Akha Hill Tribe Thailand

2007-02-21T01:03:00.000-08:00

Queen of Thailand Takes the Land of Hooh Yoh Akha

It has been quite some time since I posted on this blog.
Tons of writing for emails, for web code, for all that we HAVE to use computers for in our lives.
So a lot of the "fun" that I used to like to write for gets used up.

I have gotten much of the www.akha.org website rebuilt, increasingly the way I want it. Still so much to do in so many categories.

For one, I have added www.akhaphotos.org to the site, (not completed with the construction yet) and this is where the new coppermine photo gallery will be.

The case of the ACF and NCA in Laos continues on. The general attitude of the ngo staff in Laos is that they did nothing wrong.

We note in this backlight that the left hand of the UN gave the right hand of the UN (UNESCO) a tourism award. Puke. For what they are doing to the Akha in north Laos.

The Akha people as a carnival destination.

Work on the 3rd Akha Journal progresses. Going to be a rather big journal if I can ever get it done. Pretty soon I will begin scanning in all the pics, etc.

Investigations still going at Paul and Loris mission, and CGT which is a mission like so many others that takes Akha children away from their homes. CGT is sponsored by Rotary, and so we keep pressuring Rotary about that.

They are a little bit thick, a little bit racist, as good white people they see no problem with ripping off indigenous children.

We got some pages building on the site about CGT too if you want to go and look in the missions section.

Main problem with this website any more is that I can't load data fast as I get it.

We have a new section Akah Daily Videos and Akha TV.
www.youtube.com also.

And we have a new page www.firstgiving.com where people can set up their own page and raise money for the project.

The latter I am working with some good people on developing further. Getting a little more energy into it, no more late night recording sessions.

Oh yeah, and that reminds me, we have been fighting the Queen of Thailand about the seizure of Akha lands at Hooh Yoh. Well, we have seen it go up a few levels to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Meanwhile reports are that the Queen's tea projects are taking more and more land above and around the villages, just keep the Akha for good loyal "slaves" goes the idea maybe.

I am working to raise funds for mosquito nets in Laos, improving the Akha Human Rights Network, and other medical and literacy projects.

UNESCO has totally thrown in with the missions, no matter what Feingold wants to claim otherwise.

There is the case of Ms. Wongsa, an Akha in the Singapore Prison.

A couple Thai NGO's have been bickering and falling all over themselves to somehow prove she is not really a citizen from Thailand, etc, etc. Trafficking NGO's. Course to go and arrest a Thai for trafficking in women would be real obvious now, no point in doing that.

Just a bit of what is going on.

2005-11-19T06:46:00.000-08:00

Does anyone know who the Akha are or that the US Govt. is killing them?

Been working with the Akha for 15 years. What makes the job so hard is that few people in the US know who the Akha are, where they live or what is being done to them.

And this is strange, as they are in the heart of the CIA golden heroin triangle of air america, there are scores of spies and DEA and missionaries who know who they are and have been abusing them for years, but one would think a little of the story would leak out somehow.
But it doesn't.

Few people know that the US govt has had a hand in eradicating the Akha for years, from the drug war in Thailand to the drug war in Laos, the US DEA and other agencies have made decisions that have brought about the death of hundreds if not thousands of Akha along with the incarceration of hundreds more for incredibly long sentences based on questionable evidence, all related to drugs.

In Thailand it is the well funded drug war and in Laos it is the opium eradication, can't have a little ole mountain lady tooting on some opium up on a hill in a bamboo hut near the China border now can we?

The rapid process brought about articles like "Vicious Triangle" and "Akha Dying Like Flies in Laos". And there are many other reports.

Being in Laos now and having just come back from the north area of Luang Namtha and Maung Sing I have not seen such poor Akha villages EVER! Some villages lost 20% of their population in one year after the eradication progrom, and I was in villages which lost 10 children and two adults last year as just a sample. Fever is rife, mosquito nets are as scarce as food.

But still few people know that the US has a hand in killing a lot of these people either through gunfire, prison, disease or starvation.

Isn't it time that the US, that Americans, learned the names of the people they kill?

60,000 Akha live in Laos, 70,000 live in Thailand, 200,000 live in Myanmar and 230,000 live in China. Half a million people and most Americans don't even know they exist let alone that their government is busy killing them in a secret little dirty war.

The Akha need your help to bring accountability to the US Govt. for what they are doing, basically ethnic cleansing in South East Asia.

http://www.akha.org/

2005-08-26T00:23:00.000-07:00

The Akha situation in Thailand is intense. But to give you a more clear understanding of our long term work and committment to the Akha you can check at the archives of akhaweeklyjournal at yahoogroups.com

Also, in the future I will try and post the journal posts here as well.

2005-08-19T23:58:00.000-07:00

Akha Work Goes On!

With encouragement from friends, associates and volunteers we continue our work for the Akha people in South East Asia. Recent visits to Laos, Vietnam and the Akha in China were most beneficial and helped us to understand more of the Akha who inhabit these regions and what their needs are.

We still have Akha Journal Number 2 for sale and are working on Journal number 3.

We have a backlog of pics and video to put on the site as a result of limited computer resources but should have this up with time.

We continue to research and place new information about the Akha situation on the web site. Also we got a small item there on donations since it is an open website but so few people donate to support the work they benefit from.

We don't want to forget all the Akha prisoners in Thailand. Recently posted articles about the way the Thai government has treated the hilltribe will give, we hope, some idea about how skewed the Akha situation is with regards to prisoners and human rights.

Basically, Thailand is without accountability, either to the hill peoples, the muslims or anyone else in the country. As compared to other countries where the Akha are full citizens, Thailand discriminates as a matter of course, against the Akha.

Have an article to submit, photos, time, energy, then send us an Email.

2005-08-13T09:50:00.000-07:00

The work with the Akha goes on.
Now we work to set up a new project in SE Asia. More aid to the Akha of course.
In the countries of China, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand there is much to research and do to assist the Akha people.
We will soon be posting more and more photos of our recent work.

Your donation on the website http://www.akha.org is welcome and helps move this work forward.

Matthew McDaniel

2005-05-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

Just Back From the UN New York

Just back from the Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues at New York, where we gave the Thai government a run for its money.

After one year the Thai Mission to the UN had offered us nothing but when we put the heat on again they were all apologetic, but offering us nothing again, saying they could only begin to work after the forum was over so that they could get some slippery agreement and then do nothing once our opportunity was gone.

