Hmong refugees call off hunger strike in Thailand

BANGKOK, Aug 21 (Reuters) Almost 150 Hmong refugees from Laos, including 90 children, have called off their hunger strike in a Thai detention centre where they have spent nine months, the United Nations said today.

The 149 refugees, who started the strike last week saying they would rather die in Thai cells than be sent back to the communist state, began taking food on Sunday after a visit from the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR.

''Because they have been in insolation and detention for such a long time, they thought that the whole world had forgotten about them,'' Bangkok-based UNHCR spokeswoman Kitty McKinsey said.

''So we were able to convince them that we have been working the whole time trying to get them released and trying to get better conditions for them,'' McKinsey said.

The UNHCR urged the Thai government to free the Hmong, given refugee status by the agency after entering from Laos, where many Hmong say they face persecution for their role on the US side of the Vietnam War, a charge Laos denies.

''There is absolutely no reason to keep them here. They should be allowed to go to the third countries where they have resettlement places waiting for them so they can start their lives over again,'' McKinsey said.

But Thailand said the group could not be freed from the detention centre, where the UNHCR described conditions as ''deplorable'' and ''truly inhumane''.

''We can't release them because they have entered the country illegally,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Tharit Charunvat said.

''We have been treating them in accordance with international practices, but it is unfortunate that our existing facilities can't accommodate them,'' he said. Thai officials were working with international agencies to improve conditions, he said.

CRAMPED CELLS Hmong refugees said they were given three meals a day, a small bag of rice and something to go with it, and let out of their small, poorly-ventilated rooms once a week when Thai doctors visited them.

''After each meal, we sit or nap in the very cramped cells, which is torturing,'' a man in his late 50s told a Reuters reporter allowed to talk to them in a courtyard of the detention centre where a doctor visited them today.

''We beg the Thai government to have sympathy for us and let the U.N. staff help us,'' added the refugee who said he worked for the CIA during the war.

The Thai government has attempted to deport the group twice, but backed down after intervention by the UNHCR and western countries which promised to resettle some of them.

The United States, which has granted asylum to thousands of Hmong since the Vietnam War, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands have interviewed members of this group and the 8,000 Hmong at a refugee camp in northern Thailand.

But Tharit said none of the four countries had started to resettle refugees yet.

''There have only been news reports that they will resettle, but nothing has materialised,'' Tharit said.

However, an Australian diplomat told Reuters a number of Hmong refugees had been granted visas and were awaiting Thai permission to depart for Australia.

''If the Thais were giving us the permission now, we would remove them immediately,'' he said.

Another Thai official said Bangkok faced a dilemma over the 149 Hmong, recognised as refugees by the UNHCR but wanted back by Laos.

''We can't let these people to be sent to third countries yet until we can convince the Lao,'' the official said.

REUTERS LPB VC1528