It took 15 years of effort to give political asylum to some 15,000 Hmong, who face persecution in their native Laos for helping the U.S. during the Vietnam War.

01:00 AM EDT on Saturday, August 28, 2004

BY KAREN LEE ZINER
Journal Staff Writer

WARWICK -- At first, Vang Lee watched with some measure of calm as the young Asian Rice Hmong Dancers of Providence performed in his family's honor. His eyes tracked the dancers' upturned palms, and graceful movements that jingled silver coins on their hill tribe clothing.

But then Lee's face crumpled. On the family's first day in America, this welcoming from Rhode Island's Hmong community triggered sobbing so prolonged that Lee finally buried his face in Kleenex, and wept.

The Lees' political asylum and family reunification here follows nearly two decades spent with at least 15,000 others at an unsanctioned refugee camp outside Wat Tham Krabok, a Buddhist temple in Thailand.

"They've never even been in a car before. They had a hard time with the kids -- it was a rough flight," said Xoua Kue, who translated at the ceremony at the Hampton Inn & Suites.

"He said he feels like he's been in a cave," Kue said. Given refuge by the temple abbott at Wat Tham Krabok, the Hmong lived in huts and slept in the dirt or on bamboo mats, in unsanitary surroundings. After the abbott died and Thai soldiers fenced in the camp, people went hungry, she added.

"What we have before us today is truly a miracle," said Philip Smith, Washington, D.C., coordinator of the Wat Tham Krabok Watch Committee, who has spent 15 years pushing for political asylum for the temple refugees.

"This is not simply another group of refugees," said Smith. "The Hmong who have come from Wat Tham Krabok are descendants of -- and some are veterans -- of the U.S. secret war in Laos" during the Vietnam War, an effort Smith called "the largest secret clandestine operation in history."

The Hmong "served on the front lines, saving the lives of thousands of American soldiers and pilots," Smith said. "I think America had a mutual obligation to bring the Hmong people here today, and not return them to Laos."

The refugees feared that they would be killed by communist soldiers if they returned to Laos, Smith said, because of their alliance with American forces against the communist Pathet Lao, who seized power in 1975.

Vang Lee, his wife, Mao Thao Lee, and their children are the first of 98 Hmong refugees from Wat Tham Krabok who will resettle in Rhode Island.

They are among 15,000 refugees who will resettle in the United States -- most of them in Minnesota -- which has the largest Hmong population in the country.

As Lee's family reached safe haven here, an international drama escalated at Wat Tham Krabok after Thai soldiers on Wednesday detained up to 2,000 people who remained there, according to Reuters and the Associated Press.

Smith said those people will be forced back to Laos, "where from our information, they will be persecuted. Some will disappear. Some will be tortured," as part of an ongoing "campaign of mass starvation and ethnic cleansing" against the Hmong in the Laotian highlands.

Smith said those massacres were only brought to light last year by three teams of journalists, who had "their cameras destroyed, their notes confiscated, and were then accused of horrible crimes against the state and thrown in jail" by the Pathet Lao.

TOUA THAO, of Providence, who is Mao Thao Lee's brother, greeted his sister at T.F. Green Airport at midnight Thursday after a separation of nearly 20 years. Many others from Rhode Island's Hmong community joined Thao.

Attending yesterday's ceremony were representatives of the Rhode Island Chapter of the Lao Veterans of America; the Hmong Unity Association of Rhode Island; the Lao American Council Corporation; the Office of Refugee Resettlement of the Diocese of Providence -- which is resettling the 98 people here -- and the Lao Representatives Abroad Council.

Ger Xiong, president of the Lao Veterans of America Rhode Island Chapter, wore his Purple Heart and other medals on his soldier's uniform yesterday. He empathized with the Lees by describing his feelings when he arrived in Rhode Island in 1976 with the first Southeast Asian refugees here.

"We were scared," said Xiong. "Too many different faces, colors. I told my wife, 'Wow, honey, how can we live in this country?' And she said, 'Don't worry. Go to school. That's how you do it.' "

Xiong said the Lee family will undoubtedly have similar fears, "but they are lucky. We are here. We are here for them. They will never have to think about Wat Tham Krabok anymore."