Homeland Security

DATE=10/22/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=LAOS/US TERROR WARNING (L-O)

NUMBER=2-319839

BYLINE=NANCY-AMELIA COLLINS

DATELINE=BANGKOK

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: US Warns of Possible Terrorism During November ASEAN Summit in Laos

INTRO: The U.S. State Department says opponents of the communist government of Laos may be planning bomb attacks in the capital city of Vientiane next month, during a planned summit meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Nancy-Amelia Collins in Bangkok has more.

TEXT: In a travel advisory issued to U.S. citizens Thursday, the State Department warned that attacks could come between November 25th and 30th, when leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations and other Asia-Pacific countries are due to meet in the Laotian capital.

The advisory said the U.S. embassy in Vientiane had received information that anti-government groups may be planning to "detonate several explosive devices" in the city during the summit. The notice warned U.S. citizens there to exercise "extreme caution."

On Friday, the government said it was unaware of any threat, and called Laos one of the safest countries in the region.

Panitan Wattanayagorn, a political scientist specializing in Laos at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, says Laotian opposition groups are generally not very effective because they lack sophistication and organization.

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"Major events and major meetings like this of course are becoming a target.these groups have no real capabilities but they can do some damages ...Of course the tactic, as you know, is terror, and it's very difficult to control pockets of areas, even in the capital."

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Vientiane was hit by 14 bombings, which killed four people and injured 40, between 2000 and 2001. Another series of bombings between February 2003 and June of this year, along with armed attacks on buses and other vehicles, have killed at least an additional 12 people.

Analysts say those responsible for the attacks may be ex-guerrillas of the Hmong ethnic group, remnants of a CIA-led army that fought the communist Pathet Lao during the Indochina Wars. Some of the Hmong have continued to harass the government since the communists took power in 1975.

A group calling itself the Committee for Independence and Democracy claimed responsibility for two bombs that killed at least two people last February in Vientiane and in the southern city of Savannakhet.

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Mr. Panitan says the Laotian government is having a difficult time controlling such groups.

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"The Laos government is struggling to put the control on these groups due to lack of intelligence (and) funding ...Cross-border illegal activities may increase these groups' capabilities in terms of money and skills."

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The government, meanwhile, routinely denies that there is any anti-government activity in the country, and blames the violence on "bandits." (Signed)

HK/NEB/NAC/BK/RH