Comments for "The Secret War in Laos" Video at VideoSift.com

By TomStall

TomStall (http://history.videosift.com/member/TomStall) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:38:53 -0700

*NSFW (graphic content)

Wow. My sister did work there for a few months back in 2003, so I knew that the Hmongs were the most heavily discriminated against minority in Laos (those that are not hiding have all been displaced into remote parts of the country), but apparently the Lao government managed to make things even worse since then.
This is not all that surprising though, the Lao and Vietnamese government both heavily discriminate against their minorities ("You don't have the right to go to school or get a job outside your village, but if you try to leave the country we'll put you in a reeducation camp. Deal ?").

By siftbot

siftbot (http://history.videosift.com/member/siftbot) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 10:38:53 -0700

Invocations (nsfw) cannot be called by TomStall because TomStall is not privileged - sorry.

By Irishman

Irishman (http://history.videosift.com/member/Irishman) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 15:16:00 -0700

My wife also did work there in 2007. A lot of the Hmong people moved out of Vietnam and into Thailand in search of a better life, and ended up dealing in opium. The King of Thailand (who has a huge amount of respect from the Thai people) requested that they give up growing opiates and trade their crafts instead. Amazingly they did, and you can now find many Hmong tribe villages trading their crafts and goods in Thailand.

*video edited for NSFW

By siftbot

siftbot (http://history.videosift.com/member/siftbot) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 09:53:02 -0700

Moving this video to Irishman's personal queue. It failed to receive enough votes to get sifted up to the front page within 3 days.

By siftbot

siftbot (http://history.videosift.com/member/siftbot) — Sun, 11 May 2008 17:08:02 -0700

Tags for this video have been changed from 'Laos Secret War Hmong refugee CIA' to 'Laos, Secret War, Hmong, refugee, CIA' - edited by kronosposeidon