But we kept on the heat and got literature out, made presentations and got our material into the Global Forestry Forum as well where it was handed to the Thai Delegation and to governments such as Switzerland, Sweden, Canada, Australia, and other countries.

We finally got the Thai Delegation to defend itself and stand up and speak, they were under orders to denounce us as the fax came from Bangkok, as what they should say.

This was great progress in itself that they should have to muster a campaign against us, we shamed them.

That is what they need, to have their true identity revealed.

And shame on all the foreigners with their beer and whores who keep silent about what is happening to all the poor in Thailand, hilltribe and Thai alike, while they have their "experience" in Thailand.

Our next stop is Geneva, where we will continue to work to publicize the Akha situation.

2005-04-04T14:07:00.000-07:00

Akha in Sacramento

And other Updates:

Child slave trade trafficking is bigger business than drugs.

And look at our experience.

Despite proof that there are Akha in Sacramento, the state and county refugee related agencies continue to provide language services to these people and supervisory agencies continue to cover up the situation.

So Akha can be brought in to this country as Hmong and no one notices? Cares?

And what was the arrangement? Who paid who? Who looked the other way? What must the Akha do in return?

Who knew it was going on and said nothing?

The end result is that the Akha can not identify themselves as Akha in Sacramento. And we must wonder who is expoiting them, or extorting from them.

Law. The rule of law. This means nothing to the government of California or the government of Sacramento County.

Homeland Security didn't seem interested. The State Department Refugee administrator stuttered a lot. But then wasn't interested either.

US Department of Health and Human Services took the case then keeps putting us off like we can't see through it. Excuses excuses. That is all we hear, a big cover up.

So what is going on? A lot it would seem. Possibly hundreds of Akha have been trafficked into the Sacramento area illegally and are in situations that do not allow them to have much more human rights here than in Laos or Thailand. We are not surprised of course. America is a place big on talk, but falling way short on actual human rights.

We find increased evidence that US missions in Thailand are involved in sex abuse and human trafficking. Some missions in Thailand receive direct US Gov. funding and others are all part of the US mission network in that region that goes back to CIA drug days.

Of concern is that missions do not show who supports them, where they get their money, what they do or how they are monitored, yet they have no problem taking the Akha children away. Power and money goes a long way.

There is little to no knowledge of these events in the US.

2004-10-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

Sacramento California

Hmong friends in Sacramento told me that two Akha families came into a government office about medical care in the first days of September. So I have been contacting these different government offices and putting out flyers looking for these few Akha families.

As well, I now have a contact with a US government official in Thailand who is handling the movements of Hmong, as apparently there may still be some Akha families coming to the US from the Hmong camp at the temple there in Thailand.

In addition, I have now put out word and am checking other Hmong communities in the US. Fresno, Wisconsin, Minnesota and a few other places. One Akha man was seen in San Francisco several years ago. So hopefully we will be able to connect all these scattered Akha people in the US and maybe other countries as well. Just one more example of how important human services are to the indigenous, particularly when they get displaced.

2004-09-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

Lots of updates to the web site, check out the pics added in the photo albums.

The Akha and others tell me the police and army are more active in my abscence and we can assume the same for the missionaries.

I continue to keep in touch with the Akha in Thailand via telephone.

As you may have noticed, a Chinese woman and her kid were killed in a mud slide when the hill behind the house collapsed at Hooh Yoh village. In this one treacherous village all the Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Wa and Chinese live together, generally they all speak Akha and in some cases are intermarried too.

Here in the US I continue to create publications, and strategies for publicizing the situation of the Akha.

If you are in the US or headed to Thailand we can work together to assist the Akha, just send me an email.

akha@akha.org

I am still looking for people in the US and the UK who can help raise funds for Akha projects.

Matthew McDaniel

2004-09-18T15:43:00.000-07:00

Updating this Blog Fall 2004

Finally I got this blog linked on the new web site. Thought I had it done before.
Not in Thailand for the moment. Noted that the US is pushing a drug war in Laos and drug eradication for opium farmers for 2005.

The US Gov. is obviously pax americana and we all are going to regret it sooner if not later.

Oxfam keeps wonderful tabs on the US and World Bank, ADB and such on its websites for Laos area. The damn up north may be on hold and the Thais may not get their cheap electric paid for in hill tribe lives after all. Poor bastards.

The Thais have long exploited their neighbors in favor of what ever they could do to make the US happy and get more for themselves.

Journalists and others are finding that while blaming Burma for everything, things are not near as democratic or safe in Thailand as they would like either. They might even get gone which we have been saying for years, unless, oh yeah, they are a missionary. Missionaries have nice immunity from the law, no one much will comment on them let alone suggest that they "suck".

Laos for the most part doesn't have many and neither does China. The missionaries have after all sold out the hill tribe for their own financial gain. Hardly any gospel in this, and that is unfortunate, as people serving people should be a good thing if more people learned to do it rather than just build little dynasties of buildings and control.

In Burma the missions have had effect and the catholics remain though the protestants have to content with being in Chiangmai and going up now and then, results of Paul Lewis and other CIA missionaries wanting to turn Burma into a proxy state to fight china years ago.

That didn't work, but the hill tribe like the Hmong in Laos got used greedily. Also it made the burmese suspicious of the west and rightfully so. Democracy in the west means the right for me to come and shove you around in your back yard.

Depleted Uranium? Need any? Tons are being dumped in Iraq, and least we can be thankful that the Thai army doesn't yet shoot the Akha and others using depleted uranium which is being scattered all over the world by the US government, maybe the mean DU and they keep saying democracy. At any rate, it is poisoning plenty and if you type DU into Google you will find plenty of reading to do. And alll those US soldiers are going to come home poisoned by the stuff. I can see it, on a date, the girl asking the guy if he was to Iraq and has radioactive testes? Thanks, but no thanks she says.

The US Gov's dirty little secret just like their dirty little war in Laos. And now you have it that the missionaries aren't interested to be picking up Bombs in Laos. That wouldn't be nice.

The Akha of Hooh Yoh continue to work for tiny wages on the land that the Royal Project took from them to make another agricultural tourist park.

People should note that the monarchy in Nepal comes to an end.
Will China move on Nepal. ?
Will George Bush invade Burma if he gets re-elected?
Will the US push influence in Laos, will missionaries get access?

The indigenous are a note of the environment, and when the environement is gone, they are gone and vice versa.

Here in the states the work goes on for the Akha.
A trip to New York to the UN.
A trip to Geneva to the UN.

Much work to do in order to make the world aware that the Akha even exist.

