Lahu report on Wa out

Lahu report on Wa out

The printing of a 55-page report on the 3-year relocations of Wa villagers from the Chinese border to the northern frontiers of Thailand was recently completed and is ready to be delivered to any interested readers, said a spokesman for a Lahu rights group yesterday. 

"Unsettling moves: The Wa forced resettlement program in Eastern Shan State" that took 11-months in the preparation describes how 126,000 men, women and children from the Wa region, tucked in the northeastern corner of Shan State, were forced to move by truck and on foot from their homes near the Chinese border to southern Shan State, adjacent to Thailand's Maehongson, Chiangmai and Chiangrai provinces. The report covers the period from the beginning of 1999 to the end of 2001. 

It also relates how local inhabitants in the 3 townships along the border, namely Mongton, Monghsat and Tachilek, were affected by the newcomers. 

Moreover, the report also says the resettled villagers are planting new opium fields with the support of Rangoon and Panghsang (Wa) officials, despite initial statements that the resettlement program was aimed to eradicate opium production. 

For further information, please contact Japhet Jakwee, Secretary of Lahu National Development Organization <lndorg@yahoo.com>.