Podium

Hunted Like Animals: The Unfinished War

By Citizen Correspondent Rebecca Sommer
Date Posted: 06/19/08
Reader Rating: rating

This is a clip of my awareness-raising documentary "Hunted Like Animals" © 2007. Hunted Like Animals is an eye-opening documentary about an ongoing, but unknown, genocide — against the Hmong people in the jungles of Laos. In this clip BBC journalist Ruhi Hamid, who was the first Westerner the Hmong people had seen in 28 years, explains. Warning: contains violent images, not suitable for children. (c) Rebecca Sommer, (SommerFilms), 2007. (www.rebeccasommer.org) To order the DVD, you can contact the filmmaker: SommerFilms@gmail.com

Coerced into joining the CIA’s anti-communist efforts during the Vietnam war, the Hmong people became a Secret Army. When the U.S. pulled out of Southeast Asia in 1975 and the Lao kingdom was overthrown by the communists, the Hmong became targets of retaliation and persecution.

Hundreds of thousands fled the country; others ran to remote mountainous regions of Laos. Over 30 years and two generations later, the Hmong in hiding are still mercilessly hunted, attacked, raped, tortured and killed by the military.

Since 2004, the crackdown has intensified and those who can escape seek refuge in Thailand. The traumatized refugees have not been promised protection or help. Instead, they are threatened with deportation back to Laos, the very place from which they barely escaped.

In this documentary, the refugees speak for thousands of voiceless people still trapped in the jungle, surrounded by Lao and Vietnamese soldiers — and hunted like animals.

*****

To watch all the video clips from my documentary Hunted Like Animals, follow these links:

Trailer

History of Hmong Lao-Vietnam War

Hmong Hunted and tortured -merciless!

Hmong Attacked With Chemical Weapons

Eyewitness account + filmed ATTACK

Hmong women raped by Lao soldiers

Hmong refugees-WE ARE NOT REBELS












Tags:

Editor's Picks

Darfur Refugees: Don't Press-Gang Our Sons

By Citizen Correspondent Anna Schmitt
Through my humanitarian work in Central Africa, I learned that refugee children from... Full Story »