The only thing you see on the web from the missionaries is all the propaganda about them trying to save the hill tribe, when in fact they are busy selling the hill tribe down the river and taking away their children, but what American knows that or CARES to know that?

Eric Rubin, the Consul of Chiangmai US Consulate, got promoted to Director of Counter Narcotics and Development Policy for his role in looking the other way in the killing fields of Thailand last year. I wondered if he was just naive, just stupid, but now it looks like he planned it that way, kissing ass to get a promo.

Any word on this, let us know. We'd like to publicize it a little.

Currently I am developing a pamphlet for distribution around the world to build activism for the Akha. This is crucial, more volunteers, more international pressure, more funding for direct aid to the Akha. If you would like to become involved, send me an email at akha@akha.org

Check in to this blog often for updates of what is going on.

You can subscribe to the E Journal on Yahoo, shown on the www.akha.org site, or you volunteer, where ever you are or in Thailand if you are making a trip there. We need lots of research done and getting the word out what is happening to the Akha.

2004-06-23T11:04:00.000-07:00

Missionaries: Conversion IS Violence

Conversion as practiced by Christian Missionaries IS violence, there is no
other accurate definition for it.

Missionaries discuss the violent nature of their work in terms like "extraction theology", meaning to tear people out of their culture, communities, alienate them. Some say that this is wrong, but always it is discussed in the more general terms of "missionaries will be missionaries" rather than as the violent act it is.

Let me make perfectly clear that Christianity is a fraud, that takes the name of Jesus, the souls of people, despises both of them and tries to marry them to a lie, to the father of lies.

How odd it is how soon the lies start. From claiming to share the GOSPEL (by definition the 'good news' so it had better be!) the missionaries begin their rampage for control in the community. Church is added to the teachings of Jesus, then a white long haired blue eyed hippy is added, so that the natives will know just who invented Jesus anyway. Then come all kinds of mandates, passed off as Jesus mandates, when they most certainly are not. This includes prohibitions against smoking, alcohol, dancing, traditional dress, traditional ceremonies, and labeling most everything of what people do as "devil worship" and "demonic". No mention is made of how many people the youth pastor has slept with, how many Akha children have been abused at the mission hostel, how many girls raped.

When confronted with all these add on's to the Bible, where the missionaries claim to get their directions, the missionaries can not explain it. They can not explain that this and that are not forbidden in the Bible and why they are still imposing their manipulations, their witchcraft, on the indigenous as the "truth" or what Jesus taught.

Ask a missionary, given the choice, would they choose to follow the teachings of Jesus, or Christianity, and you will get suddenly a look of consternation, as if they have been taken in their own trap, mental dissonance that they can not cope with. They will go to the extreme end to never answer that question, to say it is impossible to want the one and not the other, to want Jesus, and not be Christian as the western voodoo people have constructed it all.

In life, litmus test is good for a lot of things. Ask a southern Baptist missionary why black people are still treated with racism in the south, and things like talking about the "gospel" will rapidly fade till they discover they are "late for an appointment", or the food doesn't taste so good after all, they "have to go".

Pat Robertson runs a TV show and a financial empire. He talks about need in the world, about his "Operation Blessing" where some woman narrates how the program gave relief to some poor bastard through "your donation". Nobody seems to notice that Pat is a millionaire many times over, like he gives a rat's ass about the poor. Then the show breaks to advertise his book on "Prosperity Theology". Financial gain, hoarding, consuming, having lots of bucks is proof that God is blessing you! And the lies go marching on.

But the horror is that this theology, the glory of whiteness we could say, is carried out into the market place, which for missions, is the indigenous home lands. And the entire suit case of lies shows up in the village.

What Jesus taught would never allow this.

It is violence.

In Thailand the missionaries go in large groups to elder's houses at night and try to force them to "give up the village'" to missionary control. In the case of the Akha, the missionaries bring other Akha, those they have bought off with their piece of prosperity theology. (Prosperity theology is called "lift" in these circles.) These mission or ATM Akha are motivated by their rewards program to try and convince, pressure, deceive or demand that the village leadership give up its control and soverignty to "god". (Them)

In the end, the pastor takes control of everything, is rewarded with a church, a house, an income that is ten times the size of the average village income, and in exchange for this he makes sure that no culture is allowed to manifest itself in the village so the missionarie's mandate will be obeyed. Never mind the disastrous results, that families split, villages split, marriages split as even this can be cited as what god said would happen, their god, no God that one can point to, no God that Jesus taught, no God that some of us grew up believing in.

But when one explains all these never ending contradictions, injustices and deceptions, it is all brushed aside, that somehow contradictions will always exist and we should just except it all on, what else? Faith!

The missionaries always talk about god and Jesus, but in the same breath they are pushing the lie, asking the indigenous people to accept lies and contradiction, to "never mind" about the details of it all. For after all, what choice are they giving them?

I remember the night a bunch of Akha and Lahu stooges for the missionries came to my wife's traditional village. They put on their dog and pony show, they angered the elders whom they had not gotten permission from, they didn't care. We asked them on video what good they had brought to the village, they could not say, just fumes. We asked them if a christian Akha village would be allowed to have just one ceremony for old times sakes, we knew the answer. We asked them how much it cost for all of them to come there that night, and who paid for it? Did they care which families didn't have rice? Would they buy rice? Would they offer "Rice Conversions"?

"Don't keep looking at the money!", the missionaries in north Thailand told me, their posh homes, new four wheel drives without a scratch, (visible on www,akha.org under the mission link) were no contradiction for them with what Jesus taught.

All of this against a backdrop of dying, imprisoned, starving Akha who were holding faithfully onto their own traditions, not bothering anyone. In northern Thailand the mission assests are in the millions of dollars, but the pandering to the donors on websites for more money so that they can save Akha girls in danger of prostitution, help the poor Akha, never stops.

Akha girls taken from their villages to "save them", since the DEA took their fathers to prison, are rotated through the mission money pump, used to attract donations, then dumped back out on the street, suffereing from institutionalization, dependency and complete alienation from their families, village, culture, language and identity. Getting any help at all requires that they completely refute who they are as evil, Akha.

When one asks the missionaries about this violence, they lie. They deny. They leave.

The missions declare they don't know what has happened to them, that they can not explain why, regardless of all their reassurances, they never ended up back at the village, but are more often than not, hooking in Chiangmai. After all, the standard of ease that the mission made the girls get used to, in order to exploit them for money, would be impossible to find in the village. There is little an Akha girl has to sell that can continue to provide that standard of living after she is no loner needed. Super Pimps, the missionaries make more money off the girls than the men and mammasahns the missionaries claim would sell them for sex.

