News Release - October 16, 2005
Laos (FFC) On October 12, 2005 the Fact Finding Commission reported the
surrender of 242 men, women, and children from the jungles of the
Borikhamxay Province in Laos to government authorities. An updated report
from Wa Leng Lee, leaders of the U.S. Secret War veterans in Borikhamxay
Province allege the 43 families were captured by LPDR military forces.
Lee reported that on October 1, 2005 soldiers from LPDR Battalions 615,
617, 917, and 117 surrounded the group lead by Wa Meng Yang near Na Chonh,
at the border of Laos and Vietnam. In a subsequent attack five people were
killed and 239 were captured.
Lee further reported increased military units surrounding the remainder of
Wa Meng Yang's group.
In a plea to the United States, United Nations, and human rights
organizations the leaders asked for international intervention to rescue
them from this "dying struggle."
Since May of this year these groups in Bolikhamxay Province, who are the
remnant of the U.S. Secret War veterans and their families, have expressed
their desire to surrender voluntarily if allowed to move to an area where
adequate aid was available and where international monitoring could be
provided. Though these requests have been made know to the Lao government
by the international community these groups have consistently reported
being prevented from moving from the remote jungles by the LPDR military.
The Fact Finding Commission is dedicated to exposing the plight of the
displaced veterans of the U.S. Secret War who have hid in the mountains
and jungles of Laos for nearly thirty years to escape the retribution of
the communist Lao government for their loyalty to the United States during
the War in Southeast Asia.
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