Advertisement In Laos, his people are still persecuted and killed by the government. Next door in Thailand, 8,000 Hmong live in a refugee camp.
As we discussed his ordination at his home in Holmen, Wis., this week, we couldn’t ignore the suffering of his people on the other side of the world.
Moua, 44, arrived in the United States in 1980. He heard from his father in Laos in 1987, but for the seven years in between didn’t know if he was dead or alive. In 1996, 16 years after leaving, Moua and his wife went to see his father and other family still living there. This past February, Moua’s father finally made it to the U.S. and so was able to attend Moua’s ordination at the annual assembly of the La Crosse Area Synod of the ELCA.
At the assembly, which continues through today at Luther College in Decorah, Agape Asian Ministry, a mission congregation that Moua pastors, and others have introduced a resolution calling on people to help save Hmong Vietnam veterans and their families.
A draft of the resolution explains how the U.S. enlisted the help of the Hmong to fight in Laos during the Vietnam War; how since 1975, the military of the Laotian government has continued to attack and kill Hmong; how the Thai government is threatening to repatriate the refugees there back to Laos. And it asks the U.S. government to help the Hmong in Thailand and Laos, allowing them to enter the United States or other countries.
The resolution does not state the case as strongly as Moua did during our conversation.
“If this group of people are Americans that are trapped in the country of Laos, then (the U.S. government) would have done something a long time ago,” Moua said. “But because they are not Americans — they are Hmong people who were allies during the war — they tend not to do anything about it.”
As Moua talked, his father entered the room and shook my hand. Our eyes connected deeply, and then we reached to embrace. Later, he bowed his head with his granddaughter, and they prayed before eating lunch together.
Moua, who was raised Christian, came to La Crosse in 1999.
In his living room, we discussed the past month’s reports about the refugees in Thailand.
In mid-May, Hmong refugees in Thailand began a hunger strike to protest the arrest of one of their leaders and to try to bring attention to their plight, according to a report from Doctors Without Borders, which works in the camp. On May 23, more than half of the houses in the refugee camp where 8,000 Hmong live burned down. The report states Doctors Without Borders doesn’t know who lit the fire but that most of the Hmong had a chance to collect their belongings before leaving the burning homes.
Moua mentioned how representatives — U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, Sen. Herb Kohl and Sen. Russ Feingold among them — continue to write letters about the plight of the Hmong to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and President Bush. But so far, he said, we still don’t have the result we want.
Bishop April Ulring Larson, head of the La Crosse Area Synod, said the resolution seems to be a “slam dunk.”
“Anyone can read this and say, ‘Of course we need to stand with the Hmong,’” she said.
The draft of the resolution, scheduled to be voted on today, asks congregations to send letters to the U.S. government seeking help for the Hmong. It also asks congregations to consider sponsoring Hmong Vietnam veterans and family members.
“I hope if more people speak up,” Moua said, “then our government will start to do something.“
Joe Orso can be reached at jorso@lacrossetribune.com or (608) 791-8429.
