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EXTREMELY URGENT:
Forward This Email Widely.
CONTACT YOUR GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE
CONTACT THE THAI EMBASSY NEAREST YOU (SEE EMAILS AT
BOTTOM)
Dear Friends of the Akha People:
Below are links to photos and todays top front page
story in the Monday Jan 21,2002 Bangkok Post
about the murders of Akha men at the hands of both
Thai Army and Police.
The United States commits to giving border electonic
sensors to the Thai Army for border drug control
in the same newspaper in what is the complete
militarization of the Hill Tribe border villages in
Thailand, some 500 villages or more. 300 of which are
Akha.
Task Force 399 in Mae Rim near Chiangmai is also the
home of US military advisers who train this
task force for border duty. So are they training
brutal killers outside the law or professional
soldiers?
In the links below you will find photos of the men who
were beaten, some of who died. There will be
more pics up on the site later for which I will send
out a second notice, I can not get them scanned in
fast enough.
Certainly there must be political oversight in the US
regarding the climate that this military assistance
from the US is flowing into and required safeguards
addressing human rights issues in the region of
conflict effected by these US military assistance
packages.
Look carefully at the pictures and the article and
then contact your congress persons to find out what is
going on and how the reality here in Thailand can be
changed for the better. Anyone with questions
can contact me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Also contact the closest Thai Consulate or other email
address below and demand an investigation into
these killings.
We have been working for a very long time to find out
what is going on in the mountains and protect
the Akha people. While forestry takes their lands,
missionaries are busy taking their children, in a
climate of despair and extreme poverty (as many
volunteers to this region will attest) the Thai
military is
continuing its long campaign of heavy military
suppression of the Akha people.
No military campaigns in the name of "National
Security" are being aimed at the very close drug
factories in Burma, but instead a full military
occupation of the border hill tribe villages with
extreme
brutality handed out to the least fortunate goes on
daily. There is little in the way of poverty
alleviation
to these villagers.
Below are also email contacts of the Thai Army
Command. Demand a full accounting, they can email
me if they would like proof of the beatings because we
have the proof, we have the photos, also in the
links below.
We also need that Human Rights Activists would become
involved, Amnesty International, Survival
International, Cultural Survival, Torture Care and
that people with the UN Human Rights and Refugee
Commisions contact us. Please help us if you have any
inroads with these people. The front doors
seem locked.
We also ask that you would contact the Thailand Prime
Minister's Office and demand that these
killings be investigated.
Security in the village I live in continues to be very
jittery.
Currently the truck is fully repaired but still in the
shop because the bill is not completely paid. Please
help us at this crucial time with a kind and generous
donation.
We depend on your donation and the truck to continue
this work that we do here to protect the Akha
people and bring their story to the world.
Sincerely,
Matthew McDaniel
Thailand
Checks can be sent to:
The Akha Heritage Foundation
PO BOX 6073
Salem OR 97304
USA
Donations by direct banking can be transferred to:
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
ARTICLES ON AKHA KILLINGS:
Photos:
http://www.akha.org/akha2/abuse/armythai.htm
http://www.akha.org/akha2/abuse/abuseindex.htm
http://www.akha.org/akha2/abuse/bangkokpostjan212002.htm
http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/21Jan2002_news03.html
DRUG SUPPRESSION / MILITARY VIOLENCE
HILLTRIBE ADDICTS DIE IN FORCED 'DETOX CAMPS'
SOLDIERS ACCUSED OF SAVAGE BEATINGS
Anucha Charoenpo
In their zeal to suppress drug trafficking,
authorities have resorted to torture and murder of
hilltribe
suspects, victims and relatives charge.
Ateh Amoh, an Akha man, said he was savagely beaten by
soldiers who took him and other Akha men,
mostly drug users, from their homes and held them at a
military camp.
There they beat them to extract a confession, he said.
His neighbour, Ajuuh Cheh Muuh Gooh, 42, died from the
beating.
The authorities denied any wrongdoing and said Mr
Ajuuh's death was caused by withdrawal
symptoms as a result of his attempt to end his opium
habit during a detoxification programme.
Mr Ateh, 34, said he was taken from his house in Ban
Mae Moh hilltribe village, Mae Fah Luang
district, by soldiers in the early morning of Dec 7.
His neighbour, the late Mr Ajuuh, was taken from the
same village the same day.
Three other Akha men, their names unknown, were taken
from nearby villages.
All of them had smoked opium for a long time and had
been suspected of drug trafficking.
Mr Ateh said the soldiers insisted he and Mr Ajuuh
join the opium detoxification programme at a
military camp near the village.
As soon they arrived at the camp, the soldiers pushed
them down a small hole in the ground where the
three other Akha men had already been detained.
The soldiers then poured water, coal and ashes into
the hole, leaving them to sit there for a whole day.
`The soldiers never said why they were treating us
like that. We doubted this was an opium
detoxification
process,'' Mr Ateh said.
That night everyone was pulled from the hole, then
blindfolded and led off separately for questioning.
The soldiers asked him several times about his
supposed connection with drug traffickers in the
village,
and he denied any involvement.
``The soldiers never talked about the opium
detoxification programme. They tried to force me to
admit
the drug charges by electric shocks to my ears,
kicking my face and body, punching me hard in the
body and hitting me with a gunhandle on my head and
chest several times.
``When they felt that I could no longer stand it
because my body was soaked with blood, they took me
back to the hole and left me there for a night and a
day,'' he said.
