The Center for Public Policy Analysis: Difference between revisions

The Centre for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), or Center for Public Policy Analysis, was established in Washington D.C. in 1988 and describes itself as a non-profit research organization focused on foreign policy, national security, refugee and international humanitarian issues ( http://www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org ).

The CPPA focuses on key domestic and international public policy issues, including those in the United States, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas. It has frequently raised concerns about international security, counter-terrorism, civil society, the environment, international trade and tariffs, press and internet freedom, human rights, and religious freedom issues, including the plight of political asylum seekers and refugees, in Southeast Asia and Southwest Asia.

The CPPA researches and writes about press and internet freedom, and the persecution of journalists, in the Philippines and elsewhere.

Concerned about environmental issues, the CPPA has raised awareness about illegal logging, and environmental degradation, in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and elsewhere.

The Centre for Public Policy Analysis also focuses on economic, political, human rights, religious freedom and humanitarian issues in Indochina. The organization is described as an "outspoken supporter" and human rights proponent for ethnic, minority Laotian and Hmong people in Laos and Vietnam.

From 1998-2013, the CPPA in cooperation with Members of the U.S. Congress has hosted the U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos, in the U.S. Congress, in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos brings together policy experts, diplomats, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights and environmental groups, community leaders, business leaders, Members of the U.S. Congress, political and religious dissidents and others to discuss current issues of concern regarding the nation of Laos and the region.

The CPPA says it conducts public policy events and briefings in the US Congress and Washington DC on a range of public affairs issues. It says it organizes research and fact-finding missions in the United States and abroad with US policymakers to gain first-hand information about key issues, developments and events.

The CPPA also researches military and national security history issues regarding World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War ( First and Second Indochina Wars), the first and second Gulf War ( U.S. Iraq War) and the "War on Terrorism," (both before and after the terrorist attacks in New York City on September 11, 2001). The CPPA is concerned about the plight of veterans, including minority veterans, of these conflicts, and is active in policy research and debate on key issues.

From 1993-2013, the Centre for Public Policy Analysis has taken a leadership role in organizing major national veterans' recognition ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Congress, especially to honor Laotian and Hmong veterans, and their American advisers, who served in the clandestine theater of the Royal Kingdom Laos during the Vietnam War.

The CPPA also works to honor Vietnam War veterans of the First and Second Indochina War who served in Vietnam, the Kingdom of Laos, Cambodia and The Kingdom of Thailand, including American, South Vietnamese, Royal Laotian, Cambodian and French military and clandestine veterans.

Press & Internet Freedom

The CPPA researches and writes about press and internet freedom in the Philippines, Egypt and elsewhere.

The Persecution and Murder of Journalists in the Philippines

The Centre for Public Policy Analysis has repeatedly raised concerns about the plight of journalists in the Philippines and press and internet freedom violations. The intimidation, persecution and killing of journalists in Mindanao and the restive Southern areas of the Philippines have been give special attention by the CPPA in recent years.

Illegal Logging, De-Forrestation and Environmental Degradation in Southeast Asia

The upswing in illegal logging in Southeast Asia has caused concern in many quarters about environmental destruction and human rights violations against minority jungle-dwelling peoples. The CPPA conducts extensive research regarding ongoing illegal logging in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and elsewhere in Asia.

The role of Vietnam People's Army (VPA) in illegal logging in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (LPDR), Laos, continues to be documented by the CPPA and other human rights and environmental advocates.

U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos

From 1998-2013, the CPPA in cooperation with Members of the U.S. Congress has hosted the U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos, in the U.S. Congress, in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos brings together policy experts, diplomats, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), human rights and environmental groups, community leaders, business leaders, Members of the U.S. Congress, political and religious dissidents and others to discuss current issues of concern regarding the nation of Laos and the region.

Laos: The Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR) & the U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos

From 1998-2013, The Centre for Public Policy Analysis in cooperation with Members of the U.S. Congress has hosted the U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos in Washington, D.C. The U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos brings together policy experts, diplomats, non-governmental organizations, human rights and environmental groups, community leaders, Members of the U.S. Congress and others to discuss current issues of concern regarding the nation of Laos and the region.

