Once aided by U.S., rebels in Laos 'trying to stay alive'

BANGKOK, Thailand — The arrests of two foreign journalists and a U.S. citizen in Laos last month have thrown a spotlight on the remnants of a formerly U.S.-backed army still battling Laos' Communist government — three decades after the Vietnam War officially ended.

Recruited in the 1960s by the CIA to fight Vietcong incursions into a landlocked country known to U.S. pilots as "the other theater," the rebel army swelled to 40,000.

Many fighters and their extended families — mostly ethnic Hmong — fled Laos after the Communist Pathet Lao seized control in 1975. Some 100,000 Hmong later resettled in the U.S. — some in Washington state — and were given generous welfare support as a reward for their role in a shadowy war.

But a ragtag force of perhaps a few thousand, including the grandchildren of the U.S. proxy army, are still holding out against the Laotian army in mountains northeast of the capital, Vientiane. Officials dismiss them as "bandits" who need to be brought to justice. But foreign observers who have traveled to Hmong-held areas say that far from being a credible threat, the rebels are poorly armed, in bad health — and focused largely on holding their own in the face of a government that wants to wipe them out.

"They're just basically trying to stay alive. They're fighting for survival," says Philip Blenkinsop, a British photographer who visited in January. "They talk about political ideology ... but it's just a line they've had for so long. The reality is that if they don't pick up their weapons and fight, they're going to be killed."

For Laos' secretive rulers, the publicity generated by the arrests is far from welcome.

Last month, Belgian photographer Thierry Falise and a French cameraman, Vincent Reynaud, went to report on the plight of the group, accompanied by Naw Karl Mua, a Hmong-American pastor from St. Paul, Minn., who helped arrange their clandestine visit.

When they emerged from the jungle 10 days later, accompanied by Hmong fighters, the group ran into an army patrol. Officials say the resulting firefight killed a village guard, making the foreigners potential accessories to murder.

"I don't know what they do outside Laos," Foreign Minister Somsavath Lengsavath said, "but in Laos they were not journalists, so we have to take ... action ... in accordance with Lao law for murder."

On Monday the three were sentenced to 15 years in prison, but diplomats say they are hopeful the government may simply expel the two journalists, who entered the country as tourists, and the U.S. pastor.

"We are ready to pardon them. We are waiting for a formal request from the governments of the three men," Somsavath said yesterday. The men were convicted of obstructing officers, possession of weapons and explosives, possession of drugs and being involved in an incident that caused the death of a local militiaman.

Analysts say exiled Hmong in France and the U.S., including the family of Vang Pao, the former commander of the U.S.-backed resistance, have for years sent aid to the insurgent groups. Some exiles have plotted to overthrow the Communist regime in Laos and carve out a homeland for Hmong.

Known in French colonial times as Miao people, Hmong fled to the mountains of northern Laos in the 19th century to escape persecution in China.

Information from Reuters and The Associated Press is included in this report.