To: National and International desks

Contact: Ms. Xoua Kue or Paul Christopher, 202-543-1444 or 202-318-0266 (fax)

WASHINGTON, March 25 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was jointly released by the Center for Public Policy Analysis, the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., the United Lao-Hmong Congress for Democracy, Inc., the Lao Hmong Emergency Crisis Task Force and a coalition of Laotian and Hmong organizations:

U.S. Senator Herbert Kohl (D-Wis.), responding to urgent requests from Wisconsin and across the United States, today repeatedly pressed Secretary Colin Powell on the crisis facing encircled Hmong and Laotian civilians and rebels trapped in Laos and asked the Secretary of State to take up the matter directly with Secretary General Kofi Annan at the United Nations.

The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), the Lao Veterans of America, Inc. (LVA), the United Lao-Hmong Congress for Democracy, Inc (ULHCD), the Lao Hmong Emergency Crisis Task Force (LHECTF) and a coalition of other organizations working on this issue are urging Secretary of State Colin Powell and United Nations' Secretary General Kofi Annan, in an emergency fashion, to immediately expand the scope of any potential UN effort on Laos.

CPPA, the LVA, ULHCD and a coalition of Laotian and Hmong organizations are pressing for the introduction of a UN Security Council Resolution on the current humanitarian crisis in Laos based, in part, upon the findings of the United Nations Committee on Racial Discrimination, in Geneva, in August of 2003. Further, the rapid deployment of a UN peace keeping and humanitarian assistance force to help aid and protect the Hmong and Laotian civilians and rebels now under siege in various encircled enclaves is needed immediately, according to the CPPA, the LVA, ULHCD and other organizations familiar with the situation.

"Senator Kohl's bold effort to ask Secretary Powell, face-to- face, for a commitment to help with the crisis in Laos is a monumental first step to engaging the United Nations and the State Department more seriously, honestly and effectively on the horrific plight of the Hmong civilians and rebels now under brutal siege in closed military zones," stated Philip Smith, executive director for the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA). Smith also currently serves as the Washington, D.C., director for the Lao Veterans of America, Inc. (LVA), the nation's largest Hmong and Laotian veterans organization. Some of the recent Laotians and Hmong victims have relatives in the United States.

Continued Smith: "We applaud this important preliminary effort, but in addition to a UN fact-finding mission, what is most urgently needed to save thousands of human lives at this pivotal and perilous time in Laos is the rapid deployment of a combined UN peace keeping and humanitarian assistance force to help protect and aid the Hmong and Laotian civilians and rebels now under cruel military siege in various encircled enclaves. To be realistic about the magnitude of the crisis in Laos and the limits of the UN, the United Nations, even after Security Council approval and the support of NATO, had a very difficult time in Bosnia and Kosovo keeping the Serbian military and irregular forces from committing similarly horrific acts, like those being inflicted now on the Hmong and Laotian minority opposition groups in the encircled enclaves, by army units of Laos and Vietnam. Clearly, the crisis in Laos now facing the Hmong people is a Bosnia-like situation that requires both emergency hu manitarian and peacekeeping operations by the United Nations and the international community. Otherwise, thousands are likely to die in the coming months."

Senator Kohl's public exchange and grilling of Secretary of State Colin Powell today in a U.S. Senate Subcommittee appropriations committee hearing comes on the immediate heals of a letter sent by him and Senators Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) to the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations', John Negroponte, urging that a fact finding mission be undertaken by the UN to investigate the plight of Laotian and Hmong civilians and rebels who have recently surrendered to the Lao government. Senator Feingold authored the letter with Senator Kohl. It was also signed by Reps. Mark Green (R-Wis.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Devin Nunes (R- Calif.), George Radanovich (R-Calif.). Senator Norm Coleman (R- Minn.) wrote a similar letter raising his concerns.