6768
INFO RUEHVN/AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE 3654

UNCLAS BANGKOK 002594 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREF PREL TH LA
SUBJECT: UNHCR'S FELLER READOUT ON VISITS TO THAILAND AND LAOS 
 
REF: VIENTIANE 364 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED.  PLEASE HANDLE ACCORDINGLY. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner Erika Feller 
told the Bangkok diplomatic corps on May 3 that she thought a 
Thai-Lao solution to the issue of the 155 Nong Khai Hmong might be 
possible soon if the concerns of the two sides were addressed.  She 
stated that she believed both sides now recognized that UNHCR's 
views on this issue must be considered.  Her reception by the Lao 
was friendly and she thought her visit represented an advance in 
UNHCR's relations with the Lao.  The Hmong issue has led the Thai to 
reconsider UNHCR's overall screening of refugees in Thailand.  End 
summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) On May 3, UNHCR Assistant High Commissioner for Protection 
Erika Feller briefed the diplomatic corps on her just-completed 
mission to Thailand and Laos. 
 
¶3. (SBU) In discussions on the 155 Hmong in the Nong Khai Detention 
Center, Feller said that RTG officials told her they had four 
concerns:  they did not want to create a pull factor; they did not 
want to increase the trafficking problem by rewarding those who had 
assisted Hmong to leave Laos for Thailand; they did not want to 
endanger their hard-won bilateral agreement with Laos on border 
issues; and they did not want to undermine the principle of the 
supremacy of national law in resolving similar problems of this 
nature.  Feller said the Lao government had similar views on 
trafficking, the bilateral agreement and national law.  The Lao also 
said they were concerned about their international image of being a 
humanitarian country that protects the interests of minority people. 
 
 
¶4. (SBU) Feller asserted that despite their concern with not 
undermining bilateral arrangements and national law, both countries 
now seemed to agree that UNHCR was also a legitimate stakeholder 
that had a role to play.  She said that General Winai Phatthiyakul, 
the Secretary General of the Thai Council of National Security, 
stated that the RTG was prepared to find a solution to the Nong Khai 
Hmong issue and that UNHCR should assume that the 155 Hmong would 
not be sent back to Laos.  He asked if the entire group could be 
sent to one resettlement country.  Feller said she responded that 
that was unlikely and proposed instead that they all might leave for 
one country where their cases could be completed before resettlement 
to their final destinations. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Feller said she received the impression that the RTG would 
not allow the group to be moved to another, better location within 
Thailand until a final resolution was worked out.  Winai asked 
Feller to get confirmation from the Lao that they would not insist 
that the 155 be returned to Laos.  Feller said she did not get the 
same unequivocal statement from the Lao on this matter that she 
received from Winai.  At the same time, she said it should not be 
underestimated that she had been invited to Laos with the Lao 
knowing that the 155 would be an issue.  This was an advance. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Feller said that the Lao told her that a resolution on the 
155 must be a win-win solution.  She noted that the next Thai-Lao 
border committee meeting would occur on May 18.  Feller said she 
encouraged both sides to solve the issue as a humanitarian gesture 
and thought a solution at that time was possible, though not 
guaranteed, if the two sides could cast a solution as a bilateral 
agreement under the auspices of the bilateral border committee. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Feller said she was generally surprised at the friendliness 
of the Lao reception.  The Lao seemed to want to make sure their 
position was understood.  They also seemed to listen carefully.  In 
their final exchange, Feller noted that the Lao said they believed 
UNHCR understood their position and vice versa.  She said she 
thought UNHCR's views would be considered during the Thai-Lao border 
discussions. 
 
¶8. (SBU)  On the multilateral proposal recently given to the RTG by 
interested governments and the United Nations on the larger issue of 
the Hmong in Petchaboon Province, Feller said her RTG interlocutors 
said that they accepted that screening of the group must occur.  The 
wishes of the group had to be ascertained.  A solution with Laos 
must then be built around those wishes.  Feller noted that the 
challenge will be the screening criteria and how they are 
implemented.  Feller said she also told the Thai that in addition to 
the Nong Khai and Petchaboon Hmong, there were about another 250 
Hmong persons of concern in Bangkok for whom a solution was 
necessary.  Feller noted that UNHCR last November had stopped 
registering Lao-Hmong at RTG request. 
 
¶9. (SBU) Feller stated that the Lao-Hmong problem led the RTG during 
her visit to raise the question of UNHCR's general Refugee Status 
Determination (RSD) activities in Thailand.  Feller emphasized that 
she told the Thai that UNHCR had a mandate given by the 
international community to protect refugees and it would carry out 
that responsibility as long as it had an office in Thailand.  In 
response, her RTG interlocutors said that they were considering 
whether conditions should be imposed on RSD.  They noted that they 
were working on a draft Aide Memoire which would be presented to 
UNHCR in several weeks.  She noted that the Thai asked whether UNHCR 
carried out similar activities in other countries, including in the 
U.S. along the Mexican border and in southern Europe. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Comment.  All signs continue to be encouraging that the 
155 Hmong in Nong Khai will not be sent back to Laos, but it is 
still unclear how UNHCR, Thailand, and Laos will work this out with 
the resettlement countries.  Embassy will be in close contact with 
UNHCR and the RTG regarding developments on UNHCR's RSD activities 
in Thailand. 
 
Boyce