1995-10-01a- CIA Conference Report: THE CHALLENGE OF ETHNIC CONFLICT TO NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL ORDER IN THE 1990S GEOGRAPHIC PERSPECTIVES 01-Oct-95

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In contrast to the largely homogeneous lowland irri- refined earlier in other parts of the world, oftentimes
gated-rice-tilling peoples, the mountain inhabitants were articulated by the English in Burma, the Dutch in
were fragmented into many small tribal groups. A Indonesia, and the French in Indochina in maintaining
stability of economy and polity naturally emerges the social and political control of majority lowland
from irrigated rice agriculture. By contrast, shifting peoples. Highland minorities oftentimes were given
cultivation in the mountains normally dictated the strategically crucial roles to play in colonial armed
cyclical mobility of tribal peoples, offering as well forces. Often such tribal groups were the first to be
opportunities for new migrating groups to till South- weaned from traditional religion by Christian mission-
east Asian fields in the wake of the unyielding expan- aries dispatched with official sanction from the metro-
sion of Han populations in southern China. The pole.
different languages, religions, socioeconomic adapta-
tions, and political loyalties of the lowlanders and No discussion of ethnic conflict in Southeast Asia
highlanders engendered tension and conflict even in could proceed without direct reference to the conflict
precolonial times. in Indochina. In Laos the highland-lowland geo-
graphic division took on special significance. Here the
Presently the frontier of the Southeast Asian mountain handful of French-trained Hmong soldiers were sub-
hinterland seems to be in the final stages of closing. sequently nurtured by American operatives as the core
Until three decades ago, highland slash-and-burn cul- cadre of a large, secret army based at Long Chieng
tivators could always count on another forest or an (Hamilton-Merritt; 1993). For nearly 15 years this
additional mountain swidden field to provide subsis- superbly motivated, well-armed, amply supplied, and
tence sustenance in the wake of the exhaustion of old professionally advised force struck as guerrilla units
farming plots. Today, throughout Southeast Asia, pop- along the Ho Chi Minh trail, fought a rear guard
ulation expansion, commercial exploitation of timber action to try to hold territory in northern Laos, and
and mineral reserves, and initiatives to conserve the assisted in the rescue of downed US airmen. The
rainforest constrain-if not absolutely deny-the tra- "secret army" consisted of not only Hmong but also of
ditional exploitation of the highland farming environ- Mien and Lahu peoples of the high mountains of
ment by minority tribal peoples. In the past northern Laos. In the end their loyalty was not recip-
lowlanders were content to conduct barter trade with rocated. Some 250,000 highlanders who were aban-
upland tribal societies, secure in the knowledge that doned in the spring of 1975 eventually fled their
the only constraint on the expansion of their irrigated native Laos, while untold numbers fell victim to eth-
plains was the lack of available labor. Today the plains nic reprisal inside Laos. Over the past 17 years, at
have in many areas reached their absolute carrying least 100,000 highland Laotians who qualified as
capacity. For the lowland rural poor and landless political refugees have resettled in the United States.
laborers, survival strategies include migration to urban In Laos, low-intensity conflict has persisted to the
areas or colonization of upland regions that have been present, pitting highland rebels against the central
the historic preserve of minority cultivators. With government.
each passing decade the pressure on tribal peoples to
permanently settle, abandon their claims to wide Highland-lowland geographic distinctions articulated
expanses of land, and assimilate to national culture in conflicts over land, political control, and ideology
have intensified. Government population-transfer pro- are amply demonstrated by the example of Laos. The
grams lend the legitimacy of state planning to the shift fundamental question for the future is the role that
of lowland populations to the uplands. Highlander nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), multilateral
perceptions of second-class citizenship status (if such lending agencies, and national aid programs will play
citizenship is recognized at all) clearly pose the threat toward ameliorating these conflicts. In the past,
of conflict. The role of major powers in the highlands national intelligence agencies have oftentimes pur-
of Southeast Asia in the recent past clearly deserves at posefully aggravated extant tensions, the better to win
least passing mention in the context of this confer-
ence. Colonial divide-and-rule policies, perhaps
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