HILLTRIBE ADDICTS DIE IN FORCED `DETOX CAMPS'

Soldiers Accused Of Savage Beatings

In their zeal to suppress drug trafficking, authorities have resorted
to torture and murder of hilltribe suspects, victims and relatives
charge.

Ateh Amoh, an Akha man, said he was savagely beaten by soldiers who
took him and other Akha men, mostly drug users, from their homes and
held them at a military camp.

There they beat them to extract a confession, he said.

His neighbour, Ajuuh Cheh Muuh Gooh, 42, died from the beating.

The authorities denied any wrongdoing and said Mr Ajuuh's death was
caused by withdrawal symptoms as a result of his attempt to end his
opium habit during a detoxification programme.

Mr Ateh, 34, said he was taken from his house in Ban Mae Moh
hilltribe village, Mae Fah Luang district, by soldiers in the early
morning of Dec 7.

His neighbour, the late Mr Ajuuh, was taken from the same village the same day.

Three other Akha men, their names unknown, were taken from nearby villages.

All of them had smoked opium for a long time and had been suspected
of drug trafficking.

Mr Ateh said the soldiers insisted he and Mr Ajuuh join the opium
detoxification programme at a military camp near the village.

As soon they arrived at the camp, the soldiers pushed them down a
small hole in the ground where the three other Akha men had already
been detained.

The soldiers then poured water, coal and ashes into the hole, leaving
them to sit there for a whole day.

``The soldiers never said why they were treating us like that. We
doubted this was an opium detoxification process,'' Mr Ateh said.

That night everyone was pulled from the hole, then blindfolded and
led off separately for questioning.

The soldiers asked him several times about his supposed connection
with drug traffickers in the village, and he denied any involvement.

``The soldiers never talked about the opium detoxification programme.
They tried to force me to admit the drug charges by electric shocks
to my ears, kicking my face and body, punching me hard in the body
and hitting me with a gunhandle on my head and chest several times.

``When they felt that I could no longer stand it because my body was
soaked with blood, they took me back to the hole and left me there
for a night and a day,'' he said.

He did not know about the other three men, but believed their
experience was probably not much different.

On the second night, one of the Akha men was able to escape from the
hole while he and the others were sleeping.

As soon as the soldiers found out they took the rest for questioning,
on suspicion of aiding the escape.

Mr Ateh said he was blindfolded and again beaten most savagely that
night. His neighbour Mr Ajuuh died from his injuries.

The soldiers told Mr Ajuuh 's family his death was the result of
going cold turkey as he attempted to break the opium habit.

``Ajuuh died while we were sitting together in the hole. I heard him
calling for his father and mother, and he talked about his children
and wife.

``I saw him dying before my eyes and I was scared almost to death
myself,'' he said.

Mr Ajuuh died in the early morning of Dec 9.

The soldiers took his body, together with Mr Ateh and the other two
Akha men, to the nearby Mae Fah Luang hospital where they were
released to the care of doctors.

Mr Ateh was kept in hospital for six days after doctors found his
lung was ruptured and bleeding profusely.

The army did not pay his medical expenses.

Mr Ajuuh's wife, Apiew, 44, said the army gave her family 7,000 baht
in compensation for the death of her husband.

Mrs Apiew said the hospital had not confirmed her husband's cause of death.

The hospital director, Dr Nongnuch Malin, refused to disclose the
autopsy result to the Bangkok Post, saying she needed more time.

``The army should not have killed my husband this way,'' Mrs Apiew said.

``He was not involved in drug trafficking. If he was really involved
why didn't the army show evidence and take him to court? Although we
are hilltribe people we still have the right to the protection of the
law.''

Lt-Col Apisit Nujbutsaba, who is responsible for the detoxification
programme in Mae Fah Luang district, denied he had sent soldiers to
take the drug addicts for detoxification.

He said Por Luang, the eldest villager, had taken them to the camp.

He insisted Mr Ajuuh died in the process of trying to break his opium
addiction. He denied his soldiers had beaten Mr Ajuuh to death and
injured other Akha men.

The district chief, Chainarong Boonwiwatthanakarn, said he knew of
the matter and had advised Mr Ajuuh's wife to file a complaint with
police.

The drug detoxification programme for hilltribe people is jointly
handled by the army, the Public Health Ministry, the police and the
Interior Ministry. It was launched in Chiang Rai on Oct 23 last year.

The province required all drug addicts to voluntarily register with
village committees and join the programme. Those who registered were
safe from prosecution.

The programme was aimed at separating drug addicts from dealers and
traffickers. Mr Ajuuh is not the only case where the authorities are
suspected of having killed Akha villagers they suspected of
trafficking.

On May 17 last year, Apha Wurh Zur, 56, was taken from his house in
Ban Mae Sam Lap village, in Mae Fah Luang district, and allegedly
beaten to death by police officers and another Akha man.

The police had allegedly accused him of involvement in the drug
trade. His wife Mee Shur, 56, denied the accusation and said police
had demanded money from her in exchange for her husband's release.

On Aug 9 last year, Logu Yeh Shaw, 30, was shot three times by Mae
Chan police officers and died.

He was accused of being a drug trafficker. The shooting occurred in
Bodu village.

His mother Byuabo Yeh Shaw, 70, denied her son was involved in drugs.

These are just a few of the many suspicious deaths of hilltribe
people at the hands of the authorities in this northern province.

Most have never been properly investigated.