Genocide of Hmong People in Laos

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Most people in the world have not heard of the genocide going on in Laos today. Most people have not taken notice, read about it or bother to spend more than thirty seconds of their lives learning about it. The world has managed to almost entirely ignore the genocide of the Hmong people in Laos for over 30 years and still allows this crime against humanity to continue. Since the 1970s, the ethnic Hmong people in the Southeast Asian country of Laos have been persecuted by the Laotian government (Malakunas, 2000). This harassment is a direct result of the Hmong’s link to the Central Intelligence Agency in the United States in what has become to be known as the Secret War (Malakunas, 2000). The Laotian government officials directing this massacre have not been detained due to lack of evidence (Sommer P.4).
The Hmong have been singled out for persecution by the communists in Laos because out their link to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (Malakunas, 2000). The CIA hired, armed and trained about 40,000 Hmong soldiers between 1961 and 1975 to fight the Secret War in North Vietnam (Malakunas, 2000). The Hmong soldiers fought in Northern Vietnam stopping Vietnamese soldiers from getting to the American soldiers in Southern Vietnam (Malakunas, 2000). In North Vietnam the soldiers saved thousands of American soldiers by stopping cargo and travelling military (Malakunas, 2000). They also rescued American pilots from crashed helicopters and planes (Malakunas, 2000). They sacrificed many of themselves often to save just one pilot (Malakunas, 2000). The Secret War was kept secret because the country was supposedly neutral and had several international treaties banning foreign troops from fighting there (Malakunas, 2000).
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Malakunas, K. (2000, 12 30). Fight or face extermination. . Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=200012301023380623&site=src-live
Mitchell, M., & Gould, R. (2009). Opium has always been complex issue in laos: Drug played role in tribal culture, but addiction to it also ruined reputations. Winston-Salem Journal (NC). , Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=n5h&AN=2W6782643631&site=src-live
Sommer, Rebecca. Society for Threatened Peoples International. United Nations. Report on the Situation in the Xaysomboun Special Zone and the 1100 Hmong-Lao Refugees. Earth Peoples, 2006. Web. .

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