US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK6844

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 006844 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/31/2015 
TAGS: PREF, PREL, TH, Hmong, Refugee 
SUBJECT: UNHCR PROPOSES OPTION FOR PETCHABOON HMONG 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR SUSAN M. SUTTON reason 1.4 (b) (d) 
 
1. (U) This is an action message. Please see para  6. 
 
2. (C)  Summary:  UNHCR apprised Ambassador Haslach of the 
situation of the almost 6000 Hmong would-be refugees encamped 
in Petchaboon province.  Following a discussion of the 
difficulties of making a refugee determination, UNHCR 
proposed contracting with an independent person or team that 
could make a low-profile visit to Petchaboon to gather 
necessary information about the group that would assist in a 
final refugee determination. Ambassador Haslach noted that we 
could make no commitment at this time to accepting any of the 
Hmong in this group, but we would consider the UNHCR 
proposal.  See action request, paragraph 6.  end summary. 
 
3. (C)  Ambassador Patricia Haslach met 10/28 with UNHCR 
deputy regional representative Bhairaja Panday to discuss the 
situation of the almost 6000 ethnic Hmong gathered in 
Petchaboon province and seeking resettlement as refugees. 
Panday said that Thai officials are uncertain what to do 
about the group. Originally, they had thought it would be 
possible to return the group to Laos relatively quickly. 
They have since realized that it is too difficult to deport 
the group involuntarily, especially in the face of the Lao 
refusal to take them back.  The Thai also realize that they 
should permit UNHCR to interview those with a real claim to 
refugee status. However, they are deeply concerned about the 
"draw factor" if UNHCR interviews begin.  The Thai had a plan 
to try to identify and separate out a smaller group that 
might have a genuine refugee claim, then permit UNHCR to 
conduct low-profile interviews of that group.  So far, this 
plan is not working.  The RTG officials are "getting nowhere" 
with their interviews of the group's members since the Hmong 
"don't want to talk" to RTG officials.   Panday described the 
RTG now as confused about what to do next and said that they 
are looking for a solution. 
 
4. (C)  UNHCR had hoped to be able to draw on various outside 
sources of information to help identify a smaller group of 
possible refugees.  The RTG has determined that, of the 
approximately 6000 Hmong in the encampment in August, about 
200-300 have left already.  About 1200 of those remaining are 
believed to be former residents of Wat Tham Krabok, who had 
left the Wat before the beginning of the US resettlement 
program. These are presumably trying for a second chance at 
US resettlement, but are long-established in Thailand and 
will probably also drift away from the encampment if it 
becomes clear that there is no new resettlement program. 
That still leaves over 4000 Hmong to screen, and the 
available information, from the US Embassy in Vientiane and 
various NGOs that have contacted UNHCR, is insufficient to 
whittle that number down further. 
 
5.  (C)  Panday proposed that UNHCR contract an independent 
person or team that can go to Petchaboon and seek further 
information about the Hmong there.  The group would not be 
identified as UNHCR staff members, and therefore would not 
have the same magnet effect drawing other Hmong to the 
encampment.  They would not conduct full fledged refugee 
determination interviews, but would try to identify where 
various groups came from and gather information that might 
help to assess the validity of their claims.  This could be 
the basis on which at least an initial determination could be 
made about the status of the Hmong would-be refugees. Once 
UNHCR had made a final determination about the status of some 
smaller group, they would then make referrals as usual. 
Ambassador Haslach advised UNHCR that we could not make any 
guarantee in advance about accepting any of this group. 
However, the US normally gave due consideration to any 
referrals from UNHCR. 
 
6.  (C)  This idea needs some work, but it is the best that 
UNHCR has come up with so far, and we believe that we should 
support it.  It will be difficult to find an appropriate 
independent person or team who can do this, but we believe it 
is worth a try. Panday is confident that the Thai will raise 
no objection to this approach. Action request:  Request 
Department authorize us to meet with UNHCR and put together a 
more concrete proposal along the lines described above. 
Although UNHCR understands that we cannot make any commitment 
at this point about accepting any of this group, Panday 
points out that the US is the most interested and 
knowledgeable about the Hmong, and we could play a useful 
role. We would suggest that Embassy Vientiane poloff and 
Bangkok refcoord work together with UNHCR to firm up a plan. 
End action request. 
 
7.  (C)  Ambassador Haslach emphasized that there would be no 
"new US resettlement program" for this group.  Ambassador and 
Panday agreed that the solution to the predicament posed by 
the Hmong group would probably include the following elements: 
 
-- The RTG would not forcibly deport the group.  Now that the 
group was no longer growing, the RTG was probably content to 
let the situation work itself out relatively slowly, in the 
hopes that many of those in the encampment without a good 
claim would leave in search of better conditions once it was 
clear that there would be no big resettlement plan.  It will 
be important to use all available means to get the message to 
them that the US will not resettle them all, a la Wat Tham 
Krabok.  We will make sure that our press release stating 
that there will be no new resettlement program is distributed 
in Hmong and Lao language, and we will encourage all 
responsible Hmong NGO contacts to make the same points with 
their relatives and spread the word. 
 
-- UNHCR would eventually identify a smaller group with a 
genuine refugee claim.  This might include Hmong who were 
associated with the various journalists who had been covering 
the story of the Hmong, or family members from some of the 
anti-government groups identified by the Lao government. 
This would not include those who had been involved in violent 
attacks on civilian or government targets.   There might 
need to be close examination of some of the people who had 
"come out of the forest" to distinguish between those who had 
been on the run due to fear of the GoL, and those who had 
actively participated in armed attacks. Not all of those who 
had come out of the forest would qualify as refugees, since 
information from Laos indicated that many of the family 
members who recently gave themselves up to the government had 
been resettled inside Laos without adverse consequences. 
 
-- UNHCR would make referrals, as it normally did.  We would 
hope that various countries which receive refugees would 
accept some of these referrals. The US might also accept some 
of them -- we could not make a commitment at this point. 
 
8.  (C)  Comment:  This will be a very difficult problem to 
solve.  We believe that some of the Hmong in Petchaboon -- 
perhaps a few hundred -- may be able to make a compelling 
refugee claim.  Separating that small group out from the 
others without sparking a new wave of refugee wanna-bes from 
across the border will be a challenge, but the UNHCR proposal 
is a good first step.   end comment, 
BOYCE