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Akha Chronicles In the Villages My experiences in specific villages and how they
served to educate me about the lives and
hard times of the Akha people.
The services that I was able to deliver them were far below what I
wished that I could do. That is my chief regret. Year by Year Year by year, I laid my life down behind the wheel,
going from one village to another, visiting the people, learning their names
and faces, finding out who they were, where they had lived before, how many
years they had been in that village, wether the village was split already or
not, the church, and what the grew.
How many huts were there, did they have clean water, were there any
major problems, were they being threatened with relocation? I asked many questions, writing much of it down,
taking note of what they needed most and how I might be able to help. My truck looked all the worse for wear, the fenders
gone, the roof battered, the frame cracked repeatedly, sometimes bad tires,
sometimes good ones, and of course first aid medicines and all the tools I
needed to either fix the truck or fix the road. In the Villages This chapter is a look at the different Akha villages
and the ones that take a representative place in my work. Some are stable traditional villages, some are fragmented
broken, targeted for conversion, under pressure, bandit villages, villages
exposed to the worst sort of exchanges with Thais, others are villages that
are remote and isolated, relieved of many of the problems. These many villages make up the wide variety that I
deal with and each category may be represented by many villages facing the
same type of problems. Overall it makes a picture of the Akha dilema in
modern Village Conditions Beisides the heat life in vilages was very difficult. Much
of the owrk that had been invested in old village sites was lost with forced
village relocation. One could not
easily calculate the lost food security, fields, terraces, preparations such
as this. The cost was incalculable. There is a need for great investment in the
villages. Water, roads, electric,
terrace building, crops. So much to do and so much money to find that it was
discouraging. The villages Stories
of the village, all the villages, their roads, trails, lives, talks, by the
fire in every hut. The
vilage squares, dances, ceremonies, wisdom and knowledge of the elders. There
is peace and strife both in the villages as life is either let go or fought
over. The
struggle must go on, this is life. To
fight up, to grow, to improve. To fix, t repair to rebuild. Always
h ope that the best, that knowledge can be spared and passed on. The
Akha have great potential. 1.
Haen Taek Area Villages Aih Yoh Akha Village
above San Chai, tired, heroin, aids, another gangster village. San Sook woman
here dyes cloth. Another
gangster village, heroin and aids. twins
lived in this village, I think they had health problems, many people came to
see them. Mae Chan Luang Akha I went out behind Maesalong to Mae Chan Akha. They were having a problem about the village
being split, and I had fought this for a long time. The road was bad in and I hoped before I
got there that the problem had not gotten worse. I also wanted to talk to them about
forestry because I wanted to find out how much land forestry was taking and
leaving them to farm. Well, as it
turned out, forestry was taking just about everything, leaving a few fields
per family to farm, not enough for rice for the year by any means. The old structure was taken down and they were still
waiting for me to build the Sala but because of the moving of Huai Maak I had
been delayed. Then
the headman told me that of the nine houses that had split off, now only six
wanted to split off as the others had come back and taken up the ceremonies
again. This was good news to me and I
hoped for the best. Booh Dzmm’s
father had still split off and Booh Dzmm’s mother had split off, I
didn’t know about Booh Dzmm, what she was up to any more. I
asked about the road behind to Huai Maak but would have to run it in day
light to get a good feel for it. Dead, Nyeeh Pah Meeh Cheh Nyeeh
Pah Meeh Cheh relates how an incident was connected to Ah Baw Tooh from Mae
Chan Luang Akha, Booh Dzmm's father.
Two tourists were robbed, killed and put in a shalow grave and
gasoline poured on them to burn them up.
Somehow this was the fear causing event behind Ah Tooh's desire to
become Christian she said. I captured
the discussion on video tape but have not retrieved the copy. The Boeuh Maw Mae Chan Luang I wasn't sure what the truth was but only knew I was
getting closer to finding out. The old
man wover the strip of bamboo around the stick, caught anohter clasp of grass
blades and tied them first one way then folding them over onto themselves
around the stick, tied them antoher way, repeating the process till the stick
was full making up one grass roof tile. These he piled up, some one meter long, till he had
hsi share to donate to the ew sala that was being built. Water ran on the grass mid section so that
it would bend around the stick without breaking. He told me that the reason the family had become
christian was that the grandfather had been murdered. And now th e father's throat had becmoe
sore, Ah Tooh, and he was afraid. I
was sure I was only getting part of the story but he could not explain it
very well. He seemed also
uncomfortable, afraid, so I let it go.
