Of the conflict their story is rarely told but had a huge impact on the course of the. World moonwalk. Onal jersey. Hello im command santa maria and welcome again to rewind here on rewind we deal deep into the aljazeera documentary archive to bring you some of the best and most influential programs of the past decade as well as news of whats happened since well sometimes the story behind the making of the program. Half a century ago as war raged in vietnam and isolated community in the jungles of northern laos was recruited by the cia to help fight the viet cong over 50000 of the hmong tribe became part of americas secret army disrupting communist supply lines along the trail thousands of monk died in the war but their problems didnt end when the americans pulled out fearing a crackdown by laos communist Government Forces many fled the country but some 7000 stayed behind then continued to fight what they called red laos from deep within the jungle where they lived in hiding in 2008 ounces there is tony burke they tracked uphill for more than 2 days through dense forests in search of the hmong who were left behind he found a settlement of fewer than 200 people most of them born after the war but still living as their ancestors had he was the 1st outsider they had seen in 32 years from 2008 this is the last tribe secret army of the cia. An arduous trek through thick jungle a journey to find a lost trying. People been hidden from the outside world for more than 30 years too scared to leave the jungle but too afraid to stay people on their knees 2. They are among part of americas secret army in the vietnam war. Now they say theyre being hunted by the laos army picked off one by one time is running out for the whole month of northern lives. In the dead of night and a rendezvous on the fringe of asias dances jungles. These are my guys they are home on a rugged tough people used to harsh conditions. For the People Living in fear. When we talk we whisper when we walk we try not to create noise and we try to avoid the danger. The danger is posed by the laos army they are everywhere the hmong told me and ambushes are common its about midnight now weve been walking for about 3 hours up this huge hill hallways are put up with his tortures route for somebody like me but for these young hmong fighters its a normal walk in the jungle and the sort of care they have to take to avoid the laos army. A few welcome hours asleep beneath the dense canopy awaking to the chill of an Early Morning in the highland jungle of northern laos. Breakfast was a kind of yam a staple diet for the hmong but something i would come to dread in the coming days. After 2 and a half days of tough trekking i reached the outskirts of the village i walked on and a quite unbelievable welcome. To earth. Yeah. Yeah im fine thank you. I was the 1st outside that anyone had seen for 32 years for some it was the 1st time ever. I didnt know it then but my visit had taken on a significance i wasnt prepared for. They called me father and gave me a deep respect for someone who could somehow end their plight to give them a new beginning and for the 1st time in a long while give them hope. Oh yeah like everybody. Else it felt bad oh youre. Done that and our look at her. Only its a one off. Your. Shoulder i dont rock yeah yeah. Yeah yeah yeah that really fucked up. This is just the most incredible welcome about the dance a welcome to introduce me to the age of. These people crying oh no they havent really progressed since 1975 theyre living the same way that their ancestors did living in the forest in the jungle and it seems like theyre abandoned by everybody. Dont know that its hard to appreciate their sense of isolation the reality of what those last years mean. He said or did you know. That. You dont have to be in this village very long to understand why there is such a sense of desperation children are visibly malnourished theyre dressed in old clothes barefoot or just with flip flops no medicine no education and little food almost a bigger fight than with Government Forces before coming here nothing actually can prepare you for what you actually see and thats the really depressing scene People Living on the lowest level of human ladder and you look around you cant see much prospect for improvement the emotion of these people they really come to the end of the line they believe that if nobody helps them it is really the end of the line and the end of them on Something Like 580000 people among have died in the last 32 years they claim. And he doesnt get a solution his problem they reckon that all among her going to die here in the jungle. The area is close to the vietnam border and where the vietnamese communists had their supply lines it was called the whole cimon trail. 60000 hmong were recruited by america as part of the cias socalled secret army to fight the cons but the fight against the laos communist forces has continued long after the vietnam war. Today 155 people live in the community most of them born after 197590 problem vang chukchi is the leader of the 7000 hmong who he says remain in the jungle 32 years ago he was chief of 18000 most he claims have been killed. People increasingly look to him for a solution to their plight. The leader looks to me for tough work not. One load up a sack with filmy on long. Walk out ought not to you in your thigh lassitude you dont know what they thought up all are all moral wrong. You might like a bottle. O. With the. Thought talk or a little here and awkward got the heart of a goal 44 talk all out oclock oclock local model here top in gold or short off along all the hmong reveal him as animists they worship the land the nature incense is used as a means to communicate with their gods. On your heart you know i go hard down here alone. Wait out gonna get the man i thought. Oh i want you all. Being a savior is a big responsibility for the people kneeling before me was so desperate they would snatch any glimmer of hope even if it was me. Quite a long war hole or bedtime with now no more dar no if you dont pay new guard dont have to top it up how long hoop and or can document only not our when the moon. Well its a really strange situation moment when i was interviewing the leader and then suddenly he declared that i was formally being taken hostage until the United Nations could resolve their problem here i did point out that one journalist like me couldnt resolve anything certainly not from