The CPPA is concerned about reports by Amnesty International, independent journalists and others regarding brutal and deadly attacks by the Lao Peoples Army (LPA), and Vietnam Peoples Army (VPA) against Lao and Hmong civilians, and political and religious dissident groups, in Laos.

The CPPA accused Laos and Vietnamese troops of killing four Christian Hmong women in Xiangkhouang Province, Laos in 2011. CPPA executive director Philip Smith said Laotian and Vietnamese forces were hunting down Christian and animist believers.

The organization also campaigns for the release of three Hmong American men, from St. Paul, Minnesota, including Mr. Hakit Yang, it said in April 2011 had been falsely imprisoned for four years. In Washington, D.C., the CPPA organized international events urging the release of the three Hmong American men from St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. International human rights advocate and former political prisoner Kay Danes served as one of the key note speakers along with Hmong-American advocate Sheng Xiong, wife of Hakit Yang. The three Hmong-American citizens include  Mr. Hakit Yang, Mr. Congshineng Yang, and Mr. Trillion Yunhaison.  The three are still missing in Laos, according to their families and human rights advocates.

In addition to the three Hmong-Americans, Laos security forces continue to harshly imprison, without charge, political and religious dissidents and they have isolated thousands of ethnic Hmong refugees forced back by the military of Thailand and Laos, according to an international joint communique released by the CPPA and others.

The CPPA has raised concerns about egregious human rights violations in Laos by the Lao military and has been critical of granting Most Favored Trade Status (MFN), or Normalized Trade Status (NTR), to the communist regime in Laos, the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic. It has also criticized efforts to remove Laos from the trade "blacklist" while it engaged in military attacks against Laotian and Hmong political and religious dissidents, and unarmed Laotian and Hmong civilians.

Foreign Political Prisoners: Kerry and Kay Danes Arrested, Imprisoned and Tortured in Laos

On 23 December 2000, just prior to Christmas Kerry and Kay Danes were arrested by Lao security forces and unjustly imprisoned under harsh conditions and tortured in Phonthong Prison in Vientiane by the Lao government while seeking to facilitate major foreign business investment in Laos, according to the Government of Australia who came to their assistance. Following their release from the Lao government, Kay Danes and here husband were invited to testified in Washington,D.C., and the U.S. Congress, at the U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos, and at policy events on current policy issues in Laos, including human rights violations, torture, religious persecution and other issues.

Kay Danes was repeatedly invited to testify at the U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos, along with T.Kumar of Amnesty International, and Members of Congress, including U.S. Congressman Frank Wolf, U.S. Congressman Patrick Kennedy, foreign policy experts, including Philip Smith of the CPPA and others, where Mrs. Danes shared crucial information about human rights violations. She also testified about the arrest and disappearance of three Hmong-Americans from St. Paul, Minnesota, who were arrested in Laos by the Lao People's Army (LPA) and detained, tortured, and disappeared in Laos' notorious Phonthong Prison in Vientiane at the hands of Laos' security forces. This is the same prison where Kay Danes and her husband had previously been detained under harsh and deplorable conditions, and tortured, several years prior in Laos under extremely harsh conditions along with other foreign prisoners. Mrs. Sheng Xiong a Hmong-American human rights advocate, also testified with Kay Danes about the arrest, imprisonment and torture of the three Hmong-Americans. These three Hmong-Americans, Mr. Hakit Yang, Mr. Congshineng Yang, and Mr. Trillion Yunhaison, are still missing in Laos, following their arrest and imprisonment by the Lao People's Army and Lao military and security forces.