The fall, once again, is a violent one, without conscience on the part of the people who have removed the Akha girl from her village, an Akha girl calling on her phone, trying to sell herself one last time that night, on the streets of Chiangmai or Chiangrai. Just a few kilometers away, "orphanage" after "orphanage" sees the western bigots tucking their little blonde children into bed, counting their bank balance, making sure the gate is closed, and all the wards are in their nooks for one more night, the new wards, who in a year or two, will also need a cell phone.

Can we say none of the children treated in this fashion make it? No, but the children will be the first to manifest brainwashing or readily admit how the system was run, the exploitation, and what it did to them, what it took from them, far more than their virginity.

The teachings of Jesus require that one put others before themselves, that one deliver on the definition of the Gospel being in fact GOOD NEWS, and that one take responsibility to care for others, which is no short term committment. Care would certainly not take a child from a single parent, to make money off her when for a few dollars, the woman or man could be helped in a fashion that would allow the family to stay together. Little knowledge do the Akha have of all the Tim La Hay, James Dobson and Pat Robertson sermons on "Family Values".

The missionaries are violent, conversion is violent, and neither one have anything to do with the redemption or teachings of Jesus.

Missionaries need to get out of the indigenous community and stay out, and keep their hands off indigenous children.

The indigenous people MUST fight this plague, with force if necessary, as the children of the indigenous must be protected from the scourge of missionary genocide.

Lies, even for the most devout, can have nothing to do with Jesus.

For more information go to www.akha.org - Content Links: "Missionaries and Fake Orphanages" and "Mission Documents".

2004-06-23T11:01:00.000-07:00

Deportation Can't Hide Thailand's Treatment of the Akha Hill Tribe!

June 15, 2004

Despite the fact that the Thai Government deported me in April of this year, it does little to cover their treatment of the Akha Hill Tribe and illustrates a lack of perception of international publicity. Not that the Akha story wasn't publicized already but the forced and sudden deportation highlights the plight of the Akha to the international community.

As well, it caused a lot of Akha to realize the level of my commitment to improve their situation.

The way forward is an international campaign to increase public awareness of Thailand's disregard for International Human Rights Law and their long term genocidal campaign against the Akha.

These realities were made blatantly clear in the just released Thai Human Rights Journal with two articles about my work with the Akha people, one entitled the "Akha Genocide".

The seizure of the farm lands of Hooh Yoh Akha in Chiangrai Province illustrates this point and galvanizes the resistance against Thai government policy.

As well, in America and other parts of the world, where Thai restaurants are popular, most people are naive about Thailand, have never heard of the Akha Hill Tribe, and are shocked that such an abusive situation has been able to hide in the closet for so long, that American diplomats know of the situation and say nothing.

And of course the initial Thai Government response to a suddenly new form of bad publicity about the "wonderful land of smile" is to promise "dialogue" and then not answer emails!

Not worried, with plenty of time on my hands, my efforts are methodical to inform the world about Thai Government policy and why requirements must be attatched to all agreements, cooperation and aid to the country of Thailand.

Where will people buy their shrimp and rice? Who will fill the flights of Thai Airways?

Burma which does not do near as well as Thailand in covering up its human rights problems, has been radically effected by campaigns against anyone doing business in Burma. Why should not the shoe be on the other foot it fits so well, the country which masters "constructive engagement", Thailand?

Considering that only 20,000 of the 70,000 Akha in Thailand have Thai ID cards, the ease with which Thais can come and live or go to school in the US if they have enough money must be challenged!

When Thailand was recovering from the failure of corrupt banks and the subsequent collapse of the baht, Thai students studying in the US were allowed to get green cards so that they could work in order to compensate for the currency exchange rate differences.

I must ask how Thailand has ever offered such generosity to the Akha, most of whom have no cards of any kind?

In the aftermath of the Drug War rampage of 2003 in which more than 2274 people were ruthlessly murdered by the Thai Government it is little wonder that Thailand no longer sits on the UN Human Rights Commission.

What restrictions will be passed against an Army that uses weapons bought or given from the US, such as M-16's, to bash the faces of hill tribe men? (Please go to http://www.akha.org/content-cat-10.html)

Will Humvees continue to be supplied by the US Government to a country which is using them to run over rice lands stripped from the Akha people such as at Hooh Yoh Akha in Ampur Mae Fah Luang, Chiangrai Province? (http://www.akha.org/upload/hoohyoh/hoohyoh.htm)

Will millions of American tax payer dollars continue to go to the Thai Government so that they can continue to murder the hill tribe?

Such connections to any other CEO Dictatorship would lead to an outcry in Congress or Parliaments. Yet on the Bush watch an unprecedented human rights disaster has occurred around the world.

The American missionaries who procure, abuse and exploit Akha children will be fought at their base of support, the ax laid to the roots of the tree, exposing their practices and the realities to American Church congregations who support them.

Rather than repent of the abuses of American Indians, the American missionaries have taken their scourge to a similar people in the far away mountains of northern Thailand and Burma, to places from which the flow of heroin, missionaries with/and CIA drug trafficking can not be sorted out, to conduct the busy work of looking like they were spreading the gospel. Considering the gospel is oft referred to as the good news, we wonder just what kind of gospel the missions are preaching?

Will Paul W. Lewis, the infamous Baptist missionary with perhaps more than one job during his time in Burma, ever stand before an Akha court and be asked about his involvement in the heroin trade?

Will the Akha get to send him to prison or take away HIS children?

Will the Akha women every be able to ask him why they were sterilized and then abandoned?

Speak up, demand justice for the Akha people, and ask yourself just what the average Akha person will be eating next time you slow down for that Thai Restaurant!

Matthew McDaniel
USA

2003-11-30T06:15:00.000-08:00

Royal Thai Forestry Department Bashes Akha Hill Tribe

The Thai Forestry Department fines 8 hill tribe 150,000 baht each for farming.
First imprisoned for 20 days and fined 15,000 baht, now the Forestry department has loaded an additional 150,000 baht on these same individuals for farming land near their homes.

Don't buy Thai, don't visit Thailand. Thailand ABUSES its hill tribes while making millions off exploitive tourism.

2003-08-21T04:39:00.000-07:00

Akha Website Rebuilt
www.akha.org has been rebuilt. Go take a look. And we will soon link this site to the home page as well.
The weekly journal is regular updates, but for a lot more info typed in you will be able to look here.

