Dissident Vanishes In Laos -- U.S. Backed His Return To Communist Country

One balmy afternoon last fall, a Hmong refugee leader named Vue Mai answered a phone call at his home in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, and told relatives he was going out for a while.

Nobody has heard from him since, and he is assumed to be dead.

In the seven months since his disappearance, his fate has become an increasingly contentious issue - involving old CIA friends and communist foes, compromising U.S. refugee policies and embarrassing the deeply involved State Department. Last week, Vue Mai's disappearance was a major focus of congressional hearings into the plight of the Hmong people, whose troubled fate remains an uncomfortable legacy of the Vietnam War.

Vue Mai was one of the many Hmong who fought in the CIA's "secret war" in Laos in the 1960s and '70s. He later became a prominent leader of the Hmong resistance that continued the anti-communist fight that America encouraged against the government of Laos well into the 1980s. And when the United States finally sought to make formal peace with Laos, Vue Mai accepted a dangerous role again.

For three decades, Vue Mai was a valuable player in U.S. foreign policy. And then he disappeared.

His story has the makings of a compelling international whodunit, complete with intrigue, betrayal and powerful enemies with reason to do him in. Consider the characters:

-- The protagonist, 57-year-old Vue Mai. He rose to the rank of major in the CIA's mostly Hmong, anti-communist army of Laos during the Vietnam War. He fled Laos in 1975 when the communist forces won, and - as commander of the largest Hmong refugee camp in Thailand - continued to fight for another decade, until U.S. and U.N. officials persuaded him to break ranks with the Hmong resistance and accept repatriation to Laos. They wanted him to lead back thousands of other Hmong, a radical and divisive step since most Hmong hated and feared the Lao government. Vue Mai crossed the Mekong River back to Laos in 1992.

-- Vang Pao, 64, the legendary leader of the CIA-Hmong army, and still the leader of the anti-Lao resistance. Because Vang Pao, who lives in California, wants the opposition to continue, the departure of Vue Mai, his former lieutenant, was a personal betrayal. Despite the bad blood, Vang Pao - who was in Washington last week for the hearings - denied his people had anything to do with Vue Mai's disappearance.

-- The government of the People's Democratic Republic of Laos. One of the most secretive governments in the world, the communists in Vientiane do not have an enviable record on human rights. Laotians who displease them have a tendency to disappear into jail, according to groups such as Amnesty International. The Lao government has refused to share the results of its investigation into Vue Mai's disappearance, saying only that it isn't responsible and doesn't know who is.

-- Diplomats from the U.S. State Department and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, who spent months wining, dining and pressuring Vue Mai, urging him back to Laos. U.S. and UNHCR officials promised Vue Mai security in Laos and accompanied him on the ferry across the Mekong when he returned. But now they say they have no leverage with the Lao government.

In written testimony submitted to last week's hearing, Vue Wa, Vue Mai's grown son who lives in California, said that foreign governments sponsored Vue Mai's return to Laos and then "betrayed his loyalty."

About 50,000 Hmong refugees remain in Thailand - about 175,000 fled Laos in the bloody years after the 1975 communist victory and more than 100,000 of them came to the United States.

As the Cold War ended, America and Thailand wanted to make peace with communist Laos, and the low-level armed resistance that the Hmong maintained against the Lao government was an obstacle to that peace. The theory was that by leading thousands of Hmong from their Thai refugee camps back to Laos, Vue Mai would undermine the resistance and help stabilize the region.

But U.S. and U.N. promises of financial aid did not materialize. Relatives in Laos told Vue Wa that his father was followed by policemen. This is why Vue Wa does not believe the Lao government assertions that it does not know what happened to his father. "They knew everything he did," Vue Wa said.

State Department officials agree that Laos knows more than it is telling, but say privately that they are not hopeful about getting much information.

Lao officials, along with the State Department, point to the Hmong resistance as the likely abductors of Vue Mai. Vang Pao and his followers are undeniably upset about Vue Mai's return to Laos, and it is widely believed that resistance fighters were responsible for a grenade thrown into Vue Mai's refugee camp home in 1991.

Once Vue Mai agreed to return to Laos, his clan was ostracized; other Hmong exiles will not speak to a Vue.

One refugee activist said Vue Mai's disappearance clearly benefited the resistance: "The Lao government is embarrassed, the repatriation slows down, and the State Department looks terrible."