College of Liberal Arts University of Minnesota
101 Pleasant St SE
215 Johnston Hall
Minneapolis, MN 55455
Student Info: 612-625-2020
General: 612-624-8480

Reach: Summer 2009

Field of Inquiry

Human Rights Program Helps Hmong Families Find Peace

Hmong Refugees

Hmong refugees remaining inThailand sent images of the desecration of loved ones' graves tofamily and friends in the Twin Cities.

Wat Tham Krabok is a Buddhist monastery located in the rolling plains of central Thailand, about two hours north of Bangkok. In 1992 it became a refuge for some 15,000 Hmong people who had supported the United States during the Vietnam War and would no longer be safe under communist rule in their native Laos. Many who lived at the monastery eventually relocated in the Twin Cities—home to the largest urban Hmong population in the nation.

Three years ago, word began to spread that more than 900 Hmong graves located on monastery grounds had been desecrated. Refugees remaining in Thailand sent videotape to Twin Cities friends and family showing in graphic detail the remains of loved ones being dismembered, boiled, thrown into open graves, and burned. Two bodies were reported displayed in a mini shrine at a shopping mall—for good luck. The reason given by the Thai government for the disinterment had to do with water quality.

The desecrations were more than horrifying. In the Hmong religion, the spirit of a deceased person who is not properly buried will wander for eternity, never reaching its ancestors, never reincarnating in the world of the living, interrupting the cycle of life.

Members of the community approached the University for help, and CLA's Human Rights Program, which is part of the Institute for Global Studies, responded. Program director Professor Barbara Frey organized a town hall meeting at which the 20 students in her human rights internship class and two Hmong graduate students collected statements from 159 aggrieved families. Taking the position that families have a human right to honor their dead, they forwarded the statements with a formal complaint to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In December, James Anaya, U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Indigenous Issues, held a public hearing at Coffman Union on the Minneapolis campus. Several hundred people attended; the testimony was moving. Anaya described the accounts as "assault to culture, assault to a people." In addition to reporting his findings and his recommendations to the U.N. Human Rights Council, he committed working to resolve cultural differences that led to this violation and ensure that it will not happen again.

Frey says that the Human Rights Program, on behalf of the Hmong families, is seeking a three-part resolution from the Thai government: a declaration that the rights of an indigenous community have been violated, the opportunity to reclaim the bodies, and reparations for expenses related to either reclaiming the body or paying for ceremonies to put family spirits at peace.

Grave desecration is not a problem unique to Hmong people. It has also been experienced by the Bahá'í in Iran, Jews worldwide, and Native Americans in the U.S.

Watch a video and read more:
http://reach.cla.umn.edu/hmonggraves

 August 26th, 2009