Matthew

2003-05-22T02:01:00.000-07:00

Drug War Update

Dear Friends:

After the drug war of three months, just one phase of it here in Thailand, I am finally getting back on line a little bit.
There were scores of executions of hilltribe people, not just Akha. Blocking the road, killing everyone in the vehicles with heavy gun fire, tearing their bodies up with bullets.

We have made many reports and pics can be seen on www.akha.org of some of the people who are no longer with us. All this of course without due process. Investigations are ongoing.

I just visited Booh Saw May Yurh in prison here in Chiangrai. She is an Akha who went to a house to get rice and when she came home the army arrested her because they said they found drugs in that house. She has been in prison for five months, and has to wait another year before her court day and there is no case to be identified against her. She is a widow with four children who now lost their only bread winner.

The coffee project is well under way, hoping to plant thousands of plants we nurtured all year. That was a learning experience.

We are looking for funds for many more plants of course.

Please make a visit to www.akha.org

Matthew McDaniel

2002-10-05T19:59:00.000-07:00

Thai Government Officials Keep Insisting That Hilltribe Take Thai Names

The officials at the Mae Faluang Ampuf office, Chiangrai, Thailand are telling all the parents who come in to register the births of their children that they must use a Thai name even though they are not Thai by race or heritage. (This is Thailand after all).

This is highly racist and illegal, to force hilltribe peoples to take a Thai name and obscure their identity and force assimilation in every area of their life.

This is the same country that now heads the WTO for the next two years, and that wants to head the WHO in asia.

Thailand needs to be treated as it treats others for a while.

All aid to Thailand needs to be based on how they treat the hilltribe and other marginalized communities.

Thailand's fascination with things Nazi are no mistake.

2002-09-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

COMMENTS FROM A CURRENT VOLUNTEER AT THE AKHA HERITAGE FOUNDATION

Below is a report I recently received from a volunteer who will be working with me until the beginning of October 2002 (we've been working together since July). Should you wish to contact him regarding his opinion on the current situation with the Akha, the work I do here, or any volunteer opportunities then please email me at akha@akha.org and I can give you his personal contact details. MATTHEW

My experience volunteering to help the Akha:

As a British volunteer with The Akha Heritage Foundation, I am providing some information concerning future volunteer opportunities. I am currently in Thailand working with Matthew and having a fantastic time (both in terms of interest and enjoyment). Here is some objective information about the organisation.

Firstly, I can confirm that the Foundation is reputable and that the work Matthew does is exceptionally worthwhile. In short, the aim of the Foundation is the promotion and advocacy of Akha human rights, traditions, and civil liberties. The organisation (it holds 'non-profit corporation' status in the States) and any volunteer will encounter many different forms of aid work: including documentation, research, first aid care, fundraising, road building etc. As a reflection of the work the charity does and of the dire socio-economic conditions that the Akha are faced with on a daily basis, the work any potential volunteer will do is hugely broad and exceptionally variable depending on the current situation.

As far as I am aware the experience encountered here is greatly different from almost any other opportunity presently available. Any potential volunteer should be aware of the grass-roots level of the organisation and the fact that the work is exceptionally political (though the organisation is not). I feel that I would personally have been able to 'cope' on this project any time since leaving school (thats high school for you Americans!) - I am now a student at Edinburgh University. Be aware however that it is not for the fainthearted - for me at least this makes it more appealing!

I would definately recommend this to anyone who is interested in politics or more precisely the distribution of power; those interested in direct action; grass-roots development work; an endangered culture and language; and finally, those seeking an unforgetable experience.

Just to clarify, the charity is non-religious and non-political.
You will have to email Matthew regarding specific details on volunteer opportunities. (akha@akha.org).

2002-08-10T00:14:00.000-07:00

CALL OFF THE DOGS!

Please Forward This Alert.

This is a very serious situation.

Harrassment of Akha National.

Dear Friends:

Traditional Akha Woman Activist has her home illegally searched for second time.

For the second time in two weeks, Akha woman activist Meeh Juuh (Chutima Morlaeku) has had her home searched by Chiangmai Police.

For years Meeh Juuh has worked selflessly to help the hilltribe get their ID Card paperwork finished in order to become full Thai citizens. Many times the paperwork is held up by corrupt officials or large "fees" are sought to complete it.

Approximately 50,000 of Thailand's 70,000 Akha still do not have their ID cards finished. They now face deportation. Though thousands of Akha have grown up from childhood working for Thai families and businesses, having been seperated at an early age from their villages due to these jobs they may often have almost no paperwork and no hope of getting an ID card under the current practices. They also have no one to represent them, having been seperate from the villages for so long, or since parents may also be deceased.

Please contact you THAI embassy nearest you and insist that the harrassment of Meeh Juuh Chutima Morlaeku stop immediately and that there be an investigation into who ordered these searches.

Matthew McDaniel

Thailand.

Bangkok Post - Thailand

Aug 10, 2002

HILLTRIBE RIGHTS

Activist says police want to intimidate

Lawyer hired after her home searched

Ploenpote Atthakor

Meeh Juuh Chutima Morlaeku

Chutima Morlaeku, an activist fighting to win Thai citizenship for hilltribe people, has asked the Law Society of Thailand to step in after her house was raided by police for the second time in less than three weeks.

Ms Chutima, who works with Inter-Mountain People Education and Culture in Thailand Association, said plainclothes police searched her house on July 29 in her absence.

The search, like the first one on July 14, produced nothing. It was an act of intimidation and meant to tarnish her reputation, she said.

Valuables and 35,000 baht had gone missing. The money, most of it from donations, was intended for the citizenship campaign. ``Three necklaces, which looked like gold, were placed in my house as well,'' she said.

Chutima, a well-known advocate for hilltribe people, said police hoped to intimidate her into stopping her campaign. She feared for her life and would go into hiding.

``They think they can easily intimidate me because I am a woman,'' she said. She would lodge a complaint with the National Police Bureau and the Human Rights Commission.

Somchai Homla-or, of the society's human rights committee, urged the police bureau to look into the case.

``Disciplinary action should also be taken against those involved,'' he said.

Mr Somchai said Chutima could sue police for damages and a society lawyer would be appointed to handle the case.

She could also report the case to the United Nations.

``At first, she was scared to file a complaint but finally plucked up the courage. Other activists might be spared such intimidation if she complains,'' he said.

First Incident

Bangkok Post

Wed. 31 July

HILLTRIBE PEOPLE

Drugs search `last straw'

Activist says police harass, threaten her

Ploenpote Atthakor

Threats and intimidation are nothing new for Chutima Morlaeku, an Akha activist fighting for citizenship for hilltribe people.

