Shan refugee

Shan refugee: Will Thailand forget to help their own cousins? 

Wa development project 

Whether Thailand was going to help not just the Wa who came from the north to resettle along the Thai border where they had lived for several generations but also them was the question that was put forward by one of the people recently displaced by the Wa relocation program that has reached its fourth year.

"When we heard that our cousins were going to assist the Wa who had driven us from our homes and lands with a development project, we naturally wanted to know what about us?" said a 60 -year Shan who came from Mongkarn.
He was speaking about the proposed crop replacement project initiated by the Thaksin government for the Wa in Nayao, now named by the Wa as Yawngkha, in Monghsat township, opposite Therdthai Tract, Mae Fah Luang District, Chiangrai province.

"Every evening I gaze at the distant Nayao valley and wonder when all of us can go back and begin our life anew" he told S.H.A.N. yesterday. "My tears just swell up whenever I think of it."

He was one of the 1,068 displaced Shans, Akhas and Palaungs at Piangfah, a village located technically inside Shan State but protected by the neighboring Shan and Thai outposts.

Another Shan refugee, who doubled as a relief worker, then told Shan the following story:

In the beginning of 1999, there were around 2,000 households of Shans, Akha, Palaung, Lisaw and Lahu living in the area. Rice was plentiful because the soil was fertile and water from the Maesai and its tributaries was ample.

"The Wa came and took possession of fresh land and abandoned fields that year and we had no complaints about that," he said. "However, by the next year everything began to change."

He claimed that the Wa began to take by force land and fields that were being used by the natives.

"Their fields were not fenced and when our buffaloes strayed into them, they fined us B. 500 each time for each buffalo," he recalled. "Sometimes they just shot the buffalo and held a feast."

The village headmen and some young people had objected to the unruly ways of the Wa, but they were beaten, some shot and the others imprisoned by the Burmese authorities as "agents for the Shan rebels and the Thai army."
The leaderless natives were then told they could not roam the nearby woods and forests like they used to anymore, because they were heavily mined to prevent Shan rebels from approaching their positions.

Then last year at harvest time, the Wa began to purchase paddy. According to the displaced villagers, they were paid only B. 600 per Zaw (10 baskets) while they gave B. 1,200 to the Wa farmers for the same amount. "They also forced us to sell our total harvest," said one. "We were not even allowed to keep back any rice either for our consumption or seeds for the next year's crop."

For their own consumption, the natives had to buy rice from a local shop at B. 150 per bin (20 liters), when it cost only B. 48 per bin at the rice mill.

Many left as a result. Those who remained were then ordered to regroup in Karn-karng north of Nayao by the end of January. Apart from 7 households, all of them decided to move elsewhere. More than a hundred arrived in Piangfah on 31 January after a tortuous journey for two nights. "Normally, it takes only 3 hours to reach here, but we were afraid of running into Burmese patrols, so we rested during the day and travelled only by night," said a new arrival.

Shans, unlike Karens and others, are not regarded as refugees or displaced persons but only as job seekers, according to Thai government policy.

"We look for jobs because there isn't any facility that is looking after ourselves and our families," said the refugee. "If there is someplace for us to sleep and food to eat, then who will waste time seeking jobs?"

According to a draft report soon to be published by the Lahu National Development Organization, the total number of Wa arrivals in the area until December is 25,950 (3,950 households). Around 20,000 Wa families have already been resettled in 4 townships: Mongton, Monghsat, Tachilek and Mongpiang.