inside the camp but this is a 1st for me being taken hostage by people to come try and help but it does show also the mark of desperation of these people they are really living a very difficult and hard life and from one day to the next they dont know how theyre going to fare so i do understand to a certain extent but i hope they do change their minds an unreal situation Everything Else that could change their lives for the better was a long long way away but i was here and the hmong were getting used to the idea. But i dont know. The reason with the. Ordeal im going to guy who already. Had you know what we dont know and the. People have been scarred mentally by their experiences everyone has been touched everyone seems to have lost family all killed they say by the laos army last year the leader told me 54 of his people were murdered by the military and their physical scars as well. As 72 he claims 10 children and his wife were killed by the army and then he stepped on a mine planted on a route villages took to get food. In deep. Water the funnel money my money. Oh no. Payment. While. Im waiting for the long phone only known. Him for many many minutes and all. My song is 59 and a grandmother she has lost 5 sons all shot dead she says by laotian soldiers. She says the scars of Bullet Wounds suffered when she went to dig for food dont know. How you know how. Im. Going on you know monday leave or you go. And you dont get my. No. No leave now you know how much. You know dr mark. She i know. This is the thing survive on here its the root of a plant and you have to dig down about a meter in order to get it take some i can tell you is what we lived on for 3 days in the jungle getting here the surprise was that is what we have on every single day here lucky to get 3 meals a day if not its about to change and you know if you know you have been there no no no no she doesnt like im not im not someone to also call me. By the light of a count by the singer pushtuns and dance the steps of their ancestors who move from mongolia to china and then to laos. Care how. They try to retain what little culture they can and scrape by in a harsh environment that is now their world one that with every generation slowly ebbing away did. Dawn is always the most vulnerable time of the hmong in the jungle the time when the laos army is most likely to strike one in. The wash more a splash really is a luxury the home would be to expose living in rivers. For me to take. The lead it was still insisting i stay but hed written a letter which he wanted me to deliver personally to the United Nations in new york. At the moment. They were tough resilient people which is why the cia used them for 10 years during the vietnam war just a handful now remain in the jungle of northern else and finally i get to meet some. Nice. Paul on our do your part do you know your poem dont yet you know im a god i dont know. What all big. Well youre not descartes tell us all. The hmong feel the communist government in laos they call it the red laos is punishing them for fighting for the americans ok yang was a young man he fought for the americans against the communists been a nice now he feels abandoned by me got his own. Make up you who. Would. You want. One of the ones our power board. And i feel we need to shout. Very skilled arsenal. When youre watching the slow death of a people its hard to know what to do or even what to say i try to reassure them i gave them what i had in my pack of medical supplies and food the 1st time the younger hmong had seen ham and cheese. Dictate one piece of good thick 11000th of a whole. Different i. Dont. Know sheepishly they came forward for a taste 1st the men. Who were going out and then the women some a little confused about what they were being offered and your mother well i dont want to. Hear i did or not i dont. Want to know about it and then the children inched forward wary and wondrous at the same time looking and acknowledge that. It was you know what i did say that im not going to write you i know because thats not. What they did in our. Family you can have. A lot. Of the time passed the hmongs belief in me as a savior didnt diminish quite the contrary they stated me killed one of the few chickens they have in my honor and lit candles as a blessing to bestow on a good luck don de marco the admiral got delay tied strings on my wrist to ward off the bad spirits they knelt before me in acts of homage it was also overwhelming and has been quite a moving experience ive never had anything like this happening before and i miss some great belief that i can suddenly. Change around their fortunes and i can singlehandedly make the United Nations come in and do something they treat me like some kind of god here. And im got the heart to tell them that so many other people around the world in so many other dire situations have been let down before by the international community. A chicken no matter how small an anorexic has good luck signs the wishbone almost suggested good omens maybe my release. For the hmong the jungle of now than laos is a place of nightmares and dreams. 18 years old he married at 15 and has 2 children he dreams of studying music and taking his children to a park. The melancholy sound of b. s guitar made me think about my hopes i might increase in desire to leave. Ive been here for about 5 days now and i havent had a proper water in that time i live largely on the roots in these parts of harvey had the sun on my face because along up the live in places like this which is giving plenty of cover in case of the aerial reconnaissance of the laotian army spots them. And. Im finding out that our. And ive got to go but i see these people around me and every day i see the children it makes me think of my children my family and my life and i realize that i cant stick as much longer so i want to go. After a week or rumor spread the translator and i were about to leave. He created panic and angry scenes. That. I had to. From that moment. That he money. On the jacket not that you. Are not mine you know. That you dont like you dont like you. Dont. Know you dont know how do you know. How. Subsequently i believe all these people these women of packed up their their baskets their clothes their possessions and they want to come with me they want to walk out today walk out of the forest and civilization but i keep trying to explain to them that but the laos army out there and. I cant guarantee their safety quite quite the reverse its bizarre. Actually no no no no. You know heated argument about whether to stay or to go with me. Probably 30. 