EXTREMELY URGENT:

CONTACT YOUR GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE

CONTACT THE THAI EMBASSY NEAREST YOU

(SEE EMAILS AT BOTTOM)

Dear Friends of the Akha People:

Below are links to photos and todays top front page story in the Monday Jan 21,2002 Bangkok Post about the murders of Akha men at the hands of both Thai Army and Police.

The United States commits to giving border electonic sensors to the Thai Army for border drug control in the same newspaper in what is the complete militarization of the Hill Tribe border villages in Thailand, some 500 villages or more. 300 of which are Akha.

Task Force 399 in Mae Rim near Chiangmai is also the home of US military advisers who train this task force for border duty. So are they training brutal killers outside the law or professional soldiers?

In the links below you will find photos of the men who were beaten, some of who died. There will be more pics up on the site later for which I will send out a second notice, I can not get them scanned in fast enough.

Certainly there must be political oversight in the US regarding the climate that this military assistance from the US is flowing into and required safeguards addressing human rights issues in the region of conflict effected by these US military assistance packages.

Look carefully at the pictures and the article and then contact your congress persons to find out what is going on and how the reality here in Thailand can be changed for the better. Anyone with questions can contact me at akha@akha.org.

Also contact the closest Thai Consulate or other email address below and demand an investigation into these killings.

We have been working for a very long time to find out what is going on in the mountains and protect the Akha people. While forestry takes their lands, missionaries are busy taking their children, in a climate of despair and extreme poverty (as many volunteers to this region will attest) the Thai military is continuing its long campaign of heavy military suppression of the Akha people.

No military campaigns in the name of "National Security" are being aimed at the very close drug factories in Burma, but instead a full military occupation of the border hill tribe villages with extreme brutality handed out to the least fortunate goes on daily. There is little in the way of poverty alleviation to these villagers.

Below are also email contacts of the Thai Army Command. Demand a full accounting, they can email me if they would like proof of the beatings because we have the proof, we have the photos, also in the links below.

We also need that Human Rights Activists would become involved, Amnesty International, Survival International, Cultural Survival, Torture Care and that people with the UN Human Rights and Refugee Commisions contact us. Please help us if you have any inroads with these people. The front doors seem locked.

We also ask that you would contact the Thailand Prime Minister's Office and demand that these killings be investigated.

Security in the village I live in continues to be very jittery.

Currently the truck is fully repaired but still in the shop because the bill is not completely paid. Please help us at this crucial time with a kind and generous donation.

We depend on your donation and the truck to continue this work that we do here to protect the Akha people and bring their story to the world.

Sincerely,

Matthew McDaniel Thailand

Checks can be sent to:

The Akha Heritage Foundation
PO BOX 6073
Salem OR 97304 USA

Donations by direct banking can be transferred to:

Wells Fargo Bank
Akha Heritage Foundation
Acc. # 0081-889693
Keizer Branch # 1842 04
4990 N. River Road.
Keizer, Oregon, 97303 USA
ABA # 121000248

Or In Thailand:

Matthew Duncan McDaniel
Acc. # 3980240778
Bangkok Bank Ltd.
Maesai Branch
Thailand

ARTICLES ON AKHA KILLINGS:

Photos:

http://www.akha.org/akha2/abuse/armythai.htm

http://www.akha.org/akha2/abuse/abuseindex.htm

http://www.akha.org/akha2/abuse/bangkokpostjan212002.htm

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/21Jan2002_news03.html

DRUG SUPPRESSION /MILITARY VIOLENCE

HILLTRIBE ADDICTS DIE IN FORCED 'DETOX CAMPS'

SOLDIERS ACCUSED OF SAVAGE BEATINGS

Anucha Charoenpo

In their zeal to suppress drug trafficking, authorities have resorted to torture and murder of hilltribe suspects, victims and relatives charge.

Ateh Amoh, an Akha man, said he was savagely beaten by soldiers who took him and other Akha men, mostly drug users, from their homes and held them at a military camp.

There they beat them to extract a confession, he said.

His neighbour, Ajuuh Cheh Muuh Gooh, 42, died from the beating.

The authorities denied any wrongdoing and said Mr Ajuuh's death was caused by withdrawal symptoms as a result of his attempt to end his opium habit during a detoxification programme.

Mr Ateh, 34, said he was taken from his house in Ban Mae Moh hilltribe village, Mae Fah Luang district, by soldiers in the early morning of Dec 7.

His neighbour, the late Mr Ajuuh, was taken from the same village the same day.

Three other Akha men, their names unknown, were taken from nearby villages.

