Akha Village Split By Taiwanese Maesai Mission

Dear Friends:

The fish well moves down. We are below 8 meters and still digging. We have had to delay for rain which made us wet and cold and lots of mud.

We will also have to rig a pump suitable for evacuating the water from this greater depth.

At any rate, when finished, we will have an enormous supply of water for both the fish and the village huts vegetable use.

During the two months that the truck was being repaired, the Taiwanese missionaries once again attacked Mae Chan Luang village, most intensely it would appear.

The first pastor Boh Tah was now backed up by a second pastor Cheeh Urh. Working through a number of opium smokers in the village and once again without the permission and with the objection of the headman, they once again caused dissention in the village.

The Taiwanese mission from Maesai at the Maesai Baptist Church backed them with help from the Taiwan mission at Huai Krai and Chiangrai. They worked through their project at Louw Fu on the Mae Chan to Tatong Hwy near the Dawn Project run by the Chinese, a fundamentalist project that operates disguised as a drug rehab center on land donated by no other than their friend Drug Lord Khun Sa. That is why they have his big painting on the wall amid so many crosses.

At any rate, they raised sufficient ruckus that the headman insisted that if they wanted to split the village, they could not reside in the village, so already a couple houses have rebuilt down the hill below the village.

The missionaries will not leave alone one village and a split village is better than nothing they figure.

The government of Thailand allows this process and interference in the villages.

I visited this village in the rain last night. It is a long drive and a bad road.

The missions are very powerful here to impose this on the village in spite of the headman insisting that they should not be allowed to tear his village apart.

Attu is the troublemaker in the village, an opium adict and violator of other village rules. He was promised by the mission that he would be paid, that he would become the new leader of the village if he helped an overthrow. He is backed by Cheeh Urh who is from the segment of Keeh Seh Thai village on the Mae Chan Hwy where the Chinese Taiwan people have a strong hold.

Why does Taiwan have so much clout over the hilltribe in Thailand?

Why does the government allow this?

I say China could do us all a favor by overunning the place. Would sure put an end to this dictator's religion they are pushing on the hilltribe villages against the will of the majority.

The border war is in a stalemate. The bridge was going to open in word only, was a big hoopla, but no opening of course.

Not many of us would dare cross anyway, after Burma got its nose twisted and lost so many troops.

A hostage situation in the making?

Meanwhile troops continue to build up with equipment along the border and border village areas.

One soldier was sleeping in a hut next to mine when I went up on the hill, and hundreds of troops were moved up the day before I got there, the villagers paid to haul munitions and food for them, since it is very steep and the soldiers were not at all accustomed to it. They got paid handsomely so did not mind.

Course the army might just fix the road and drive up.

You can protest the Taiwan Missionary interference in the Akha villages by contacting your Thai embassy.

You must ask about their splitting of Mae Chan Luang Village in Mae Faluang District behind Doi Mae Salong.

The headman's name is Ah Bauh.

The Taiwanese who split it where from the following churches.

Maesai Baptist, Maesai, Chiangrai, Thailand Huai Krai Mission, Huai Krai, Chiangrai, Thailand Huai krai Emanuel Fellowship, Huai Krai, Thailand. One church in Chiangrai for which I do not yet have a name.

The mission operators of these missions are both Chinese, Taiwanese Chinese and American Citizens.

All these missions, as with most missions in Thailand, are supported by donations from american evangelical mission organizations and church members.

While the Akha do not have any tall standing stone Buddas, the missionaries in Thailand are no less tolerant in destroying their culture and traditions than the Talaban.

Please protest surely by contacting the Thai embassy closest to you. Ask that they contact the Ampour's office of Mae Faluang in Chiangrai Province and find out what is going on. Why are foreign nationals given the power to split villages in Thailand? Please ask them that and insist on an answer.

Matthew McDaniel
Maesai, Thailand