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Where EAST meets the Northwest
WITHOUT A TRACE. In this photograph provided by the Vang family, Yer Vang is seen in St. Paul, Minnesota about a year before his disappearance. Two years after his mysterious disappearance in Thailand, there has been no sign of Vang, a Hmong American from Minnesota. He is originally from Laos and moved to the United States in the mid-1970s. (AP Photo/Vang Family Photo)
From The Asian Reporter, V18, #14 (April 1, 2008), page 8.
Still no sign of Hmong American who disappeared two years ago
By Frederic J. Frommer
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON — Two years after his mysterious disappearance in Thailand, no sign has turned up of Yer Vang, a Hmong American from the northern U.S. state of Minnesota, according to family members and U.S. authorities.
The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok has pressed Thai police to find out what happened to Vang, who disappeared in the northern part of the Southeast Asian country in March 2006 along with several others, including his wife and daughter, both of whom lived in Thailand. Embassy officials say Thai police have told them they are continuing to look into the case. Vang was the only U.S. citizen in the group.
In late March 2006, several weeks after his disappearance, Thai police found seven decomposed bodies that were believed to include several missing Hmong Americans. But the U.S. Embassy says none of them turned out to have been U.S. citizens.
Officials at the Thai Embassy said they were unable to provide information about the case, and attempts by The Associated Press to reach police officials in Thailand were unsuccessful.
Vang, 55, is a retired social worker who spent many years in St. Paul, Minnesota before moving to Lino Lakes, from where he maintained a long-distance relation- ship with his 29-year-old wife and two-year-old daughter.
Vang originally was from Laos and moved to the United States in the mid-1970s. He was in Thailand vacationing, says his nephew, Lee Pao Xiong, who has headed up the family’s efforts to locate him.
Xiong questioned the U.S. Embassy’s handling of the matter, suggesting the Thai police may be behind the disappearance.
"For the embassy to wait for the police to tell them — if the police had something to do with it, they’re not going to tell you," said Xiong, who is director of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University in St. Paul. "That’s our frustration. We’re getting the runaround."
In a letter to the U.S. Embassy, Xiong cited a story in the Thai newspaper The Nation, which reported that border police had made money by extortion and kidnapping. That case, Xiong wrote, made him wonder if it had anything to do with his uncle’s disappearance.
Embassy officials said they could not speculate on circumstances surrounding Vang’s disappearance.
Vang’s daughter, Pang Vang, also suspects the police were involved.
"And if it was the Thai police, who can help us?" she asked. "The embassy maybe. But they haven’t been as supportive as we thought they’d be."
Pang Vang, 28, who is one of Vang’s nine children in the United States from a previous marriage, said her father had just retired from his job as a social worker.
"He made sure my brothers and sisters were stable; he worked so hard to get where he was; he got the family on track, and boom, in a blink of an eye — what happened?" she asked.
"The first year, we had a lot of high hopes," she said. "But after two years, we all talked about it; in our hearts, we believe he is gone. We just want to know what happened, who killed him, what was the purpose. He was a really good man."
According to Xiong, the other people missing in Vang’s party were all Thai nationals, including his wife and daughter, two cousins, and three groundskeepers who worked at his cousins’ property in Thailand.
"We hold out hope that he’s still alive," said Xiong. "He might be detained somewhere."
Xiong said he is convinced that his uncle’s disappearance has nothing to do with politics, because Vang was not involved in any political causes.
In a separate case, three Hmong Americans have been missing in neighboring Laos since last August. The Hmong advocacy group Lao Veterans of America says the men were arrested by Laotian military and security forces; the Lao government has denied that.
The Hmong live in several countries in Southeast Asia, including Thailand and Laos, as well as southern China. Large numbers from Laos came to the United States after the U.S. evacuation at the end of the Vietnam War. Most settled in Minnesota, nearby Wisconsin, or California.