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Los Angeles (AFP) Jan 7, 2011 The family of former Laotian Hmong general Vang Pao wants him to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, to recognize his help to the US during the Vietnam war, family and friends said Friday. Discussions are ongoing about where Pao will be laid to rest following his death Thursday in California, at the age of 81, said close friend Charlie Waters. In keeping with Hmong tradition there will be a four-day funeral mourning period, which could be attended by some 30,000 to 40,000 members of the Hmong community, many of whom live in California. The four-day funeral could take place in Fresno, near where Pao died from pneumonia compounded with heart problems Thursday, but the family is pressing for his body to be buried in Arlington. "That's something that we're trying to do," Waters told AFP. "He worked for the US government at their request, and it's his request... he wants to be with the rest of the warriors" interred in the military cemetery, close to the capital city of Washington. The legendary guerrilla leader commanded thousands of fighters in the 1960s and 70s in the US-funded covert war against Vietnamese and Lao communist forces. When the Washington-backed Lao royal government fell in 1975, Vang Pao fled to the United States, where he was credited with helping negotiate the resettlement in America of tens of thousands of fellow Hmong. Waters said there are special dispensations for military people from other countries to be interred in Arlington, where many war heroes are laid to rest, as well as politicians and other honored figures. "He was a real active general who lost a lot of people for us. They paid an awesome price," he said. One of the general's sons, Chai Vang, told local CBS affiliate CBS47 television that under Hmong tradition funerals last from Thursday to Sunday, and include feasts and mourning periods before the eventual burial itself. Pao wanted to be buried in Arlington. "That was his wish... we'll see," he said, stressing the importance of the funeral to his people. "Among the Hmong community we've never done one this grand," he said.
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