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Arrested development

Exploited as a tourist attraction, the hilltribe villagers are now being blamed for forest encroachment and arson. Amazing Thailand indeed

Vasana Chinvarakorn

The women of Pang Daeng village are awaiting news on the fate of their husbands, fathers and neighbours who are imprisoned in Chiang Mai. Since the March 26 arrests, the villagers say they fear for their safety and survival if they stay in the area. -- Pictures courtesy of Ethnic Studies Network, Chiang Mai University

There are no tourists riding elephants in the scenic hilltribe village of Pang Daeng today. For the past five years, this small community in the mountainous northern province of Chiang Mai has been bustling with visitors seeking an exotic experience among exotic people.

Now, the hilltribes people in this picturesque hamlet want to keep as low a profile as possible, having recently been through a rather "exotic" experience themselves.

On the evening of March 26, Pang Daeng residents were going about their usual routine - taking a bath, cooking dinner or just chatting with friends and relatives - when an army of forestry officers and police burst into the village and began arresting people.

Anxious as they were when they first saw over 100 fully-armed and uniformed government officials descending on them, the villagers showed no resistance thinking they had nothing to fear as they hadn't committed any crime. Besides, they were told by the officers that they just wanted to take them for a "short briefing" in town. Some reported overhearing talk of a donation of blankets.

In all, 56 villagers were taken away, ranging in age from 13 to 66. All men.

Stepping into a local police station with a few whining children in tow, a sixth sense told the men the so-called briefing might last much longer. And they were right: they were all charged with encroachment on a national forest reserve and forest arson.

But at least they did get the free blankets. In jail.

WHEN ART IMITATES LIFE - AND IT'S A FARCE

Scene 1: Looking down from a helicopter at fires ravaging the Doi Inthanon National Park, deputy agriculture minister Newin Chidchob feels his blood boiling. He announces: "The fires were caused by hilltribe people."

A local officer whispers to the deputy minister who immediately orders his pilot to fly to nearby Chiang Dao forest.

Scene 2: Seeing over 2,000 rai of national reserve which has been turned into mango plantations, and hearing a report of 600 illegally-cut logs found in the area, the deputy minister quickly denounces the encroachers, saying they must be punished immediately.

The Royal Forestry Department (RFD) carried out Mr Newin's orders with lightning speed. By 5 pm of the same day, 56 "culprits" had been detained.

Less than a week after the round-up, both the deputy minister and forestry bureaucrats had come under attack from academics and non-governmental organisations in Chiang Mai. They said the arrests had been conducted at random and that most of the detainees were innocent.

In his defence, Mr Newin gave an elaborate explanation: "I want to ask if those 56 hilltribe people can make up for such huge damage to the national forest. Those who are trying to defend this small group of people - do you care for the other 60 million in the country?

"Don't you realise that forest destruction incurs drought and flood? When there is fire, drought or flood, do these people ever come out to look after the public? But when a minority people violate the law and cause damage to the country, why such effort to protect them? I don't understand why Thai people can love one another this much." (Khao Sod, April 4, 1998)

Hilltribe villager Manhoeng Pohtu, 67, is confused about what's going on too, but for different reasons to Mr Newin. The elderly Palaung man was lying in his shack in Pang Daeng village on March 26 when two policemen tried to drag him out. Once the officers realised Manhoeng was paralysed, they left him alone and handcuffed his 34-year-old son instead.

Jasor Jalu, 14, was caught in the dragnet too. The Lahu boy was on his way home to Pangtong village after having mortgaged the family's motorcycle to pay for household expenses. Little was Jasor aware that his one-day visit to Pang Daeng village would land him in jail.

Naloh Poosu, 30, likewise was taken completely by surprise. The Lahu woman had just come over from Mae Taeng village to ask for a blessing from her parents before starting the new planting season when they arrested her husband.

"My husband was helping somebody in the village build a toilet when they took him away. He didn't even have time to put on his shoes," she says.

"Some rich men (nai thun) offered to hire us to cut down trees before, but we turned them down. Why don't they catch the big guys?"

ARRESTS 'POLITICALLY MOTIVATED' SAYS ACADEMIC

Imprisonment is not new for ethnic minority people in Thailand. In 1989, 29 Palaung men were arrested on charges of forest encroachment. The sentence was an 11-year jail term.

"Due to their good behaviour, they received a reduction. In all, they were detained for three years, six months and eighteen days," recalls Kham Jongtan, 60, a leader of the Palaung people in the community.

"Hilltribe people always suffer from their lack of legal status," says Sombat Khamboonyueng, a researcher at Chiangmai University's Ethnic Studies Network. "Jasor, for example, was already arrested once. He was working on a construction site in Chiang Mai without an identity card."

Mr Sombat, who works with the university's Regional Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), has paid several visits to the Pang Daeng community. From his talks with villagers, he believes the arrests might have been politically motivated. At both local and national levels.

Locally, two influential men in the community are allegedly competing for control over resources and manpower, and are using every possible tactic. At a national level, there have been attempts to revoke the three Cabinet Resolutions passed by the previous government that allow villagers to continue living in forest areas.

"The RFD may also want to show the public that it's concerned for the environment," says Sombat. "But they must find some justification for why their reafforestation project in the area for the past 20 years is still lagging behind the target."

"The incident at Pang Daeng is simply a ploy for the government to support the idea that villagers are to be blamed, that they should not be allowed to live in the forest," adds Dr Chalardchai Ramittanond, an anthropologist at Chiang Mai University.

