NEWS - Voice of Laos freedom

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Published on June 4, 1998

   Voice of Laos freedom

       San Pablo man tapes messages of democracy for Radio
       Free Asia, looks to a future when he can return to his
       homeland 

   By Meredith May
   TIMES STAFF WRITER


   As dawn breaks in Laos, dissidents gather in locked rooms and
   under blankets to tune into Radio Free Asia, which began
   crackling over the airwaves last summer.

   One voice they hear belongs to Bouaphet Sygnavong of San
   Pablo, the former Laotian prime minister's press secretary, who
   fled when the communists invaded in 1975.

   "I remind them what it was like in Laos before the communists
   took over," said Sygnavong, who sends his pro-democracy
   dispatches from a cordless phone in his bathroom.

   Editors in Washington, D.C., record his message on a cassette,
   then transmit it to a satellite, which sends a signal back to
   secret shortwave transmitters in Southeast Asia that broadcast
   into Laos.

   It can be dangerous to tune in to Sygnavong. His opinions aren't
   popular with the government, which is still holding untold
   thousands of Laotians in "re-education camps" for criticizing the
   communist Pathet Lao government.

   On Tuesday, he predicted in his broadcast that by the
   millennium, the 500,000 Laotian refugees living in the United
   States would be invited back to their homeland. By then, he said,
   the aging hard-liners in Laos will have been replaced by a
   younger generation of political leaders who want change.

   Only about 10 percent of the Lao population owns a radio, but
   his aunts and uncles there tell Sygnavong that his messages are
   circulating through villages by word of mouth. People even
   openly discuss politics in cafes now, Sygnavong said.

   His contacts in Laos say the people are thirsting for alternative
   news.

   "The official radio in Laos is propaganda; it's just the
   government reading press releases," Sygnavong said. "They will
   tell you, for example, that rice production has jumped from 1,000
   tons to 5,000 tons when production in fact stays flat."

   When a Laotian prisoner of conscience died in a remote
   government camp in March, the only news report came over
   Radio Free Asia.

   Modeled after Radio Free Europe, the Washington-based Radio
   Free Asia was created in response to the 1989 student
   massacre at Beijing's Tiananmen Square. It broadcasts in Laos,
   China, Vietnam, Burma, North Korea, Tibet and Cambodia.
   Nearly 150 people work for Radio Free Asia, which operates
   with a $26 million congressional grant.

   Including Sygnavong, there are 16 reporters covering Laos. The
   others report from D.C., San Diego, Thailand and France.

   "We have heard in Laos that our broadcasts are being
   monitored daily at the highest levels of government," said
   Richard Richter, president of Radio Free Asia. "They have
   denounced us as meddling in their internal affairs."

   Radio Free Asia has been called "airwave imperialism" and
   "pornography" by some of the other countries it covers, and its
   frequencies are sometimes jammed in China, North Korea and
   Vietnam. Its reporters were the last to interview Cambodian
   dictator Pol Pot and the first to interview Chinese human rights
   activist Wang Dan when he was released from prison three
   months ago.

   The news service has detractors in Congress, too, who don't
   want to spend taxpayer money on a service they say duplicates
   other overseas broadcasts, such as Voice of America or the
   British Broadcasting Corp. Others are suspicious of the politics
   behind Radio Free Asia and say its broadcasts will upset
   delicate business relations with China.

   The point isn't to provoke, said Richter, but rather to provide a
   free press in countries where diversity is discouraged. Neither
   Congress nor the State Department has ever influenced one of
   his stories, he said.

   Sygnavong believes that one day he'll be able to return to a free,
   democratic Laos. Under current law, refugees can visit Laos
   with a visa, but if they stay they have to renounce their former
   political ambitions and pay a large fee. Sygnavong's name is
   well-known in Laos, and he says it's possible he could be
   imprisoned if he returned.

   Instead, he'll continue promoting democracy over the air and in
   his Buddhist meditations.

   After his Tuesday broadcast, Sygnavong closed his eyes and
   clasped a small wax ball. Focusing on the quarter inside the
   ball, he took deep breaths and concentrated on George
   Washington, the symbol of democracy.

   "If you do it right, the ball will turn into a diamond. Then it grows
   into a lemon. Then it shrinks into one grain of rice."

   At that point, according to Buddhist legend, the meditator's mind
   expands so far he or she can see the future.

   And in Sygnavong's mind, the future looks promising.

   Edition: WCT,  Section: A,  Page: 3