ELL: Extremely Urgent: Akha Village Forced Move

Sat Jan 22 18:48:05 UTC 2000

Please Pass This Message To All List Servs You Know.

This is an urgent message to advert ongoing genocide of the Akha Hill
Tribe by governments and missionries.

EXTREMELY URGENT COUNTDOWN, FORCED MOVE OF HUAI MAAK AKHA VILLAGE

99-01-22
Thai Army

Dear Friends:

This is the current situation with the Forced Move of Huuh Mah Akha
(Huai Maak) Village in Northern Thailand.
To remind, this is an Akha village of nearly 200 people, having lived
and buried their dead at this location for 78 years and longer, one of
the oldest undisturbed villages in Thailand, since so many others have
been forced to move over the years.

But we think it is time to stop this policy.

This policy to force the villages to move however approved by people
like the US Government in their paranoia about drugs fails to take into
consideration that it is a part of the role of genocide and considers
not one right of the Akha people.

Thai authorities continue to insist that the village wants to be moved,
yet can not produce a single Akha of this point of view.  Since there
are a score of villages that have been moved, and all these villages
were opposed to the move, it is hardly likely that they  ever could find
an Akha to agree with this move either.

Keep in mind that very few of the Akha are given a national ID card, and
the bulk of the rest who have blue cards are not allowed to travel
beyond their district, and predominantly do not have any rights of any
kind, including land.  If someone were to claim that they do have
rights, we would like to ask how these would be enforced, why these stop
short of being able to get a passport and travel at will?

Two days ago I was rousted from my sleep, having been driving all night
from villages including Huai Maak, by four soldiers of the Thai Army.
They were angry, they photographed my truck, photographed me, demanded
to know who I was and what I was doing, that they had some kind of big
problem.  The one man from forestry stated that Forestry also had some
big problem, that it was all about the internet and my email to
Petroleum Authority of Thailand.  I asked him if he had gotten such an
email.  He said one was received.  I asked him what the problem was.  He
could not reply specifically.  I asked him why he did not answer the
email? He could not answer this either.  I asked him why the forestry
and PTT were planting all this pine and damaging the environment, he
could not answer that either.  Finally he asked if I could go with them
to meet an Army officer at 2pm.  I said I could.  But when I went to
meet him and drive down to Haen Taek to do that, he said that there was
no meeting, that there would be a meeting at forestry at 9 AM on Monday
the 24th of January 2000 in Chiangrai, at the head office, to explain
why the Akha Village Huai Maak was being forcibly relocated.  Could I be
there? Yes I could.  Their proclivity to get people out of bed with guns
and then cancel their appointments was not nice.  The soldiers when they
came to the Akha house were angry and demanded my passport.  I stated
that I had no idea who they were and needed their names.  They refused.
I then stated that as far as I had been informed, passport control and
the issuing of visas and travel permission inside Thailand was the
jurisdiction of Immigration, and since they could not tell me who they
were, I assumed they were not from Immigration and therefore would not
be giving them my passport.

Two people, one from Britain, one from Australia, have been staying on
and off in the Akha village Huai Maak.  It is of great concern that the
Army insists they are going to move this village on the 30th, but that
by now the 22nd, there has really been no dialogue about the issue
despite the fact that many people have contacted Thai authorities and
asked for that dialogue.

No person who can show that they are in charge has been identified or
stood up to address the issue.

We will have to see what happens on Monday.

We can assume that since the village doesn’t want to move and since the
Army is telling them to move, instead of the boy scouts, that there is
real probability that intimidating force will be used to make the Akha
comply, abandon their homes and decades of investment in the land as
well as their sacred cemetary in the jungle where they have buried their
dead for so many generations.  This disgrace of the Thai government and
associated "Hill Tribe Cultural Development" people will be redressed by
formal legal filings with the UN if it goes forward classified under
genocide.  Since there are very few social services now to the Akha in
general and since the location that they are being told that they will
be forced to move to is unsafe and a health hazard, and since the
children and adults who have seen this location are already frightened
by it, we can assume that the forced relocation of this village will
have immediate and long term mortality effects on the health of these
Akha and Lisaw concerned.  There is no land to farm at this location,
and animals relied on for income and nutrition in the diet will
immediately decline as they have in other villages.  Many domestic farm
animals will not do as well at hotter low altitudes than the higher cool
altitudes the Akha now prudently live in.

Excuses that the Akha have no rights since the Wa nation pushes drugs
through their ranks is foolish.
At Huai Maak Akha the villagers do not smoke opium, are fully employed,
have rich diets, and have no financial reason to be engaged in either
expanding their existing farming areas which are very well managed, or
deal in the methamphetamine trade.

While the Akha are being blamed for all the drug problems, which in turn
is put on this village, the Thais do a fantastic trade in all kinds of
wares with the Wa, basically laundering huge amounts of Thai baht to
build a fantastic center on the Burmese side, so fantastic that the Wa
now want to relocate 90,000 of their people there from all over Burma
and even China.

No effort is made to ascertain that the money to buy all these Thai
building materials, and so forth, is not coming from the drug trade with
Thailand. And since it is being paid in Baht, one must ask where the Wa
are getting all this baht?  Are they printing it?

If it is being paid for in say US dollars, what country is converting
all the baht into US dollars?
Whose financial institutions? India? Bangledesh? China?  One would think
that not all of their money is going into buiding materials and
vehicles, so what are they storing the rest as? Gold?

Yet the Akha, the poorest of the poor, are threatened that they will be
forced to move because of what ever suspicion they are under of using
drugs.

