The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 16

16 Part I Thursday. February 26, 1981 Cos Angeles (Times Nightmare Syndrome1? Some attribute the deaths to chemical agents that the Hmong and other hill tribes were exposed to during the prolonged warfare in Southeast Asia. Vang Pao, a Hmong tribal leader who now lives near Missoula, Mont, has been quoted as saying the deaths are "almost certainly" linked to chemical nerve agents used against the Hmong, many of whom once worked for the CIA. "It just doesn't make sense to me," said Lewman, disputing the claim. "Nerve gas doesn't act this way.

There's no evidence. "Secondly, if it was nerve gas, why does it affect only males, and why only during the night? And if nerve gas doesn't affect people right Pleaae tec DEATHS, Pace 17 Deaths of Laos Refugees Puzzle Officials By BILL CURRY. Times Staff Writer PORTLAND. search of er cities that have large Hmong and Indochinese populations, seeking indications of a more widespread pattern of death. He found none until Minneapolis officials told him that although they had not had any mysterious deaths of Hmongs, St.

Paul had: four among the area's Hmong population of 8,000 had died mysteriously. 13 Unexplained Deaths That spurred the search for more. Last week, after another Hmong man's death in Minneapolis on Feb. 17, Lewman had recorded at least 13 sudden, unexplained deaths since 1978 of sleeping Laotian refugees. Additional cases were found in Seattle, Des Moines and Orange County, Calif.

Within the Hmong communities, which account for most of the Laotian refugee mystery deaths, there is talk of still other deaths. "There have been 19, 20, very similar deaths," says Kuxeng Yongchu, a Hmong leader here, "and we have never had any legitimate NOTICE TO OUR CLIENTS AND THE PUBLIC IRANIAN RUG WEAVERS TORCED TO EARLY RETIREMENT Due to the unavailability of rugs from Iran, after 1 0 years of travelling and auctioning Oriental Rugs throughout the United States and your area, we must liquidate our entire collection of HANDMADE ORIENTAL RUGS from Iran, India, Pakistan, Romania and Peking China in two sessions to settle our outstanding debts. FINAL AUCTION PERSIAN ORIENTAL RUGS LIQUIDATION BY AUCTION NO MINIMUM, NO RESERVE SUNDAY, MARCH 1, 1981 at 2 p.m. Exhibition from 12:30 p.m. AMBASSADOR HOTEL 3400 Wilshire L.A.

(Sunset Room) Yong Leng Thao's death would have gone as unremarked as several other Hmongs' already had, except that he was the second Hmong in Portland to pass across Dr. Larry V. Lewman's autopsy slab in three days. And for both Yong Leng Thao and Xiong Tou Xiong, 29. there was no explanation, no suggestion of the cause of death not even after an autopsy, microscopic examination of tissue, toxicology tests and lengthy interviews with surviving relatives.

"Pending," Lewman, the county medical examiner, wrote of the cause of the deaths. Then he learned that two other morgue pathologists here had seen two other such deaths of Laotian refugees last year. Thus, in nine months, four men were dead with no medical explanation. "All were very, very similar," says Lewman. "They were restricted to males, all relatively young, who died during their sleep.

"I don't know what we've got." He called medical officials in oth freedom, opportunity and a new life. Yong Leng Thao brought his wife and eight young children to America from a Laotian refugee camp in Thailand last July. His search ended last month. Instead of finding a new life, Yong Leng Thao touched off with his death a medical mystery, one that has left this city's and the nation's Hmong tribal communities in fear and prompted a call for a federal investigation. He had been up late watching television with an uncle and slipped into bed in the early hours of Jan.

8. That briefly awoke his wife, Xiong You, but both were soon asleep. Labored Breathing Then came his labored breathing, so loud that it awakened her. She shook him. The tears ran down her face as she recounted those next moments of horror, moments in which she realized that she could do nothing more.

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