VZCZCXRO5205
RR RUEHCHI
DE RUEHVN #0335/01 1910916
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 100916Z JUL 09 ZDK
FM AMEMBASSY VIENTIANE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2690
INFO RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK 8040
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 0690

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 VIENTIANE 000335 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EA/MOL - EMERY 
STATE FOR PRM/A - BURKHARDT 
BANGKOK FOR SCHERER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: LA PHUM PREF PREL SOCI TH
SUBJECT: STAFFDEL LEE: GOL SHOWS OFF HMONG RESETTLEMENT SITE 
 
REF: A. 08 VIENTIANE 658 
     ¶B. VIENTIANE 332 
 
 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: On July 6, senior Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs officials accompanied House Foreign Affairs Committee 
professional staff member Jessica Lee and Ambassador to the 
Phalak village Hmong resettlement site. Phalak is used to 
settle Lao Hmong who return from detainment in Thailand but 
do not go back to their village of origin or a relative,s 
village.  The visiting group observed the progress in 
infrastructure development since the Ambassador,s prior 
visit (Ref A).  Phalak now has cell phone coverage, and 
villagers spoke of communicating with relatives in the United 
States or still detained in Thailand.  Several villagers 
related their personal stories of how they came to be in 
Phalak, and requested additional development assistance. 
Comment:  The Lao government (GOL) funded ) a rare 
occurrence in itself - the helicopter visit to Phalak 
village, in order to highlight the efforts and expense the 
GOL is putting into resettling returning Lao Hmong. This 
demonstrated the importance placed by the GOL on Ms. Lee,s 
visit and the GOL,s growing acknowledgement that 
transparency is the best response to international questions 
regarding Hmong resettlement.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) House Foreign Affairs Committee professional staff 
member Jessica Lee and Ambassador were accompanied on a July 
6 visit to Phalak by MFA Press Department Director General 
Khentong Nuanthasing and MFA Europe and Americas Acting 
Director GeneralThieng Boupha; the Thai defense attach to 
Laos also participated.  Phalak village is located in 
mountainous northern Vientiane province, around 40 minutes 
helicopter ride or seven hours drive from Vientiane 
municipality. 
 
Phalak Living Conditions 
------------------------ 
¶3. (SBU) After flying through rainy skies, the GOL-funded and 
organized visit began with a report from the village,s 
Oversight Committee. The current Phalak population is 446, 
down from the 462 reported in Reftel A.  Out of the 100 homes 
constructed, 78 are occupied, but arable land is insufficient 
for more families at this time.  The decrease in population 
can be attributed to the GOL,s stated policy of allowing 
Phalak villagers to later move to villages where they have 
relatives, if they choose do so.  The Oversight Committee 
representative provided a lengthy list of services and 
projects provided by the GOL, including food, clean water, 
temporary houses, health care, arable land preparation and 
allocation, electricity, all-weather road access, irrigation 
systems, cell phone coverage and a school.  The U.S. 
delegation confirmed cell phone coverage by calling Vientiane 
city; villagers reported that they are able to both place and 
receive calls from the United States, but only to receive 
calls from Thailand. 
 
Voices of the Resettled 
----------------------- 
4.(SBU) Following the report, Ambassador requested that 
individuals in the audience share their stories. A U.S. 
Embassy ethnic Hmong employee acted as interpreter, as 
responses were given in the Hmong language.  The two men who 
volunteered to speak and the one man selected by the 
Ambassador related similar experiences of either coming from 
the &jungle8 (i.e. being Hmong fighters against the GOL 
after 1975) or being directly linked to Hmong General Vang 
Pao, who led U.S.-supported Hmong forces during the 
Indochinese War. (Note:  These are the two categories of 
Hmong awaiting repatriation from Thailand that are considered 
most at risk of GOL persecution.  End note.)  When asked, one 
speaker said no villagers had been arrested or injured in the 
two years his family had been in Phalak village. 
 
5.(SBU) In answer to a question from the Thai defense 
attach, another man said his family of six had paid two 
million Lao Kip (around $240) as a fee for assistance from 
the group who came to their original Lao village at night and 
encouraged them to go to Thailand.  This fee varied depending 
on the size and wealth of the family, he added. 
 
6.(SBU) One man asked the Thai attache about current 
conditions at the Huay Nam Khao detainment camp in Thailand. 
The attach responded that everyone in Huay Nam Khao camp had 
entered Thailand illegally.  The Thai and Lao governments are 
prepared to assist in resettling those who agree to return to 
Laos voluntarily.  But even those who do not volunteer to 
return to Laos will be sent back in accordance with Thai law. 
 
VIENTIANE 00000335  002 OF 002 
 
 
 The attach added that the Thai and Lao prime ministers had 
agreed that Lao Hmong who wish to emigrate to a third country 
may do so, but must first return to Laos. (Comment:  The 
attache,s full response was recounted in the report on this 
Phalak visit that appeared in the Lao-language press, though 
his comments were not included in the English-language press 
report.  End comment.) 
 
7.(SBU) Following the testimonies of the three men, Ms. Lee 
asked to hear from the handful of women at the meeting, 
noting that some women in Huay Nam Khao camp had expressed to 
her their fear that they would be abused on returning to 
Laos. One woman volunteered and became very emotional in 
describing her May 2007 entry to Thailand with thirty other 
people and the trauma of their subsequent arrest by Thai 
police. The Thai attache was troubled by her account and 
pressed for additional details, which she provided along with 
a request for more development assistance.  DG Khentong 
closed the meeting with a statement to the villagers that 
crossing borders illegally can result in arrest, just as Lao 
authorities would arrest individuals who illegally enter 
Laos. (Comment: Post is very familiar with the case of the 
thirty-one Lao Hmong who entered Thailand in May 2007 and 
were quickly arrested by Thai authorities and returned to 
Laos, before ever reaching the Huay Nam Khao camp. End 
comment.) 
 
Touring Phalak Village 
---------------------- 
8.(SBU) GOL officials drove the delegation around Phalak 
village to demonstrate the progress of various infrastructure 
projects.  The village irrigation system is nearly completed, 
while the health clinic is finished but not yet equipped. 
The village school, currently closed for the rainy/planting 
season, is completed and staffed by teachers who accepted a 
book donation from the GOL during the visit. The delegation 
visited one pre-selected, typical &temporary8 home 
constructed with thatch walls and a tin roof. Outside that 
home, a villager from a nearby house tearfully described her 
separation from her husband, who she said is afraid to return 
to Laos from the camp in Thailand.  Lao officials encouraged 
the woman to tell her husband to return to Laos, and had her 
speak into a tape recorder so that her message could be sent 
to her husband. 
 
9.(SBU) Comment: The GOL seized the opportunity of a visiting 
Congressional staff member to show off its efforts to support 
the resettlement of the small proportion of returning Lao 
Hmong that are not sent back to their original villages.  In 
an unusual step, the visit to Phalak was entirely funded and 
organized by the GOL, using only GOL transportation.  Despite 
poor weather conditions, MFA officials pressed ahead with 
flying to Phalak rather than drive to see resettled Hmong at 
a site near Vientiane city, which would have been more 
convenient but only allowed a meeting with one or two Hmong 
families.  While services and infrastructure in Phalak 
village are very basic from an industrialized country 
perspective, they do significantly exceed the norm for upland 
villages around Laos.  The visit also demonstrated an 
apparent GOL realization that greater transparency on Lao 
resettlement policy is the most effective response to 
international questions. 
HUSO