AIR STRIKE AT LOAS - ONE-THIRD OF A NATION UPROOTED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000100570012-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 22, 2004
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: August 14, 1971
• Content Type: MAGAZINE

Approved For Relea
'L J
v C~~
`~1L'14tiaile
Since the staff report on refugees in Indocfllna was
prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee just bride .
i
a year ago,. the. number of La otiains uprooted from
their homes has increased su}.b)starhtiatly. It is difficult
to know how accurately this increase is reflected in the
numbers classified as refugees by USAID's Vientiane
Office of Refugee Affairs .-for its 'criterion for a refu-
gee 15 essC iltially any displaced person to whom it pro-
vides support. But as of June 7.8 it 1'e]'>Oi ied a refugee
total of 317,489 as against 253,1.47. for July Of last
year. These figures do not Cover all of those displace(
people under control of the Royal J,aotian Government
(nor, of course, do they extend to that ttivo-thirds of
the count y.controlled by the pro-Collu.niuiist l'athet
Lao). Currently the Vientiane government estimates
that altogether 72.5,000) Laotians have been displaced
by the warfare that has swept the country during the
last decade -- a figure that USAiD regards as roughly
accurate. In terms of tie 1962 ].aotian census csti--
mate of just over two million, this means that about
one-third of the population has been uprooted.
Among the 14 provinces of Laos the extent of this
dislocation varies considerably. A December 1970 US
embassy breakctowd headed "Population Displaced
by Military Action Since 1962'' indicated that in Saya-
boury province (lying to the west of the Mekong)
only four percent of the population had bec:oihie refu-
gees, while for Xieng, Khouang, previously the. third.
most populous province, the figure was 81 percent.
(Xieng Khouang embraces the Plain of Jars and is re-
ported to have the most extensive free- f ire zones.)
A large portion of the USAID-supported refugees
are classified as ."para-military dependents." The num-
ber in this cater;ory has grown from 95,000 a year ago
to 110,000 in April 7.977., and roughly 150,000 in mid
June of this year. Although administered through
USAID, the funds for this major component of the
refugee population derive from the Department of
Defense. This would seem appropriate given the fact
that these are the families and other dependents of
members of the (JA-organized and financed -Clandes-
tine Army," led by the Moo general, Vang I'ao. Meo
tribesmen still constitute the largest single element of
this 30,000 roan army; and this helps explain why
Geoioct:McT. KAIon, former director of Cornell 1.lni-
Versity's So1(fhenst Asia program, is '(lie editor of
Governments and Po i1~ri~iRri~{,se 2004110/28
-RDP88-01314R0001 OP570 1 -Q t _ ti >
(2 -Ck
/', `j ... 't""k -a art S t`" f' 1 s i c
well. over one-third of the USAID--supported refugee
population in Laos is made up of Meo. Although in
1965 the Mao constituted approximately 70 percent
Of Va.ng Pao's amrny, heavy attrition because Of Casual-
tics and some desertions -has now reduced the propor-
tion to about 40 percent. Currently the Khinu, who like
the Men are an tiplaixd dwelling people, are the second
largest ethnic group within the Clandestine A.rniy.
Reports that it has been encadredl In, an increasing
number of Thai soldiers are difficult to check; out with
any degree of reliability, but there is general agree-
ment that at least two battalions Of Thai troops have
been playing a significant role in the defense of Vang
Tao's headquarters at Long Clhen.
It is not merely the seesaw fighting on the ground
between the anti-Communist forces and the frequently
North Vietnamese--supported Pathet Lao that has so
severely altered the human geography" of Taos. In ad--
dition, on wide areas of the country far removed from
the 1-To Chi Minh Trail complex American air power
has had an enormous impact. Clearly there is a con-
siderable relationship between American bombing and
the growth in the number of displaced persons, but
apparently American embassy. personnel in Vientiane
are under strict orders to deny this. Moreover, no hint
of this major sociopolitical fact is to -be found in
U SAID's recent report, Feels? on Foreign Aid to Leos,,
a lhandsoihlc`ly printed 2,00--page volume now widely
dispensed to outsiders seeking information from the
American Embassy. Its section captioned "Causes and
Motives of Refugee Movements eschews any refer-
ence to bombing as a factor in the creation of refugees,
and the readier is informed only that: "The motives
that prompt a people to choose between two kinds of
rule are not always clear, but three conditions of life
tinder the Pathet Tao appear to have prompted the
choice of evacuation: the We tax, portage, and the
draft. The people grew more rice than they hack ever
grown before, but they had less for themselves. They
paid it out in the form of taxes -- rice to help the state,
trading rice, and rice frgin the heart. The Pathet lab
devised an elaborate lab'or system of convoys and wort:
crews. They drafted all. the young men for the army.
The refugees from the Plain of Jars say that primarily
for these reasons they chow; to leave their homes."
It is undeniable that ]peasants dislike paying taxes.
Unlike Vientiane's Royal Laotian Government, whicl,
:iC[A-ROl?"-0,i ;i> ROIO0IQ0571001t2h-0 it has no need
)rrra'r 4 1,,"ra
to -?.v Y ` 6
?-
'Sc C.-. (-i .C>L. I ('- ca )e.??ik '' o ,CL;