HMONG REFUGEE CRISIS: Screening of ‘Hunted Like Animals’, Panel Discussion Slated for Wednesday in Manhattan
By David M. KinchenEditor, Huntington News Network
New York, NY (HNN) – At a special event on Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006 there will be a screening of “Hunted Like Animals,” a film by Rebecca Sommer, as part an awareness-raising side event on the Hmong Lao crisis, while the Session of the United Nations 3rd Committee of the Security Council takes place.
The screening and program will be in the United Nations Church Center, 12th floor, 777 United Nations Plaza (44th Street at First Avenue) on Manhattan’s East Side.
The subject of the documentary by Sommer, a German-born, New York-based filmmaker and human rights activist, is the Hmong Lao ethnic minority: ”Hiding for more than 30 years in the remote mountains of Laos, chased, attacked and massacred by Laotian and Vietnamese military forces,” and thousands of Hmong Lao refugees, who fled to Thailand, Sommer explained to HNN. She has been a source of news stories reported in HNN for several months now on the plight of the Hmong Lao, an indigenous people of the nation of Laos. Here is a link to the latest story, which has links to previous ones:
http://www.huntingtonnews.net/national/061019-kinchen-hmong.html
Here is the program:
11a.m. -12 noon:
Film screening "Hunted Like Animals"
The awareness-raising documentary focuses on the ethnic Hmong Lao refugees, who fled military aggression in Laos to Thailand. The Hmong Lao have been hiding for more 30 years in the mountainous jungles of Laos, and claim to be hunted, chased and attacked by Vietnamese and Laotian military. The film shows film footage filmed directly by the Hmong people in hiding, and testimonies of the Hmong refugees, revealing the human face behind armed conflict situations, where civilians are mistreated by their government.
12 noon - 2 p.m., Panel and Q & A
Special guest: Hmong Lao Elder, who lived for 30 years with a Hmong Lao group-in-hiding - in the mountainous jungle of Laos. Last year, she escaped from the military zone in Laos and has resided in the US for the past 5 months. This woman is the only witness who can share first-hand testimony with the public of the devastation of the Hmong in-hiding experience. She is the voice for over 17, 000 Hmong Lao people who remain trapped in the remote military areas in Laos. She has asked that her identity be kept anonymous and that no pictures of her be taken at this event -- for her own protection.
Panelists:
Traditional Hmong Clan Elder: Chue Chou Chang, president of Hmong American Mutual Assistance Association.
Hmong expert: Chue Hue Vang, director of United Hmong International (Umbrella NGO of US based Hmong organizations)
Filmmaker of "Hunted Like Animals": Rebecca Sommer, Society for Threatened Peoples International.