Military veterans who fought alongside him joined family and community mourners at the traditional funeral service in Fresno, California, where he died last month, aged 81.

But even as the Fresno ceremony started, Hmong and US supporters renewed their call for the general to be honored with a burial at Arlington National Cemetery, where top US military brass are laid to rest.

"We are fighting that right now. We will succeed... The general's dream will come true, and the veterans will lay in rest in a place of honor," said friend and aide Charlie Waters during the two-hour long ceremony.

Draped in the red, white and blue of the Stars and Stripes, Vang Pao's coffin was borne into Fresno's convention center where tens of thousands of Hmong from the United States and abroad were expected to gather over the weekend.

Rows of black-clad mourners joined ranks of soldiers in uniforms and khakis, as well as bagpipers in kilts who had accompanied the casket into the hall, to the strains of Dvorak's "New World" Symphony.

"Today our Laotian nation has lost... one of its outstanding sons," said Khamphay Abbay, a former Royal Lao official and Laotian currently living in Australia, who was an advisor to Vang Pao during the war.

Vang Pao led the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-backed force that assisted the United States in Vietnam, during its ill-fated war with communist forces in the north of southeast Asian nation.

He died of pneumonia on January 6 and supporters have been pressing for Vang Pao to be buried in Arlington since then, but so far there has been no word from US military authorities.

California US congressman Jim Costa has led a group of lawmakers in Washington lobbying for the honor, so far without success -- although supporters are still hoping for a decision.

William Dietzel, another US friend of the Hmong general, also paid tribute to Vang Pao's support for the United States in one of its darkest hours.

"General Vang Pao will forever be remembered for his extraordinary service in the defence of freedom," he told the ceremony.

The Hmong, a hill people, suffered persecution after Laos fell to the communists in 1975.

The central California city of Fresno is one of the major hubs of the United States' 250,000-strong Hmong community, some 30-40,000 of whom live in the western US state.

Vang Pao, a fierce opponent of the communist government in Vientiane, was also a controversial figure.

In 2007, he was arrested in California on charges of plotting to overthrow a foreign government after an undercover agent tried to sell him weapons at a Thai restaurant.

Prosecutors dropped their charges in 2009. On Monday, a judge ended the case for the remaining 11 Hmong Americans accused in the case amid persistent questions over the government's evidence.

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News