BANGKOK, June 11 Kyodo Laotian po...

BANGKOK, June 11 Kyodo

Laotian police arrested sum of two units European journalists and a U citizen last week forward suspicion of murdering a villager in northern Xieng Khuang Province, a Laotian restraint official said Wednesday.

Frenchman Vincent Reynaud, 38 Belgian Thierry Falise, 46 the two freelance journalists, and Mua Naw Karl, 44 an American citizen of ethnic Hmong origin, were arrested in succession suspicion of killing a male security guard forward June 4, the official, belonging to the Laotian Foreign Ministry's Information Department and speaking forward condition of anonymity, told Kyodo stranges by telephone.

''They all penetrateed Laos on May 22 from the friendship border with Thailand's Nong Khai Province. They were here with tourist visas,'' the official said when asked if authorities were aware that the Europeans were journalists documenting ethnic Hmong freedom fighters in Laos.

Meanwhile, a Paris-based pres watchdog urg the dominion to unconditionally release reporter Thierry Falise and cameraman Reynaud.

The sum of two units Bangkok-based journalists ''were just exercising their right to inform international public opinion about the situation of the Hmong minority,'' Reporters Without Borders said in a literal meaning to Laotian Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavad, who also assists as deputy prime minister.

Reynaud and Falise, who is a regular contributor to the French weekly newsmagazine L'Expres and Belgian media, were arrested along with three or four Laotians upon June 3 or 5 near Muang Soi, northeast of the capital Vientiane, the French watchdog said in a statement dated Tuesday.

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