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"Vietnamese, Lao forces searching rice paddies and mountains and shooting on sight..."LOS ANGELES-Soldiers,police and others have killed at least 13 Christians in Laos in the past month in a swarming crackdown on Hmong villagers falsely accused of stirring rebel dissent, sources told Compass.In the sweep,encouraged by communist village leaders and others who have falsely accused the Christians of being separatist rebels,authorities have arrested and imprisoned about 200 members of a 1,900-strong Laos Evangelical Church in Ban Sai Jarern village, Bokeo province in northwestern Laos.The hunted Christians are largely Hmong refugees who had fled persecution in Vietnam. Those killed include Hmong who went into hiding when joint forces of Vietnamese and Lao police began rounding up Christians falsely accused of supporting Gen.Vang Pao in August 2006. Among those killed last month was Neng Mua,a Christian who slipped back to his native Fay village after hiding in the mountains from the police round-up.On July 7 he went to a local villager’s house to beg for food, but his one-time friend instead shot him dead as a suspected member of the “liberation army,”a Christian source said.Police have searched intensively for Christians in rice fields and mountains and are shooting them on sight, said the source,who requested anonymity.“Many Christians were killed and badly injured,” he said. “Women and children were arrested and sent to prison.”On July 8, police shot Seng Wue to death by a roadside after he and other Christians suffering fatigue and hunger had come out of hiding and surrendered, according to Christian sources.The sources heard report of soldiers shooting two other Christians dead at a checkpoint on the road to Don Sawan village, but their names were still unconfirmed.On July 13,soldiers reportedly shot to death a person resembling Jong Wue Lao, a committee member of the Ban Sai Jarern church. He had escaped authorities on July 3, though his whereabouts were unknown. Soldiers reportedly killed eight to 10 Christians in the incident, but sources said it was unclear whether those deaths included Lao and his companions.On July 12, police arrested Jue Por Wang, head of the Ban Fay church, and Wang Lee Wang, head of the Ban Sawan church.A Christian source said police forced members of their churches to declare that the leaders and others on police target lists were funded by Vang Pao to train Christians to fight the government.In May and June, about 100 soldiers from Vietnam, along with authorities from Laos and Vietnam, arrived in Ban Sai Jarern to look for Hmong Vietnamese.There were 600 to 800 Lao soldiers and 200 Vietnam soldiers deployed in Bokeo province as of July, Christian sources said.
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As in the days of Noah...
