Co-editors: Seán Mac Mathúna • John Heathcote
Consulting editor: Themistocles Hoetis
Field Correspondent: Allen Hougland
The
Hilltribe People of Thailand About
the Akha of Northern Thailand The
Akha or E-Gor Hilltribes in Chiang Mai EarthRights
International: Burma Project Forced
labour logging in Burma by Tim Keating The
Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia: Thailand's Opium: The
Fruits of Victory Opium
History, 1940 To 1979 by Alfred W.
McCoy
A
Tangled Web: A History of CIA Complicity in Drug
International Trafficking Modernization and Indigenous
people do not generally mix. Indeed whether it's called
modernization, globalization, or imperialism, the net result
may well be the same, cultural annihilation. While
modernization may seem benign compared to the old colonial
models, the net result for indigenous peoples can often be
tragic. Imperialists sought to exploit and enslave
indigenous people for profit. Modernizers may actually be
doing more damage, more quickly, thanks to technology and
the need for developing nations to generate income to pay
for the infrastructure of modern statehood. The government of a developing
nation acts a sort of middleman between the multinational
corporations and their people. This arrangement may enrich a
handful of the elite and their offshore bank
accounts.However, the profit from the commodities brokered
and extracted, whether they are minerals, oil, timber, or
other raw materials, leaves the developing nation along with
the goods. Indigenous peoples are particularly hard hit by
this one sided transaction. Modernization in the form of
roads, clear cutting timber, and oil drilling and pipelines
impacts and disrupts the lifestyle, culture, and most
importantly the precariously balanced economies of the
indigenous inhabitants. Self-sufficiency becomes poverty in
the blink of an eye. Modernity weakens, cheapens, and
eventually destroys century old cultures. Central
governments may ignore the plight of indigenous peoples,
give lip service to their needs, or often exacerbate the
situation. In any event, minorities and tribal peoples are
often not considered full-fledged citizens and their needs
ignored. This case study examines the
plight of the Akha in Thailand and Burma. The Akha are a
Southeast Asian hilltribe of Tibetan origin now scattered
through Burma, Thailand, Laos and China.(1) The Akha are
relative newcomers to Thailand, many having fled the
perpetual unrest and decades long civil war in Burma. Few in
Thailand are citizens; most are registered
aliens. The Akha are confronted with
several immediate issues: relocation of villages by Thai
authorities, prostitution, narcotics, poverty, loss of
culture and identity, and depredations by Christian
missionaries. On a larger, economic and political scale, the
civil war in Burma, deforestation/reforestation and road
building, and lack of political status frustrate the
situation. The net result is that the Akha are clearly
endangered as a people. While the situation is not one of
outright genocide, the result is the destruction of Akha
tribe. (2) The turbulent politics and
economics of the Golden Triangle originally displaced the
Akha. Following the fall Communist takeover of China in
1949, the CIA sponsored a secret Nationalist Chinese Army in
the region that was to become known as the Golden Triangle.
(3) Unfortunately for the semi-nomadic Akha, this also
happened to be right in the middle of their territorial
range. The Chinese settled the region and devoted themselves
to the cultivation of opium. Ultimately, during the Vietnam
War half the world's supply of heroin originated there. (4)
More troubling for the Akha is
the long simmering civil war on the Thai-Burmese border. (5)
While the situation has ebbed and flowed over the years,
Shan and Karen separatists have battled the Burmese central
government for more than 50 years. The Akha however are
apolitical for the most part. This has not stopped the
Burmese government in its most recent incarnation as the
Myanmar State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) junta
from persecuting the Akha on occasion. (6) The SPDC has been
accused of deliberately killing, torturing and arbitrarily
detaining members of ethic minorities. "Many civilians have
been arbitrarily seized as porters from their villages by
the military and held in custody... Many of those forced to
act as porters have been subjected to ill treatment as
punishment if they could not carry their loads of supplies
and ammunition. (7) According to a March 7, 2001, Human
Rights Watch press release, this practice continues
unabated. The Akha have more often than not fled to Thailand
during civil unrest in Burma but their presence is not
welcomed nor is their traditional slash and burn rice
cultivation method. Indeed the Thai government would rather
the hilltribes not cross the border at all. (8) Thailand claims the Akha cause
extensive damage to the environment through slash and burn
agriculture. (9) However, the real reason may be more
mundane, national security. The Akha are identified with the
