Ministry of Foreign Affairs
C/O Minister H.E. Mr. Somsavat Lengsavad
Thatluang Road
Ban Phonxay
Laos

Dear Honorable Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Somsavath Lengsavat;

On behalf of the free world, the Fact Finding Commission would like to take a moment of your time to hear our response concerning the situation in Laos. Our mission is to bring THE TRUTH inside Laos to the outside world. That is exactly what we have been doing. On an interview broadcast through the Voices of America on October 14, 2005 by VOA correspondent, Songrit PhonNgern, you challenged the correspondent to tell you who were the ones who wrote the reports regarding the ongoing genocide inside Laos and witnessed the truth inside Laos. Unfortunately, your question was not addressed to the right person. Therefore, today FFC is going to answer that question for you.

The reports on the ongoing genocide and war crime conducted by the combined military forces of the Lao PDR and Vietnamese soldiers against the so called “non-existent” veterans of the U.S. Secret Army and their families in the jungles of Laos were done by the Fact Finding Commission along with Time Magazine, British Broadcasting Corporation, Sunday Times in London, Associated Press, ABC Australia, San Francisco Chronicle and other news agencies. Due to the fact that some members of the FFC are of Laotian descent, our reports may be viewed by certain individuals, such as yourself, as bias information. Therefore, for your information, we’ve coordinated various independent news agencies to validate our reports, testify in Washington D.C. in front members of Congress, in New York with the UN officials, and in Paris with European leaders.

The world now knows the hidden truth and secrets that your government has been hiding for more than three decades. You oppress, persecute, chase, hunt the United States Secret War veterans and their families into the jungles and kill them. You lie to the international community that no such innocent people exist in the jungles. However, you know as we do that these people have become displaced people within their own country due to the ongoing genocide and war crime conducted by the Lao PDR government, like yourself who intentionally want to “exterminate these people to the root”.

You also challenged VOA correspondent Songrit PhonNgern regarding those who are personal eyewitnesses to such tragedies, thus being qualified to file such reports. We encourage you to read the reports published in the Time Asia Magazine on May 5, 2003, the Le Monde2 in June 2003 in France, the Phnom Penh Post on October 10-23, 2003 in Cambodia, the Sunday Times magazine on December 10, 2003 in London.

In addition, we encourage you to talk to each individual journalist that were eye witnesses in the situation and living conditions of the people who are still hiding in the jungles. We believe those reports and feedback from the journalists are unbiased. The journalists’ job is to reveal the truth inside Laos to the free world, so it will no longer be a secret. Therefore, now the hidden truth and secrets that you have covered up are no longer secret. To answer your questions about the truth, here are the chronological activities Fact Finding Commission help to coordinate.

On January 11, 2003, Time Magazine correspondent Andrew Perrin and photographer Philip Blenkinsop entered Laos. January 12, 2003 they trekked through the heavily patrolled jungles of the Xaysomboune Special Zone to meet with Moua Toua Ter and Thong Vanh, the leaders of 800 people. The two correspondents left the jungles on January 18, 2003 and exited Laos on January 22, 2003.

On May 24, 2003, Freelance journalists Thierry Falise and Vincent Renaud entered Laos. We know that you are well familiar with these two journalists. They entered the dangerous jungles of the Xaysomboune Special Zone on May 25, 2003 and met with Moua Toua Ter, Thong Vanh and their people in the deep jungles. After spending only a short time in the jungle they were eager to get their story out to the public; therefore, they left the jungles and upon reaching the edge of the village on June 4, 2003, the two journalists were arrested by your men. Their evidence consisting of photographs and videos regarding the US Secret War Veterans and their families were confiscated by your government.

On March 12, 2004, two correspondents from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Ruhi Hamid and Misha Maltsev entered Laos and trekked through the heavily guarded jungles of Laos to meet with Wa Leng Lee, Sinnoon Xaosinxay and 250 people in the Bolikhamxay Province. The two journalists came out of the jungles and exited Laos on March 26, 2004. Their documentary One Day of War – Frontline: Laos was well publicized in the United Kingdom and worldwide.

On April 11, 2004, Freelance Jouranlist Nelson Rand entered Laos and trekked through the dangerous jungles of the Xaysomboune Special Zone to meet with two of the leaders, Moua Toua Ter, Yang Toua Thao, Thong Vanh and about two thousand people with them. Mr. Rand spent three weeks with the people who have are displaced in the Xaysomboune Special Zone before he trekked out of the jungles and safely returned to Thailand on May 2, 2004. The five Hmong children killed on May 19, 2004 by Battalion 28 stationed at San Dae are well known to Mr. Rand during his visit to this group.

On January 27, 2005, French Journalist Gregoire Denaiv and Guillaume Leger entered Laos and trekked through the heavily patrolled jungles of the Xaysomboune Special Zone to meet with Moua Toua Ter, Thong Vanh and their people. The two journalist exited Laos on February 6, 2005. Their video documentary was well publicized throughout France, Envoye Special, in France and throughout the world.