He did not know about the other three men, but
believed their experience was probably not much
different.
On the second night, one of the Akha men was able to
escape from the hole while he and the others
were
sleeping.
As soon as the soldiers found out they took the rest
for questioning, on suspicion of aiding the escape.
Mr Ateh said he was blindfolded and again beaten most
savagely that night. His neighbour Mr Ajuuh
died from his injuries.
The soldiers told Mr Ajuuh 's family his death was the
result of going cold turkey as he attempted to
break the opium habit.
``Ajuuh died while we were sitting together in the
hole. I heard him calling for his father and mother,
and he talked about his children and wife.
``I saw him dying before my eyes and I was scared
almost to death myself,'' he said.
Mr Ajuuh died in the early morning of Dec 9.
The soldiers took his body, together with Mr Ateh and
the other two Akha men, to the nearby Mae Fah
Luang hospital where they were released to the care of
doctors.
Mr Ateh was kept in hospital for six days after
doctors found his lung was ruptured and bleeding
profusely.
The army did not pay his medical expenses.
Mr Ajuuh's wife, Apiew, 44, said the army gave her
family 7,000 baht in compensation for the death of
her husband.
Mrs Apiew said the hospital had not confirmed her
husband's cause of death.
The hospital director, Dr Nongnuch Malin, refused to
disclose the autopsy result to the Bangkok Post,
saying she needed more time.
``The army should not have killed my husband this
way,'' Mrs Apiew said.
``He was not involved in drug trafficking. If he was
really involved why didn't the army show evidence
and take him to court? Although we are hilltribe
people we still have the right to the protection of
the
law.''
Lt-Col Apisit Nujbutsaba, who is responsible for the
detoxification programme in Mae Fah Luang
district, denied he had sent soldiers to take the drug
addicts for detoxification.
He said Por Luang, the eldest villager, had taken them
to the camp.
He insisted Mr Ajuuh died in the process of trying to
break his opium addiction. He denied his
soldiers had beaten Mr Ajuuh to death and injured
other Akha men.
The district chief, Chainarong Boonwiwatthanakarn,
said he knew of the matter and had advised Mr
Ajuuh's wife to file a complaint with police.
The drug detoxification programme for hilltribe people
is jointly handled by the army, the Public
Health Ministry, the police and the Interior Ministry.
It was launched in Chiang Rai on Oct 23 last
year.
The province required all drug addicts to voluntarily
register with village committees and join the
programme.
Those who registered were safe from prosecution.
The programme was aimed at separating drug addicts
from dealers and traffickers. Mr Ajuuh is not the
only case where the authorities are suspected of
having killed Akha villagers they suspected of
trafficking.
On May 17 last year, Apha Wurh Zur, 56, was taken from
his house in Ban Mae Sam Lap village, in
Mae Fah Luang district, and allegedly beaten to death
by police officers and another Akha man.
The police had allegedly accused him of involvement in
the drug trade. His wife Mee Shur, 56, denied
the accusation and said police had demanded money from
her in exchange for her husband's release.
On Aug 9 last year, Logu Yeh Shaw, 30, was shot three
times by Mae Chan police officers and died.
He was accused of being a drug trafficker. The
shooting occurred in Bodu village.
His mother Byuabo Yeh Shaw, 70, denied her son was
involved in drugs.
These are just a few of the many suspicious deaths of
hilltribe people at the hands of the authorities in
this northern province.
Most have never been properly investigated.
*******
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ACTION CONTACTS:
Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Overseas Offices
- Hong Kong
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Kuala Lumpur
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- London
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Los Angeles
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- New York
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Osaka
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Paris
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Frankfurt
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Rome
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Seoul
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Sydney
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Taipei
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Tokyo
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Singapore
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
- Fukuoka
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Other Tourism Addresses
Click on "contact" link:
http://www.tat.or.th/more/index.html
url for all the tourism authority addresses.
Note the many international ones, send to these as
well.
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: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
WASHINGTON DC
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
LOS ANGELES
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
NEW YORK
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
CHICAGO
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
PRIME MINISTER OF THAILAND’S OFFICE
Prime Minister Mr Chuan Leekpai
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
Director of Mass Communication & Information
Centre
Mr Coosak Rongsawat
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Director Press Relations Centre
Me Surin Plangprasopchoke
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
TOURISM AUTHORITY OF THAILAND offices
BANGKOK;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
CHIANG RAI;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
AUSTRALIA;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
UNITED STATES;
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Prime Miinister of Thailand
Mr Chuan Leekpai
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Information Co-ordinator
Mr Surin Plangprasopchoke
Director Press Relations Centre
office 02 618 2323 ext. 1505
mobile 01 254 0790
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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
--
Matthew McDaniel
The Akha Heritage Foundation
Maesai, Chiangrai, Thailand
Join The Growing International Effort To Protect The
Akha
Sign The Petition To The Thai Government
On Line At:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/AkhaZauh/petition.html
http://www.akha.org
Donations:
PayPal:
https://www.paypal.com/refer/pal=akha%40loxinfo.co.th
Credit Card Donation Site:
http://www.drugwar.com/store/proddetail.cfm?ItemID=12&CategoryID=6
Your donation goes to infant care, vitamins, medical
supplies, wells, bread and fish for the villages.
Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
The Akha Heritage Foundation
PO BOX 6073
Salem OR 97304 USA
__________________________________________________
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