To: akhaweeklyjournal@yahoogroups.com
From: Matthew McDaniel
Date: Fri, 20 Jun 2003 08:58:38 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: [AkhaWeeklyJournal] Akha Slaughter, Two more Akhas killed today, Thailand

Dear Friends:

 

Pics will be up in 24 hours at www.akha.org

 

The Drug War is not over.  The US DEA gives the Thai Army more money for drug war intelligence.  What would that be for? The status quo?  More killings, since that is what the Thais know how to do. No law, no accountability, no transparency.  The US already knows these killings are going on.  Cobra Gold moves on.  The Leahy ammendment is being violated. The Akha, in their quiet remove villages are being murdered one by one without a voice, without a trace, but today we caught the bastards red handed.

 

24  hours ago I set out to track down two of three murders I had on a list.  The third was going to be hard so I saved that for last.  I took three volunteers with me.

 

Pounding hard roads into the night, we got late to the first village in the general area of where we hoped the leads were taking us. 

 

In the morning at Ah Yeh Akha I photographed the wife of Ah Yeh who survived the ambush, shot more than five times, left for dead, her husband killed beside her.

 

Then on to Loh Sah Akha where another man named Ah Yeh also, was shot dead.  21 years old.  Then to Meh Poh Luang Lahu where Mr. Eh Dteh Durh Jah Gkoh  was killed, and his nephew Jah Boh Jah Hurh was killed.

 

Then on to Joh Hoh Akha, a village that was forced relocated two years ago, after living above that place in the mountains for 18 years.  I discovered there that a man had been killed 12 days ago, and then two more men were killed this morning at 8 Am before my arrival, and just then the coffins came in with the bodies still warm and covered in blood.  We were told by the Thais we couldn't photograph the bodies but after the Akha kin told us we could we promptly told the Thais what the score was and took the photos which are at www.akha.org  VERY GRAPHIC PICS OF THESE DEAD MEN.

 

The families told us that after the killing of Ah Yeh at his home in Joh Hoh, the police tried to pin the blame on four Akhas, then released three, sending one to jail at chiangmai, but villagers testified he was in a nearby house with friends.

 

Then the police called two other men to the police station and when they were on the way, they were ambushed by men on the road, and shot.  Turning their motorbike around into a side road to escape, they were then shot by a gunman hiding there in corn at point blank range, falling on the ground with face and torso wounds.

 

Phrao police denied knowing of any contact with the village.

A police truck in the station had lots of red mud on it, the plates were removed.

 

We ask that you contact the Thai Embassies, that you demand that the Akha killings at Phrao, Province Chiangmai be immediately investigated, we need that this info and photo links be sent around the world to as many government and media contacts as you have.

 

It is time the world SAW what is being done daily here to the Akha.

 

Below the cases section are three reports from the volunteers that rode along today.

 

Due to the secrecy which the Akha are keeping in fear of the police and more killings we are sure there are substantial cases to find yet.

 

This work goes on day and night, please make a donation to cover ongoing road costs.

 

https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=akha%40akha.org&no_note=1&tax=0&currency_code=USD

 

Meanwhile we are testing Akha village water sources.  To date all of them are seriously contaminated in the villages we have been to.

 

Matthew McDaniel

 

Killing Reports

Pictures posted at www.akha.org

 

1. Ah Yeh Akha, Wiang Pa Pao area, Chiangmai Province.

Ah Yeh Leh Churh, 44.