On June 3, 2005, FFC – Commission Members Ed and Georgie Szendrey entered Laos to help facilitate the surrender of the 173 women, children and elderly to your officials in the village of Chong Thuang. They met with the people from the jungles in the morning of June 4, 2005 and turned the people over to your hands. On their way to Vientiane, the Commission Members along with their associate Nhia Zang Yang and their driver Sia Cher Vang were detained by your authorities for nearly three days and interrogated in Vientiane. These four individuals were released as “trouble makers” by your country but were not charged of anything nor did they violate any Lao PDR’s law. Their cameras and the satellite phone, worth more than $3,000 USD, were confiscated by your government and have not been returned to Fact Finding Commission. Your personal representative, Yong Chanhthalansy was present during their detention and participated in the interrogation of the Szendrey’s.

With these confirmations, you indicated that Vang Pao is “sleeping and dead in America”. General Vang Pao may physically live in America, however he continues to be deeply concerned with the welfare of the U.S. Secret War veterans and their families hiding in the jungles of Laos.

Surprisingly, we find you are a government official of Laos and yet you continue to claim such ignorance of the existence of the Secret War Veterans and their families? Your government for nearly thirty years has secretly murdered the veterans of the U.S. Secret Army, and to this day you still deny their existence, despite the independent validation by major news agencies around the world.

In closing, we are asking you to open the door and allow the Fact Finding Commission or another independent fact-finding team along with international journalists and the international community to come into Laos to investigate our reports. We ask that you allow full access to all the remote areas of Laos; especially the following provinces: Xaysomboune Special Zone, Xieng Khouang, Bolikhamxay, Huouan Phan, Vientiane, Luang Prabang, Xaingabouri, Bokeo, Savannakhet, Saravan, Champasak, Attapu, and Xekong where the veterans of the U.S. Secret Army and their families are hiding.

You asked for the documentation proving the allegation made against the Lao government. The above is proof of those allegations. You are now told of the perpetual genocide and human rights violations conducted by your own military forces and the Vietnamese military forces against those who fought for the United States government on behalf of the American people during the Vietnam War in Laos. You have this in writing. Now as a leader in Laos, what will you say to your people and to the world, so they will again trust you and your government?

Our recommendations, which we believe will help resolve the critical issues at hand;

• Immediately stop the killing, chasing, and the hunting of the displaced United States Secret War veterans and their families who are still hiding in the jungles due to political oppression and persecution;
• The withdrawal of all foreign troops and military personnel, such as the Vietnamese from Laos;
• You must immediately allow United Nations, NGOs, and Human Rights organizations to intervene and provide humanitarian aid to these displaced US Secret War veterans and their families in the jungles;
• You must immediately allow the United States Congress to bring in an independent delegation team to further investigate the current situations and conditions of the displaced US Secret War veterans and their families hiding in the jungles;
• You must continue allowing safe passage for your displaced people in the jungles to surrender and allow UN to get involved in their resettlement and provide humanitarian aid to them;
• You must continue allowing these displaced individuals to fully assimilate into the mainstream Lao society;
• You must continue allowing them to have full access to all available resources and support systems within the country of Laos and neighboring countries; and
• You must hold your military commanders accountable for all wrongful actions taken by them against the displaced US Secret War veterans and their families.

Furthermore, because of the presence of Vietnamese military forces in Laos, just in case you have forgotten about the Paris Agreement signed in 1973 before the LPDR government was formed in Laos, we inserted Chapter VII of the Paris Agreement regarding Cambodia and Laos for your review. We hope that you will find this chapter of the Paris Agreement helpful to you in reaching a critical decision you are about to make to resolve the perpetual genocide and human rights violations against the displaced US Secret War veterans and their families hiding in the jungles.

Article 20

(a) The parties participating in the Paris Conference on Viet-Nam shall strictly respect the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Cambodia's and the 1954 Geneva Agreements on Laos, which recognized the Cambodian and the Lao peoples' fundamental national rights, i.e., the independence, sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity of these countries. The parties shall respect the neutrality of Cambodia and Laos.

The parties participating in the Paris Conference on Viet-Nam undertake to refrain from using the territory of Cambodia and the territory of Laos to encroach on the sovereignty and security of one another and of other countries.

(b) Foreign countries shall put an end to all military activities in Cambodia and Laos, totally withdraw from and refrain from reintroducing into these two countries troops, military advisers and military personnel, armaments, munitions and war material.

(c) The internal affairs of Cambodia and Laos shall be settled by the people of each of these countries without foreign interference.

(d) The problems existing between the Indo-Chinese countries shall be settled by the Indo-Chinese parties on the basis of respect for each other's independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, and non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

We are asking for your cooperation and facing the truth on this matter, and knowing your busy schedule but we are expecting to hearing from you by November 15, 2005.

Truly yours,