VZCZCXRO4712
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHVN #0525/01 1760923
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 250923Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1350
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 2183
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0574
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEAWJA/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHDC

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 VIENTIANE 000525 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/22/2017 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINS ASEC CASC SCUL SNAR CH LA US
MARR, RP, KFLU, SMIG, KCRM 
SUBJECT: LAO GOVERNMENT CAUTIOUSLY WELCOMES U.S. ARRESTS 
 
REF: VIENTIANE 479 
 
VIENTIANE 00000525  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Classified By: Mary Grace McGeehan, Charge d'Affaires a.i.  Reason: 1.4 
 b and d. 
 
¶1.  (C)  Summary:  Lao government officials appear to have 
been pleased and surprised by the June 4 arrests of 
Hmong-American General Vang Pao and others on suspicion of 
plotting violent action aimed at overthrowing the Lao 
government.  However, the Philippines Ambassador, who 
talked to Lao government ministers about the arrests, told 
us that the senior leadership is monitoring the situation 
cautiously, suspicious that there may have been U.S. 
government involvement with the coup group.  The Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs has requested that we keep it informed 
of developments, particularly any information on possible 
threats to Laos,s national security.  We have received 
unusually friendly overtures from the Lao government on 
several issues since the arrest, which may mean that Lao 
officials who favor closer cooperation with us feel that 
this is a good time to push their initiatives forward.  End 
summary. 
 
Public Response: From &Great News8 to Wait and See 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶2.  (C)  The first public reaction to the arrests by the 
Lao government came from Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
spokesman Yong Chanthalangsy, who told Reuters in Bangkok 
on June 4, &This is the great news that Laos has waited for 
for so long.  We hope the United States will prosecute them 
strictly under the Patriot Act and punish the violators of 
the law severely.8  (Comment:  Actually, the suspects were 
charged with violating the Neutrality Act and other laws. 
End comment.)  He made similar comments to the Thai 
newspaper &The Nation.8  In subsequent interviews, Mr. 
Yong, who may have received instructions to tone down his 
enthusiasm, was more guarded.  Voice of America quoted him 
on June 6 as saying that Laos will monitor the Vang Pao 
case closely and that it will not affect Laos-U.S. 
relations in any way.  The U.S. and Laos, he said, already 
enjoy good relations and cooperation between the two 
countries has steadily expanded in many areas.  He said 
that it was too early to draw conclusions about the case. 
Coverage in the Lao press, meanwhile, has been limited to a 
few strictly factual stories, mostly picked up from the 
U.S. press (Reftel). 
 
Discussions with MFA 
-------------------- 
 
¶3.  (C)  The Charge and Acting DCM met with Europe and 
Americas Director General Southam Sakonhninhom on June 6 at 
Southam,s request.  The A/DCM had alerted MFA officials to 
the arrests by faxing the DOJ press release the day 
before.  Southam requested official confirmation from the 
Embassy that General Vang Pao and others had been arrested 
in a plot to overthrow the Lao government.  The Charge 
confirmed the arrests.  She emphasized that Vang Pao and 
the others are innocent until proven guilty.  She said that 
the Embassy had no information about the arrests other than 
what had appeared in the DOJ press release and the criminal 
complaint, which the Embassy provided to MFA.  The Charge 
and A/DCM provided Southam with a copy of the Embassy,s 
warden message, issued that day, noting that the arrests 
had taken place.  Southam did not provide an official 
reaction, but he seemed pleasantly surprised that U.S. law 
enforcement officials had taken action against Vang Pao. 
In a June 12 conversation, Southam told the Charge and 
A/DCM that the Lao government planned to issue a statement 
on the arrests soon.  (No such statement has been issued to 
date.)  In both the June 6 and June 12 meetings, Southam 
requested that the Embassy keep him informed about 
developments in the case.  He expressed particular interest 
in receiving any information that emerges about potential 
threats to the national security of Laos. 
 
Philippines Ambassador: Officials Watching Cautiously 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶4.  (C)  At a Russian national day reception on June 14, 
Philippines Ambassador Elizabeth Buensuceso told the Charge 
that she had discussed the arrests with Lao government 
ministers during the previous week's visit to the 
Philippines by a delegation led by Prime Minister Bouasone 
Bouphavanh.  She said that the GOL officials are pleased 
that the arrests took place but are observing developments 
with great caution.  In particular, they are wondering why 
a U.S. government person was involved (presumably meaning 
the retired military officer arrested along with the 
Hmong-Americans) and waiting to see what information comes 
out on U.S. government involvement.  She said that it is 
because of this uncertainty that the Lao press is 
downplaying the arrests.  Ambassador Buensuceso suggested 
that, given this high level of suspicion, any message that 
the USG could send to the GOL would be useful, even 
something as seemingly obvious as saying that we view 
allegations of a plot to overthrow the Lao government with 
great concern. 
 
Chinese Diplomat's Comments 
--------------------------- 
 
¶5. (C)  Chinese Embassy Second Secretary Zhao Cheng Gang, 
who is about to conclude his second tour in Laos, told 
Poloff on June 13 that he believes the Lao government's 
attitude toward the U.S. government, which he described as 
hostile in late 2005 and early 2006, has improved during 
the past year.  He said that the arrest of Vang Pao was 
well-received by his contacts in the Lao government and 
appears to be an opportunity to continue the improvement in 
relations. 
 