opium growers who until recently dominated that portion of
the "Golden Triangle" in Thailand. (10) Thailand has taken
steps to eradicate opium cultivation and resettle the Akha
into permanent villages. However, both opium and long
ingrained farming techniques are key to the complex Akha
culture. Critics' claims the Thai government really just
want the Akha out of the way of ongoing forestry
development. While traditional opium cultivation has been
suppressed, processed heroine and latest scourge,
methamphetamine, is freely available from Burma. Thus Akha
have become both impoverished farmers and in many cases
narcotic addicts. As the Akha are resettled they come into
contact with mainstream Thai culture, many Akha women are
drawn to the "easy" money of the sex industry. As the Akha traditions and
culture dwindle, tourism increases. Roads bring
accessibility and tourists as well as providing egress from
the poverty of village life for the younger generations,
according to one report: "Some of the smaller communities
had a sad, even desolate air; we were told that many
teenagers leave for jobs in the cities leaving old people,
wearing traditional dress, and young children in charge of
haggling with visitors at handicraft stalls." (11) However,
the picture of Akha life in Thailand is not a happy one,
deprived of their traditional semi nomadic way of life with
their cultural heritage being leached away by contact with
mainstream Thai and Western trends, tourism cannot supplant
the poverty of the Akha: Unfortunately, the author
missed the mark, while the Akha are traditional opium users,
they also enjoy a rich heritage including at least thirteen
festivals in a given year. The crux of the Akha problem in
Thailand is resettlement. The Thai government has
characterized the Akha as destroyers of the forests through
their slash and burn agriculture but one wonder if this is
merely a stereotypical excuse to remove the Akha from
timberland destined to be harvested by international
interests? The Thai government has a program of relocating
the Akha to permanent village sites, once situated, they are
instructed in wet rice paddy cultivation according to the
government. However, the Akha already know this and they are
often forced to leave behind better land than they are given
in return. Controversy surrounds this program run by the
Thai Department of Reforestation. (13) Matthew McDaniel of
the Akha Heritage Foundation based in Chiangrai, Thailand
has been working with the Akha for over ten years. He is
critical of the Thai government's approach, the impact being
detrimental and the relocation sites already too crowded: in
one recent case "Mr. McDaniel said he was informed by the
Akha villagers that the move was made against their will.
Moreover, he linked the relocation with the Petroleum
Authority of Thailand's reforestation scheme. Thai
government responds that the moves simply makes it easier
for the government to take care of the villagers' needs and
that they are never conducted without full consent.
According to McDaniel, the entire scheme is often a fraud, a
single signature being the "consent" needed to relocate and
entire village. Drug addiction is also a drain
on the Akha's vitality. Opium traditionally was used as a
cure all and is part of the Akha heritage. However, with the
introduction of the CIA Kuomintang Army (KMT) into the
Golden Triangle, opium production was encouraged as a way of
raising funds upon which the Akha also became dependent.
Incredibly, until a deal between Khun Sa, his Mong Tai Army
and the Myanmar government was brokered in 1996, the remnant
of the KMT remained active in the region. (14) This however
only caused further misery for some Akha as heroin prices
rose after Khun Sa's retirement. The Akha are prevented by
Thai authorities from their traditional opium cultivation
and have in some cases substituted the far more costly
refined heroin due to availability. Prostitution is another
immediate problem: However, we are warned that the
prostitution problem is not entirely a victimization issue
but rather an economic one, "In numerous cases after having
filmed or listened at great length to all the horrible
events that befell this or that young woman we concluded our
interview only to be asked by her then if we could help her
get back into the business by providing money for a bus
ticket or air ticket to some choicer location where she
could gain greater benefit at the trade. Sort of shocking
the first time we encountered it. But to assume that all
these young woman are duped into this trade would be quite
condescending, as though if they were like us westerners
they would know better. One would also be quite misjudging
of their calculating qualities." (16) However, if resettlement,
narcotics, civil war, and poverty were not enough
challenges, Matthew McDaniel of the Akha Heritage Foundation
has identified one further plague, Christian Missionaries.
According to McDaniel, the churches impose themselves on the
poverty stricken villagers and destroy their culture.