But the latest incident, in which police whisked her from Chiang Mai airport to her home in search of drugs was the last straw, she says.

She believes the July 14 search, as she returned from a trip to China, was linked to her outspokenness and efforts to protect hilltribe villagers.

``Police approached me as I was leaving the airport with my sister and niece. They grabbed me by the arms and took me to their car without telling me of the charges. Nor did they produce any court document,'' said Ms Chutima, who works with Impect, Inter-Mountain People Education and Culture in Thailand association. Altogether 30 police took part.

``They searched for drugs at my house and the house of my mother and my sister. They turned up nothing because my family has never been involved with drugs.

``But I was afraid police would frame me, manufacturing the charges and evidence, just as they have done to so many hilltribe people,'' she said .

The association's adviser, a senior government official, told her that police wanted her to keep quiet.

``Next time, they'll have placed drugs in my house when they come to look,'' Ms Chutima said.

Chiang Mai police chief Pol Maj-Gen Kasem Rattanasunthorn said he would look into the case. However, he said it was all right for police to search a suspect's house without telling the person of the charges, as long as they had a court-issued search warrant.

Warin Tiamcharas of the Law Society of Thailand disagreed, saying police had abused their power. Ms Chutima should complain to the Human Rights Commission, he said.

Bangkok Post

August 8, 2002

HILLTRIBE RIGHTS

Northerners upset over activist's arrest

Seek rights inquiry into police actions

Chewin Sattha

The National Human Rights Commission will be asked to look into the police action in searching the house of a woman hilltribe activist and arresting her without reason.

Northern activists yesterday lodged a complaint with Chiang Mai Governor Kosin Kethong through senior provincial officer Adul Huaknil, demanding justice for Chutima Morlaeku, an Akha activist fighting for citizenship for hilltribe people.

Provincial authorities then asked Chiang Mai police to provide details of the raid and the reasons within 15 days.

A leading activist said the national rights commission would be asked to look into the police action.

Chomchuan Boonrahong, representing northern non-governmental organisations, said plainclothes police searched Chutima's house in San Sai district, Chiang Mai, on July 14 without a warrant and then arrested her and her relatives at Chiang Mai airport, also without a warrant, when they arrived from China the same day.

Ms Chutima, alias Mee Ju, 18, said the police actions frightened her and her family and caused her mother to fall sick. She said she had lost US$200 in the search. Police also searched two other houses owned by her siblings.

Her house was also broken into last Saturday and 35,000 baht in cash stolen.

``I didn't expect such a thing would happen to me. I thought it happened only on TV. I am just a vendor who wants to help fellow hilltribe people,'' Ms Chutima said in tears.

Pol Maj-Gen Kasem Ratanasunthorn, the Chiang Mai police chief, insisted that police had not abused their authority. They had reasons for their actions that could not be revealed.

Ms Chutima was born in Chiang Saen district, Chiang Rai, in 1984 and started working as a volunteer for the Inter-Mountain People Education and Culture in Thailand association (Impect) in 1991.

A local activist said police had wrongfully accused her of drug dealing.

2002-08-04T05:42:00.000-07:00

Disappearances Reason For Joy?

I always wondered why the Hilltribe were happy to see me. They seemed to be so overjoyed, or was it relief, or hope, or desperation?

For whatever else it might have been, recent revelations of secret killings of many of their number by the powers that be, on an annual basis, give one good reason to realize that contact with the outside world is definitely a blessing and relief for these people, maybe just maybe somehow, hope or rescue has come to town.

And the killings and disappearances add up. The authorities show no shame over it, the incidents are becoming more routine, and a greater network of reporting is illustrating it as a widespread problem.

The "Who" of the disappearances is not so maticulously noted by the Akha as the fact that they know their people are disappearing with no recourse on how to check it out. Trucks with numerous passengers, lone motorbike riders, go off the hill to town and never come home, the vehicles and motorbikes are never seen again and no one ever comes around asking or questioning regarding discovered evidence, etc.

Maybe we need to start a register of those numbers missing, but we are fearful it will be an enormous task, as the numbers start coming out.

Just in the last year I have been made aware of ten disappearances or more, both Akha and Lahu, the last being two Lahu missing now for one month.

2002-07-18T02:45:00.000-07:00

Thai Army Continues To Harrass, Abuse and Rob Akha Villagers in Northern Thailand.

In the weeks of late June and early July 2002 the Thai army in the Haen Taek Ampur Mae Faluang region harrassed and robbed two villages of cash, property and vehicles, discharging weapons in houses and threatening villagers with arbitrary arrest.

In a third case another village saw the army beat and rob one of their villagers of cash. Often these events are done under cover of "drug war busts".

This is the same region where the Akha man Mr. Ah Juuh Cheh Muuh was beaten to death while in "drug detox" last December.

2002-07-03T07:34:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends:

