Still No Christmas in Laos:
State Sponsored Persecution Directed Against Lao Hmong Believers, Political Dissidents Increases
December 25, 2014, For Immediate Release
Washington, D.C. & Vientiane, Laos
Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA)
On Christmas Day, 2014, the Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) is raising concern about the increased persecution
of minority Christian, Animist and independent Buddhist believers in Laos at the hands of military and security forces
of Laos and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Religious freedom and human rights violations have dramatically increased
under the Hanoi-backed, one-party communist government in Laos, especially against various Laotian and Hmong minority
groups, including religious believers and political dissidents.
“Intensified religious freedom violations directed against ethnic Laotian and Hmong Christian believers are increasingly
violent and egregious, with independent religious ceremonies and Christmas celebrations prohibited, or under attack, by
the Lao military and security forces,” said Philip Smith, Executive Director of the CPPA in Washington, D.C. “In the
latest crackdown, Lao and Hmong Christians, and Animist, believers have been arrested, tortured, killed , or have simply
disappeared, on a systematic and more frequent basis, as the Marxist government of Laos, working in coordination with
the Vietnam People's Army and authorities in Hanoi, continues its policy of attacking independent religious believers
who wish to worship freely outside of state-controlled, and state-monitored, religious institutions.”
“Clearly, under these dark and grim conditions, there is still no Christmas in Laos for those who seek to celebrate and
worship outside of the watchful eye of the military, secret police and communist authorities in Vientiane and Hanoi,”
Smith stated.
“It is also clear, and unfortunate, that the current Stalinist government in Laos is unwilling to cooperate on the many
international appeals for the release of prominent political dissidents and prisoners, including Sombath Somphone, the
Lao Students' Movement for Democracy protesters, and significant numbers of Hmong refugees,” Smith concluded.
Earlier this month, the CPPA and a coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) urged the United Nations to
address ongoing serious human rights violations, as well as religious and press freedom violations, by the government of
the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR). The NGOs also raised concern about the plight of a growing number of Lao and
Hmong people who have disappeared at the hands of Lao military and security forces, including Sombath Somphone, Lao
student protest leaders, Hmong refugees and others. http://www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org
ENDS