US embassy cable - 05CHIANGMAI196

UNCLAS CHIANG MAI 000196 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, TH, PREF, PGOV 
SUBJECT: CHIANG RAI HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISTS ATTACKED 
 
 
1.  Summary.   While human rights and environmental activists in 
northern Thailand have become accustomed to verbal threats directed against their work, an August 18 grenade attack in Chiang Rai's Mae Fa Luang district has upped the ante.  End summary. 
 
2.  Wiwat Tamee, a Thai-Lisu coordinator for the Joint Operation Center for Redressing the Problems of the Highlanders, part of the Ethnic and Indigenous People's Network of Thailand, reported that a grenade was lobbed at his car during the night of August 
17.   Although other NGOs working on citizenship and forestry 
issues have received verbal threats, this is the first case of violence they can recall. 
 
3. The grenade, which Wiwat described as a type popular among the Border Patrol Police and some military units, was lobbed into the vehicle parking area at his temporary office in a hill tribe village at Baan Pong Hai, Tambon Thoed Thai, Mae Fa Luang 
District, Chiang Rai.   While the explosion did not cause severe 
damage or injury, it frightened the villagers and prompted one staff member to quit his job. 
 
4.  Local police failed to investigate while district officials inspected the scene without reaching any conclusion. 
Disappointed at the lack of action by the local authorities, Wiwat and his colleagues filed a complaint August 23 with the National Human Rights Commission, an independent state agency, asking for an on-site investigation.  According to the English-language "Bangkok Post" of August 24, Rights commissioner Jaran Ditthaapichai will lead a team to the area. 
 
5.  Half of Wiwat's group has remained in the village to train and educate villagers about their rights to Thai citizenship. 
Their effort is coordinated with local self-government Tambon Administrative Organizations (TAO)  together with grass roots NGOs and local schoolteachers. 
 
6.  Wiwat explained that his work runs counter to the interest of officials from village and district levels who have taken advantage of the hill tribe peoples' lack of understanding of bureaucratic procedures.  He claimed that about 40,000 to 50,000 eligible highlanders in Mae Fa Luang district have so far failed to register their citizenship claims.  Village headmen frequently demand a baht 300 "fee" for citizenship applications, charging additional fees as the case progresses. 
 
7.  Since kicking off the citizenship education effort this month in the Mae Salong Nai area, Wiwat's team has faced other 
forms of interference.   The district office reportedly alerted 
local officers and military units about the presence of a group who might interfere with the profits being made on the citizenship application procedures.  Wiwat also complained that the invasive ID check conducted on the hill tribe team members was aimed at discouraging the group's work. 
 
8.  Other groups working in the Mae Fa Luang district have 
reported similar intimidation tactics.   A group of local 
teachers at Ban Thoed Thai School was cautioned by the district office for bringing in unauthorized aliens students, even though the classes were aimed at unregistered/undocumented hill tribes children under a program supported by a group of pro-human 
rights senators.    Another NGO, the Center for the Hill Tribes' 
Education under the support of PLAN International-Northern Program has also been subject to discouraging gestures from local authorities. 
 
9.  Sakda Saenmi, who heads a hill tribes NGO in Chiang Mai known as the Inter-Mountain People's Education and Culture in Thailand Association (IMPECT), said that the level of violence aimed at Wiwat's group is unprecedented.  While staff from other NGOs working on citizenship and forestry issues have experienced various forms of intimidation, especially during 2001-2002, most of the cases involved verbal threats rather than actual weapons such as the grenade attack on August 17. 
 
10.  Comment:  Hill tribe citizenship issues are complicated and contentious.  With registration often dependent on the say-so of local authorities, the process offers opportunities for village 
and district officials to rake off a little money.   It is not 
surprising that an NGO trying to by-pass the bureaucracy would meet with opposition.  It would be surprising if the 
grenade-thrower(s) were caught. 
 
 
 
 
CAMP