October 14, 2000

The village had been moved now for nine years, a move into poverty and despair; far from their original stable farming fields and developed rice terraces in the high mountains where the view to the eye made them none less than kings, and the water was cold and clear the wind rustling the might uncut forests all around their village and blowing the tall grasses near to their fields.

Their village was in a way unique because much of the forest near by had been passed over by the logging of the very large original trees which was done by the Thais in the whole region many years before.

Their village had been there for more than a hundred years, and it was no jump of the imagination to understand why, top of the mountain, a view of forever, surely there had been a village here as long as people. Some groups moved on, others filtered in, just as some were born and some would die, buried deep in the heart of the forest.

But then one year the army had come to Haen Taek. The Thai Army. For four days helicopter gun ships bombed and fired upon the inhabitants, Khun Sa and others, driving them from Thailand. Drug Lords. The Akha all looked down on this far below them, the thump thump thump of rotors, the chatter of gunfire and the concussion of bombs rolling up to them on the wind from far below, a days walk away by trail.

But a few years later, the army not satisfied, soldiers came up to their village where it sat on the top of the mountain. There were always soldiers, Burmese, Shan, Wa, Lahu, Lisaw, Chinese Haw, but these were Thai. They demanded that the Akha move down off the mountain ancestral home or they would be driven into what was formally Burma and their village burned. 

The Akha cared not whether they happened to live in Burma or Thailand, since there was no marked border here, only the noted flow of the water shed, and they sat atop the mountain farming both sides, with meters either way. But having seen villages burning which the army had set afire before they knew this was no idle threat, and with no guns or army of their own they loaded up what they could of their village and began what was no less than a short march of tears down the mountain. For tears there were, and great weeping among the elders. Even tourists had occasionally come to this spectacular place, but now there would be no village.

The Thai army, illegal to force the move of the village, gave them a month to move. There was not enough time to move everything and the remnants of the village were burned, the standing posts still scarred by the flames, black and engulfed by caring flowers.

But over 9 years of grief had left the Akha at a great loss at their new location. What were suppose to be replacement fields were an hour and a half's walk or more away up steep trecherous trails, not the five minutes from the hut as before. This immediately effected the nutrition of the village to say nothing of joy and energy.

It could be fairly said that the Thai Army had and has no soul.

While demonstrators were being massacred repeatedly in Bangkok, Akha village women and girls were raped by Black shirts commandos on patrol. The American Baptist Mission knew of this dirty little secret but it never made its way into the press for some odd reason.

The villagers were under incredible pressure. Big roads were coming, and they were trying to keep the young people in the village but conditions were desperate. The long hike to the fields, and poor medical care at the clinics related to at least 8 miscarriages in two years in the village.

There was a trail back to the old village fields, to the ridge, to the fantastic elevation that gave view of forever, but it was narrow and shouldered by thick brush. Robbers and soldiers of unknown origin or from Burma would capture the village women and rape them, sometimes shoving burning cigarettes into their bodies when they were finished with their captive, her hands and feet tied to wooden stakes they had driven into the ground.

Some of the robbers attacked them in field huts, others carried knives or guns and would try to steal their head dresses. More than once groups of village girls hard hurdled themselves down the steep slopes of the jungle off the trail into the bamboo to save themselves from being captured by these bands of robbers. There were no Thai Army patrols securing the area they claimed was Thailand.

There was no real concern for the Akha villagers.

So it was decided to clear the trail wide from the existing fields up the mountain to the top.

There were months of discussion and weighing what would be the army response, but the nutritional situation in the village could not be endured much longer. The village of forty huts was cramped on a tiny hill with no room to move or farm around it, the sides sloping off steeply below each hut.

Pigs were routinely shot or poisoned by others. Chickens died of fever. Mosquitos, heat and illness were prevalent. Malnutrition, not experienced before, was common as well as other nutritional related illnesses.

First there was a group of five men that went out to work on the trail. Then the work paused for two months. Then there was a second group of 4 men that went out and cleared a longer length of the existing trail. Finally, several days later, some 15 men went with hoes, machetes and plenty of drinking water to work on the trail. A considerable length of the trail was cleared and improved, only a couple days remaining. On the finished sections one could see very far in either direction, both ahead, behind and to the side, and the trail was wide enough to walk in the middle and feel safe. The village women often came here for nuts which added protein to the diet. Now even light fell upon the trail. 

But the army heard rumor of this work at this point and called a meeting with the village head man.

The army was very angry. No one works on trails that go up, around here he said. No body goes anywhere without the armies permission and no one is going to go further up on the mountain to build a farm hut, a trail or anything. 

He could not reply to the fact that the women were not safe, nor to the fact that unknown persons, under the cover of the trail being so poor, were illegally cutting trees. With no trail, the process was hard to prevent.

Didn't matter.

It also became quite obvious that there was not only no regard for the Akha as human beings, but that the Army ruled the Akha in a kind of silent implied terror and gave them no room to move whatsoever. The only option they were being offered was to leave for the low lands if they didn't like the furnace being applied to them.

Water pollution seemed to be the criteria, since the tree cutting was still going on by someone. Yet water pollution was hypocrisy since large pig sheds were located right next to the creek once it came out of the mountain before it fed anyone's water supply.

The real point appeared that powerful people wanted the land, it was going to all be taken from the Akha and that was that.

Just the same, the incredible boost and joy in the eyes of the Akha men as they stood at one ridge crest of the new trail could be seen, looking at first this village below, ones across the valley and further on. Green mountains and jungle as far as one could see, as they all remembered growing up before Hitler, Himmler and a few others showed up with their chauffeur Eichmann.

Hoes swung firmly all day that way, 15 men in a row, flattening out the trail, hoes flying in song, like the many rows on a Norseman Long Boat, up, into the soil, and again.

Old stump snags came out, rocks, and holes filled. Thick green cigars from Burma filled the filtering sunlight with smoke, and a lunch made of noodles, one chicken who wasn't happy with the proceedings, and of course chili peppers with heavy mountain rice. Everyone sat on chairs of leaves, backs against trees. In the distance could be heard water buffalo bells.

The trail mostly built they had filed down the mountain, knives in hands, hoes over the shoulders, singing songs, never to be the same again.

So the Army stopped them. Maybe this was bigger than the Army.

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Akha News:

There is a trend in Thailand and elsewhere that environmentalism is becoming a means of the rich to take the land away from the poor. The poor are not considered suitable elements of the environment.

There are opportunities to come and live in a relocated Akha village and help with health care, water, and education projects.

Pooh Cheeh Akha Village is being split by outside interests which are attempting to buy their way in and control the village with foreign money. The traditional Akha of the village naturally don't have the money to fight this very well.

The concept of an Akha Nature Conservancy is in its developmental stages, the Akha seeking to showcase their care for the environment and the beauty of the areas of their villages.

Thai Water Resources people claim the Akha and their animals damage the water shed where they live but no effort is made in Thailand to restrict the sale of chemical contaminants such as herbicide and pesticide which make their way into the water. It would appear that this is strictly a method to be used to clear Akha villages from the mountains as outlined by the Asian Development Bank for the Upper Mekong Region.