The straw hat blocked the sun, his hands working
surely, sitting there in the heat, next to the fence near his house. His wife occasionally said something, as
she stacked broom grass nearby. The
ground was covered in green dust which was the seeds from the broom
tassle. They got the seeds out by
rolling the tassle on the ground. The old man said his heart hurt him to see the
village dividing so. Breaking, a split
gone in it. Maybe 8 houses pulling out
to become Christian. The wife of Ah
Tooh could not explain how she and her husband joined the split or guided it
actually with the visiting pastor. The headman had more exact sentiment. He told me how
that the woman had been pregnant and when she gave b irth to her first child
she could not feed the baby girl becaue of a painful breast. That he had helped feed and raise the
couple and their first child. His
expression was not betrayal but just dismay at the current results. The pastor was always coming mid day when
the elders were gone to their fields. Now both the girls from that family had gone to be
prostitutes in Ah Baw Meh His one daughter was 15 and working at some
unspecified job in Huai Krai. His
other younger daughter was working in Mae Salong and living at home in Mae
Chan Luang village. The family was poor.
Very poor. All the details were
not at first obvious. The house was so poor that the most noticeable thing
in it was a large sack of rock salt next to the partition. Not only was the house dark it was in general
bagginess. Bags hanging everywhere,
blankets, clothes, no fire ring, just a heap of stones, a broken mirror, no
shelves, rice sacks against the walls. The man's knee had gone bad. An old woman came with a leaf and chopped
leaves from the jungle and plastered them on the leg after spitting in lime and making a line of white around his
leg just above the knee. His face and eyes were big and open, like a face that
didn't see the sun enough, yet hard working and human. The hut was set steeply at the bottom of the
village. He had not enough land to
farm, one kaw was all and forestry might take that too. Very predictable, forestry, missionaries, army
working in all these places. Booh Dzmm, the three month story Huuh Mah Akha The Beginning of the Huuh Mah story I did get to the new village site below Huuh Yoh
Akha. What an awful looking
situation. Shows what happens when the
government tramples on peoples' rights.
Things sort of go bad, once the bad thinking starts. The workers had taken a cat and cut huge
terraces across the face of the mountain, very close together and very
steep. The Akha would not be so intrusive,
taking out only small pieces here and there for a house at a time. The Akha swore with good reason that this
site was not safe and might well all fall down now during the rainy season
because they had opened up so much of the mountain side at once. Block houses one after the other, asbestos
ceilings, from freeman to slave just like that. And narry the land to till near the old
site, impoverished the Akha would be if they moved to this site. I went around the mountain and found the road into
the village that was to be moved. The
road was long and beautiful through the trees, passed another villge and went
on long into the mountains to a secluded valley. There the Akha were rich with fruit
trees hillsides to farm, beautiful and
abundant rice terraces, buffalo, cattle, horses, pigs, chickens and
geese. The place was high, beautiful,
quiet and they had been there 78 years
best anyone alive could remember any way. In the village not a single person wanted to
leave. The headman had been Wa, as there were also
Lisaw in the village, and the Wa headman and Lisaw had been involved with the
Chinese and agreed to move the whole village accept that 37 houses of Akha,
which made up the majority of the village didn't agree to do this. The government told them they were destroying the
forest, hardly the case, and that if they wanted ID cards they had to move. Forestry was the real culprit and I had a lot of work
to do if I was going to stop this one.
The despair hung in the air, the roof pulled off one storage
shed. They had sold some pigs already
and would have to pay for all the trucks themselves, and sell all that they
had because there would be no room for any livestock where they were being
made to move. I told them to not tear down anything, that I would
see what I could do, that they should give me two weeks time, if they really
did not want to move. And the rest is
history. A Real Shock Huuh Mah Akha was facing eviction and I had to take
two foreigners up to locate in the village as observers. As I drove up the mountain a truck load of Akha waved
for me to stop. They were from Huuh Mah and told me that there had
been a meeting there and that the forestry had a letter from me about the
relocation and they were really angry. The army said they would be forced to relocate
anyway, even though forestry was backing off, and set the eviction for The village was jubilant at this first small victory
to keep their village in tact. I drove on to the village and once we were all there
we wrote up a statement to stay in the village. Everyone signed it with their thumb that
they did not want to relocate from the mountain. The Akha said that they would refuse to
move if they had any kind of back up.