Children are often put into orphanages run by the
missionaries. The Thai and Burmese government view the
missions favorably as they weaken the hilltribes as an
ethnopolitical entity. Finally, village resources are
diverted to build churches often via a tax imposed by the
new pastor, while traditional elders and customs shoved
aside and forbidden. In short, instead of encouraging self
sufficiency based on custom and heritage, the missionaries
introduce an alien belief system and destroy
initiative. Undoubtedly, there are
numerous, laws, treaties, and conventions that the Akha
should benefit from. For instance, Thailand's new
Constitution includes a provision that recognizes
traditional communities and their rights to conserve or
restore their customs, local intellect, arts or good culture
and to participate in the management and maintenance of
natural resources and the environment." (17) In practice the
guarantees granted the Akha are useless as the Akha are not
considered full citizens: "It should be said that the
Government of Thailand has and does do a lot for the hill
tribes. But often it is misguided or self serving, and
without basic rights like ID cards at birth, and the right
to own land, the rest becomes laughable and the end result
is what we have now, the increased marginalization of the
Akha." (18) Indeed, do the governments of the Developing
World even recognize the concept of indigenous peoples like
the Akha, Shans, Karens, Hmong, Nagas, Papuans, Ainu, etc?
The PRC certainly does not: It has been argued that a
constructivist approach to the legal status of indigenous
peoples offers the most flexibility and disarms the argument
that the entire notion of human rights is eurocentric (see
generally Kingsbury, Indigenous Peoples in International
Law, fn 19 above). Thus it may be up to the Akha to define
themselves, if they or their advocates do not act on the
international stage, time may well run out. It is difficult to act against
governments, insurrection in Burma has led only to a
continued cycle of repression. Tribal people cannot hope to
win independence from large central governments, and such
attempts are generally doomed (Nagaland, Shan States,
separatists in Indonesia and the Philippines). However,
governments do not generally act alone, encroachment on
indigenous lands is often motivated by economic gain and in
this endeavor state run enterprises usually partner with
private corporations. Unlike governments,
corporations do not enjoy sovereign immunity for violation
of international law. The US Federal Courts have
jurisdiction over such matters under the Alien Tort Claims
Act or ATCA. (20) The giant oil company Unocal which
partnered with SLORC (the Burmese Junta) faced a California
lawsuit for violation of international law (Doe v. Unocal,
963 F.Supp 880, C.D. Cal. 1997) when the Burmese military
forcibly relocated villagers and enslaved them to help make
way for a natural gas pipeline. Likewise Chevron faces a
lawsuit in another California Federal court regarding
violation of human rights in Nigeria in the course of oil
extraction there. Human rights violations committed during
the Second World War have been successfully litigated
against German, Austrian, and Swiss corporations and
billions of dollars recovered for victims and their heirs.
Court action therefore is a powerful deterrent to economic
exploitation, which violates international law. Could the Akha benefit from an
aggressive legal strategy? To the extent resource extraction
can be linked to violations of international law, the answer
is a cautious yes but the human rights violation must
approach the level of violating recognized international
legal norms such as genocide, slavery, and perhaps seizure
of private property in violation of the 1907 Hague
Convention. As for the missionaries, legal redress for
perpetration of cultural genocide would be a unique case and
well worthy of exploration. In the meantime, the Akha are
in the middle of a new drug war in Thailand as
methamphetamine floods the area displacing opiates. The
Burmese - Thai border is a battleground. The US is calling
for a renewed war on drugs. As MacDaniel points out human
rights is a weapon not a right. One perhaps the Akha could
use against the right party and in doing so plead their case
to the world. 1 "Hilltribe" is used to refer
to several highland ethnic minorities that are
linguistically and culturally distinct from the Thai. The
term includes Karen, Lua, Hmong (Meo), Yao, Akha, Lahu,
Lisu, H'tin, and Khamu. Many of these people are relative
newcomers to Thailand, few have been granted Thai
citizenship, and most are registered aliens,. Douglas L.
Tookey, Southeast Asian Environmentalism at its
Crossroads: Learning Lessons from Thailand's Eclectic
Approach to Environmental Law and Policy, Georgetown
International Environmental Law Review, Winter,
1999 2 The UN Genocide Convention of
1948 defines genocide as: 3 Francis W. Belanger,
Drugs, the U.S., and Khun Sa, Siam Square, Bangkok,
Thailand ISBN 974-210-4808. 4 International Herald
Tribune (Neuilly-sur-Seine, France), March 13, 1998, In
Thailand, Ancient Ways and Elephant Excursions; Tribes of
the Golden Triangle, After the Poppy, Invite
Tourists. 5 Burma and Thailand are a
hotbed of ethnic conflict, according to Peace and
Conflict 2001, A Global Survey of Armed Conflicts, Self
Determination Movements, and Democracy, Ted Gurr et al.,
Center for International Development & Conflict
Management, University of Maryland, armed conflicts by the
Hmong in Laos and Karens, Karenni, Kachins, Shan, Mon,
Chin/Zomi and Wa in Burma continue at varying levels of
intensity. 6 Formerly known by the more
sinister acronym SLORC (State Law and Order Restoration
Council), the change in name was to show "peaceful"
progress, particularly in light of ASEAN
pressure. 7 The Irish Times,
August 8, 1996, Army accused of violating rights of ethnic
minorities. 8 Xinhua, July 7, 1990,
Thailand to stop new influx of highlanders. 9 Ibid. 10 Bangkok Post June 1,
1999, We Care - The Good Samaritan 11 AAP, Dec 4, 2000,
Among the Hill tribes 12 London Guardian, Aug.