All of them had smoked opium for a long time and had been suspected of drug trafficking.

Mr Ateh said the soldiers insisted he and Mr Ajuuh join the opium detoxification programme at a military camp near the village.

As soon they arrived at the camp, the soldiers pushed them down a small hole in the ground where the three other Akha men had already been detained.

The soldiers then poured water, coal and ashes into the hole, leaving them to sit there for a whole day.

"The soldiers never said why they were treating us like that. We doubted this was an opium detoxification process,'' Mr Ateh said.

That night everyone was pulled from the hole, then blindfolded and led off separately for questioning.

The soldiers asked him several times about his supposed connection with drug traffickers in the village, and he denied any involvement.

"The soldiers never talked about the opium detoxification programme. They tried to force me to admit the drug charges by electric shocks to my ears, kicking my face and body, punching me hard in the body and hitting me with a gunhandle on my head and chest several times.

"When they felt that I could no longer stand it because my body was soaked with blood, they took me back to the hole and left me there for a night and a day,'' he said.

He did not know about the other three men, but believed their experience was probably not much different.

On the second night, one of the Akha men was able to escape from the hole while he and the others were sleeping.

As soon as the soldiers found out they took the rest for questioning, on suspicion of aiding the escape.

Mr Ateh said he was blindfolded and again beaten most savagely that night. His neighbour Mr Ajuuh died from his injuries.

The soldiers told Mr Ajuuh 's family his death was the result of going cold turkey as he attempted to break the opium habit.

"Ajuuh died while we were sitting together in the hole. I heard him calling for his father and mother, and he talked about his children and wife.

"I saw him dying before my eyes and I was scared almost to death myself,'' he said.

Mr Ajuuh died in the early morning of Dec 9.

The soldiers took his body, together with Mr Ateh and the other two Akha men, to the nearby Mae Fah Luang hospital where they were released to the care of doctors.

Mr Ateh was kept in hospital for six days after doctors found his lung was ruptured and bleeding profusely.

The army did not pay his medical expenses.

Mr Ajuuh's wife, Apiew, 44, said the army gave her family 7,000 baht in compensation for the death of her husband.

Mrs Apiew said the hospital had not confirmed her husband's cause of death.

The hospital director, Dr Nongnuch Malin, refused to disclose the autopsy result to the Bangkok Post, saying she needed more time.

"The army should not have killed my husband this way,'' Mrs Apiew said. "He was not involved in drug trafficking. If he was really involved why didn't the army show evidence and take him to court? Although we are hilltribe people we still have the right to the protection of the law.''

Lt-Col Apisit Nujbutsaba, who is responsible for the detoxification programme in Mae Fah Luang district, denied he had sent soldiers to take the drug addicts for detoxification.

He said Por Luang, the eldest villager, had taken them to the camp.

He insisted Mr Ajuuh died in the process of trying to break his opium addiction. He denied his soldiers had beaten Mr Ajuuh to death and injured other Akha men.

The district chief, Chainarong Boonwiwatthanakarn, said he knew of the matter and had advised Mr Ajuuh's wife to file a complaint with police.

The drug detoxification programme for hilltribe people is jointly handled by the army, the Public Health Ministry, the police and the Interior Ministry. It was launched in Chiang Rai on Oct 23 last year.

The province required all drug addicts to voluntarily register with village committees and join the programme.

Those who registered were safe from prosecution.

The programme was aimed at separating drug addicts from dealers and traffickers. Mr Ajuuh is not the only case where the authorities are suspected of having killed Akha villagers they suspected of trafficking.

On May 17 last year, Apha Wurh Zur, 56, was taken from his house in Ban Mae Sam Lap village, in Mae Fah Luang district, and allegedly beaten to death by police officers and another Akha man.

The police had allegedly accused him of involvement in the drug trade. His wife Mee Shur, 56, denied the accusation and said police had demanded money from her in exchange for her husband's release.

On Aug 9 last year, Logu Yeh Shaw, 30, was shot three times by Mae Chan police officers and died.

He was accused of being a drug trafficker. The shooting occurred in Bodu village.

His mother Byuabo Yeh Shaw, 70, denied her son was involved in drugs.

These are just a few of the many suspicious deaths of hilltribe people at the hands of the authorities in this northern province.

Most have never been properly investigated.

