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. -- -- -- 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