Mr. Speaker. during my recent visit with a congressional delegation to the refugee camps of Southeast Asia I had the opportunity to see firsthand the suffering and extreme hardship being endured by the Hmong people in refugee camps in Thailand. These hill tribes were our allies and friends throughout the long conflict in Vietnam. They suffered terrible losses during the war and after U.S. forces withdrew their suffering continued because they were left with the label of being our allies. which has unfortunately become the mark of death and persecution for so many in Southeast Asia. With the spread of warfare and famine in Cambodia pressing closer every day to the Thai border it becomes even more urgent for us to consider the special plight of these special people. In the past week the press has reported allegations of poison gas being used against the fleeing Hmong. and it is further reported that artillery shells fired from inside Cambodia have killed four refugees in a camp across the border in Thailand. The multitude of difficulties faced by these unfortunate people at the present time is difficult to fully comprehend. I would like to take this opportunity to insert in the RECORD a statement by Mr. Ogden Williams which outlines the background of this problem. Mr. Williams has spent many years in Southeast Asia. he is intimately familiar with the Hmong people. and I believe he sums up the plight of the Hmong refugees in a way that is extremely convincing in that our attention to this problem is asked not on the basis of emotion but on the strong basis of history and fact. I commend this statement to my colleagues attention:
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refugee refugees