I promised them that I would do the best I could. I really felt for them. They had this village, all the food they
needed, totally self sufficient, and the army wanted to move them into
poverty. Story of Huuh Mah Akha How
I discovered Huuh Mah Akha First
contact with the construction site First
contact with the village Army
in the village at that time Party Email
alert People
who came First
contact with the army Meeting
in Chiangrai the
vote the
village remains the
general forestry Sawat Village
Water problem No
power, no road, amen. Food
secure Huuh Mah Akha Action
Alert Forced Relocation of Huuh Mah Akha Call
for observers ACTION
ALERT!!!!!! This
is a very urgent message!!!!! Please
forward it to all the people who you know!!!!!! FORCED
MOVING OF AN There
is the immediate need for people to come to north locate in
a remote Akha mountain village to prevent its 400 inhabitants from being forced
to move within the next 30 days, meaning by the end of January 2000. Happy new Millenium, the new world
order. They will have to abandon
all their land and homes and have to pay to move
all their
possesions to a place where they will have no land to farm, no place for
their animals to grow and breed, and live instead in concrete box like houses
with asbestos ceilings and on a very steep
hillside opened up in
such a
way that mud sliding is imminent next rainy season. This
move is highly illegal on the part of the Thai government and forestry
department and these people have no voice and don’t want to move down
to the last person. The
village has been there for 78 years and there are people who have lived in
the village since then. This
village move will only be stopped by a physical presence such that
intervention is obviously on an international level. If
no one comes, there will be no blocking the move, and all the families will
be shoved into poverty by the forestry department. They have been told they will not be
allowed to become citizens of There
are not many days left. Please
contact me if you want more info or can come, the village is waiting to hear
if anyone will come and help them.
They have no rights, they know that, which leaves others to help them. Matthew
McDaniel Call for help THIS
IS AN EXTREMELY URGENT CALL FOR HELP. WE
NEED JOURNALISTS HERE AT THE VILLAGE PLEASE
FORWARD THIS TO ALL YOU KNOW. Chiangrai,
Forced
Move of An This is an urgent message and update about the forced
move of an Akha village. This
move is to occur January, end January, this year, NOW in a few weeks. Myself
and one other visited the Akha village Huuh Mah Akha (thai pronunciation Huai
Maak) in Ampour Mae Faluang District of Chiangrai Province. The
Thai personell at the village at the time said that the village was being
forced to move because they were cutting down trees and poluting the water
shed. The move was being ordered by the Thai Forestry
Department and an office dealing with Watershed. As
I have monitered this area often, I can see no proof of cutting of trees that
could not be controlled, especially since non native pine is planted up all
the way to the village on most sides of the valley, the valley, small valley
walls being used for food and highly developed terraces, the terraces
supplying most of the rice, making slash and burn not desired or much
necessary. This village happens to
have one of the most environmentaly friendly situations in the area, as they
have put great effort into these terraces and to use a minimum of the
land. Certainly forestry and water
issues could be addressed without taking all that these people have invested
in and owned all their life? What is very badly needed now is that anyone who can
alert a journalist to this situation should contact me, so that some
arrangement could be made to come here and look at the situation. We contacted the Ampour office for Mae
Faluang district in Many
have asked what they can do. Well, we are really in need of some reporters to come
here and look at this, and any other people that can be observers. I know that few can come, that it is not
easily possible to drop all and go, but at the same time it is not going to
be easy to stop the move without there actually being people here to look at
the situation, report back to their own countries governments, and make a
presence to the village. The
Akha involved, except for the land, have not much of anything, they are poor,
are lucky to have temporary id cards issued the hill tribe and have no legal
rights or recourse. All
the Thais I spoke to said “sorry, it must happen” not to them of
course. It is also recommended that you contact the nearest
Thai embassy and equire politely what is going on. Do not be confrontive, but persistent and
polite. The
name of the village is Huai Maak. It
is a few kilometers on your map from a town called Haen Taek north of Doi
Maesalong in It
is not the issue strictly of legality, but of humanity. If this is the cost of trees and water, we
need it not. Huai
Maak village latitude and longitude coordinates are: 20degrees
13.31 N 099degrees
34.49 E 1053
meters Matthew
McDaniel PTT Dear Tansamrit-Hoho Songkiert at Petroleum
Authority of A Ms. Josephine Birch sent me your email address and
suggested that I visit
a village that she noted is being forced to move by the Thai forestry
department. She said that you are opposed to moving people to
plant trees. I
hope so, and that this order to move a village can be turned back. As
I am very busy I don’t always see things happening as they build up and
in this case it is very unfortunate because this situation has progressed
very far already. A village in Ampour Mae Faluang, Chiangrai District
named Huai Maak, is being told that they will have to move. This Month. A “village” has been chopped
out of a mountain for them. Complete
with highly carcinogenic asbestos roofing in these tiny row houses. People
in Forestry and Watershed are both involved in this decision. Since I noted that there are a score of
pine trees surrounding this village on all sides and your signs often
accompanying such plantings I could not help but note the connection that she
pointed out. On
visiting the village and talking to the villagers I indeed noted that they
are being forced to move against their will.
