ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 11, 2003

ELCA Pastor Naw-Karl Mua Freed From Laos
03-145-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Naw-Karl Mua, Light of Life
Lutheran Church, St. Paul, Minn., a pastor of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), was released July 9 from a
Laotian prison and reunited with his family in St. Paul on July
10. Detained since June 4, he and two European journalists were
sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined about $1,100 each after
a two-hour trial on June 30.
     The Rev. Peter Rogness, bishop of the ELCA Saint Paul Area
Synod, was with the Mua family for the reunion and said Mua was
in good health. "It's important that we respect the family's
privacy and allow them to get some rest in the next day or two,
and then we'll have an opportunity to hear Karl's story," said
Rogness. The synod plans to host a news conference July 12.
     According to the Associated Press, the U.S. Embassy in Laos
said the three were released on humanitarian grounds but had to
pay damages to the family of a slain village guard as well as
fines and court costs. Their release came after more than a
month of diplomatic efforts and pressure from such organizations
as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders.
     "The release of Rev. Mua is good news for his family and our
entire community," said U.S. Representative Betty McCollum (D-
Minn. 4th). "I want to express my sincere appreciation to U.S.
Ambassador Douglas Hartwick and his embassy staff, who have
worked tirelessly to achieve this outcome. They deserve all the
credit for securing Rev. Mua's release."
     U.S. Senator Mark Dayton (D-Minn.) said July 9, "I was very
pleased to hear the news of his release this morning and that he
is safely on his way home from Laos. I know this has been a long
ordeal for his family, his friends, his church, and for
Minnesota's Hmong community, and I am very happy for them that it
is now over."
     "I am pleased by the fact that Pastor Mua will be coming
home to Minnesota soon," said U.S. Senator Norm Coleman (R-
Minn.). "This was a case where intense diplomacy behind the
scenes paid off. Our State Department did a good job in
conveying the extent of our concern and bringing this to a
successful and happy resolution."
     Mua went to neighboring Thailand on May 12 for a missionary
project, something he has done frequently in the past because he
has family and a relationship with a Hmong congregation there.
While in Thailand, he met two journalists -- Thierry Falise of
Belgium and Vincent Reynaud of France -- and entered Laos legally
on May 23 as their translator.
     The journalists went into the Xieng Khouang province of
Laos, and Mua helped them research a story on human rights
violations and persecution of Hmong people by the Communist
government in Laos.
     Mua failed to return to the United States for his son's high
school graduation, and his wife received an unconfirmed report
that Lao military forces had killed her husband. The U.S. State
Department refuted that report and said the Laotian government
detained Mua since June 3 with the two journalists, accused of
cooperating with "bandits" to kill a security official in the
remote northeastern village of Khai.
     Mua is a native of Laos. He lived in a refugee camp in
Thailand for one year before moving to France in 1978, where he
lived until he immigrated to the United States in 1985. He is
now a U.S. citizen.
     Educated in the Twin Cities area at National American
University and Bethel Seminary, Mua served as a pastor of Calvary
Alliance Church, St. Paul, 1992-97, and as pastor of Hmong
Central Lutheran Church, St. Paul, 1998-2002. Hmong Central is a
congregation of the ELCA.
     Mua was ordained an ELCA pastor in 2000. He is developing
Light of Life Lutheran Church, which meets at Beaver Lake
Lutheran Church, Maplewood, Minn., and is vice president of the
Association of Asians/Pacific Islanders -- ELCA.
     Staff of the ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod worked through the
Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), Washington,
D.C., and the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), Geneva,
Switzerland, to communicate with government officials and with
other non-governmental agencies for Mua's release. LOGA is the
ELCA's federal public policy advocacy office. The ELCA is one of
136 member churches of the LWF.
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     The home page of the ELCA Saint Paul Area Synod is at
http://www.spas-elca.org/ on the Web.

EDITORS: The Saint Paul Area Synod plans to hold a news
conference for the Mua family beginning at 10:00 a.m. (CDT) on
Saturday, July 12, at Beaver Lake Lutheran Church, Maplewood,
Minn. Media contacts should be made through Beth Helgen, the
synod's communications director.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958
http://www.elca.org/news