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CORRECTION 2 - June 6 - The article below, which I found on the UNPO website, stated that the people who were forced to return to Laos were Hmong Chao Fa. I was just informed however, that it is inaccurate. The article is actually referring to the Hmong Lao.

On Friday, May 25, 31 Hmong Lao were forced to return to Laos by the government of Thailand, after attempting to seek asylum…

Since the CIA-backed war began in 1975, over 300,000 Hmong People have emigrated from Laos. The ‘war’ continues …

Here are two videos about an ongoing situation which began in 2003, when the Queen of Thailand seized all the land of Hooh Yoh Akha, displacing the Akha and forcing them to work on their own lands.

From the Ahka Heritage Foundation website
For years we have been protesting how the Queen of Thailand and other Royals come to Chiangrai province and take the land of the Akha for this and that national project in Thailand, selling the project as beneficial to the hill tribe and proof that the Queen loves the hill tribe. How you show your love for a …

Dams on Salween Threaten Indigenous Groups
By Marwaan Macan-Markar, www.ipsnews.net
BANGKOK, Feb 28 (IPS) - Being a village headman means little if you live in a community nestling in the hills close to Thailand’s northern border with Burma. More so, if officials have plans to use your village for a large ‘development’ project.

That is the lesson Nu Chamnayakiriprai continues to learn as he ponders the future of his family and of over 50 others who live in the Me Koh village, in the Mae Hong Son province. The questions that the 49-year-old seeks answers to include where his community will be …

Hunted Like Animals is an eye-opening documentary about an ongoing, but unknown, genocide - against the Hmong people in the jungles of Laos. Coerced into joining the CIA’s anti-communist efforts during the Viet Nam war, this ethnic minority became a Secret Army. When the U.S. pulled out of Southeast Asia in 1975 and the Lao kingdom was overthrown by the communists, the Hmong became targets of retaliation and persecution.

Hundreds of thousands fled the country; others ran to remote mountainous regions of Laos. Over thirty years and two generations later, the Hmong in hiding are still mercilessly hunted, attacked, raped, …

Phra Supoj Suvacano, a Buddhist monk, was killed for challenging the efforts of businessmen to take control of forest lands belonging to the temple and his local community. One year after his death, there have been no signs of progress. He is one of more than 20 defenders killed in the last five years.

This month, Human Rights First released a report documenting these attacks on defenders as well as arbitrary arrests and disappearances in the conflict area of southern Thailand. It’s called Losing Ground: Human Rights Defenders and Counterterrorism in Thailand.

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End Impunity for the Murder of Thai Rights Defenders

One …

Human rights in decline in Asia
By Kathleen Hwang
www.upi.com

HONG KONG, Jan. 18 — Respect for human rights is deteriorating in many Asian countries; security forces are abusing suspects with impunity, and people are living in greater fear of those in authority, the Asian Human Rights Commission said in a report released Tuesday in Hong Kong.

The report documents state-sponsored violence, including kidnappings, torture and murder. It cites Cambodia, Myanmar and Nepal as countries of special concern, and includes reports on Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Basil Fernando, executive director of the AHRC, said there …