Thailand & Opposition to the Forced Repatriation of Laotian, Hmong, Burmese and Indochinese Refugees and Asylum Seekers

The CPPA has a long and successful track-record of work with Indochinese refugees and asylum seekers in Southeast Asia. It played a leading role regarding the plight of Lao Hmong refugees and asylum seekers who sought refugee in camps along the Mekong River and Thai-Lao border, Wat Tham Krabok and the camps and detention center at Ban Huay Nam Khao, "White Water, Petchabun Province, Thailand.

From 1989-2013, Philip Smith and the CPPA were involved in major efforts to halt, stop, and reverse the forced repatriation of tens of thousands of Laotian and Hmong political refugees and asylum seekers in Southeast Asia, and were successful in having tens of thousands granted political asylum in the United States and in other third countries, including Canada, France, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. The CPPA also played a major international role in raising human rights concerns about the thousands of Lao Hmong refugees that were forcibly repatriated from these camp in Thailand back to the communist regime in Laos that they fled.

Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) & VPA Military Attacks, Religious Persecution Directed Against Viet Hmong Protestors in 2011

The CPPA said that Vietnamese troops had killed 28 Hmong protesters, during one period, in Dien Bien Phu area, with hundreds more missing, following multi-day protests in Vietnam near the Laos border in 2011.

The CPPA and others claim more Vietnamese Hmong were killed, wounded, or "disappeared" by Vietnamese and Laotian security forces during the long anti-government protest which involved issues of religious freedom, religious freedom violations, land reform, illegal logging, and concerns about government corruption.

According to the CPPA and others, many of the peaceful protestors involved in the protests who were arrested, disappeared or killed were Hmong Catholics and Christians.

The Vietnamese government, The Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), acknowledged there had been clashes but denied anyone had been killed.

Independent journalists and human rights organizations raised serious concerns. The SRV sealed of the area to journalists during the military crackdown against the Vietnamese Hmong protesters in Dien Bien Province area which involved the deployment of Vietnam People's Army (VPA) troops and helicopter gunships.

The SRV sentenced a number of the Vietnamese Hmong protestors to prison sentences, which was criticized by human rights organizations and experts.

Military and National Security History Research & Veterans Memorial Ceremonies

The Centre for Public Policy Analysis has taken a leadership role in organizing major national veterans' recognition ceremonies at Arlington National Cemetery, the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Congress, especially to honor Laotian and Hmong veterans, and their American advisers, who served in the clandestine theater of the Royal Kingdom Laos during the Vietnam War.

The CPPA works with major veterans organizations, including the Lao Veterans of America, Inc. the Lao Veterans of America Institute, the U.S. Special Forces Association, and others, to seek to honor Lao and Hmong veterans who served in the "U.S. Secret Army" in Laos during the Vietnam War. In May 1997, the CPPA worked with these organization to help dedicate the Laos and Hmong Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery Laos Memorial.

The CPPA's Philip Smith has commented publicly, on a number of occasions, about U.S. intelligence community figures, and operations, including Vietnam and Cold War era figures and activities, from both Democratic and Republican Administrations, including William Colby, Tony Poe, Lawrence Devlin and others.

The CPPA also works to honor Vietnam War veterans of the First and Second Indochina War who served in Vietnam, the Kingdom of Laos, Cambodia and The Kingdom of Thailand, including American, South Vietnamese, Royal Laotian, Cambodian and French military and clandestine veterans.

In 2011, the CPPA campaigned for former Hmong leader and Royal Lao Army Lieutenant General Vang Pao to be given a memorial service in Arlington Cemetery after US authorities refused to grant him the right to be buried there. Pao was arrested in the US in 2007 on charges of plotting to overthrow the one-party, communist Laos' Government, the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic (LPDR); The charges against General Vang Pao were later dropped. The CPPA's Executive Director, Philip Smith, wrote an editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune outlining Vang Pao's contribution to U.S. national security interests during the Vietnam War following the Lao-Hmong leaders death in 2011.

The CPPA's Philip Smith persisted in his efforts, and the CPPA, along with the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., and others helped to organize national veterans ceremonies in May 2011 to officially honor Vang Pao at Arlington National Cemetery

External links

The Centre for Public Policy Analysis [1]