0 no you know what. The mood of panic could come from nowhere disappearing as quickly as the homeowner reconcile themselves with reality and battle for survival. And people walked for days from surrounding villages to plead with me for help. This man had lost all his family and he amputated his own hand after being badly wounded. I began to sing a song about the plight of the hmong people about persecution and injustice about survival. Is haunting words followed me as my release became a reality and i believe the lesson for the journey ahead. No. No. You arent. Going. To. Go. You are. Not go home until. I turned one last time and i wondered what would happen to the hmong of northern laos and how many would live long enough to leave. Again. That was the lost tribe secret army of the cia well were joined now from london by the filmmaker tony tony why dont you start by telling us why you went looking for the moment the 1st place. Well i suppose ive got a bucket list of stories that ive always wanted to cover i was too young to cover the vietnam war its something that really interested me but a spin off from that was the hmong so i kept in contact with what was happening to them as much as i could and then they came an opportunity there was a connection that i learnt of in in california among community there and they i contacted them and they put me in contact with the Hmong Community in laos and arranged for me to go and see them so it was something that i really wanted to do its a great desire to cover that because its one of those very i think very important stories but one that is overlooked because its so difficult to do start challenging was it actually reaching the hmong i mean did you did you know youd be putting your life in danger well there are always concerns because the people in california may be quite aware of the dangers from the laos laos army they said that people in the jungle being hunted by the laos army there were being killed so i had to be prepared for that sort of thing i wasnt really prepared for the physical side of it because actually getting there was physically challenging i wasnt perhaps the fittest at the time but soon as i started walking it was a monumental hike for nearly 3 days over really really large hills in darkness sometimes and im not due to go with a camera man who was carrying a bit away and when he learnt about the rigors of the of the hike and the fact the potential dangers he decided not to go so therefore i took the camera myself which ive done in the past and it wasnt a problem for me. But as a i found it challenging he would have found it impossible to be honest tony you were thin as something of a savior but then you were also taken hostage how did you cope psychologically. Well im a tough old dog so it didnt really get me down too much to be honest it was never a case of my life being in danger i didnt fear these people i understood their desperation and they were using whatever bargaining tool they could nevertheless funny idea if this is one of those stories that really phase with you long after youve left well it was a profound experience because i never really expected to find what i did i didnt understand from all my research the deep. Fear and the deprivation of these people so to actually go there from the moment i entered their camp they were on their hands and knees praying and crying and this was not just to greet me was not a show because in the course of the next week i saw it on a regular basis people crying people pleading with me people saying theyve got no hope theyre all going to die theyre all heard stories about you know their loved ones being killed they said by the laotian army the fact that they were on the run they were sick they were needy and they had very little you also made a promise to take it up with the u. N. Did you manage that i went to new york i went to the United Nations i wrote to the secretary general i told everything i saw or i gave a link to the documentary i did absolutely Nothing Happened when i raised it in a press briefing to the uns press people they looked at me like yeah and what it didnt register on the social consciousness of the United Nations or in fact the world so i feel a tremendous sense of failure and i suppose thats why the images of stayed with me so long longer than some of the other horrible things that ive covered Tony Berkeley great talking to you thanks for joining us and we want. And that is it from us this wait be sure to check us out online by the rewind page at aljazeera dot com for more films from the series on come on santa maria from the whole team thanks for joining us seen it. Rewind returns with a new series. And brand new updates on the best about his ears documentaries. Need. To. Rewind continues we have to be an afghan and have a vision and im going to stand and this is the proudest day out by my life that was a real turning point for goes that give them a lot of confidence that they can beat any team in a share on aljazeera as protests rage over Police Brutality and coronavirus grips the nation campaigning on the election trail has been forced to take a back seat will the president ial candidates ever hit the road and so their brand of politics to americans before the vote follow the u. S. Elections on a just. In russia makes national i didnt just pull it. If you bring the fame fortune and how i thought of that one when he investigates on aljazeera. Kovan daintiness you know war of words escalate between the u. S. And china ill challenge u. S. General Robert Spaulding and british diplomat and also kerry brown on whether the west is entering into a new cold war with china in a special edition of head to head you want to travel ban on china to match the muslim support stock proposal we need a strict vetting process is to tight finally turning against beijing we have a china centric world and then a world which is not china centric head to head on out his iraq. Protesters clashed with police in better route to state exit polls predict another victory for president alexander lukashenko. Son to maria with the world news from Al Jazeera Hong Kong media baron jimmy light has been arrested under a controversial security law for allegedly colluding with Foreign Forces the antigovernment protests continue for a 2nd day in beirut