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| Thai army deports Hmong to Laos | Thai army deports Hmong to Laos |
| (10 minutes later) | |
| Thailand has begun deporting a group of about 4,000 ethnic Hmong back to communist Laos, despite international concerns for their safety. | Thailand has begun deporting a group of about 4,000 ethnic Hmong back to communist Laos, despite international concerns for their safety. |
| Thai officials said unarmed soldiers began closing a camp for Hmong refugees in northern Phetchabun province. | Thai officials said unarmed soldiers began closing a camp for Hmong refugees in northern Phetchabun province. |
| Thailand describes them as economic migrants. The Hmong say they face persecution in Laos because they sided with US forces during the Vietnam war. | Thailand describes them as economic migrants. The Hmong say they face persecution in Laos because they sided with US forces during the Vietnam war. |
| The UN had urged the Thais to call off plans to deport them. | The UN had urged the Thais to call off plans to deport them. |
| Col Thana Charuvat, who is co-ordinating the repatriation, said about 5,000 soldiers, officials and civilian volunteers had entered the camp in Huay Nam Khao village on Monday morning. | |
| "The operation started at 0530 (2230 GMT Sunday)," he told reporters. "The operation is expected to take one day." | |
| He said the soldiers are unarmed although equipped with shields and batons. | |
| Col Thana said the Hmong were being taken to a nearby staging area where they would be put on buses which would take them to the Thai border town of Nong Khai and then across to Laos. | |
| Their destination in Laos is Paksane district in the central province of Bolikhamsai, he added. | |
| Journalists and other outside groups have not been allowed into the camp. | |
| Sunai Phasuk, a Thai member of Human Rights Watch, said mobile phone signals inside the camp had been jammed so no-one could call out. | |
| Rights groups fear the Hmong will resist the deportation, as they have during smaller-scale repatriations. | |
| "If the Hmong resist it and there is an eruption of violence, the army may react in full force," he said. | |
| The US has raised the issue of the Hmong many times with Bangkok, most recently last week during the visit of a senior State Department official. | |
| Nine US senators sent a letter to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to express concern about the repatriation plan and criticised the government's screening process to determine refugee status. | Nine US senators sent a letter to Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to express concern about the repatriation plan and criticised the government's screening process to determine refugee status. |