IV 
110TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1273 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the human 
rights crisis of Laotian and Hmong people in Laos and Thailand. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 12, 2008 
Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Mr. WOLF, Ms. BALDWIN, and Mr. ROHR-
ABACHER) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regard-
ing the human rights crisis of Laotian and Hmong peo-
ple in Laos and Thailand. 
Whereas tens of thousands of Laotian and ethnic Hmong 
forces served honorably and courageously in defense of 
the national security interests of Laos, Thailand, and the 
United States; 
Whereas special ethnic Hmong military and paramilitary air 
and ground forces, along with United States Armed 
Forces and clandestine forces, conducted many heroic 
and successful large-scale air and ground operations 
against North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao guerrilla 
forces, including the rescue of United States Air Force, 
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•HRES 1273 IH 
Navy, and Army pilots shot down in Laos and Vietnam 
during the Vietnam War; 
Whereas Laos and the Royal Lao Government fell to the 
Communist Pathet Lao and invading North Vietnamese 
forces in 1975; 
Whereas Pathet Lao guerilla forces, in cooperation with in-
vading military forces from North Vietnam, established 
the authoritarian, one-party communist regime that con-
tinues to rule Laos and maintains a strict monopoly on 
political power; 
Whereas tens of thousands of Lao and Hmong people, includ-
ing the Royal Lao family, many in the Royal Lao Gov-
ernment, and the Royal Lao Army as well as those indi-
viduals who served with the United States Armed Forces 
and clandestine forces were persecuted, imprisoned, or 
killed by the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (LPDR) 
regime; 
Whereas tens of thousands of Laotians, including ethnic 
Hmong who served with United States Armed Forces and 
clandestine forces during the Vietnam War, fled the com-
munist regime and were given political asylum and ref-
ugee status in Thailand and eventually resettled in third 
countries such as Australia, Canada, France, and the 
United States; 
Whereas His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand 
and the Royal Thai Government have historically pro-
vided political asylum and compassionate humanitarian 
assistance to Lao and Hmong refugees who have fled the 
brutal LPDR regime; 
Whereas tens of thousands of Laotians and ethnic Hmong 
have been granted political asylum in the United States 
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•HRES 1273 IH 
and resettled to become productive, positive, prosperous, 
and good citizens and members of their communities; 
Whereas the LPDR, a one-party state, has a serious and re-
peated record of human rights violations, religious perse-
cution, and military and security force attacks against its 
own citizens, especially against the minority ethnic 
Hmong people; 
Whereas the LPDR regime refuses to allow human rights or-
ganizations unfettered access to areas of concern in Laos 
where, according to Amnesty International and other 
independent human rights organizations, intensified mili-
tary attacks against unarmed Lao and Hmong civilians 
continued in 2007 and 2008, including in Bolikamsai, 
Luang Prabang, Vientiane, and Xieng Khouang Province; 
Whereas the Department of State reported in its 2007 Coun-
try Report on Human Rights Practices in Laos that Laos 
restricts its citizens from enjoying the freedoms of 
speech, assembly, and religion, and from undertaking ac-
tivities to change their government; 
Whereas the LPDR regime in Laos continues to deny inde-
pendent human rights organizations such as Amnesty 
International and Human Rights Watch access to, or 
monitoring of, Lao and Hmong returnees from Thailand 
or those individuals who are captured or surrender in 
Laos; 
Whereas as a result of ongoing political violence and military 
attacks in Laos directed against thousands of Laotian 
and Hmong people, asylum seekers continue to seek ref-
uge in Thailand; 
Whereas over 7,000 Lao and Hmong political refugees and 
asylum seekers have fled Laos and sought refuge from 
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the Lao Government at a make shift camp at Ban Huay 
Nam Khao, Phetchabun Province, Thailand; 
Whereas in January 2007, the United Nations High Commis-
sioner for Refugees (UNHCR) issued a statement of con-
cern regarding Thailand’s decision to deport 16 Lao and 
Hmong from Nong Khai, Thailand, to Laos without 
screening them to see if they needed international protec-
tion, and repeated its offer to help Thai authorities put 
in place a screening system; and 
Whereas the United States has a vital national security inter-
est in and moral obligation to assist its former allies and 
those Laotians and Hmong seeking political asylum at 
Ban Huay Nam Khao, Nong Khai, and elsewhere in Laos 
and Thailand: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives strongly 
supports and urges that— 
(1) the Lao Government should— 
(A) end the ongoing humanitarian tragedy 
in Laos by immediately ceasing all military and 
security force attacks and actions against Lao 
and Hmong civilians and dissident Laotian po-
litical and minority religious groups; 
(B) provide immediate, unfettered inter-
national access by independent human rights, 
humanitarian, and United Nations organiza-
tions, including the United Nations High Com-
missioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to closed 
areas and military zones in Laos where Lao-
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tians and Hmong are being killed, starved to 
death, persecuted, or have been internally dis-
placed or fled; 
(C) comply with the provisions of H. Res. 
402 from the 108th Congress which urges the 
Lao Government to move toward an open, 
prodemocratic society that respects the human 
rights of its people and to cease its military at-
tacks and its persecution of Laotian and 
Hmong citizens including student activists; and 
(D) release the leaders of the Lao Stu-
dents Movement for Democracy of October 
1999 and other Lao political and religious op-
position leaders and prisoners of conscience; 
and 
(2) His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej of 
Thailand, the Royal Thai Government, and com-
manders of the Thai Army and military, including 
the Thai Third Army, should— 
(A) allow UNHCR access to the over 
7,000 Lao and Hmong political refugees and 
asylum seekers at Ban Huay Nam Khao and 
elsewhere in Thailand; 
(B) continue to allow the over 7,000 Lao 
and Hmong political refugees and asylum seek-
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•HRES 1273 IH 
ers at Ban Huay Nam Khao to be given hu-
manitarian assistance and sanctuary and to re-
main in Thailand until such time as they can 
be resettled in third countries by UNHCR and 
nongovernmental organizations; 
(C) allow transparency and access for jour-
nalists, humanitarian aid groups, and human 
rights monitors seeking to help the Laotian and 
Hmong refugees at Ban Huay Nam Khao to 
assist by providing humanitarian and resettle-
ment assistance; 
(D) refrain from any further repatriation 
of Lao and Hmong refugees and asylum seekers 
in Thailand who have fled from the LPDR re-
gime in Laos; and 
(E) continue to allow Lao and Hmong ref-
ugees and asylum seekers from Laos fleeing the 
LPDR regime’s intensified military attacks as 
well as Lao political, religious, and opposition 
dissidents to have sanctuary in Thailand until 
they can be assisted by the UNHCR and the 
international community. 
Æ 
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