MAPLEWOOD, Minn. (AP) -- A fire that destroyed the home of a prominent Hmong family was ruled arson after investigators found evidence that the blaze was started by something thrown through a window as the family slept upstairs.
Cha Vang escaped the early Sunday fire with his wife and three children without injury. The home was destroyed, with damage estimated at $400,000, police reported.
``If you want to terrorize a person or send a message, you slash a tire,'' Cha Vang said Monday. ``To burn down a house with people sleeping in it is attempted murder.''
Cha Vang, 38, is an adviser and frequent spokesman for his father, Gen. Vang Pao, who was tapped by the CIA to lead a secret Hmong army against communists in Laos during the Vietnam War. The son has also organized demonstrations denouncing alleged human rights abuses in Laos.
The father, who was at home in California when the fire broke out, stays with his son during his frequent visits to the Twin Cities.
Cha Vang cited the fire at his home as the latest in a string of recent incidents that heighten suspicion political opponents are taking aim at his father and his supporters.
On April 14, a fight erupted at a demonstration outside the St. Paul office of Rep. Betty McCollum. About 400 people had turned out to protest McCollum's proposed bill to normalize trade relations with Laos. Critics of the bill argue that if Laos is granted normalized trade, its Communist government will continue to violate the religious freedoms of the Hmong.
A few days later, on April 20, gunshots were fired shortly before midnight at the Maplewood home of Gen. Vang Pao's translator, Deputy Police Chief John Banick said. Five family members were home, but no one was injured.
The next morning, on April 21, a fire did about $15,000 in damage at the Lao Family Community of Minnesota building in St. Paul after a brick was thrown through a window, police reported.
``We think it was deliberate,'' Vang said about the fire that destroyed his home. ``But right now, to be honest with you, I'm not thinking about trade. I'm thinking about the safety of my family.''
Banick said investigators have not established a connection between the incidents but are not ruling anything out.
The Hmong, an ethnic group that lived primarily in the highlands of Laos, began flowing to the United States soon after the Vietnam War. About 42,000 Hmong live in Minnesota.
