Lao People's Armed Forces

Lao People's Armed Forces

Emblem of Lao People's Armed Forces
Founded 1975
Service branches Lao People's Army (includes Riverine Force)
Lao People's Air Force[1]
Headquarters Vientiane
Leadership
Commander-in-Chief Bounnhang Vorachith
Minister for Defence Lieutenant General Sengnuan Xayalath
Manpower
Military age 17 years of age for compulsory military service; conscript service obligation - minimum 18 months (2004)
Available for
military service		 1,500,625 males, age 15–49 (2005 est.),
1,521,116 females, age 15–49 (2005 est.)
Fit for
military service		 954,816 males, age 15–49 (2005 est.),
1,006,082 females, age 15–49 (2005 est.)
Reaching military
age annually		 (2005 est.)
Active personnel 130,000 (ranked 85)
Expenditures
Budget $55 million (1996-97)
Percent of GDP 0.5% (2006)
Industry
Foreign suppliers  Vietnam
 India
 Cuba
 Russia
 Thailand
 China
 North Korea
 Mongolia
Former:
 Soviet Union
Related articles
History

First Indochinese War
Laotian Civil War
Insurgency in Laos

Thai-Laotian Border War

The Lao People's Armed Forces is the name of the armed forces of the Lao People's Democratic Republic, who are charged with protecting the country. Their Chief of General Staff of the Lao People's Army Souvone Leuangbounmy

Active forces

The army of 130,000 is equipped with 30 main battle tanks. The army marine section, equipped with 16 patrol craft, has 600 personnel. The air force, with 3,500 personnel, is equipped with anti-aircraft missiles and 24 combat aircraft.

Militia self-defence forces number approximately 100,000 organised for local defence. The small arms utilised mostly by the Laotian Army are the Soviet AKM Assault rifle, PKM Machine gun, Makarov PM pistol, and the RPD light machine gun.

History

Until 1975, the Royal Lao Army were the armed forces of the Kingdom of Laos.

Serving one of the world's least developed communist countries, the Lao People's Armed Forces (LPAF) is small, poorly funded, and ineffectively resourced. Its mission focus is border and internal security, primarily in internal suppression of Laotian dissident and opposition groups.[2]

This includes the brutal crushing of the peaceful 1999 Lao Students Movement of Democracy demonstrations in Vientiane, and in countering ethnic Hmong insurgent groups and other groups of Laotian and Hmong people opposing the one-party Marxist Pathet Lao government and the support it receives from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.[3]

Together with the Lao People's Revolutionary Party and the government, the Lao People's Army (LPA) is the third pillar of state machinery, and as such is expected to suppress political and civil unrest and similar national emergencies faced by the authoritarian, communist government in Vientiane. The LPA also has reportedly upgraded skills to respond to avian influenza outbreaks. At present, there is no major perceived external threat to the state and the LPA maintains very strong ties with the neighbouring Vietnamese military (2008).[4]

Tanks and armoured vehicles

photo Name Type Origin Quantity Notes
PT-76 light tank USSR 25
T-54/55 Main Battle TankUSSR30
BTR-60P Armored Personnel Carrier USSR 130
BTR-152 Armored personnel carrier USSR 30
M8 Greyhound Armored CarUnited States25
ZSU-23-4 Light Armored anti-aircraft USSR 10[5]

Artillery

photo Name Type Origin Quantity Notes
M-30 122 mm howitzer field howitzer USSR 40
130 mm towed field gun M1954 (M-46)[6] field gun USSR 16
122 mm howitzer 2A18 (D-30) Howitzer USSR 48
M114 155 mm howitzer[7] howitzer United States 10
M101 howitzer 105mm (towed): M-101[8] United States 25
M116 howitzer[9] 75mm (towed): M-116 pack United States 10

[10][11]

Air defence

photo Name Type Origin Quantity Notes
Strela 2 Surface-to-air missile USSR 120
57 mm AZP S-60 Automatic anti-aircraft gun USSR 18
37 mm automatic air defence gun M1939 (61-K) Air defence gun USSR 18
ZU-23-2 anti-aircraft gun USSR 48
ZPU auto anti-aircraft gun USSR 100+

[12]

