Touby Lyfoung

Touby Lyfoung (* 1917 in Nong Het; † 1979 ) was a politician and general of the Hmong . The politician who was born in Xieng Khouang Province became a national celebrity. During his long career, which began under the colonial rule of France and lasted until the communist seizure of power in 1975, he supported the Royal Lao Governorate and the American participation in the Lao Civil War .

Life

Under French rule

Touby Lyfoung was the son of Ly Xia Foung , a respected man in the Hmong community of Laos , and the grandson -in-law of Lo Bliayao , one of the first Hmong to achieve a leadership position in the Lao government. Coming from a rich and well-known family, Touby was able to attend schools in the lowlands as well as a university in neighboring Vietnam . Touby studied at the French Lycée , law school, and administration in Vientiane. The French were impressed by his good education, especially as a Hmong it was extremely unusual to receive such an education in the French colonial empire.

As one of the first Hmong to be trained in the school system of the French colonies, he was elected in 1939 for the mug of Nong Het in the province of Xiang Khoang. The following year Lyfoung was in charge of an institution that introduced a new tax that enabled poor farmers to pay with opium instead of money . At that time, the cultivation of poppy seeds and the production of opium were an important source of income for many minorities. The French colonialists, on the other hand, were dependent on the taxes of the opium trade in order to implement infrastructure projects and to be able to make sales from the colonies. Especially when they were cut off from their main opium supplier, Afghanistan, due to conflicts during World War II , the French helped Lyfoung increase production in Laos.

When the Japanese occupied Laos in March 1945, Touby was arrested for working with the former colonial rule. He escaped and went to the mountains, where he organized and led revolts against the occupiers with a Hmong militia, including his later general Vang Pao .

After the Second World War

After World War II, French colonialists named Lyfoung Chaomuong (head of the district), which resulted in the Hmong being directly represented at the national level for the first time. However, this also had the consequence that the gap between Lyfoung and Faydang Lobliayao , another Hmong, to whom the French had promised the previous position as Tasseng, widened . Lobliayao decided as a consequence to join the communist and nationalist struggle against French rule and later against the monarchist government alongside the Pathet Lao . Lyfoung, however, remained loyal to this rule and led troops in the fight against the Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese between 1946 and 1954, which drove them out of Xieng Khouang province.

In the 1950s, Lyfoung was instrumental in shaping the new Kingdom of Laos as a nation that recognized the diversity of its 63 ethnic minorities and yet remained united as one country. He was the first Hmong and the first person of an ethnic minority to be honored by the Laotian king when he was appointed minister of the king with the title "Phagna Touby Lyfoung". In the 1960s and 1970s he continued his lifelong struggle for the dignity and freedom of the Hmong in Laos, was on the side of the royal government in the fight against the communists and was the leader of an anti-communist movement of the Hmong against the Pathet Lao.

death

After the country was taken over by the communist Pathet Lao in 1975, Lyfoung decided not to flee Laos, even if he had to expect retaliation from his support for the old regime. Under the new government, he was first elected deputy minister for telecommunications, but was later arrested and sent to prison camp 1 in Houaphan province on the Vietnamese border. This was the same camp where members of the royal family, including King Savang Vatthana , were imprisoned before their death. According to another prisoner, Colonel Khamphan Thammakhanty, Touby was handcuffed during his final months, but the other inmates are said to have heard him singing songs that made fun of the new rule. It was reported that Lyfoung was shot dead by a guard in April 1979 and buried in the area.

Individual evidence

1. ^ McCoy, AW: The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia . Harper & Row, 1972.
2. ^ Ethnic Minorities. Retrieved November 17, 2018 . 
3. ^ Gunn, Geoffrey C .: Political struggles in Laos, 1930-1954: Vietnamese communist power and the struggle for national independence . Editor: Editions Duang Kamol. Bangkok 1988.
4. ^ Adams, Nina S .: Patrons, clients, and revolutionaries: the Lao search for independence, 1945-1954 . Harper & Row, New York 1970.
5. ↑ North By North-East Tours: Newsletter Article: The Hmong: Part 2 Hmong in Laos - Bloody Trails to Uncertain Freedom. November 6, 2004, accessed November 17, 2018 . 
6. ^ Kremmer, C .: Bamboo Palace: Discovering the lost dynasty of Laos . Silkworm Books, 2003.