Hmong make their case

Gen. Vang Pao, acknowledged leader of the 250,000 Hmong in the United States, was ordered held without bail Monday on charges that he was part of a plot to violently overthrow the communist government of Laos.

Throughout the day a crowd of Hmong Americans gathered outside Sacramento's federal courthouse, growing to as many as 1,000. They came from around the country to protest Vang's arrest and incarceration. Inside the courthouse, U.S. Magistrate Judge Edmund F. Brennan found Vang both a flight risk and a danger.

"It's not up to private groups to decide which countries the United States should be at war with and at peace with," Brennan said.

Vang and nine others, including eight of his Hmong followers, are charged in two criminal complaints with violating the federal Neutrality Act by conspiring to topple a foreign government which has peaceful relations with the United States.

Brennan's ruling came after the storied general's attorney, John Balazs, told the judge his client "is a warrior, this is a legal battle, and he's in it to the end."

On the street, Vang's supporters also put up an impassioned defense.

"He is to us like George Washington is to American citizens," said Vang Zang, a Hmong leader from Minnesota, to thunderous applause outside the courthouse. "The government has wrongly accused our father. But the moment he is released, he will go up 10 times in popularity."

Inside the courtroom, jammed with Vang's family and supporters, Balazs argued that the case is so complex it may take years to resolve. Leaving the ailing, 77-year-old Vang in jail "could be a death sentence," he added.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Twiss countered that Vang's medical problems "have not prevented him from traveling all over the United States" to speaking engagements.

Balazs said three of Vang's children are prepared to post properties in which they have total equity of more than $600,000 to secure their father's release. In addition, the attorney said, Brennan could order that Vang be under electronically-monitored house arrest at his Orange County home, where his wife, a nurse, could care for him.

Strict limitations could be imposed on who is allowed to visit Vang, and he could be denied access to computers and telephones, Balazs proposed.

But Brennan was unconvinced. He said Vang and the others are accused of trying to purchase assault rifles, ground-to-air missiles, anti-tank weapons, mines and explosives from an undercover agent of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

They are also accused -- in nearly 100 pages filed by the prosecutors -- of attempting to hire Army Special Forces and Navy SEALs veterans to act as mercenaries in an invasion of Laos.

Balazs said Vang denies the charges and looks forward to a trial to prove them false. Since at least 2003, the attorney said, Vang has advocated a peaceful solution to friction between Hmong and the current Laotian government.

When Laos gained its independence in the early 1950s, Vang became a soldier with the Territorial Army under French command. He advanced to the rank of major general in the Royal Lao Army, the highest rank ever by a Hmong soldier, and gained widespread respect and admiration among his people in the Hmong villages throughout the mountains of northern Laos.

When the Central Intelligence Agency sought in 1961 to enlist a shadow army from those villages to fight the communists in Laos and Vietnam, it turned to Vang.

He distinguished himself with his bravery and military acumen while leading an outnumbered force against the communists, fighting until Americans pulled out of Southeast Asia.

More than 300,000 Hmong made their way to squalid refugee camps in Thailand. Roughly half wound up in the United States. Thousands more remained in Laos. Most live peacefully under the communist regime. But several thousand remain hidden in the Laotian jungle, where Amnesty International reports they are still pursued as rebels by the Laotian military.

The Laotian government has denied reports of rapes and murders of some Hmong.

America's Hmong leaders were seeking to help the persecuted in Laos when they, along with Harrison Jack, a retired Army infantry officer and Vietnam veteran from Woodland, attempted to negotiate the purchase of arms and recruit a mercenary force, according to attorney Mark Reichel, who represents another defendant.

Jack, 60, is also charged in the conspiracy and is scheduled for a bail hearing Thursday.

Hoisting signs reading "Justice, not entrapment" and "Hmong are not terrorism," many outside the courthouse Monday said Vang helped them escape the jungles of Laos and harsh conditions in refugee camps in Thailand.

One protester, Victor Xiong, 39, lived in a camp for 15 years before coming to Sacramento in 2001. He said it's understandable that Hmong leaders would turn to radical tactics, since the Laotian government continues to persecute them for having helped the United States.

"We are not here to protest the law of the United States," Xiong said. "We are here to protest the violations of human rights in Laos."

About the writer:

• The Bee's Denny Walsh can be reached at (916) 321-1189 or dwalsh@sacbee.com.