Mortars

Human rights violations

According to numerous independent journalists and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, Lao Human Rights Council, United League for Democracy in Laos and humanitarian and human rights organisations, the Lao People's Army has repeatedly engaged in egregious human rights violations and the practice of corruption in Laos.[17][18]

Human rights violations committed by the Lao military include kidnapping, rape, torture, extrajudicial killing, military attacks against civilians, mass starvation against the ethnic minority, Hmong people, illegal logging in co-operation with the Vietnam People's Army-owned front companies and other violations of international law, the Geneva conventions, and acceptable norms of behaviour. According to a report by Amnesty International in 2007: "Thousands of ethnic Hmong women, men and children live in scattered groups in the Lao jungles, hiding from the authorities, particularly the military. Amnesty International is calling for an immediate end to armed attacks on these people."[19][20]

In 2013, attacks by the Lao People's Army against the Hmong people and others intensified, with soldiers killing four unarmed Hmong school teachers in addition to engaging in other human rights abuses according to the Lao Human Rights Council, the Centre for Public Policy Analysis and others.[21] The LPAF and its military intelligence play a major role in the arrest, imprisonment and torture of foreign prisoners in Vientiane's notorious Phonthong Prison and the communist Lao gulag system where Australians Kerry and Kay Danes were imprisoned and where civic activist Sombath Somphone may be imprisoned following his arrest in December 2012.[22]

Laotian and Hmong veterans who fought against North Vietnam, Vietnam People's Army (VPA), communist Pathet Lao forces, and LPAF to defend the Kingdom of Laos and US, Laos and the Kingdom of Thailand's national security interests during the Vietnam war and its aftermath, including the Lao Veterans of America, established the Laos Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in 1997.

The United League for Democracy in Laos, Amnesty International, the Centre for Public Policy Analysis, the Lao Veterans of America and other NGOs continue to raise concerns about the LPAF's serious human rights violations, internal suppression of the population, systemic corruption, brutal attacks against unarmed Laotian and Hmong political and religious dissident and opposition groups, one-party authoritarian rule in Laos as well as the LPAF's very close relationship with the VPA and VPA military-owned companies engaged in illegal logging in Laos.[23]

Organisations

See also

References

  1. ↑ CIA Factbook: Laos
  2. ↑ CIA Factbook: Laos
  3. ↑ CIA Factbook: Laos
  4. ↑ CIA Factbook: Laos
  5. ↑ ZSU-23-4#Operators
  6. ↑ John Pike. "Laos Army Equipment". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  7. ↑ John Pike. "Laos Army Equipment". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  8. ↑ John Pike. "Laos Army Equipment". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  9. ↑ John Pike. "Laos Army Equipment". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  10. ↑ John Pike. "World Military Guide". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  11. ↑ "Laos". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  12. ↑ "Laos". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  13. ↑ "Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbooks / Laos / Tables". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  14. ↑ "Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbooks / Laos / Tables". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  15. ↑ "Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbooks / Laos / Tables". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  16. ↑ "Library of Congress / Federal Research Division / Country Studies / Area Handbooks / Laos / Tables". Retrieved 22 October 2014.
  17. ↑ Amnesty International, (23 March 2007), "Lao People's Democratic Republic: Hiding in the jungle - Hmong under threat" http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/003/2007
  18. ↑ The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, CPPA, Washington, D.C. (1 August 2013), http://www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org
  19. ↑ Amnesty International, (23 March 2007), "Lao People's Democratic Republic: Hiding in the jungle - Hmong under threat" http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA26/003/2007
  20. ↑ The Centre for Public Policy Analysis, CPPA, Washington, D.C. (1 August 2013), http://www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org
  21. ↑ Businesswire, businesswire.com (4 March 2013) "Laos: Attacks Intensify Against Lao, Hmong People" http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20130304006755/en/Laos-Attacks-Intensify-Lao-Hmong-People
  22. ↑ Scoop Independent News, Auckland, New Zealand, (19 March 2013) "Laos Officials Criticized for Obstructing Investigation" http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1303/S00169/laos-officials-criticized-for-obstructing-investigation.htm
  23. ↑ Lao Veterans of America, Inc. (LVA), (29 August 2013), http://www.laoveteransofamerica.org
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