10 months ago.  Noon time.  Dispute with forestry over land use is all that is known.  Ah Yeh Leh Churh had just planted 1400 coffee plants, heavily forested areas, no visible tree cutting.  Agro forestry, should not have been a problem.  Ah Yeh went to town with his wife to buy rice, at Phrao.  Near a cemetary on the low land roads, as he was driving an older Toyota white truck he was stopped by a man on the road next to another white truck.  The man asked him where he was going from the driver's side and then shot him in the ear.  When he fell forward on the steering wheel, he shot him downward through the neck into the body.  His wife Ah Meeh Leh Churh, 41 got out of the truck, but the man standing there at the other truck shot her through the chest from left to right, large exit wound, parallel to heart.  She then fell down on the ground and he stood over her and shot her five times in the heart.  Everyone left, police came, Ah Meeh was still alive, operated on, 28 days in hospital and lived to tell us about it, a very brave powerful woman.  She also has one bullet wound to her hand. Hand needs reconstructed surgery.

 

Ah Yeh had 4 children.  Did not drink or smoke. 

 

We went to second village Loh Sah Akha, two kilometers away.

 

2. Feb 8, 2003. Ah Zeh Murh Leh, 21, married, one daughter of one year age.

Borrowed money to buy pick up truck.  Sisters who worked in town also helped make payments, Ah Zeh drove and bought broom from villages and sold it in town.  At 5 Am he left the village toward Ah Yeh Akha not knowing a Lahu man had been killed above that village.  On the way he met a dark grey black truck on the road coming back between the villages.  He got out of his truck to talk, they shot him in the face, and back, left dead at rear of truck, money for broom purchases and ID taken, 20,300 baht.  Truck roared back through Loh Sah Akha and was seen by Ah Zeh's father, not knowing what happened.  Five to six men.  Truck was 4x4 with big mud tires.

 

3. Feb. 8 2003. Wiang Pah Pao area, Chiangmai.  Meh Poh Luang Village.  Lahu. 

Mr. Eh Dteh Durh Jah Gkoh, 36.  Went hunting at night.  Was chased down road away from village by this same grey black truck which chased him through Loh Sah Akha village, Ah Yeh Akha village and to the road above, where he was killed and his body and motorbike dumped down a hill.  Shot in back and face also. From there the six men met Ah Zeh and killed him as they were returning.  Lahu villagers did not find body and motorbike for three days.

 

Wife name Nah Nah.  Older sister's daughter Ms. Booh Ah Teeh related to case number 4 below.

 

Mr. Eh Dteh had five children, two girls, three boys.

 

4. Jah Boh Jah Hurh, 40 years, at Meh Poh Luang Lahu village was the nephew in law of Mr. Eh Dteh (married to his sister's daughter).  Went to Chiang Dow April 2002.  Never returned home, body never found.  Motorbike never found. Two kids, 11 and 14

 

5.  June 8, 2003

Joh Hoh Akha at Phrao, Chiangmai.

Ah Yeh Mah Yurh 43, killed while sitting in house with friends, shot by sniper who fired through barely open door way.

Someone tried to blame the other Akha in Joh Hoh for this, and police arrested four, released three, sent one to Chiangmai, Leeh Muuh Burh Chay, son of Ah Nah Burh Chay.

But parents and villagers say he was with friends at the next house during that time and didn't own a machine gun.

 

Joh Hoh was forcibly relocated from a higher location of 18 years by a swarm of Phrao police two years ago.  70 officers.  Now they do not have land to farm, or income.

 

Ah Yeh was hit once in chest, died.  4 children.

 

6. Joh Hoh Akha, Phrao, Chiangmai

TODAY.  Two days ago Leeh Huuh, other son of Ah Nah Burh Chay and Loh Pah Ah Sauh were called to the Phrao police station.  The police left a notice with Loh Pah's wife which she had to sign.  TODAY at 8am these two men left for the police station.  They were ambushed on the road and shot to death.  We saw the bodies which we photographed.  Police at Phrao police station denied knowledge of the details of the case that we already knew.

 

Leeh Huuh 44, two sons. Shot hand, nose into head, chest, five times.

 

7. Joh Hoh Akha, Phrao, Chiangmai.

Loh Pah Ah Sauh, 35 Sons and daughters, one daughter is handicapped.  Wife has bad leg, can  not work fields four years.  Loh Pah shot once in face, two or more times in chest. 