There will be this big meeting in Chiangrai, many people attending if
the Thais do not cancel it.

Please continue to press the Thai government for direct answers as to
how they can justify this village relocation into destitution, labor
class, and poverty, of a culturally wealthy and healthy people.

My ability to gather financial resources for this ongoing battle has
been seriously hampered due to all the time being spent on this, and at
the same time my costs to maintain this presence in the mountains has
put an incredible drain on finances.  The truck is quite battered,
seriously lagging in repairs and the bills are going unpaid.

If you can send any kind of donation to help with this work please do so
to the credit card access below or to the addresses or bank accounts
listed.

I would once again like to thank Sven in Sweden for the donation of an
iMac.  It has been of incredible use and allowed a number of activistis
to begin using computer resources to help in the fight for the Akha.  We
very much need another two if anyone can step forward to help us
strengthen our ability to deliver our messages to concerned parties
around the world about the needs of the Akha if they are going to have
any chance to be heard and voice their appeal to the international
community.

I will be forwarding more updates this week as the 30th draws closer, it
is not my attempt to flood your mail boxes, but this is a very serious
matter for a whole lot of men, women and children, including elderly and
pregnant women as well.

Please make use of the contacts below, and protest this forced move.

Matthew

THAI EMBASSY CONTACTS ABROAD;
DIRECTORIES;
http://www.embassyworld.com/cgi-local/search.cgi?guest=Thailand&host=&count=0&menu=1

http://www.waw.be/rte-be/english/embeur.htm

AUSTRALIA
Telephone: (06) 273-1149, 273-2937
Fax:(06) 273-1518
Cable: THAIDUTO CANBERRA Telex:AA62533
E-Mail: Thai at csccs.com.au

WASHINGTON DC
tha.wsn at thaiembdc.org
LOS ANGELES
thai-la at mindspring.com
NEW YORK
thainycg at aol.com
CHICAGO
thaichi at interaccess.com

PRIME MINISTER OF THAILAND'S OFFICE
Prime Minister Mr Chuan Leekpai
govspkmn at mozart.inet.co.th

PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
Director of Mass Communication & Information Centre
Mr Coosak Rongsawat
choosak at wnet.net.th
Director Press Relations Centre
Me Surin Plangprasopchoke
mcic at wnet.net.th

TOURISM AUTHORITY OF THAILAND offices
BANGKOK;
center at tat.or.th
CHIANG RAI;
tatcei at chmai.loxinfo.co.th
AUSTRALIA;
info at thailand.net.au
UNITED STATES;
tatla at ix.netcom.com

Prime Miinister of Thailand
Mr Chuan Leekpai
govspkmn at mozart.inet.co.th

Office of the Prime Minister
The Public Relations Deptartment
Mr Choosak Rongssawat
Head of Information Co-ordinator
office 02 618 2323 ext. 1011
home 02 814 1136
mobile 01 8314913
choosak at wnet.net.th

Information Co-ordinator
Mr Surin Plangprasopchoke
Director Press Relations Centre
office 02 618 2323 ext. 1505
mobile 01 254 0790
mcic at wnet.net.th

Ministry of the Interior
Office of the Permanent Secretary
Mr Chakraphan Yomchinda
Ministry Spokesman
office 02 222 8005
home 02 589 9066
mobile 01 614 9831

Ministry of Defence
Office of the Permanent Secretary
Lt . Gen. Sanan Kajornklan
Special Office of the Permanent Secretary of Defence
office 02 226 2309
home 02 612 3826
mobile 01 9416 888

Deputy Maj. Gen. Pichai Siripibool
office 02 225 6789  -  02 226 3114
home 02 532 1729  -  02 993 7300
mobile 01 837 3257

Supreme Command HQ Royal Thai Army
Head of  Information Co-ordinator
Col. Sant Noiboonsuk
Director of Public Relations Division
office 02 281 6482
home 02 503 7511

Royal Thai Army
Col. Samkuan Sangpattaranetr
Army Spokesman
office 02 279 7925  -  02 278 5321
home 02 981 8790
mobile  01 981 8790

Governors Office Chiang Rai
(053) 711 600

Ministry of Defence
3rd Army Chiang Mai
(055) 258 545

Provicial Affairs Development Division
02 221 9121

Ministry of the Interior
Local Affairs
ID Card
02 281 3962

Phitsanulok 3rd Army
Department of Civil Affairs
(055)  244 145

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END
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--

Matthew McDaniel
The Akha Heritage Foundation
386/3 Sailom Joi Rd
Maesai, Chiangrai, 57130
Thailand
Mobile Phone Number:  Sometimes hard to reach while in Mountains.
66-01-881-9288

US Address:

Donations by check or money order may be sent to:

The Akha Heritage Foundation
PO BOX 6073
Salem OR 97304
USA

By Visa Card Secure Site:

https://www.givetocharity.com/cgi-bin/give.pl?CODE=10956

Donations by direct banking can be transferred to:
(Preferred)

Wells Fargo Bank
Akha Heritage Foundation
Acc. # 0081-889693
Keizer Branch # 1842  04
4990 N. River Road.
Keizer, Oregon,  97303 USA
ABA # 121000248

Or In Thailand:

Matthew  Duncan McDaniel
Acc. # 3980240778
Bangkok Bank Ltd.
Maesai Branch
Thailand

Web Site:

http://www.akha.com
mailto:akha at loxinfo.co.th

Discussion Groups:
akha at onelist.com
indigenousworld at onelist.com

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