December 31, 2009. Last week, Debbie and I visited a few members of the ethnic Hmong tribes living in the Chiengmai area in the Northern part of Thailand. In fact, this week, the government of Thailand repatriated thousands of ethnic Hmong living in a camp in since 2004. More than 4,000 ethnic Hmong from Laos have been living in Ban Huay Nam Khao in Petchabun’s province since late 2004. They were seeking asylum in Thailand saying they risked persecution by the Lao regime for fighting alongside US forces in the Vietnam war during the 1960s and 1970s. Some of them have claimed to be close associates of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) who supported in fighting the communists before the fall of Vientiane, Laos in 1975. They say they are fleeing suppression back home. But, the Laos and the Thai government are not buying the story. As far as the Thais are concerned, the Hmong are normal economic migrants and should be sent home. So, the Thai government went ahead with the forced