A very knowledgeable person on coffee contributed time and energy to come up and see our starting coffee project and to give advice. Our thanks to Jaques Op de Laak from Holland who has some thirty years experience with raising coffee commercially in South East Asia and other places in the world and who helped establish disease resistant coffees for Thailand highland areas.
We have permission to translate his book on coffee into the Akha language for use in the Akha community which we very much appreciate.
In a matter of a couple of days we were able to go over planting methods, how to strengthen the seedlings, diseases, harvesting, processing and roasting.
We are seeking a specific sponsor to help us set up a roasting and packing operation to the benefit of the growing villages and also as a means of supporting Akha projects.
We have been successful to get a number of things accomplished this spring, some of the quite weighty, and as in the past the cost of these efforts, to keep up with events, has depleted our normal funds, such that other projects were delayed.
Such has been the case of the press project, repairs and more repairs, long ways from a publishing center of activity, with a Gestetner press, and a bill still preventing us from moving forward. This was some disappointement as the front page was rolling off nicely and already telling us about improvements we would make.
Please let me know if you will help us overcome this challenge and get the books rolling?
Speaking of helping, the Paypal account has locked, we were told a security alert, that we had to send two documents to the, which we did and it remains locked so that you can not make donations via that. Locked for four months, with repeated protests to Paypal. So we are no longer using their services and have not replaced that with a secure card site of our own yet so please send your donation to the Salem Oregon address.
Sigi of Germany has been supportive of our Akha Language School even though we don’t have all the books we need due to press situation. One teacher there.
I am wading through web site rebuilds before booting them to Akha.org, quite a task each time.
The border with Maesai at Burma continues to be closed. The Defense Minister Chavalit argues endlessly with the Thai army and can not explain to any of us which country he lives in or is a citizen of.
The sporadic fighting continues on the border, people who monitor such things insist that it is a "for show war" to draw the Americans into the situation and their money in order to encourage a "solution" that gives the whole region more dollars. This is not totally unreasonable based on how undecided and unhurried the entire exchanges appear to be, the Burmese insisting they are going to over run the Shan, every other day artillery duals, just two hills apart, skirmishes, all over a surprisingly small area of slopes.
The Wa, Chinese dressed up as Wa, Shan, Thai, Burmese have all been in a road building flurry (note they didn’t blade our road to their army camp, so the women are still walking and the Lahu plant rice on the road for another year, and miscarriages are normal events that after 21 all the journalists still insist they are not newsworthy - all male journalists - and meanwhile the army dug out a huge new scarring road on the opposite ridge to come from that way instead, the long way around, work with two cats, two backhoes, and heck, on our side we already did the hardwork for them. But 20 Lahu families and 20 meters of rice terrace are all the wedge the army needs)so they can go everywhere at once and have a yet to be seen decisive war.??????
Meanwhile the labs get moved to town so it may get real boring up there on the ridge when everyone is vying for "Mac Lab" in their apartment complex, a bowl of big crystals and a meth party.
The Akha and other sources insist that the Shan and some Thai troups got their butts kicked playing up in the fields of the lord, lots of bodies that didn’t come home for dinner, the Shan deny this, but the guys I saw sure didn’t loose limbs roasting weenies at a scout camp.
Defense Minister Chavalit now is oinked that the huge casino on the Burma side across from Maesai has been associated with an investment scheme of his lovely wife Khun Ying Loeuy, and demands that naughty people implying that there may be a conflict of interest that is confusing the intentions of the two countries and their joint effort to put a stop to drug trade please stop such insinuations about a well known Thai general who is good friends with Rangoon.
Course Rangoon has a few headaches of its own and we sure wish them and all the people of Burma the best progress in an economically depressed area.
Hopefully all anguish at the border will be resolved soon and we can all go over for a game of blackjack at the new "palace".
Meanwhile, there is an army truck empty or full on every curve of the road on the Thai side, and odd looking equipment, all over these disputed few hills. The Burmese insist that the Shan must go, the Thais admit it, but also insist the Shan are not there.

We now have a new volunteer site at www.idealist.org. You can go there and type in "Akha" to the search engine to see our page and what we are trying to find assistance with.

Mountain rice is planted and rice terrace rice is going in now, so all the villages quite busy.

Loh Guuh was an Akha man who was killed by a gun shot wound to the head in a suspected sting operation more commonly referred to as "entrapment" nearly a year ago last August. Two high school boys from the same village who had been asked to "help count" non existent money because they had gone to school, were also arrested. One got twenty five years. One got fifty years. That was the nephew of Loh Guuh. He has now been transfered to Bangkok. He was 19 now 20.
The drug war is a war with people without a face.
Yet the money put into helping the poor in the areas most effected by this war is non existent. Poverty was a substitute crop, and the giants who insist on the war and also insist that it never come to a resolution, never pay the price.
You are an Akha kid who has seen your village uprooted by the army from the mountains, dumped on borrowed land next to a super highway, lucky to see a day when there is an egg in the house, let alone a glass of milk, and you can maybe make a $1 a day for spraying herbicide for a Thai farmer, cause they sure don’t want to spray Zeneca product from London (paraquat) themselves, so someone tells you that at the edge of the corn field there is a ton of money and would you please go count it, and you get fifty years. Can anyone tell me what US Gov. employee would see their child get fifty years for knowing how to count?
In appreciation of your continued support, we hope the book project will roll ahead soon.
Matthew McDaniel

The Akha Heritage Foundation
Maesai, Chiangrai, Thailand
Donations by check or money order may be sent to:
The Akha Heritage Foundation
PO BOX 6073
Salem OR 97304 USA

2002-06-25T02:02:00.000-07:00

Akha Villages Along Burmese Border Brace For Border War

With a Shan held base having fallen last week in the Chiang Mai border area, the Burmese forces are turning their attention to the Shan outposts along the Mae Faluang border area across from Meh Maw and Pah Noon Akha villages, Meh Maw having already been evacuated in part.

Yesterday border shelling could be heard at Pah Noon with promises of an all assault on these ridge camps in the coming days.

Thai army movements indicate that the Thai army soon expects to be without a buffer army in the area and will have to fully protect the Haen Taek peninsula themselves.

2002-06-17T06:03:00.000-07:00

Akha's and Animism

David Orton Comments on Animism and Deep Ecology

Deep ecology, animism and land ethics

This post is about what kind of relationship there can be
between "traditional" aboriginal thinking and deep ecology,
and how this becomes reflected in land use practices. It is
something that I have written on in the past (see for
example the article in Wild Earth, Fall 1995, "The Wild Path
Forward: Left Biocentrism, Park Issues and Forestry, A
Canadian View", Green Web Bulletin #44), but it is really
for me a continuing concern. I believe that this is quite
important philosophically. If we can understand this, then
one can attempt to deal with various practical questions and
dilemmas in the environmental movement regarding aboriginal-
related issues, from a consistent philosophical basis.

In a nutshell, I find a traditionalist world view extremely
attractive and progressive from the perspective of all I
hold dear. But this view, although it is rooted in an
animistic spirituality, remains in the end human-centered.
Because of this, it seems to me, the "use" of Nature in a
modern industrial context can ultimately be justified: for
example, human usage of parks or natural areas, and
support for commercial hunting and trapping.

The following quote from the Royal Commission on Aboriginal
Peoples, shows one example of this human-centered and
religious position, which one finds over and over again in
traditional aboriginal writings:
Elders believe there is only one solution: living life
according to the Creator's instructions. The Creator's
guidance ensured that the land, sea and sky, and all
creatures dwelling there, would remain for future
generations. The Creator's instructions provided for
maintenance and care of the earth. Long before government
imposed its rules and regulations, Aboriginal peoples had
their own systems of territorial use and maintenance.
Vol.4, pp. 140-141
Yet just underneath the above, the text goes on to show that
Nature becomes ultimately a "resource":
Most elders want to see co-management of natural resources
such as wildlife, oil and gas, forests, water and minerals.
p. 141

A further conundrum for me, is how, with the animistic
traditional world view of aboriginal peoples, did the large
faunal extinctions occur in, say, New Zealand and the
Americas? These extinctions, if they occurred as claimed
by some whose views I respect, for example, Paul Martin,
Michael Soule and Jared Diamond, took place outside the
influence of modern technology and eurocentrism. This
remains a puzzle for me, which ultimately has to be
resolved, if one supports aboriginal animism.

