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| 12/1/2006 | Email this article • Print this article | New Book and Movie Shows Laos' Dark Side
Prison Memoir and Documentary on Hmong Refugees Premiere in Saint Paul
Sao Sue Jurewitsch
While visitors made their rounds at Saint Paul's Hmong New Year celebration, crowds gathered time and again to take in some powerful images from a new documentary that premiered at the event. Rebecca Sommer, a filmmaker from Germany showed "Hunted Like Animals" a film that shows the suffering of Hmong refugees hiding in the jungles of Laos. Nearby, Bounsang Khamkeo offered advance copies of his memoir "I Little Slave" to passersby. Mr. Khamkeo had spent seven years in a Laotian prison. His book recalls his struggle to survive.
"Hunted Like Animals" is a one-hour documentary that combines video footage from the jungle of Laos with testimony by Hmong refugees in Thailand and Hmong in the United States. The film's producer Rebecca Sommer explained how she plans to use the movie. "We want to show the world that the Hmong hiding in Laos are not rebels. They are refugees. They do not have a choice. We want to create awareness about their situation in the United States, but also in other countries around the world."
The movie uses video footage shot by the refugees themselves and smuggled out of Laos under the most difficult circumstances. Mrs. Sommer than combined the video footage with interviews she conducted in Thailand and the United States. While Rebecca Sommer explained that this is the first time the story of the Hmong suffering during the last thirty years has been shown in a feature film, she also is quick to point out that the film was only possible with the help of the Hmong community in the United States.
In an interview she explained: "This should have been done a long time ago. The UN has confirmed many of the findings in this video. Still, the government has hoped too long that the issue will go away by itself. What does that mean? It means that the people have died." Now, Mrs. Sommer is hoping to collect enough donations to send the movie to governments around the world. "We want to send 1000 copies to donor governments to create awareness about what the Laotian government is doing."
Right now, Mrs. Sommer is planning to go to Thailand to confront the Thai government with the footage in the movie. She hopes that it will convince them that the Hmong refugees in Thailand have legitimate reasons for fleeing their homeland. Copies of the movie can be ordered through Rebecca Sommer at 1-718-302-1949 or at rebeccasommer@earthlink.net.
While Rebecca Sommer's movie is the first feature film about the Hmong refugees in Laos, Dr. Bounsang Khamkeo's book "I Little Slave" is the first book by a former political prisoner to allow readers an inside look at communist prisons in Laos. Mr. Khamkeo was working for the National Lao Mekong Committee, when he was arrested after a dispute with another government official. He spent the next seven years in two different jungle prison camps.
In the book, Dr. Khamkeo succeeded not only in showing the brutality of the Laotian regime, but also how the common humanity helped him and other political prisoners to survive the imprisonment. In an interview with the HMONG TIMES, he explained how he wrote the book. "When I was released in 1988, I already had written the book in my head. I already had it organized. When I came to the United States, I was at first writing the book in French, but then I decided to translate it into English. I felt I owed that to the United States. I also wanted people here to know what was happening in Laos."
Dr. Khamkeo now lives with his wife Vieng in Vancouver, Washington. At the end of his book, he writes: "I am an Asian American now. I am free, well fed, happy, and healthy, and able to enjoy life with my family. Although today I live far away from Laotian communist prisons, I cannot forget the people who suffered and died there. Nor can I forget those who remain imprisoned, perhaps for the rest of their lives."
While Dr. Khamkeo brought some advance copies to the New Year celebration, he was not sure when the books would be available to the wider public. He was sure, however, that it would be soon. The book has been published by Eastern University Press.
Andreas "Sao Sue" Jurewitsch can be reached at hmongtimes.saosue@gmail.com.
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St. Paul, MN
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