CRS Report for Congress
Order Code RS20931
Updated November 22, 2004
Thomas Lum
Specialist in Asian Affairs
Foreign Affairs, Defense, and Trade Division

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The Hmong Minority

Many observers have argued that although societal
discrimination likely persists, the LPDR government does not currently engage in
systematic persecution of the Hmong minority. However, others have attested that the
Lao government has committed atrocities against defiant Hmong communities living in
remote areas. During the Vietnam War, the United States Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA) trained and armed an estimated 60,000 Hmong guerillas to fight the Vietcong.
After the Lao communist government took power in 1975, Lao and Vietnamese troops
crushed most of the Hmong army. The Lao government allegedly has carried out a 25-
year war of attrition to eliminate remaining Hmong militias and their communities, who
may total from one thousand to several thousand persons. Several of an estimated 20
rebel groups and their families are said to be surrounded by LPDR troops and facing
starvation.14 This continuing conflict has been a key stumbling block to better U.S.-LPDR
relations. U.S. officials in Laos have been unable to independently verify claims of Lao
People’s Army or Vietnamese troop movements in mountain areas, mass killings, or the
use of biological weapons against the Hmong. Monitoring is difficult, however, because
many highland villages are accessible only by helicopter and travel is restricted by the
central government.
Between 1975 and 1998, nearly 130,000 Hmong refugees were admitted to the
United States.15 In the 1990s, about 29,000 Hmong were repatriated from camps in
Thailand to Laos. Some returning Hmong claimed that they faced discrimination or lack
of economic opportunities, while United Nations human rights observers found that the
former refugees were “successfully reintegrated.”16 An estimated 60,000 Hmong remain
in Thailand; many have integrated into local society. In January 2004, the Bush
Administration announced that the approximately 15,000 Hmong living at the Wat Tham
Krabok temple in central Thailand would be eligible to apply for resettlement in the
United States. Most have arrived in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and California, homes to
large Hmong-American populations.

[ THE COMPLETE DOCUMENT IS VIEWABLE HERE: http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/39907.pdf ]