LaosNam Thuen II Dam Attacked James Wolfensohn Fuels Genocide, War Crimes

[seemslikeadream]

Contact: Anna Jones or Paul Christopher, 202-543-1444 or 202-318-0266 (fax), both of the Center for Public Policy Analysis

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 /U.S. Newswire/ -- In the wake of BBC, Amnesty International and Time (Asia Edition) reports regarding evidence detailing brutal atrocities and mass starvation operations undertaken by the Lao military against unarmed Hmong and Laotian civilians, World Bank President James Wolfensohn and the proposed Nam Thuen dam project came under protest and political fire today during World Bank meetings in Washington, D.C. The Lao Peoples Democractic Republic (LPDR), one of the world's most corrupt one-party regimes, also came under protest and criticism.

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"The World Bank's bizarre and biased consultations on Nam Thuen II are surrealistic and have excluded from serious consideration the recent Amnesty International and news media reports as well as the views and input of the vast majority of the Lao and Hmong human rights and Diaspora organizations; Wolfensohn and Porter are responsible and are now helping to embolden and fuel the Lao military regime's atrocities and military operations against thousands of Laotian civilians surrounded in closed military zones who are being starved to death," stated Ray Khemmanivanh of the Lao Huam Phao Association.

"Amnesty International's recent report regarding the Lao regime's war crimes against Hmong children is consistent with my research and findings about the horrific situation in Laos and the terrible ongoing military operations of the Lao regime," stated Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt, Laos and Hmong scholar, former journalist, and book author of Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans and the Secret Wars for Laos. Dr. Hamilton-Merritt has been frequently called upon to testify before the U.S. Congress regarding the plight of the Hmong and Laotian people in Laos.

"The Lao regime is now involved with major weapons purchases and is shopping for attack helicopters, fighter aircraft and other advanced multi-million dollars weapons systems to oppress and kill its own minority peoples, including the Hmong people, " stated Colonel Wangyee Vang, national director of the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., the nation's largest ethnic Hmong and Lao veterans organizations. "The World Bank and the U.S. taxpayer should not be helping to finance this via World bank backed-financing of the proposed Nam Thuen II Dam project."

"A coalition of Laotian and Hmong rights organizations staunchly opposed to World Bank-backed financing for the proposed Nam Thuen II Dam project has attacked Bank President James Wolfensohn and Lao Country Director Ian Porter; Clearly, both Wolfensohn and Porter are helping to white-wash and cover-up the brutal reality of what is going on in Stalinist Laos and encourage, facilitate and fuel atrocities, mass starvation and genocide against thousands of unarmed civilians now trapped in military zones and Bosnia-like ethnic enclaves," stated Philip Smith, executive director for the CPPA. "Wolfensohn's, and the World Bank's, backing of this terrible, Titantic-like dam project will fuel major weapons purchases and further ethnic cleansing of the Hmong people and will condemn the Lao people to uncontrolled military spending, and a deep black hole of non- performing loans, even deeper poverty and national debt."

more
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=37361


US asks Laos to probe alleged massacre of Hmong children

WASHINGTON, Sept 27 : The United States said it was taking "very seriously" reports that the Laotian military massacred ethnic Hmong children, urging Vientiane to launch a probe on the issue.

Amnesty International had accused the armed forces in Laos of brutally torturing and killing five ethnic Hmong children in what the human rights group described as a "war crime".


It said it had gathered evidence including video and witness testimony of an attack by Lao soldiers against five children, four of them girls, in a military zone in May.

Asked to comment, deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said US authorities had heard about the allegations but had not seen the videotape.

"We take the allegations very seriously. We are going to look into them. We would also urge the government of Laos to investigate these alleged reports of alleged massacres among the Hmong children," he said.

more
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/108865/1/.html

[Political_Junkie]

1. "alleged reports of alleged massacres"

Is that the best they can do? :puke:
Can't wait till this insanity is over.