Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Wed, 9 Sep 1992 17:41:35 -0400
From:         Nhan Tran <tran@PEORA.SDC.CCUR.COM>
Subject:      LAOS: Rebels suffer as former backers warm to laos

09/08

Rebels suffer as former backers warm to Laos

    By Angus MacSwan
    BANGKOK, Sept 9, Reuter - The remnants of the CIA's mercenary army in Laos
are waging an increasingly lonely struggle against one of the world's last
communist governments.
    Longtime backer Thailand is steadily improving ties with Vientiane after
years of suspicion following the Indochina wars.
    In an unprecedented move in July, Thai authorities arrested seven Hmong
tribesmen, three of whom held U.S. passports, on suspicion of organising
guerrilla activities.
    A refugee camp in Thailand which serves as an important resistance base is
to be closed in December.
    Washington has just appointed a full ambassador to Vientiane for the first
time since the Pathet Lao takeover in 1975.
    "History has gone against the resistance," said a U.S. official.
    Not that the insurgency in the Land of a Million Elephants hit the headlines
often anyway compared to other Reagan-era crusades in Afghanistan, Nicaragua,
Angola and Cambodia.
    The main group, the rightist Lao Liberation Army, is descended from the
mercenary force of mostly Hmong highlanders recruited by the U.S. Central
Intelligence Agency during the Vietnam War.
    It is led by former warlord and California resident Vang Pao.
    In the past decade the rebels have attacked few strategic targets,
concentrating on hit-and-run raids and scuttling back across the Mekong River to
Thailand.
    But for Thailand the resistance helped to keep Laos, then host to several
regiments of Vietnamese troops, at bay as well as provide vital intelligence.
    The two countries fought a bloody border conflict in 1987-88 which the
rebels were poised to join.
    Then under Bangkok's "battlefield to marketplaces" policy, business and
trade opportunities began to look more enticing than war as Laos unshackled its
economy from communist planning.
    Laos lost its main patron, the Soviet Union, and became friendlier with
China.
    The resistance remained a sensitive issue. In July Lao official radio was
still accusing a "foreign country" of supporting "bandits."
    The rebels have launched several operations this year but the timing has not
helped them much.
    One in January coincided with a state visit to Thailand by Laotian President
Kaysone Phomvihane. Another in June took place when Thai Crown Prince Maha
Vajiralongkorn was visiting Laos.
    Irked, the Thais arrested the seven Hmong and promised a further crackdown.
    "Our recent actions have left those supporters of the anti-Vientiane
insurgency without any doubt that only constructive cooperation with Laos will
be allowed to be launched from our soil," Foreign Minister Arsa Sarasin said in
a recent speech.
    The border, however, has its own rules and diplomats say the Thai military,
which officially ended support for the rebels in 1989, may be slow to follow
central government policy.
    According to well-informed sources, the fines levied on the arrested Hmong
were paid by Task Force 309, a Thai border unit.
    Meanwhile efforts to repatriate the refugees who form the base of rebel
support are going ahead slowly but surely.
    About 49,000 Laotians are in three U.N.-assisted camps. So far about 10,000
have gone home. Baan Vinai camp, a resistance stronghold, will be closed by the
end of the year.
    The rebels, whose strength is estimated to be about 4,000, recently stepped
up recruiting in the camps, U.S. officials say.
    "There is still a lot of loyalty to Vang Pao," said a United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) official.
    "But he is losing ground. He has been promising for 16 years he will return
home but it hasn't come true."
    Vang Pao does not want anybody to go home.
    "They've made it clear that anyone who repatriates is considered a traitor
and will suffer the consequences," said a U.S. official.
    To emphasise the point the rebels attacked a repatriation centre at Muang
Feung a few months ago, refugee officials said.
    The UNHCR and the U.S. embassy say the Vientiane government welcomes the
refugees home. There is no evidence of official persecution although some
harassment at a local level has gone on by village chiefs suspicious of Fifth
Columnists.
    The United States says it has not backed the resistance since 1988, although
American right-wing groups still champion the cause and it has fervent support
from the Hmong exile community there.
    Vientiane's cooperation in the drugs war and in resolving the question of
U.S. soldiers still missing in action from the Indochina wars has led to better
relations with Washington.
    "The resistance used to have a purpose," said one diplomat. "Now they have
become something of a headache."
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