State of the World's Minorities and Indigenous Peoples 2010 - Laos

A long-simmering debate about the fate of minority Hmong who fled Laos to seek asylum ended abruptly at the end of 2009. More than 4,000 Hmong were deported from camps in Thailand on 28 December, despite protests by human rights groups, the UN, and governments including the United States. Many worried that the deportees would face persecution in Laos, which has attacked members of the ethnic minority because many Hmong fought with the United States in the 1960s and 1970s against the communist Pathet Lao, who took over the country. The deportees included 158 Hmong who had been granted refugee status after UNHCR decided that they did indeed face the threat of persecution in their home country.

One day after the mass deportation, UNHCR asked for access to the deportees in Laos and offered to assist the Lao government in resettling them to a third country. In early January 2010, UNHCR regional spokesperson Kitty McKinsey said in an interview, 'We haven't received access or even a formal response.' Advocates in the US, such as the Center for Public Policy Analysis, a Washington DC-based research group, said Lao authorities took away members of the group who had been involved in fighting the Pathet Lao. Those reports were based on telephone conversations between Hmong being held in camps in Laos after being deported from Thailand and their relatives living in the US. Lao authorities told Radio Free Asia that concerns about the welfare of the Hmong were groundless and that they would be resettled in villages constructed near the capital, Vientiane. The government did allow three members of the US Congress to visit one of the resettlement villages, 70 km outside of Vientiane. In a press conference afterwards, Congressman Eni Faleomavaega said, 'There is no indication of discrimination or harassment or mistreatment of the people in Phalak village.' However, it should be noted that the Lao government strictly controls information. As a result, it is difficult to obtain independent verification of apparent abuses.

The Laos Constitution officially allows for freedom of religion, but human rights groups say authorities, particularly at a local level, harass or ill-treat dissident Buddhists as well as Christian and animist groups. On 30 November 2009, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Asma Jahangir released a statement after a visit to Laos, urging authorities to respect religious diversity. She noted that religious minorities have been economically and politically marginalized, as well as targeted specifically for their religious beliefs. In response, Lao authorities acknowledged such repression, but said instructions had been passed to lower-level officials that such incidents would no longer be tolerated.

Incidents of harassment or ill-treatment of minority Christians blighted Laos' human rights record in 2009. The US State Department Country Report 2009 noted that the situation for Christians varied from region to region. Decree 92 on Religious Practice defines the rules for religious practice and establishes the government as final arbiter. Local officials have used its terms to curtail minority religious practice, while not always understanding its provisions. There were reports throughout the year of local officials banning Christian worship, refusing permission to build churches or harassing worshippers. There were also reports of Christians being forced to renounce their faith.

As construction continued on dams along Laos' rivers in 2009, indigenous peoples continued to lose their livelihoods as they were displaced. In May, the NGO International Rivers (IR) visited the Theun-Hinboun Expansion Project, a dam under construction in central Laos, and discovered that the Theun-Hinboun Power Company had violated a number of agreements it had signed in order to be allowed to operate. Among other violations, the company had failed to compensate villagers for their loss of assets and livelihoods, and failed to provide documentation of 'good faith negotiations' with indigenous communities that will be affected by the project. The dam will displace 4,186 indigenous people from the reservoir area and affect a further 51,441 people living downstream, as well as undermine food security for about 50,000 people, according to IR. The Lao power development plan will see 55 large dams built, of which seven are currently under construction.