Emergency Request
International Legal Assistance And Financial Assistance Urgently Needed
Elderly Akha Man Beaten By Police, Dies.
Monday 18 June, 2001
Maesai, Chiangrai, Thailand

The sordid tale of an elderly Akha man being rousted from his hut, tied and beaten then dying within minutes began to unravel in the past few days in Northern Thailand's Ampur MaeFaluang District of Chiangrai Province. Mae Faluang Police angrily insisted the case was closed when approached today at the request of the Akha people.

57 Year Old Apah Rgoeuh Zuuh Gooh of Mae Salep Akha was grabbed in his hut next to his fire late in the evening of May 19th. His hut located next to the roads in the mountains close to Haen Taek, had a new hut next to it, built by a man from Poland who had married to his daughter.

Mae Salep Akha testified that the police felt they could get money from this house because the daughter was married to a foreigner.

Apah was beaten by the police next to his hut and tied and forced onto a motorbike and taken up the road to the Sam Yak Maesalong Rd Checkpoint and Police box where he was further beaten in front of his wife who had followed him and numerous other Akha villagers both from Mae Salep Akha and Sam Yak Akha.

Finally he was loaded in a truck after being accused of trading in opium of which none was found. His final words to his wife were that he felt that he "was dying".

A passing policeman's truck was used as he was coming off duty and going home. Apah was tied and handcuffed in the back of his truck and the driver was told to take him to Mae Faluang Police station. But within two kilometers Apah had already collapsed from his beating. The lone police driver stopped. Apah was immediately found moments later laying dead in the road, blood coming from his left ear.

At nearly midnight the police came to his daughter's hut and asked her for money to get her father out of jail. Her husband from Poland asked how much? But her father had already been dead for five hours.

Suddenly the radio chirped and Apah's daughter heard words on the radio, knowing her father was dead. The police quickly left without any money.

Other police moved the body to the hospital at Haen Taek.

Apah's body was kept there four days until it was moved to Chiangrai Provincial Hospital were am autopsy was performed with x-rays.

The performing doctor stated that Apah had died of a blow to the low back part of the skull, fracturing it and causing a brain stem hemorrage and death, blood coming from the one ear.

Mae Faluang Police promised to pay money to the family to close the matter.

Money of some quantity was paid but the amount promised and the amount paid is in dispute.

Witnesses are afraid to testify who witnessed the beating at the Sam Yak intersection and Mae Salep village.

We are in urgent need of observers, reporters and media coverage from in and outside of Thailand.

There have been repeated shootings and killings of Akha in extra-judicial fashion.

We are also seeking anyone with expertise in forensic medicine.

We urgently need your presence and financial assistance at this time. Persuing evidence in this case strains our already minimal resources. Please make a donation to this work!

Let us know if you can come to Thailand as an observer, reporter, witness or expert witness in support of the Akha Community to help us find justice in this case.

Matthew McDaniel
The Akha Heritage Foundation
Thailand