News 3 . Hmong tribesmen, who once fought in a CIA-marshalled army, stage raids from mountain hideouts.
Rebels seize a frontier post.
The recent incidents have offered glimpses of seething discontent beneath a superficially placid political scene and battered the cliche about Laos being more merry than Marxist. The first known anti-government demonstration in 25 years was staged last October outside the presidential palace in the capital, Vientiane. Some protesters, mainly pro-democracy students, were arrested. The violence, in which dozens have been injured, shows no signs of abating. And the officials deny there's internal foment.