Laos Arrests 58 Christians, Sentences Church Leaders
LOS ANGELES, Laotian officials arrested 15 Hmong Christian families in Bokeo district on February 22, a day before a court sentenced nine area Hmong church leaders to 15 years in prison for conducting Christian ministry and meetings that had grown beyond acceptable levels for communist officials.
Sources said that the day before the sentencing, Laotian authorities arrived in Ban Sai Jarern village in Bokeo (also called Bo Kew) district with six trucks, in which they hauled away eight Christian families. Authorities also arrested at least seven Christian families from Fai village three miles away, they said.
“It seems they are rounding up all Hmong Christians from Vietnam to send them back to Vietnam,” said one Christian source who requested anonymity for security reasons. “What will happen to them is greatly feared and unknown.”...