Laos Denies Any Role in Americans Deaths

An American couple claiming to be of Lao royal descent who were shot dead in northeastern Thailand might have been targeted by Laos' government on suspicions that they were working against the communist regime, police said Thursday.

An official at the Laotian Embassy in Bangkok denied that his government played any role in Wednesday's slaying near the Thai-Laos border.

Anouwong Sethathirath IV, 49, and Oulayvanh Sethathirath, 38, were killed at a Buddhist monastery in Nong Khai, police said.

The couple lived in Fairview, N.C., a suburb of Asheville, according to North Carolina newspaper accounts. Both were U.S. citizens and apparently were in Thailand to attend a cultural conference. They had made several previous trips to Thailand, where they were engaged in charitable activities for schools and Buddhist temples, according to their Web site

The Thai television station iTV reported that witnesses said the gunmen, wearing coats and black sunglasses, walked into the monastery and shot them at close range. Nong Khai is 320 miles north of Bangkok.

"The gunmen are of Thai nationality, but we believe that they were hired by secret agents who support the Laos government because the (Laotian) government is always suspicious of Laotians from America," Thai police Lt. Col. Santhipab Meephol said. "They think Laotians from America are always involved in anti-government activities."

No arrests have been made, and Santhipab did not say why police believed the assailants were Thai.

A U.S. Embassy official said two consulate staffers were on their way to Nong Khai "to look into the situation." She refused to comment further.

The couple's Web site said they were descendants of a Lao royal family and that Anouwong was a prince and Oulayvanh a princess. Sethathirath is the royal line of Laos' Sisattanakhanahut kingdom, also known as Lan Xang.

The Web site does not describe Anouwong's connections to the dynasty, which last ruled a part of Laos in the 19th century, and offers no documentation of the claim, which some members of the overseas Lao community doubt.

The couple were as not related to Savang Vatthana, the last king of Laos, who was forced to abdicate after a communist takeover of his country in 1975. Most exiled members of Savang Vatthana's family live in France.

The Asheville Citizen-Times said that Anouwong who also had the Western name Phillip McRowan married Oulayvanh, also known as Ashley, in 1987. The couple are survived by two sons.

The newspaper said that Anouwong worked as a pathologist's assistant in a local hospital, while Oulayvanh was studying for a degree in international studies at the University of North Carolina in Asheville.

Although some refugees from Laos have engaged in activities against the country's communist government, the couple were not known to be involved with them.