Thailand says US to take Vietnam War era refugees

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BKK164204.htm

BANGKOK, July 21 (Reuters) - The United States will accept 8,000 people from an ethnic Hmong group who fled Laos to Thailand after a communist takeover in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War, a Thai official said on Monday.

Panlop Pinmanee, a senior officer at the Thai military's internal security office, told reporters 8,000 out of around 15,400 Hmongs living at a temple near Bangkok would be resettled to live with relatives in the United States.

"The Foreign Ministry informed the National Security Council at a meeting today the United States was ready to take 8,000 Hmongs in Thailand to live with their relatives there," Panlop said.

A spokesman at the U.S. embassy in Bangkok declined to comment on the Thai official's remarks.

more