Word: hmong
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...finally reached the river we needed to cross to safety. Then the sound of a bullet split the still air. The second and third shots were close enough to stop us in our tracks. Government troops had spotted our scout slashing a path through the foliage. Our guide, Hmong rebel commander and government enemy Moua Toua Ther, instructed us to sit tight rather than run. The thick foliage, he knew, afforded us some protection. Hours passed. Every rustle in the undergrowth was met with nervous intakes of breath. Not until 4 a.m. did we dare move again. We crossed...
...were lucky. Photographer Philip Blenkinsop and I emerged from the jungle earlier this year scratched and shaken, but we carried with us a unique story about a little-known people, the Hmong, desperately fighting for survival.That story, which appeared in TIME last month, showed the devastating effect of the military campaign launched by the communist leaders of Laos to eradicate the Hmong. The tribe's inexcusable crime? Siding with the U.S. in the 1960s during the Vietnam...
...Belgian Thierry Falise, 46, and Frenchman Vincent Reynaud, 38, weren't so fortunate. The two Bangkok-based journalists, along with their translator, Naw Karl Mua, 44, a Hmong-American pastor from St. Paul, Minnesota, had followed in our footsteps, looking to report the story for themselves before time runs out for the Hmong. On June 4 these three foreigners were walking out of the jungle near the northeastern Laotian province of Xieng Khouang when their party, which included heavily armed Hmong rebels acting as escorts, came under fire from government troops. During the firefight someone was killed...
...Hmong say they are too ill-equipped to strike back. Most of their fighters are armed with ancient M-16s and AK-47s, and the heaviest weapons at their disposal are two geriatric M-79 grenade launchers. Ammunition is mostly dug up from former U.S. air bases. According to Moua, only a third of the rounds are actually live, negating Hmong chances of launching a viable offensive. As for the Lao government, which declined to talk to TIME, it denies allegations that it is decimating Hmong rebels and blames them for much of the unrest in the country. It insists...
...government troops came in, he says, and shot women and children from a distance of just five meters. Today, Bhun looks barely alive himself. Only two fingers remain on his left hand?he lost the others in a B-41 rocket attack that killed six of his fellow Hmong. His leg still bleeds from a suppurating shrapnel wound he received 13 years ago. One side of his face is a mask of melted flesh, with black sockets where an ear and an eye should be. "Everybody is dead," he says. "Sixteen people in my family are dead, all killed...