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Akha Chronicles Police Police were a constant
hazard for the Akha and exploited their lack of
identity and representation. If you were a tourist in
Thailand you could ignore the police for the most part, they were nice, they were pleasant, they left you alone. But if you were Akha it was a whole different story. Police at checkpoints could ask for whiskey and
cigarette money, search your vehicle or motorbike and there was always the
risk of drugs being planted, just a few pills. Once captured or
imprisoned there was little hope of getting out and sentences were long. Many Akha
were not wary that as a Akha
they WOULD get worse handling than a Thai might get which should be just one
more reason to be super careful. The main checkpoints were
places to be cautious but police boxes also had many bad exchanges with the Akha in their regions. One really couldn't keep
up with it all, and of course there were the endless drug raids in the
villages, to grab this or that Akha, and one had a
hard time knowing exactly all that was going on or the reasons for it. The tourist
policeman Asks me not to speak of brothels to tourists It was prajat, he asked,
the guide complained. So I happened to comment what was just down the
street. Guide didn't like that. Prajat the tourist police man said they don’t know how to take knowledge, the
akha Beggars
rounded up by police One woman hiding behind
truck, the police on other side The Thai women kept motioning to her to keep down,
that was the typhoid woman, till the police were gone. Their truck was just
on the other side of the car, from where she was hiding, and they were on a
big beggar sweep. Finally they went
away. The Old
Woman and Police The old toothless beggar
woman get up from where the police have all of her beggar friends sitting in
front of the police station in Maesai and
immediately hikes her dress up, pauses lon enough
for the police to see her that she obviously needs to and is about to use the
bathroom and then waddles half squatting, her dress still partially hiked up,
around the corner of the building and right on out of sight. I half laugh to myselof,
Walking over to that corner of the building and there isn’t any old Akha woman as far as the eye can see to the very outer
edges of the parking lot behind the police station. Old age. Police smased little girl I went into the afternoon
market today and on the way back they brought me alittle
child ai knew proably 3
or 4 at the most. She had been hit and
shoved forward and down so hard by aThai Policeman
or “dah noh” as
the Akha say, that her nose was raked and also obviiously broken with swelling below the eyes quite prminenly. Quite obviously some of the police not the nicest but
they try. Smashing little kids oare
we? The girl I took to the hospital in Chiangrai had abdominal TB. I give her follow up shots every day. Her name is Anna. The soviet Union has dismantled. Police,
wife, checkpoint There is a plice checpoint 1/2 way between
maesai and the golden triangle. Each time I pass there on motorcycle I get
stopped and searched right dow to locating my
money. My friend is burmes. On one
occasion I took her to see the triangle.
I had forgotten about th 5 kim limit for Burmese
people. On arriving at this check
po8int she was taken into custody, even though I explained it was my mistake
and said I would return with her to Mae Sai. Not good enough. She was going to prison at Chiang Rai. I realized
what demon's from hell I was dealing with.
Gosh. Fjinally
the offered to let her go for 3,000 baht between jokes about her trip to chiang rai. Unfortunately I hadn't pocketed money for
ransom fees. So they kindly offered to
look after her while I returned to Mae
sai and my bank.
My friend was terrified. Welcome to the real world. Unfortunately there is
neither compensation to tourists for this kind of behaviort
on the part of thailands police nor does there
appear to be any ethic impose on the police in the
first place. Beyond those incidents I
could point out scores of cases where cops in Thailand are engaged in harrassment, intimidation ,
extortion, prostitution and the beating of children. Only when punishmnent of cops is comparable to the pwer and potential for abuse given the position will the
evil end. ??? Dismisal
is not sufficient. How about public flogging? By victims? The Cop There was this one cop,
and he was always having a hard time of it. He used to chase the beggar kids,
hit them and stuff, then got video taped by someone and that got reported and
stopped. Then he was involved in
the strip joint near the river, but that closed too. He asked me a few times
for money, I never gave him any. One time he caught a
tourist from Michigan doing heroin in his room at the Maesai
Plaza Guest House and he called me up to help cut the deal. I asked him how much he
wanted, 10,000 baht he said. The man
sent it to my bank account but the cop got called away and the man had to
leave town to catch his flight back to the US so he got away and never lost a
dime. The cop never mentioned it
again either. Once we had to go together
to an Akha village to sort out a problem over a
theft by a foreigner of an Akha head dress. On the way the cop had to
stop at a brothel where he made a little wheeling and dealing about one girl
that a man from Singapore had taken a fancy too. Ah yes, all is for sale,
and some people make it easy. I hadn't seen him much of
late, even cops change, maybe him too. Police At Nimit's Sure they used heroin,
they were there all the tim. Sometimes they didn't even bring their guns in their
holsters, sometimes they played with them, you just
didn't know what they were going to do. The police
try hard This is what you have to say about corrupt police to
be indirect Thai
police, highway robbers of akha also a problem, planting drugs, beatings, etc The Death
Of Ah Pah Rgoeuh Zuuh Gooh The drunk
motorcycle driver hits our car Ah Zeeh is busted, the Thais are not, Flat Village Ah Pah Rgoeuh Zurh
Gooh of Mae Salep Is
Murdered The police
beg off on the beating of Ah Peeh of Soi Yah Kah, Haen Taek Mr. Ah Bpah He lived in Mae Salep, in the Christian part of the village, out of the
village, no protection, and the police took him and beat him because his
daughter was married to a foreigner, this really slow guy from Germany who
was Polish. Not very clever, and Mr.
Ah Bpah died and the police dumped him on the road
and I found the body when I came down the mountain from Sam Yak a few minutes
later. I got a look at the Autopsy, and the doctor was the same as my wife's
doctor and he couldn't lie to me about it, said that he died from a skull
fracture and brain hemorage, back low end of the
skull, right over the brain stem.
After they loaded him in the truck to take him away he told his wife
that he thought he was dying, and he died in about five minutes from that
time. Aug 13,
Monday 2001 Prison Prison
Death More prison deaths of drug users, suspected runners,
etc. The prison The chiangrai
prison was enormous, nearly a kilometer to the side. Many inmats
were taken to the court every morning around 10 am. Many of these inmates were Akha. They were
often arrested under dubious conditions and treated harshly or beaten. Sometimes they were severely beaten. Savagely.
They did not get very good
representation if any at all. There
did not appear to be much oversight of the process. Therd Thai Killing Therd Thai village the police kill Lahu
headman, chopping him with knives. Check this out. End Have a comment or question? Like to know
more? Send me an email at akha@akha.org |