BOKEO, Laos — Laotian officials arrested 15 Hmong Christian families in Bokeo district Feb. 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. The day before the sentencing, Laotian authorities arrived in Ban Sai Jarern village in Bokeo district with six trucks in which they hauled away eight Christian families. Authorities also arrested at least seven families from Fai village three miles away. "It seems they are rounding up all Hmong Christians from Vietnam to send them back to Vietnam," said one Christian source. "What will happen to them is greatly feared and unknown."
The nine church leaders sentenced for conducting prominent Christian ministry and meetings had been rounded up during a police and military sweep of suspected rebels last July that left at least 13 innocent Christians dead.
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