******* *******

ACTION CONTACTS:

Tourism Authority of Thailand Governor
ogdep@tat.or.th

Overseas Offices -

Hong Kong
tathkg@HK.super.NET

Kuala Lumpur
sawatdi@po.jaring.my

London
info@tat-uk.demon.co.uk

Los Angeles
tatla@ix.netcom.com

New York
tatny@aol.com

Osaka
tatosa@cs.mbn.or.jp

Paris
tatpar@wanadoo.fr

Frankfurt
tatfra@t-online.de

Rome
tat.rome@iol.it

Seoul
tatsel@soback.kornet.nm.kr

Sydney
info@thailand.net.au

Taipei
tattpe@ms3.hinet.net

Tokyo
tattky@crisscross.com

Singapore
tatsin@mbox5.singnet.com.sg

Fukuoka
tatfuk@asahi-net.or.jp

Other Tourism Addresses

Click on "contact" link:

http://www.tat.or.th/more/index.html

url for all the tourism authority addresses.

Note the many international ones, send to these as well.

THAI EMBASSY CONTACTS ABROAD;

DIRECTORIES;

http://www.embassyworld.com/cgi-local/search.cgi?guest=Thailand&host=&count=0&menu=1

http://www.waw.be/rte-be/english/embeur.htm
AUSTRALIA
Telephone: (06) 273-1149, 273-2937
Fax:(06) 273-1518
Cable: THAIDUTO CANBERRA Telex:AA62533
E-Mail: Thai@csccs.com.au

WASHINGTON DC tha.wsn@thaiembdc.org

LOS ANGELES thai-la@mindspring.com

NEW YORK thainycg@aol.com

CHICAGO thaichi@interaccess.com

PRIME MINISTER OF THAILAND'S OFFICE
Prime Minister Mr Chuan Leekpai
govspkmn@mozart.inet.co.th

PUBLIC RELATIONS DEPARTMENT
Director of Mass Communication & Information Centre
Mr Coosak Rongsawat
choosak@wnet.net.th

Director Press Relations Centre Me Surin Plangprasopchoke mcic@wnet.net.th

TOURISM AUTHORITY OF THAILAND offices

BANGKOK; center@tat.or.th

CHIANG RAI; tatcei@chmai.loxinfo.co.th

AUSTRALIA; info@thailand.net.au

UNITED STATES; tatla@ix.netcom.com

Prime Miinister of  Thailand 
Mr Chuan Leekpai
govspkmn@mozart.inet.co.th

Office of the Prime Minister
The Public Relations Deptartment
Mr Choosak Rongssawat
Head of Information Co-ordinator
office 02 618 2323 ext. 1011
home 02 814 1136
mobile 01 8314913
choosak@wnet.net.th

Information Co-ordinator Mr Surin Plangprasopchoke
Director Press Relations Centre
office 02 618 2323 ext. 1505
mobile 01 254 0790
mcic@wnet.net.th

Ministry of the Interior
Office of the Permanent Secretary
Mr Chakraphan Yomchinda
Ministry Spokesman
office 02 222 8005
home 02 589 9066
mobile 01 614 9831

Ministry of Defence
Office of the Permanent Secretary
Lt . Gen. Sanan Kajornklan
Special Office of the Permanent Secretary of Defence
office 02 226 2309
home 02 612 3826
mobile 01 9416 888

Deputy Maj. Gen. Pichai Siripibool
office 02 225 6789 - 02 226 3114
home 02 532 1729 - 02 993 7300

mobile 01 837 3257

Supreme Command HQ Royal Thai Army
Head of Information Co-ordinator
Col. Sant Noiboonsuk
Director of Public Relations Division
office 02 281 6482
home 02 503 7511

Royal Thai Army
Col. Samkuan Sangpattaranetr
Army Spokesman
office 02 279 7925 - 02 278 5321
home 02 981 8790
mobile 01 981 8790

Governors Office Chiang Rai
(053) 711 600

Ministry of Defence
3rd Army Chiang Mai
(055) 258 545

Provicial Affairs Development Division
02 221 9121
Ministry of the Interior
Local Affairs
ID Card
02 281 3962

Phitsanulok 3rd Army

Department of Civil Affairs (055) 244 145

-- Matthew McDanie
l The Akha Heritage Foundation
Maesai, Chiangrai, Thailand

Join The Growing International Effort To Protect The Akha

Sign The Petition To The Thai Government On Line At:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/AkhaZauh/petition.html

http://www.akha.org

Donations:
PayPal:
https://www.paypal.com/refer/pal=akha%40loxinfo.co.th

Credit Card Donation Site:

http://www.drugwar.com/store/proddetail.cfm?ItemID=12&CategoryID=6

Your donation goes to infant care, vitamins, medical supplies, wells, bread and fish for the villages. Donations by check or money order may be sent to: The Akha Heritage Foundation PO BOX 6073 Salem OR 97304 USA