As Dr. Jane HamiltonMerritt. a noted journalist. has written in a recent Readers Digest article. the total Hmong population in 1960 was estimated at 500.000. Today. 100.000 Hmong reside outside of Laos. either in squalid refugee camps in Thailand. where some 55.000 people are now housed. or in various Western countries. The United States has taken in roughly 45.000 of these refugees. With 100.000 Hmong now living outside of Laos. and with some 30.000 killed in combat. one would expect that some 370.000 Hmongor more. allowing for population growth since 1960would thus remain in Laos. But refugee reports indicate that as few as 100.000 Hmong are now alive in Laos. Even allowing for unreliable figures. the point is clear: Tens of thousands of Hmong have simply disappeared. And the reason is not hard to determine.
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