 

 

*******

Volunteers:

 

My name is Itaru Furuta. I am a Japanese studying in the US at present
and
am working as a volunteer for two months with Matthew.

So far, villages I've seen looked poor and isolated, but peaceful,
until I
came into one village today where two killings had occured. One of the
nicest scenery I came across in Thailand had turned into a "killing
field"
this morning of June 20th. Nobody would imagine such a brutal killing
would
happen in a rural place like that. I was shocked, sad, and depressed to
see
the dead bodies who were alive just half a day ago...

Another thing that amazed me was that their families seemed not
collapsed
so much. It seemed to me as if they have nothing they can do but to
accept
this cruelty as it is. We should provide the Akhas hope and strength so
that they can live as a human without fear and despair. Poverty could
not
be alleviated completely, but life without fear should be in any
circumstances granted to every Akhas immediately. This is what I've
felt
today.

 

*******

 

19-20 June 2003:

My name is Katharine Ricke.  I am a Senior at Massachusetts Institute
of
Technology.  I am working with Matthew McDaniel of the Akha Heritage
Foundation
this summer to test drinking water sources in Akha villages and compile
a
report on water quality in hopes of developing a future water treatment
plan
for these vilages and aquiring funding for such a project.  I am using
an H2S
fecal coliform indicator test to preliminarily assess the contamination
of
drinking water supplies in the villages.

On the morning of the 19th, we left Matthew's home  to visit several
Akha
mountain villages to the South, particularly Ah Yeh, to find
information about
some recent killings of hilltribe men.  We were distracted leaving
Chiang Rai,
by several roadside signs indicating Akha Christian centers or schools. 
After
some investingation, we found an Akha Christian village that Matthew
had not
previously visited.  At this village, they had very little access to
clean
drinking water.  I tested one source-- an open dug well approximately
60 feet
deep with only a small amount of water collected at the very bottom. 
This
source has already given a positive H2s result.  This means it is
contaminated
which is not surprising for an almost dried-up open dug well.  What's
more
disturbing, the villagers indicated that because they can not get
enough water
from the well their main source of water is collected rain water is
holes in
the nearby fields that are heavily (my lungs can attest to this)
sprayed with
pesticides and herbicides.

We drove into the night and arrived in Ah Yeh by the end of the day. 
We
arrived in ther middle of a healing ceremony and it was somewhat
chaotic.  I
took a drinking water sample after arriving and ran my tests.  This
sample has
also indicated that positive for fecal coliform bacteria.  People in
the
village had been sick lately from stomach problems.  So it was likely,
even
though the village was high in the mountains, that the water has become
contaminated. 

I ran a blank test with bottled drinking water and as was expected, it
has thus
far tested negative for bacterial contamination.

Today, on the 20th of June we left, Ah Yeh, after Matthew confirmed the
story
of the recent shooting and killing of a village man by talking to his
wife, who
had also been shot five times through the chest, but survived.  We
drove to the
Christian Akha village, Loh Sah, where Matthew spoke to a man whose son
had
recently been shot  and killed while driving at night.  I took a water
sample,
but have no results yet.  The water was very clear, though, and there
was a
storage tank built high up above the village of cement and corrugated
tin.  It
had been built for them by Americans and was fed by a reservoir.  This
is the
first potentially good drinking water source I have seen in an Akha
village
since coming to Thailand. 

After this we visited a Lahu village where Matthew talked to the wife
of a man
who was shot and killed the same night as the Akha man from Loh Sah. 

We headed out of the mountains and south to check on the status of
villagers
from the forced relocation of the village, Joh Hoh, near Phrao.  We
drove
toward the village and found that most of its residents had simply been
pushed
further down the mountain and their old village was now used as a
treking
destination for foreigners.  We talked to several women who lived in
the
relocated village, along their main road.  I am currently running a
test on
their drinking water. 
Results are pending.  Health and morale in this village was generally
low. 
They tried to sell us lost of fake hadicraft junk and then told us
where the
other half of the village was.  We went to visit the rest of the
village and
found oput that there had been killings of two men there just this
morning and
one of the women we had talked to earlier was the wife of one. 
Another's
husband had been shot and killed in the his home ( that earlier we had
been
talking to her outside of) twelve days earlier. 

