By Stephen Magagnini

The tear-stained struggle to save several thousand Hmong hiding in the Lao jungles and another 8,000 Hmong refugees in Thailand returned to the State Capitol on Monday morning.

Hundreds of Northern California Hmong, along with Vietnam veterans and state legislators, rallied around 71 white wooden crosses, each representing the soul of a Hmong who died this year in Laos.

The deaths – 49 from starvation and 22 at the hands of Lao soldiers between Jan. 15 and Feb. 10 – were reported by the Oroville-based Fact Finding Commission, a nonprofit group in constant contact with Hmong in Laos.

"We got calls from leaders in the jungle who gave us the names," said the FFC's Ger Vang. "They can show U.S. or U.N. officials where the bodies are buried."

The Lao government has repeatedly denied that Hmong are being hunted, persecuted or killed, and the U.S. State Department has been unable to confirm the 71 deaths.

But to the 71 Hmong Americans each holding a white cross bearing the name and age of a lost relative, the deaths seemed all too real.

"She's my cousin," said Macy Yang, 16, of the name on her cross, Mee Thao, a 2-year-old who allegedly died of starvation. "I'm so sad – I can't believe this has happened," said Yang, a Foothill High junior who hopes to become a doctor.

"The crosses are to make sure we never, never forget. This situation has to be ended now," said Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento.

Jones said 23 state legislators have joined him as co-authors of Joint Resolution 36, the Hmong Human Rights Resolution, asking the U.S. government to intervene on behalf of the Hmong in Laos and 8,000 more in Thailand.

Acknowledging the more than 15 years that Hmong guerrillas recruited by the CIA fought a secret war against the Lao and Vietnamese communists, Jones said, "Not everyone knows the tremendous sacrifice and courage the Hmong people showed, and paid a tremendous price – being driven from your villages into the jungles. …

"That genocide and that persecution continues today," Jones said. "We're asking the federal government to stand up and insist the persecution stop."

Jones and others also urged Thailand not to send back 8,000 Hmong who fled communist Laos. The Thai government says its policy is not to send back refugees who fear persecution.

Hmong advocates and veterans were joined on the north Capitol steps by several U.S. veterans.

"I served two years in Vietnam, but I knew I was coming home," said retired Col. Bill Fortier of Chico. "The people we left behind have suffered the last 33 years for the sacrifices they made for America. They lost 30,000 killed in action, 10 percent of the Hmong people."

Fortier called for the U.S. government to stop funding Laos through the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the World Monetary Fund. "And we're going to picket every major corporation that does business with Laos," he said.

Cher Chang, a UC Berkeley statistics major from Sacramento, said his father and grandfather served in the secret war, "and my uncle is still in the jungle. Once in a while he's able to call my mom, and the situation is very dire.

"We as Hmong people know this is going on," said Chang, 22. "It gets me emotional when we hear the U.S. government refuses to admit this is happening."