Neo Imperial Japan
08-03-2006, 08:00
In terms of your Opinion... tell me what you think of this taking place...
http://www.kstp.com/article/pstories/s12490.html
Graves being dug up at Thai refugee camp
Updated: 12/02/2005 08:06:28 AM
By ALISA TANG
Associated Press Writer
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Months after a Hmong refugee camp at a Buddhist temple in central Thailand was officially closed, volunteers are digging up hundreds of graves of its one-time residents that have allegedly tainted the area's water sources, volunteers said Friday.
The camp at Wat Tham Krabok in Saraburi province was the largest of its kind for ethnic Hmong who fled communist Laos to Thailand, housing tens of thousands of refugees. The camp was closed in late May following the agreement of the United States to take in 15,000 Hmong, a mountain-dwelling ethnic minority, who were housed there.
The Bhoti Pavana Foundation, a Buddhist benevolent society, worked for three weeks last month to exhume about 525 bodies from the area, about 60 miles north of Bangkok, said foundation volunteer Nareth Vajirawuttichai.
Volunteers performed prayer ceremonies before a mass cremation Sunday. The ashes were buried Wednesday in the Viharn Daeng district of Saraburi, Nareth said.
The decades-old graves were being cleared because the bodies were buried on the hills and near rivers without permission, said Phra Vijit, a monk from Wat Tham Krabok coordinating the project.
Thousands of Hmong left the temple complext last year for the United States. More than 5,000 of them have resettled in Minnesota. Reports of the grave clearing have concerned the Hmong community there, prompting calls for an official response from the United States.
Monks at Wat Tham Krabok and even villagers quite far downstream had complained that the graves have contaminated the water, he said.
"They weren't given permission to bury, but since the Hmong didn't have money and didn't know where to bury... they just buried their dead without permission on the mountains, along rivers," Phra Vijit said by telephone. "Now that the Hmong are permanently moved out, we have to clean up to make a better environment."
Phra Vijit denied the claims originating from the large Hmong community in the United States that the excavation showed disrespect for the dead.
"We're not disrespecting their ancestors... Even rich people can't have ceremonies like the one that was held for them," he said.
He added that the temple had contacted U.N. officials who normally look after refugees for advice, "... but the U.N. said they only look after the living, not the dead."
Phra Vijit said that relatives of some of the dead who live in nearby Petchabun province had claimed some bodies, and asked that any other Hmong who wanted to claim their relatives' remains to contact the temple.
Another foundation, Buddha Dhamma, resumed work Nov. 24 to exhume hundreds more bodies and rebury them in temporary graves in the Kaeng Toi district of Saraburi, said volunteer Surasak Bitkuntod. Relatives can claim the bodies before they are cremated in the middle of next year.
Tham Krabok, though never officially recognized as such, was the largest established camp of Hmong refugees who fled to Thailand after the communist takeover of Laos in 1975.
The Hmong played a little-publicized role in the Vietnam War when they were enlisted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to help U.S.-backed government forces fight communist insurgents in Laos. They fled for fear of retribution, and a small number continue to fight the government in the jungles of northern Laos.
Now in my terms of opinion there were better alternative then to take the body of the dead after 30 some years and then cremate it.....
I mean water purification and etc should had worked just fine.... But then you have people who been buried their for more the years after the war...
and yet no one bothered till now to remove the grave... I say it's SE.Asian consipracy against lower Minority.
http://www.kstp.com/article/pstories/s12490.html
Graves being dug up at Thai refugee camp
Updated: 12/02/2005 08:06:28 AM
By ALISA TANG
Associated Press Writer
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Months after a Hmong refugee camp at a Buddhist temple in central Thailand was officially closed, volunteers are digging up hundreds of graves of its one-time residents that have allegedly tainted the area's water sources, volunteers said Friday.
The camp at Wat Tham Krabok in Saraburi province was the largest of its kind for ethnic Hmong who fled communist Laos to Thailand, housing tens of thousands of refugees. The camp was closed in late May following the agreement of the United States to take in 15,000 Hmong, a mountain-dwelling ethnic minority, who were housed there.
The Bhoti Pavana Foundation, a Buddhist benevolent society, worked for three weeks last month to exhume about 525 bodies from the area, about 60 miles north of Bangkok, said foundation volunteer Nareth Vajirawuttichai.
Volunteers performed prayer ceremonies before a mass cremation Sunday. The ashes were buried Wednesday in the Viharn Daeng district of Saraburi, Nareth said.
The decades-old graves were being cleared because the bodies were buried on the hills and near rivers without permission, said Phra Vijit, a monk from Wat Tham Krabok coordinating the project.
Thousands of Hmong left the temple complext last year for the United States. More than 5,000 of them have resettled in Minnesota. Reports of the grave clearing have concerned the Hmong community there, prompting calls for an official response from the United States.
Monks at Wat Tham Krabok and even villagers quite far downstream had complained that the graves have contaminated the water, he said.
"They weren't given permission to bury, but since the Hmong didn't have money and didn't know where to bury... they just buried their dead without permission on the mountains, along rivers," Phra Vijit said by telephone. "Now that the Hmong are permanently moved out, we have to clean up to make a better environment."
Phra Vijit denied the claims originating from the large Hmong community in the United States that the excavation showed disrespect for the dead.
"We're not disrespecting their ancestors... Even rich people can't have ceremonies like the one that was held for them," he said.
He added that the temple had contacted U.N. officials who normally look after refugees for advice, "... but the U.N. said they only look after the living, not the dead."
Phra Vijit said that relatives of some of the dead who live in nearby Petchabun province had claimed some bodies, and asked that any other Hmong who wanted to claim their relatives' remains to contact the temple.
Another foundation, Buddha Dhamma, resumed work Nov. 24 to exhume hundreds more bodies and rebury them in temporary graves in the Kaeng Toi district of Saraburi, said volunteer Surasak Bitkuntod. Relatives can claim the bodies before they are cremated in the middle of next year.
Tham Krabok, though never officially recognized as such, was the largest established camp of Hmong refugees who fled to Thailand after the communist takeover of Laos in 1975.
The Hmong played a little-publicized role in the Vietnam War when they were enlisted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency to help U.S.-backed government forces fight communist insurgents in Laos. They fled for fear of retribution, and a small number continue to fight the government in the jungles of northern Laos.
Now in my terms of opinion there were better alternative then to take the body of the dead after 30 some years and then cremate it.....
I mean water purification and etc should had worked just fine.... But then you have people who been buried their for more the years after the war...
and yet no one bothered till now to remove the grave... I say it's SE.Asian consipracy against lower Minority.