I think occasions come up on environmental and social
justice issues, where one supports aboriginals and on other
occasions it could be necessary to oppose them. I would not
see such differences as arbitrary but grounded in a basic
Earth-centered thought-out position.

We have an exchange of publications with _The Friends of
Clayoquot Sound Newsletter_. The Fall/Winter 98/99 issue just
came out. It illustrates this support and opposition
position referred to above, as it comes up in practical
situations. I have not had direct personal contact with FOCS,
but have very much admired their work. That is, of trying to
bring the legacy of industrial logging of old growth rainforests
to a halt in the Sound, and to do this in alliance with the
indigenous peoples of that area, showing sensitivity for their
interests and concerns.

The front page story "Interfor Leaves Catface" in the FOCS
Newsletter, describes how a month long blockade of a new
logging road being built on Catface Mountain, which started
in September of 1998, eventually forced the company to leave:
At issue was the company's Catface logging plan which
does not remotely live up to the 'world-class
ecosystem-first' forestry intended by the Clayoquot Sound
Scientific Panel.

Later in the article is noted the position of some aboriginal
people from the area to the blockade:
To our regret, the Hereditary Chiefs and the Band Council
of the Ahousaht First Nation, whose territory includes
Catface, opposed the protest. They issued two statements
saying that the Ahousaht and all government agencies had
approved the Catface logging, and demanded that the
protest cease. We replied that, while we respect First
Nations' jurisdiction over their lands, we have the right
to oppose their decisions, just as we have the right to
oppose any government's decisions. A delegation from the
Chiefs also drove up to the barricade and demanded that
we dismantle it, which we declined to do. A meeting with
the Chiefs to discuss our different perspectives is still
pending.

The Newsletter also has an article "Connections" reporting
on the work of Joe Martin, who I would assume is an
aboriginal, detailing his fifth visit to Germany. We are
told that Martin is a spokesperson for "native human rights"
and two of these tours had him accompanied by Valerie Langer
of The Friends of Clayoquot Sound. So what I see here in the
FOCS Newsletter is support for aboriginals, but also the
willingness to oppose when land use issues demand it.

Like I have said above, a basic issue is the relationship of
deep ecology to the animistic spirituality of aboriginal
peoples. Below is part of what I wrote on this in the _Wild
Earth_ article of Fall 1995.

2002-06-17T05:38:00.000-07:00

Amnesty International Releases Report on Torture and Killing of Akha Hill People
(Not a single missionary showed their face during the lengthly investigation of these killings)

Amnesty Report

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE

Thailand: Widespread use of torture - from policing to prisons

In a new report issued today, Widespread abuses in the administration of justice, Amnesty International said that police and army officers use torture to extract confessions, or to punish and humiliate suspects.

"Torture should not be accepted as normal behaviour - it is a gross abuse of power. The government must do much more to publicly condemn it, and to investigate those responsible and hold them to account," Amnesty International said.

The police and army use torture and ill-treatment in detention, shortly after arrest, during transport of detainees, and in military drug treatment camps. Poor Thai people, migrants, and members of ethnic groups are particularly vulnerable.

On 7 December 2001, two Akha tribesmen, Ateh Amoh and Ajuuh Cheh Cuuh Gooh, were seized by soldiers from their village in Chiang Rai Province, and taken to the 11th Cavalry military camp in order to be treated in an opium detoxification program. They were pushed into a small hole in the ground where three other Akha men were already detained.

Soldiers then poured water, coal and ashes on the five men and left them there until the evening when they were blindfolded and taken separately for questioning. One man escaped, and as punishment Ateh Amoh and Ajuuh Cheh Cuuh Gooh were severely beaten. Ajuuh Che Cuuh Gooh died from the beatings on 9 December and Ateh Amoh spent six days in the hospital being treated for a ruptured lung and other injuries. Amnesty International calls on the government to expedite an effective investigation and bring those found responsible to justice.

2002-06-17T05:18:00.000-07:00

infomekong.com blasts Akha Hill Tribe As Evil Pagan Demon Worshipers
Blatant Christian Racism

infomekong.com is racist - Mekong Springboard is Racist!

In classic form Oversease Missionary Fellowship, Akha Churches in Thailand (ACT) and Infomekong in their Mekong Springboard Series portray the Akha as bad people who need to be converted. Not bad as in the human heart but more bad as in Pagan, "They aren't like us" kind of pagan.

They note how poor the Akha are with no mention of how rich the missions are.

Should we feel sorry for the Akha or for the missions?

Ancestor Worship?

Never met an Akha who worshipped their ancestors any more than Christians worship Abraham, Isaac or Jacob.

For blatant Christian racism against minority peoples and cultures visit this site.

The Akha are not Hani and will not be any time soon.

2002-06-16T22:57:00.000-07:00

Christianity versus the Teachings of Jesus

One can lament that what Jesus taught ended up owned by the Christians in many cases. Particularly where Christians try to export western consumption culture and social values to places where they are inappropriate, but pass it off as ALSO part of the "gospel".

From the standpoint of a purist, this causes people to reject the teachings of Jesus where it is not necessary.

What can be done to turn this situation around?

Matthew McDaniel

2002-06-16T08:25:00.000-07:00

The Pah Nmm Road Incident

Twelve years ago the Thai army forced Pah Nmm Akha Village to relocate from their mountain home to a lower elevation and abandoned them to poverty, loss of income, destruction of their livestock and worst of all caused the entire village to have to walk three hours per day to their fields.

Results over 12 years?
21 miscarriages in the last 4 years.

Depleted nutrition, loss of land.

We continue to aid this village to improve their trail to the fields and convert it to a road but are being blocked by a spiteful Christian Lahu village from completing the project.

Interested?
mailto:akha@akha.org

Matthew McDaniel, Thailand

2002-06-16T03:24:00.000-07:00

Border Wars

The Burmese army and the Shan State Army battle for a few hills along the Burmese Thai border while the Akha continue to prepare the rice terraces and plant rice for the year.

Be a volunteer, help build trails, plant coffee to save the forest, and repair dirt roads to the fields.

No better way to get to know the most colorful hilltribe of Thailand, the Akha.

akha@akha.org

Matthew McDaniel, Thailand