The village has been there 78 years according to them, that is going
back to about 1922 if I calculate correctly.
A little of a long time on immenent domain. I
also saw the site where they are being crouded into row houses on a hill,
courtesy of some money from The Thai people at the village today told me that the
village was poluting the water and that villagers were cutting trees. Yet I saw no evidence of either. After all, rather old growths of pine are
planted up to one side of the valley ridge and much younger pine planted to
the other side near the site where another village was forced to move three
years ago. Your strategy is obvious, take all the land that the
Akha are living on and force them to live else where while you plant row
after row of non native specie pine tree to the impoverishment of Today
I inspected rai apon rai of pine planted, ten years old I would guess, not a
damn thing growing underneath it, the soil dead. Since anyone can tell you that pine has not near the
bio mass that verdent jungle does, your progrom is increasing the likelyhood
of drought in Thailand and the diminishing of multiple species of both plants
and animals. I don’t know if
someone plans to harvest this in the future or not, sure looks convenient to
that, a rich portfolio. The other foolishness of this kind of planting is
that in these mountains each spring huge layers of very humid air build up
from flash rains, heat presses it all down, making the forest a furnace and
then lightning strikes all afternoon, you can see it rolling in the clouds
like great electric fingers. Normal
jungle is diverse and wet, many layers of wet, pine blows like an exploding
flame and both animals and people die and forest is stripped bare in
minutes. I have seen it here near Doi
Tung, and I know of people that have died from it, you can not outrun such an
inferno shooting to the ridge. If
you will, could you please explain to me why PTT (Petroleum Authority of
Thailand) is engaged in sponsoring all this non native specie pine and
further how you can justify moving villages? This village in question has been there for 78 years,
much older than you or I, a history, a people, rice terraces, fruit trees and
a fortune in human memory and knowledge of the environment. Rather
than work with them, as part of that environment, they are to be moved
against their will, this month, January, 2000. Welcome to the new millenium and the new
world order? Is that it? The
concept that they are above watershed is foolish at best. The water from this valley drains into the
Haen Taek region only kilometers away, where every kind of polutant is dumped
into the water, so how is one village endangering that? Further, we have been after the idea for
years that all these herbicides and pesticides should not be so freely sold
in If this is used as an example, following these flimsy
guidelines, you could justify the moving of every Akha village out of the
border mountains of The social welfare cost to the several hundred Akha
in this village will not come cheaply to them or the Thai government once
this move is forced. I have worked
with other villages that have been forced to move. The death rate of the elderly and the
infants is quite high, and since there is no land for these people where they
are being forced to move compared to their current location, we can assume
they are being moved into poverty.