Chiang Mai academics point out that the so-called forest reserve in dispute should have been considered on a case-by-case basis. Part of it had already been turned into orchards by people from the lower plains, some with legal title deeds. Others are waiting for the Sor Por Kor 4-01 Land Reform Certificates. Basically, the hilltribe villagers in the community have been hired to tend the trees with permission to use some empty plots to grow corn and beans for household consumption.

As the Pang Daeng villagers struggle to free their men from prison, they also fear for their own safety and survival. The round-up of March 26 has been followed by threats, villagers say. Some families have moved in together for protection and a few of the men now sleep out in the forest to avoid arrest.

Other villagers in the area have been targetted too. On April 3, RFD officials arrested three more hilltribe men in Huay Pong village. They also allegedly threatened to burn down Mae Jon village if its residents did not move out within three days. The ultimatum was so effective that almost everyone moved to Pang Daeng Nai village the following morning.

On April 19, RFD officials, reportedly fully armed, raided the Lahu village of Ban Paktham.

On April 27, another group of RFD officials went to Mussur Rim Nam village, a hamlet within the Pang Daeng community. Villagers said the officers told them to sign a document.

On May 4, the RFD officials came back. They tore down mango trees and torched 13 farm shelters.

VIOLATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS

In the last two months, 27-year-old Sai Yorsaeng has seen her husband only twice. He was one of the 56 men arrested in Pang Daeng village in March and Ms Sai cannot afford the 40 baht bus fare to get to the prison in Chiang Mai.

"I don't have that much money," she says, her eyes downcast and her thin shoulders drooping beneath the blue traditional costume.

Naloh Poosu, 30, whose husband was also arrested, explains that most villagers cannot afford the travel expenses. The prison guards also sometimes demand a 100 baht bribe to let visitors in.

"They have to be extremely careful with their spending. Some have already sold the only piglets they have. They get about 100 baht for each one. If they spend 40 baht to go see their husband or father, they have to keep the remaining 60 baht for the next days," Ms Naloh says.

She is one of the lucky ones. After five days in jail, a relative managed to get her husband out on bail using the family's land deed. To qualify for bail, cash of 100,000 baht or an asset estimated at more than 150,000 baht is required. So far, only 9 of the 56 arrested men have been granted bailed.

A group of academics and NGOs in Chiang Mai has tried, unsuccessfully, to have the men released because, they say, their arrest violated citizens' rights as stipulated in the new Constitution. The appeal was rejected because of incorrect legal wording.

Article 240 of the Constitution prescribes a court's review in cases of unconstitutional "imprisonment." The appeal, however, used the word "arrest," thus it was rejected.

Legal rigmarole aside, the Pang Daeng villagers are finding simply feeding their families perhaps even more difficult than getting their men out of prison.

Quite a few have resorted to mixing their meagre stock of rice with dry corn seeds they planned to use for the upcoming planting season, or potatoes dug up from the forest.

Starvation sometimes makes villagers creative, too. During the recent Easter festival, Isae Sala-ay, 29, took her two girls to a nearby feast organised by a Christian missionary, even though she does not profess the religion.

Students from Chiang Mai University are also raising funds to buy rice for the hilltribe people. But some of their problems seem beyond the students' help.

For 31-year-old Naju Poosu, the students' rice may partly fill the stomachs of her five children, but she has no idea how she will pay for medical treatment for two of her kids.

After her husband's arrest, one child had an accident, and despite hospitalisation, still cannot talk properly. Another child suffers from a lung disease and needs regular check-ups.

For Ms Naloh, the future looks bleaker as time goes by.

"We are flanked by problems on all sides. We don't have ID cards to work in the cities. And now they don't allow us to work here either," she says.

"I have no idea how we will survive next year. We're supposed to start planting the seeds for next year's crops in May and June, but we have already eaten them. And with the forestry officers cutting down our mango trees...," her voice trails off.

Now the Pang Daeng villagers understand what Amazing Thailand actually means.

Info for donations:

Those who want to make donations to help families of the 56 hilltribe men can deposit money into a new account titled "Fund For the Innocents" (Kong thun chuai lua phoo borisut) at the Thai Farmers Bank, Suthep Road branch, Muang district, Chiang Mai. Account number is 471-2-03332-6.

Other organisations are collecting contributions to pass on to the villagers on May 31.

In Bangkok, contact the Thai Volunteer Service. Address: 409 Soi Rohitasuk, Pracharat Bamphen Road, Huay Kwang, Bangkok. Tel (02) 691-0437-8. Fax (02) 691-1217.

In Chiang Mai, there are three places you can contact:

* Centre for the Coordination of Non-governmental Tribal Development Organisation (CONTO). Address: 252 Moo 2, Sansai Noi Sub-District, Sansai district, Chiang Mai 50120. Tel (053) 39-8591. Fax (053) 39-8592.

* NGO Coordinating Committee on Rural Development (NGO-CORD NORTH). Address: 77/1 Moo 5, Suthep sub-district, Muang District, Chiang Mai 50200. Tel/Fax (053) 81-0623-4.

* Ethnic Studies Network (Ethnet), Regional Centre for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Chiang Mai University. Address: 78 Moo 10, Suthep Road, Muang District, Chiang Mai 50200. Tel. (053) 27-8334. Fax (053) 28-3609.

On May 31, a group of human rights organisations and Chiang Mai University academics will visit Pang Daeng village to present food to the families of the arrested men. There will also be a field trip and panel discussion on "Violations of Constitutioanal Rights: A Case of Newin's Order of Indiscriminate Arrest of the Powerless." A bus will leave the Chiang Mai University at 7 a.m. that day. More information can be obtained from the organisations above.