Laos releases prisoners

BANGKOK, Thailand -- After international pressure, Laos freed two European journalists and an American interpreter who had been sentenced to prison for the death of a rural guard Wednesday.\nEuropean and U.S. diplomats had sought the release of French cameraman Vincent Reynaud, Belgian photojournalist Thierry Falise and the Rev. Naw Karl Mua of St. Paul, Minn., who had traveled to the Southeast Asian nation to cover Hmong rebels.\nA Laotian court convicted them June 30 of obstructing police work and weapons possession and sentenced them to 15 years in prison.\nMedia advocacy groups also condemned the sentences, saying the three men were punished for reporting on the Hmong insurgency.\nThe three arrived in the Thai capital late Wednesday on flight from neighboring Laos.\nRep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., called Mua's wife to confirm his release.\n"She was very relieved and pleased that official confirmation had come," said Bill Harper, chief of staff to the congresswoman, whose St. Paul district includes a large Hmong community.\nDescribing their detention, Falise said their jailers placed black hoods over their heads and kept them in handcuffs "like in a bad movie," but that the worst part was not knowing what would happen.\n"We didn't know whether they would keep us 10 years, six months or three days," the Belgian journalist said. "They said, "You're going to be released quite soon," and then suddenly they changed their minds and organized this farce of a trial."\nHe said their mistake was working in Laos without required accreditation.\nReynaud said they were concerned about two Hmong rebels who were arrested with them and remain imprisoned to serve 15-year sentences.\nThe government has no plans to release the rebels, said Sodom Phetrasy, deputy head of the Laotian Foreign Ministry's press department. "I think they should be punished according to our verdict," Sodom said.\nHe said the three were released because of concerns expressed by France, Belgium and the United States. "We would like to maintain good relations with these countries," Sodom told The Associated Press.\nLaos, a landlocked nation of 5.3 million people, depends on foreign aid and is Southeast Asia's least developed country. Nearly 77 percent of its people live on less than $2 a day.\nThe journalists and their interpreter were caught in a firefight June 3 between Hmong rebels and villagers in which the guard was killed.\nThe rebels are the remnants of a CIA army that fought communist forces during the Vietnam War. The Laotian government denies the long-running rebellion exists and describes the guerrillas as bandits.\nThe U.S. Embassy in Vientiane said Mua was released on humanitarian grounds, but the men still had to pay damages to the family of the slain village guard as well as fines and court costs.\nMua's wife, Sue, wired nearly $2,500 to the Laotian government to cover the costs, according to the congresswoman's office.\nA representative of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists welcomed the men's release but noted that Laos remains largely closed to international media.\n"The fact remains that they never should have been arrested in the first place," said A. Lin Neumann, a Bangkok-based consultant to the committee.