Amid continuing reports of religious persecution in Laos, a lobbying
battle is under way over whether the United States should grant normal trade
relations status to the impoverished communist nation.
Radio Free Asia, a U.S. government-funded service, reported at the weekend that
Laotian officials had evicted three Christian families from their homes for
refusing to renounce their faith.
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has for several years
been urging the State Department to add the Southeast Asian state to its list
of "countries of particular concern" for severe religious freedom
violations.
According to the U.S.-based group International Christian Concern (ICC), Lao
authorities consider Christians the number one enemy of the state, with
believers from the Hmong ethnic group specifically targeted as "subversive
elements."
ICC cites numerous accounts of incidents, some as recent as March and April, in
which officials arrested church leaders and worshippers, ordered services to
stop, demolished or confiscated churches and expelled Christians from their
villages.
Less than two per cent of Laos' 5.7 million people are Christians, while about
60 percent are Buddhists and another 33 percent are animists.
The authoritarian one-party state regularly appears on the short list when the
world's worst violators or press or religious freedom are named.
But in the last six years it has also opened up considerably, signing a
comprehensive bilateral trade agreement with the U.S. and joining the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc.
Now the Bush administration is pushing to extend normal trade relations (NTR) -
formerly known as Most Favored Nation status - to Vientiane, a move that would
bring down tariff rates for exporting goods to the U.S. from their current
average of 45 percent to high single figures.
NTR would also open the door to investment guarantees and credit from American
government agencies.
Proponents, including U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick and the U.S.
ambassador to Laos, argue that normalization will encourage reform and
openness.
Opponents include representatives of Lao-American groups in the U.S., backed by
several Congressmen.
This week, Lao Commerce Minister Soulivong Daravong held talks in Washington
with Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Armitage had reiterated the
administration's support for NTR, while pressing Daravong "to ensure that
his government take credible steps to improve human rights and religious
freedom in Laos."
'Dreadful behavior'
The House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee has been inviting public
comment on the matter, which has generated considerable debate.
Receipt of submissions has now closed, and a spokesman said by phone Tuesday he
had seen a "significant stack [of hard copy submissions], both for and
against."
The Committee's trade sub-committee would now review them, he said.
In one submission, seven members of Congress, including Republicans Mark Green
(Wisconsin) and George Radanovich (California), urged against rewarding Laos
for what they called "consistently dreadful behavior."
The letter, a copy of which was made available by Green's office, said Laos had
"failed miserably to demonstrate that it is ready for or deserves NTR at
this time."
In the six years since Washington and Vientiane signed the bilateral trade
deal, the Lao government's record on issues such as human rights had actually
worsened, they argued.
The signatories also cited Laos' continuing close ties with North Korea;
state-sanctioned rallies last month opposing the war against Iraq; and the 1999
disappearance at the Thailand-Laos border of two U.S. citizens suspected to
have been captured and killed by the authorities.
They said that a substantial majority of Lao-Americans, many of whom have
first-hand experience of the state's brutality, were strongly opposed to NTR
now.
According to 2000 census figures, about 170,000 Lao and another 170,000 ethnic
Hmong live in the U.S.
Among the submissions made to the Ways and Means Committee are petitions signed
by more than 2,500 Hmong and Lao-Americans appealing against NTR.
The petition drive was organized by Dr. Vang Pobzeb, head of the
Wisconsin-based Lao Human Rights Council.
In a statement he alleged that 300,000 had been killed at the hands of the Lao
and Vietnamese governments over the past 27 years, in a war he said was
continuing inside Laos in 2003.
Rather than be granted NTR status, the council said, its leaders should be
hauled before an international tribunal for war crimes and genocide.
Another group opposed to NTR is the Hmong International Human Rights Watch,
whose executive director, Laura Xiong, said from Omaha Tuesday the regime
should first agree to open its doors to human rights monitors.
They should especially be allowed access to an area called the Saysomboun
Special Zone, under military control and closed to outsiders, where many of the
worst violations are believed to take place.
According to Xiong, the Hmong have been singled out for abuses because of their
support for the U.S. during the Vietnam War.
Apart from rights atrocities, she said, top officials in Laos enjoy luxurious
lifestyles of expensive cars and million-dollar mansions "while the
ordinary citizens live under thatch roof huts and walk on dirt roads with no
shoes."
Xiong said granting NTR to the Lao government would merely legitimize its
oppressive rule.
U.S. 'shouldn't bully or lecture'
Among the arguments in favor of NTR for Laos are those from Ernest Z. Bower,
head of the U.S.-ASEAN Business Council, representing 150 member companies
doing business in the 10 ASEAN countries.
In a submission to the House committee, Bower said Laos was taking steps toward
free market reforms, its agreement to a bilateral trade agreement with the U.S.
an indicator of its willingness to open up to the outside world.
He said NTR was the key to having Laos export more garments, gems and jewelry,
agricultural products and hydro-electricity to the U.S.
Also promoting NTR is Washington's ambassador to Vientaine, Douglas Hartwick,
who points out that almost every country in the world has NTR with the U.S.,
including Laos' neighbors Vietnam and Cambodia.
In a speech last January, Hartwick argued that the best way for the U.S. to
promote change was "not by bullying or lecturing Laos."
Extending NTR would not only promote trade but lead to greater economic and
political freedoms and help improve the living conditions of the poorest in
Laos, he said.
Annual per-capita income for Laotians is just over $300, according to World
Bank figures for 2001, and 40 percent of the population live below the poverty
line.