Other Views 
----------- 
 
¶6.  (C)  An ethnic Hmong Embassy employee who is from 
XXXXXXXXXXXX, one of the most affluent and 
well-integrated Hmong communities, said that roughly half 
of the community was pleased and half of the community was 
saddened by news of the arrests.  Customers at a shop owned 
by the Lao wife of an American local-hire employee 
commented after the arrests that they were pleased and 
surprised that the U.S. government would take this action 
to help the Lao government.  A young man who approached the 
A/DCM on the way out of a social function and identified 
himself only as a senior member of the Lao communist party 
youth league spoke favorably about the arrests and 
enthusiastically discussed possibilities for youth 
exchanges between Laos and the U.S.  Other Mission 
employees have heard similar reactions from Lao contacts. 
Vientiane-based Western expatriates have followed the news 
of the arrests with great interest.  A number of them have 
speculated to us that the arrests were a positive gesture 
toward the Lao government by the U.S.  (Note:  Embassy 
personnel have been provided guidance on appropriate response 
to questions they may receive about the arrest cases and U.S. 
policy.) 
 
Doors Opening All Over 
---------------------- 
 
¶7.  (C)  Since the arrests, we have made a surprising 
amount of progress in areas of our relationship with the 
Lao government where we had previously experienced 
difficulty.  These include: 
 
-- Officials at the Lao National Commission for Drug 
Control and Supervision (LCDC) provided nine drug samples 
to Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) personnel during a 
June 18 meeting.  Despite multiple requests by DEA, LCDC 
had not provided any samples since 2005. 
 
-- MFA officials called us on June 18 and urgently 
requested that we send a diplomatic note requesting a 
Subject Matter Expert Exchange (SMEE) on avian influenza to 
be organized by PACOM officials as part of a series of 
increased military-to-military activities.  PACOM personnel 
had raised this in two recent visits.  This moves us closer 
to official Lao acceptance. 
 
-- MFA DG Southam reacted surprisingly positively to the 
Department,s June 12 press statement expressing concern 
about the deportation of 160 people from Thailand to Laos, 
despite the fact that it noted human rights problems in 
Laos and the refusal of Lao officials to allow 
international monitoring of returnees.  Southam, who has in 
the past firmly resisted suggestions regarding 
international monitoring of people who have surrendered or 
been repatriated from Thailand, agreed that allowing 
international monitoring of the returnees would be a good 
idea.  (However, MFA Spokesman Yong, who has more influence 
in this area, remains firmly opposed to international 
monitoring.) 
 
-- In a discussion with the Charge about the next U.S.-Lao 
bilateral dialogue (following the first such meeting in 
October 2006), Southam said he hoped the dialogue would 
take place as soon as possible following the new U.S. 
Ambassador,s arrival.  On his own initiative, he mentioned 
military-to-military relations and Hmong issues (the latter 
of which the Lao delegation only reluctantly allowed onto 
the agenda last year) as possible areas of discussion. 
 
-- Ministry of National Defense Chief of Staff Colonel 
Sisophon unexpectedly proposed an exchange of defense 
attaches in 2008 during meetings in Washington while on a 
Distinguished Visitor Orientation Tour.  The Defense Ministry 
had in the past consistently stated that it lacked the 
resources to take this step. 
 
-- Lao officials allowed our consular officers to visit two 
American prisoners on June 15.  We had previously 
experienced difficulty in gaining access to U.S. prisoners. 
 
-- In mid-June, purported bureaucratic obstacles that would 
have prevented in-country travel by a visiting lecturer on 
human trafficking sponsored by the Public Diplomacy Section 
suddenly disappeared. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶8.  (C)  While we were initially hesitant to assume that 
the positive overtures we were receiving were related to 
the arrests, the change in attitude has been so sudden and 
pronounced that we can see no other explanation.  We doubt, 
however, that there has been a high-level decision to 
improve ties with the United States.  The Philippines 
Ambassador,s assessment that senior Lao officials are 
avoiding a rush to judgment is likely correct.  Many senior 
Lao officials, particularly those most closely tied to the 
military, have longstanding suspicions of the United 
States.  Some probably believe that the U.S. has over the 
years at worst supported, or at best turned a blind eye to, 
assistance to insurgency groups by Hmong-Americans within 
the U.S.  With a poor understanding of the U.S. system, 
these officials may be reading too much into the fact that 
a former U.S. military officer was arrested along with the 
Hmong-Americans.  Defense attorneys for the suspects 
suggested during the bail hearings that they had reasonably 
believed that the CIA was involved in the plot.  Lao 
suspicions may still be running in that direction, as 
implausible as this would appear to most observers in light 
of the arrests. 
 
¶9.  (C)  What we suspect is happening is that those 
mid-level officials within the Lao government who favor 
closer cooperation with the U.S. see this as a good time to 
press ahead with initiatives that they previously saw as 
non-starters.  It may be that some of these initiatives 
will ultimately encounter bureaucratic resistance once they 
reach higher levels, just as Mr. Yong may have been 
instructed to tone down his initial enthusiastic response 
to the arrests.  Still, the positive climate is a welcome 
change given the usual bureaucratic obstructionism and 
veiled hostility directed at the U.S.  Excitement about the 
arrests here is likely to wane as the lengthy court 
proceedings, which will be poorly understood by even the 
most informed observers here, drag on.  The more 
forthcoming that we can be with the GOL as the court case 
proceeds, the longer this positive climate is likely to 
last. 
MCGEEHAN