Thailand deports 152 Hmong refugees to Laos

BANGKOK, Jan 30 (Reuters) Thailand deported a group of 152 Hmong to Laos today, despite human rights groups' fears that the ethnic minority who fought alongside America in the Vietnam War face persecution from Vientiane's communist government.

Thai Lieutenant-General Nipat Thonglek, who is in charge of the army's border affairs, said Vientiane had requested the deportation and had sent three government officials and three buses to pick them up.

''We are sending them back today on the request of the Lao government,'' Nipat told Reuters from the Thai border town of Nong Khai, where the group has been held since late last year.

''We have been under heavy pressure not to send them back, so I've asked Lao officials to allow foreign diplomats in Vientiane to visit them from time to time. They said they would convey that to their bosses,'' Nipat said.

The United Nations refugee agency hit out at Thailand last week for deporting 16 Hmong, and said it was trying to persuade Bangkok's military-installed government not to deport the rest of the group, who include 77 children and eight babies.

More than 100 of the larger group have been recognised as legitimate asylum seekers, and any deportation to Laos would be a violation of international law, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has said.

The Hmong, dubbed ''America's forgotten allies'' after the war, have had a difficult relationship with the Pathet Lao communists who have run Laos since seizing power in 1975.

Human rights groups accused them of waging a 30-year campaign of vengeance against Hmong guerrillas still hiding out in the forests. Vientiane denies the accusations.

Since the war, the United States has granted asylum to thousands of Hmong, although it has indicated in the last few years it will accept no more.

REUTERS PB MIR RAI1134