8, 1992, Tourist on a Tribal Detour 13 Bangkok Post, January
16, 2000, Villagers to be moved to new location 14 The official Myanmar version
of this deal accuses the US government of trying to
establish a secret missile base in the area under Khun Sa's
control however fails to explain the sudden common interest
between Myanmar and Khun Sa. Ominously, the Myanmar
government reports that methamphetamine manufacture is
rapidly supplanting the heroine industry. The Political
Situation of Myanmar, www.myanmar.com
(A pro government web site disseminating official reports of
the Myanmar Armed Forces and Government for National
Reconsolidation) 15 Akha Heritage
Foundation, www.akha.org,
The Akha Heritage Foundation has a laudable purpose, "Our
goals are to assist the Akha people in preserving their
culture, language and traditions as they see
fit." 16 Ibid. 17 The Georgetown
International Environmental Law Review, Volume 17,
pages, 307, 359. 18 Akha Heritage
Foundation. 19 Benedict Kingsbury,
Indigenous Peoples in International law: A Constructivist
Approach to the Asian Controversy,The American Journal
International Law, July, 1998,92 A.J.I.L. 414 20 The ATCA provides that
Federal District Courts shall have original jurisdiction
over any civil action by an alien for a tort committed in
violation of international law. Thus individuals can sue to
redress violations of international law in US Courts even if
the underlying tort was committed abroad. (See generally,
Steinhardt and D'Amato, The Alien Tort Claims Act: An
Analytical Approach, Transnational Publishers, New York,
1999) Jonathan
Levy is a
California attorney who has represented organizations and
individuals in a variety of Holocaust related lawsuits
including banking, insurance, and slave labor matters. He
can be contacted at: The Law Office of Thomas Dewey
Easton and Jonathan H. Levy,
The Akha are a
people of Tibetan origin in live in the mountains of
southern China, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and northern
Thailand. There are approximately 20000 Akha living in
Thailands northern provinces of Chiang Rai and Chiang
Mai. Every Akha village is distinguished by their carved
wooden gates, presided over by guardian spirits. The
tribe have suffered resettlement, has been widely exposed
to the narcotics trade, civil war, extensive poverty and
finally Christian Missionaries, who have imposed
themselves on the poverty stricken Akha and have helped
destroy their culture. Akha Children are often put into
orphanages run by them. In what amounts to genocide, the
Thai and Burmese government view the missions favorably
as they weaken the hilltribes as an ethnopolitical
entity.
"It was in an Akha
village 40km from Mae Sat, on the Thai border with Burma.
The Akha is one of about a half-dozen hill tribes who eke
out an existence in the inhospitable but scenic Thai
uplands. Their villages are innocent of plumbing, though
an occasional electric wire straggles into a house.
Generally they have simple lives of unremitting tedium,
enlivened by two things: addiction to opiates and being
used as a tourist attraction." (12)
"In the area of
prostitution, the number of Akha girls ending up in that
trade is very large, and growing. The solutions are not
simple and the spread of AIDS is not slowing. Road
development in the area will force many Akha from one
economic model rapidly into another and prostitution will
be one way that far to many of them will cope with that
dilemma." (15)
Legal Solution
"Human rights is
only something you manipulate against your enemies, it
has nothing to do with the humans the laws were intended
to protect." Matthew McDaniel, Akha Heritage
Foundation
"The Chinese
Government believes that the question of indigenous
peoples is the product of European countries' recent
pursuit of colonial policies in other parts of the
world." (19)
References
(a) Killing members of
the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of
the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of
life calculated to bring about its physical destruction
in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within
the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to
another group.About the author
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E-mail: resistk@yahoo.com