Pigs, cattle, water buffalo and chickens not only do not do as well
down at lower altitudes but there will also not be room for them. So the protein supply and the fruit supply,
the general nutrition of this village will plummet. Rather than being self sufficient and
independent, they will be forced into a cash economy completely, and will
have to farm themselves out to rich others who will pay them the standard
$2.50 US per day for whatever labor. Have you ever spent a night in an Akha village? Do
you know who these people your trees move so easily are? From every place in the Doi Maesalong and Doi Tung
area I see where these
pine trees have been planted in mass it has turned rich jungle and manageable
areas into rows of single specie trees which impoverishes us all. If you don’t know that these things are going
on, you should find out who is putting your PTT signs up all over the mountains of I
am always seeing in the Huai
Maak village latitude and longitude coordinates are: 20degrees
13.31 N 099degrees
34.49 E 1053
meters Sincerely, Matthew
McDaniel Forced Move of For anyone interested in the Akha Hill Tribe of North
Thailand and the preservation to their right to live, land and their own
traditions: Forced
Move of An This is an urgent message and update about the forced
move of an Akha village. This
move is to occur January, end January, this year, NOW in a few weeks. Myself
and one other visited the Akha village Huuh Mah Akha (thai pronunciation Huai
Maak) in Ampour Mae Faluang District of Chiangrai Province. The Thai personell at the village at the time said
that the village was being forced to move because they were cutting down
trees and poluting the water shed. The
move was being ordered by the Thai Forestry Department and an office dealing
with Watershed. As
I have monitered this area often, I can see no proof of cutting of trees that
could not be controlled, especially since non native pine is planted up all
the way to the village on most sides of the valley, the valley, small valley
walls being used for food and highly developed terraces, the terraces
supplying most of the rice, making slash and burn not desired or much
necessary. This village happens to
have one of the most environmentaly friendly situations in the area, as they
have put great effort into these terraces and to use a minimum of the
land. Certainly forestry and water
issues could be addressed without taking all that these people have invested
in and owned all their life? What is very badly needed now is that anyone who can
alert a journalist to
this situation should contact me, so that some arrangement could be made
to come here and look at the situation.
We contacted the Ampour office
for Mae Faluang district in that
the order came from by
the Thai army. True to their word we
found Thai army in the village today,
with a truck and putting on a party before “the chicken’s head is
cut”. The Thai civilians in the
village said that no body was being forced
to move that all the Akha present wanted to move to the tiny houses
being built by generous Taiwanese people down the mountain on a steep
hillside of a “new village” that will have little to no land for them
to farm or place their animals and all investment will be lost. The
Akha all present immediately sung out that this was not true at all
and that none of them, not one, wanted to leave. Can you imagine being 55,
having lived somewhere all your life, and your mom, and being told,
hey, sorry, you are a non person, want identity cards in well
then you have to move. This is a move
into poverty. Probability that these
families will see their daughters go into prostitution is high. Having
little resource once the land is gone.
The boys as well may very
likely enter into the drug trade to make up the difference. The cost in
social welfare to the Akha and the Thai government will also be high. In
addition if trees and watershed are going to be the set method of determining
if a village gets moved then the real goal must be that all
the Akha villages get moved out of the mountains into the flat lands, into
ghettos if you will, landless, labor class for the Thais, as is the
case in many places already. Many have asked what they can do. Well,
we are really in need of some reporters to come here and look at this,
and any other people that can be observers.
I know that few can come,
that it is not easily possible to drop all and go, but at the same
time it is not going to be easy to stop the move without there actually
being people here to look at the situation, report back to their own countries
governments, and make a presence to the village. The
Akha involved, except for the land, have not much of anything, they are poor,
are lucky to have temporary id cards issued the hill tribe and have no legal
rights or recourse. All
the Thais I spoke to said “sorry, it must happen” not to them of
course. It
is also recommended that you contact the nearest Thai embassy and equire
politely what is going on. Do not be
confrontive, but persistent
and polite. The name of the village is Huai Maak. It is a few kilometers on your map
from a town called Haen Taek north of Doi Maesalong in Chiangrai Province,
north It is not the issue strictly of legality, but of
humanity. If this is the cost of trees
and water, we need it not. Huai
Maak village latitude and longitude coordinates are: 20degrees
13.31 N 099degrees
34.49 E 1053
meters Matthew
McDaniel ********* URGENT UPDATE: JAN 30 FORCED EVICTION OF ONE OF This
is an urgent up date in the latest events of an Army eviction of an Akha
village in north Please
forward to as many people as you know. Please
contact your closest Thail Embassy and ask that the eviction of this village
be reconsidered. Don’t
be confrontive, be polite. The
name of the village is Huai Maak, in 20degrees
13.31 N 099degrees
34.49 E 1053
meters Dear
Friends: This is the latest update as I have the information
regarding the forced eviction of Huai Maak Akha village here in Chiangrai province slated
for the end of this month, Jan 30. Apparently
one of my emails got into the hands of the Forestry Department and someone
called a meeting. Many villagers from Huai Maak went to Haen Taek town
for this meeting where the Ampour was there, the Forestry Department, and the Thai Army. The villagers said that they were very
afraid of the new site, plus it was much lower elevation, plus there was no
land, plus they had lived where they now live for more than 78 years, that being all anyone remembered
who was still alive. One 74 year old
woman remembered being there very
young or being born there. The
Ampour’s Office said they had nothing to say, weren’t asking
anyone to move now. Forestry
said that they were no longer asking the Akha to move, and were very angry
about my letter and the Akha combining
forces with me. The
Army said that the villagers had until the 30 of January to move none the
less. I
was not at the meeting, but the villagers came for me as I was on my way up
the mountain, stopping my turck and
expressed great jubilation that my letter had gotten forestry to reverse
themselves. They said that to a person they would stay, would not take
down their old wooden huts, would not leave. I
warned them not to have an army confrontation. Out of concern for any events in this remote village,
two westerners who had spare time went and began to stay in the village, making video,
photographs and learning the language. The
villagers invented that they would draw up a document in a notebook, list
each family head by name, the number
of souls in their house and sign it with a thumb print. Both Lisaw and Akha. All 31 families did so.
