Dueling Hmong New Year celebrations have led to a lawsuit

[Toumeng]

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Claims of corruption are outlined in a lawsuit pitting one New Year's celebration against another in a duel that's split the Valley's Hmong community.

Two organizations will host separate celebrations this year. And a search of court documents uncovered a newly filed lawsuit showing how deep the divide between those organizations has become.

The celebration at the Fresno Fairgrounds has drawn as many as 120,000 people in a single year. But last year, a splinter group held its festival at a city park. Now the group behind that celebration is suing to take over at the fairgrounds.

New Year's celebrations are taking shape at the Fresno Southwest Regional Sports Complex. Organizers with the Hmong National Council expect a crowd of 70,000 people at the park during the weeklong festivities starting Monday.

"This is the second year and we feel like this is truly, we bring the New Year back to the Hmong community," said Nelson Vang, the director of the event hosted by the Hmong National Council.

Six miles across town at the Fresno Fairgrounds, organizers are setting the stage for their own New Year's celebration. The fairgrounds festival hosted by the Hmong International New Year foundation is the senior celebration. But many in the Hmong community feel like the leaders have lost sight of their original purpose. So, they started the new event.

"Our New Year is truly for culture," Vang said. "We don't use our new year for any campaign with political parties or anything like that."

In fact, leaders of the Hmong National Council claim organizers of the older event are corrupt.

"They allowed funds from revenue received from the annual Hmong New Year celebrations they conducted to be used for personal and other uses unrelated to charitable purposes," they claim in a lawsuit filed Dec. 15.

The lawsuit also claims the Hmong National Council is the rightful owner of the rights to host a celebration at the fairgrounds. This isn't the first time Fresno played host to two Hmong New Year's celebrations. 15 years ago, a lawsuit brought two factions together. And like the matchmaking, ball tossing game played at every New Year's celebration, leaders of the Hmong National Council hope the lawsuit can help unite the two groups again.

Leaders with the fairgrounds festival hadn't seen the lawsuit until an Action News reporter showed it to them Tuesday. They said they weren't ready to comment.

The lawsuit won't have any direct effect on this year's New Year's celebrations. A judge won't even see the case until April 2012.

(Copyright ©2011 KFSN-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/local&id=8474503

[Boost]

This reminds me of when the MN new year was first talked about in MPLS.  How can you have 2 ms hmong mn.  LOL..

[FXMiltownGuy]

To hell with these non-profits

[Reporter]

Interesting.

[Ron Burgundy]

[Reporter]

 

[suabqeej]

MONEY HUNGRY. TOO MANY CHIEF AND NOT ENOUGH INDIANS.

[Renaissance]

have 2 new years and let the people decide.

[Chewy]

Anyone know of any Mpls Stp non profit groups started up by the younger generation?  Definitely need to file a lawsuit against Lao Family too for mis-appropriated funds.

[Toua]

Wish there would b no such as a hny

[Renaissance]

Anyone know of any Mpls Stp non profit groups started up by the younger generation?  Definitely need to file a lawsuit against Lao Family too for mis-appropriated funds.

on what grounds?  the other group has no standing to sue.  the members of lao family can bring whats called a derivative suit against the organization for misappropriati on.  the state and federal government can also bring a suit for violating regulations.

[Sweet_Tears]

I miss those old days when there was only 1 New Year for each state. Hmong people are so corrupted now. $$$ is everything. What happened to those New Year where each family would bring something to share with everyone. 

[suabqeej]

now the org. that moved is wanting to sue the other out of the fair ground so that they can gain the better place to make their money. I bet the one org. that submitted the lawsuit already anticipated that they would not gain as much participants as the one at the fairground. They just want a good grounds to make their money; rain or shine.

[suabqeej]

My opinion is this: once you picked up and leave; and organize a new hny at another location, leaving the other rival with the fairground location then just leave. why start crying now when you know that you ain't gonna make your profit as much as the one you left behind.

hmong mas hmong tiag. txawj ntse mas tsis yog los sib pab ib lub kom nce qeb siab. tseem los sib tsuj tus yeej tus swb. tseem fall for deceitfulness from cov tshum kom nchuav. Zoo cia sawv daws ruam ib yam mas thiaj li txawj sib hlub. ib nyuag txawj ntse me me xwb twb sib txeeb nom ua. sib txeeb ua tus coj. Money hungry.

[Wi_sweetguy]

If HNC is true to their word and use the funds to benefit the community, then I will surely attend their new year.  All I can say is kicked the old people from the old country and let's begin fresh.  The old generation is too corrupt in many ways because they are still thinking about themselves and not about the community.  As much as i like vang pao, i would not regard him as a hero because he did nothing to make us believe he was one.  Sure vang pao fought in the war and thousands of hmongs died.  The true hero is the legendary Pa chay. Now he led us to fight for our freedom and that's what makes him a hero.  I believe the vangpao people who runs the new year needs to change because they are still in the dictatorship belief system.  They don't really want to change even when they say they do.  I still wonder about my 10 bucks that I helped them to rebuild our country or our community.  To this day, I still wonder why.  Where are the hundreds of thousands of dollars we supported them.  They need to tell us.  On the other hand, I hope HNC will not turn out to be the old crew.  This is the generation of change, it is either people of old new year (LaoFamilyC) want to change and get with the program or get out.