We went to the Phrao hospital to try to locate the bodies of the two
men killed
that morning.  We were told they had just been brought back to the
village by
one of the deads men's 16-year-old sons and his friend.  They
accompanied us to
the site of the bodies.  We then photographed the death certificates/
medical
records and the dead bodies out of the coffin.  The local Thai headman
tried to
prevent this but Matthew threated to bring up Bankok embassy officials
and they
allowed us to inspected the bodies.  The first man had two gunshots
through his
chest and one through his head, the other bloodiness on his head may
have been
a reslult of the gunshot or other head injury.  The second man had
gunshot
wounds in his chest, multiple.  His face has ben shot through and the
exit
wound was the back of his skull near his neck and very messy.  This man
still
had warm, non-coagulated blood.  I took digital photos and Itaru took
film
photos while Matthew turned and lifted the bodies with gloved hands.  
The q16-
year old son of the one man helped us a lot.  He was crying a lot. 

We talked to all the families of the murdered men and got pictures of
them and
their homes.  They all had children.  One had a disabled daughter.  The
man
murdered twelve days earlier had five children.  His youngest daughter
looked
about 7 or 8.    We went with the 16-year old and his friend to the
site of the
murder that morning and took picture of blood stains in the road and
bullet
holes in the corn plants.  The son and his friend explained the details
they
had learned about the ambush.  The Thai headman from earlier,
immediately
followed by a mysterious "cop-type" truck from the opposite direction
scoped us
out taking pictures at the site.  I was afraid we were going to be 
ambushed
ourselves.

We went to the police station to try and meet the likely perpetrators
of the
murders.  Lisa spoke with police officials-- primarily on young officer
and
thechif in charge-- in Thai on the cheif patio of his home in the
complex.  We
learned the cops had called the two men to come to the station that
morning for
some reason they wouldn't clarify.  This is when they had been
attacked.  The
cops couldn't say who might have done it.  They wondered why we would
think it
was the police and wanted to know if we were with an NGO.  One young
police
officer laughed and smirked throughout the meeting.  The chief we were
meeting
with was aloof, but was clearly very ill, probably with AIDS, from the
look of
it.  The chief knew two men had been murdered but didn't seem to know
much real
information.  He was very out-of-it.   The young officer seemed to know
what
was going on but didn't want to talk.

On our way out of the police complex we quickly photographed a truck
without
any plates in the lot that was muddied from a red road like the one the
murders
took place on.  We left Phrao and drove to Chiang Rai. 

********

 