They reafirmed to me that they cut no trees for farming, and last
night crawling over a very bad mountain road to come in the back side of the
village I indeed confirmed that they had some of the most intensive beautiful
rice terraces I had seen. I also noted that the Asian Development Bank has
offered a policy in I
took the document from the village of the villagers stating why they did not
want to leave, and all their signatures and left late in the night. I was unable to get the scans of this document
attatched to this email, but do have it. As
I sat eating in the dark wood interior of the very old hut last night, all
heads of households crowded inside,
the hut swaying on its stilts, I could not help but feel what a tragedy that
it would be if one of the oldest Akha
villages in Say, what did that Nikon cost. To
force this village to move, would be in extremely bad faith on the part of
the Thai government to its obligations
to minorities set forth in many accords, and also to its obligation to
humanity. The Thai government
has avoided classifying the Akha as refugees, or taking note of the fact that
the Akha way back years before had not
much concern for whose mountains they were living in, there were no Thais
there and they in fact went on living
as they always had, in the mountains.
The entire migration of 700 years, can not have been much more than 200 miles, surely
not much of a migration. Yet they are not considered to be full citizens in most cases either. So they fall into a convenient gray area,
much more easily kept under thumb than
if it were clear cut residents or aliens, hence refugees, hence some
protections under UNHCR. But
this move also brings up other matters. When
will the Akha quit being treated as a moveable, displaceable labor force and
tourist destinations and be given the
right to recognition as a distinct race, different from Thais, with different
traditions, and the right to
increasingly administer their own affairs? This
would include that if they are on the menu for tourism, that they manage the
tourism themselves, and also get the
dollars for each time people come to gawk at them like so many caged
monkeys. It really is quite disgusting. All these western tourists coming up to see
these striking people while in fact the Akha
have not hardly a right, and certainly not much the right to raise
their voice. The concept of nation states and no one else like
small peoples having much of a voice is western engineered nonsense and
western people should stand up and see some of this reversed. The
Akha are a people without a country.
In laden
two bit army that comes along. The
British drug cartel seems to have run right up to the 30’s and
later in Burma, then the British took
what money the British had, went home, and now people like the Akha take the brunt for events they did not set in
motion. The Akha are not home in They
showed me a notice trying to entice village young people to jobs in Chiangrai
to strengthen this hand. On
the one hand, MP Paveena’s Tourism Authority of Thailand makes a small
fortune for selling
the exotic fare that these Akha present in north They dare not move, that will come soon enough. Their children and young and old alike must
fight for the village square with a
host of road traffic. Springing
up everywhere now seems to be some kind of “Hill Tribe Culture
Resort” like the rather revolting
Lang Tong resort on the road to Doi Maesalong, or the The
administrators kept giggling about these backward “Ekaw” people
during the interview, that there was
even this little clearing in each village where all the young people
went for free sex. Gee, how
interesting. What
people will believe and give lip service to when it suits them. But
back to this village move, it is a human rights issue, these people have some
rights as humans if they are in Then
the churches and missions, standing under the shaken and broken tree can
claim one more victory, adding a score
more poor and desperate to their ranks, proof of how backward the culture
was, so strapped in “darkness
and bondage” as they like to say, and just that much more justification
for how they abuse these people of
their culture as well. Where is OMF,
the American Baptists, the Korean Presbyterians, Youth With A Mission, the Chinese Baptists,
the Australian Pentacostals, now,
the Catholics, all of them? Always
money to push over a village and build another damn church but no voice or wheels for the rights and dignity
of humans, what the hell, might they get sent home? Gee that too would be a shame! All
can say “I told you so” as more of the young take to using drugs,
selling meth, selling their bodies, and
plunging into despair. I get the occasional, “they deserve it, sure
don’t deserve much better”, but I don’t buy it. Where
ever you are, contact who you may, and plead intervention on the behalf of
