Sen. Mark Dayton and Wisconsin's two senators want Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to send an independent intermediary to Laos to monitor the country's treatment of Hmong refugees.

The Hmong, an ethnic group that fought alongside the CIA during the Vietnam War, have been living on the run in the Laotian jungles since the end of the war and have faced persecution by the communist government. Thousands of Hmong who were able to flee the country settled in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Earlier this month, 170 women, children and old men emerged from jungle hideouts in Laos and surrendered to the government, the first wave of thousands more that are expected to follow.

In a letter Monday to Rice, Dayton and fellow Democrats Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl acknowledged that the first reports indicate that the refugees have been treated humanely by the government. But they said they are still concerned about the situation.

"We hope that the Lao government's appropriate treatment of the 170 recently emerged Hmong will be replicated, and we believe that international monitoring of this situation is essential," they wrote.

The senators cited media reports that the Hmong are starving and may be forced to choose between going without food and surrendering to a government they do not trust.

"As some of these Hmong groups have completely exhausted their natural food supplies in the mountains, your expediency in this matter would be greatly appreciated," they wrote.

The State Department did not immediately return a phone message left Monday.