 The Past 24 Hours

Hello. My name is Lisa Friedland, I am 20 years old and go to Vassar College in New York. I have lived in Thailand for one year 2001-2002, the second half in the north of Thailand where I became aware of the hilltribes here.  After one year back at school, I felt the need to come back and work with the hilltribe. The Akha Heritage Foundation seemed to be the only organization getting anything accomplished, so I decided to come, and have been working with Matthew for the past week. The last 2 days have been intense, full, never-stopping, and continuously shocking.  We started on the road to visit some remote villages where a murder had occurred recently, and I saw a sign on the side of the road about some 'Ban Zion' (Ban=House in thai). So we drove up, and after many questions, driving around and investigating, we find two Akha villages Matthew has never come to, and find all this land that belongs to a foreigner, where hilltribe are being paid nothing to farm it.  Christian villages with no leadership, no unity... lacking so much of what makes a traditional Akha village and community.  A crazy ride up the mountain, into the night, we finally arrive at the village we were actually planning on going to, to look into some murders.  For over 70,000 Akha in Thailand, over 300 villages, Matthew is the only one looking into the human rights abuses and problems concerning this hilltribe. The only one!  In the morning he spoke with the wife of the man who was killed. She was shot as well, I believe four times at the heart, and a couple of other places too, unbelievable that she is still alive.  Every time, these killings are coming from the thai army or military.  And for what? It is all about power and money, greed and corruption.  They are instilling fear into these people more and more, even now they are afraid to speak out against the injustices occurring everyday in their lives.  The missions come into a village to build a church, convert the village, steal the children who mostly end up in prostitution, but do not provide clean water? Food? Aid? Any help or care or thought to their culture? It is still too out of control to believe this is going on. But how can I believe otherwise when I am living it every day here? Onto another village, getting water samples with Kate here from MIT, and we already know that many of them are contaminated with feces...most of them will be, we expect. This water situation is just really unlike anything else. Nobody has clean water, which is affecting everybody, whole villages with giardia...everybody is sick.  So, onto the next village, where they give a little more information on murders, from that village a man was murdered, and his father was there giving much information. He had 8 children, and now 4 have died. This one was his last son.  For what?  He had a livelihood, a family, ideas, feelings...a person just as you and I.  Other more powerful forces must get involved as soon as possible to stop these reckless, unnecessary, game-like killings.  Basically, whoever the thai military and police want to kill - they can. And nobody's doing anything about it. Yet. After going to a Lahu village, we came down the georgeous mountain and to Amphur Phrao.  About a year ago, an Akha village was relocated, for no good reason, split up into two parts, so we went to go check on them after losing all their land they had for over twenty years.  Almost on our way out of the second section, where Matthew asks, so, any killings in this village recently? Yeah, two this morning. !!!!!! Another 12 days ago.  3 in 12 days, in one small village.  We had just been speaking with the wife of one of the men that got killed, and didn't say a word. We speed back to where she was, to start the intense chaotic investigation.  The wife is crying, many others circling around to listen or shout out answers and explanations.  The story is that two days ago policemen came to the houses of these two men, and gave papers to their wives saying that they needed to come to the police station today, 20 June, at 8am.  So, the two of them on one motorcycle are halfway there, and are shot many times in the chest and head. Trying to turn around to save their lives, others come out from the fields, and shoot more, way way extra until they are lying their in the field, dead.  We went to this place, and there were blood stains on the road and field.  I believe there are pictures on the website of these two men. Both had families, we met the children of both of them. Young, beautiful...and now without a father... and not accidentally. What is this? What is going on?  Wives and children crying at the funeral site, where the thai regional headman just say with his nice expensive thai-style shirt saying, well, how can you know it was the police when you didn't see it? I stood there going off at the thai men while the others took pictures of the corpses... After meeting and talking with various other people, we went onto the police station of Phrao.  I speak thai, so found it my duty to use it well.  We are taken to see the "Boss", who with the help of others are quickly pushing away the beer bottles and cigarettes and other fun toys off his outside 'desk' where we sit down to speak with him.  Initially it is just him, intoxicated and old, who pretends not to know what I am talking about, asking for answers about why they received the papers two days ago, and why they were murdered.  Another policeman, now both of them smugly smoking cigarettes, says, "Well, how do you know it was the police?" gives an awful half-grin, and takes a drag of his cigarette.  I am not an angry person, but Matthew watched me try to control myself. All they kept saying was I don't know, it has nothing to do with this police station, we have no idea who or why papers were sent to those two individuals. There was nothing else to do there, so we left.  Beyond appalling, this picture. If there is anything, anything at all that you can do, which you can, everyone can participate in saving a culture from genocide, as this is, please do as soon as possible. Check the website, talk to people, and think how you can support and help this group.  More and more their rights are being stripped of them, only because of another's greed and power trip.  They are just people, with eyes, feelings, and a heart.  Come see for yourself if you don't believe. Thank you.   Lisa Friedland June 20, 2003

 

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