these people. Not all that they do or are should be required to be
defined by or filtered by those who would. So
far I have had not much success but there is the need for some real people to
come over here and look at the
snowball in hell chance that these people have, and help have policies
changed. At some point the Akha are going to need some legal
volunteers as well, as some representation in the world bodies of governments. At this point they appear to have none. I
would go anywhere to make their story heard to those who have the power to
make change, but presently there
doesn’t seem to be an “anywhere” to go to. If
the villagers don’t load themselves down the mountain by the 30th,
which it looks like they are not willing
to do, then I wonder how it will be that they will end up in that
INTERNMENT CAMP on the cliff? Or does this just happen to all orthodox people? If
you can come, please come will you, while there is yet time? Just
an army of one. Matthew
McDaniel If You Must Go, My Friends The Akha It
seemed they were all there The
remnant of a people the
sun and toil weathered deep in their strong faces now
covered with the dust of fear the
beams held the roof up but
the place still swayed not
so much the wind as
the force against their lives what
would happen if this? and
what will they do to us if that? the
talk went on late into the night the
children concerned not to sleep but
to watch the
trees planted near by they
were the advance troops not
friends the
old trees behind they
guarded the back road canyons
of jungle and banana full
of life and moisture they
shook my hand I
felt ashamed each
an art that
would get no thank you if
the army comes what
do we do? they
say they will come the
hut holding firmly its posts in
the spaces between the rocks the
horse, tiny horse, cribbed
next to the steps every
board fitted and worn the
feet of so many children over the years free
and safe from
hut to hut full
of fat rice wind
and work the
rains to dust the heat, the
storms to lay the soul to rest sour
greens tasty
pig thick
rice whiskey the
Lisu the Akha all
speaking laying
their voices for mercy in the stones the
pine, from foreign land, stomping their dark stubbly feet at
the edge of the village death
the dust of their shoes rice
terraces ten times the height answering
back to accuse them from
across the way the
arena seats of ten thousand souls come
and gone to the rice from
the years before do
you know these lands? do
you know these children? do
you know these stones which
you slight and
all the weary mothers, carrying
child, who
have polished them with bare feet, walking
over them the years do
you know that star there or
the wind my friend on this left ridge the
Akha children laughter
from the village over can
you soothe more than one hurt with
the pitch from your soul that
leaks out and runs down
your stomping legs can
you bend the rice yet
not to break it can
you dry it yet
not to drop it before
you make it to the hut can
you send the water from
under the rocks to
the valley bottom without
troubling the grasses or
frightening the chickens can
you give the shade to
the brown cow’s back but
still put the sunlight on
the ears can
the Akha dance in
joyous circles in
your dark and
desolate halls once
for the rice a
dance in the singing planting
each seed some
growth to give once
for the swing the
drum throbbing the
maidens so cheerful warming
the souls of
their elders of age once
for the rice gone
into the chambers wooden
tops and black seeds hopping singing
voices, all
till dawn the
babies sleeping cradled
on mothers back silver
all around our
ancient terraces can
you better us now? When
the lightning comes it
will eat your soul if
the Akha be gone the
silent spirits will dance forever
to cheer the
saddened memories of
all that was lost here the
wind still tumbling down
the mountain with
great leaping sobs the
bamboo wailing to
honor them when
others were too great to
ever understand. Robbery Here is an updated web site with the situation photos
of the Forced Akha village move to occur on or before January 30,2000 plus
images of the five pages of the petition which the villagers made up saying
that they did not want to move, 31 families, both Lisaw and Akha, who have
lived at this location in health and relative wealth for 78 years. Robbery,
this is how the indigenous get impoverished. After
the theft, everyone calls them backward. Matthew
EXTREMELY URGENT COUNTDOWN FORCED
MOVE OF 99-01-22 Thai
Army Dear
Friends: This
is the current situation with the Forced Move of Huuh Mah Akha (Huai Maak)
Village in 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 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 Two
people, one from 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 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. |