Global Policy Forum

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

The Thai government has set August 28 as the final date by which those hill-tribe communities classified as "stateless" people must prove they have a legitimate claim to gain the rights of being Thai. But local authorities have shown little enthusiasm to aid the hill-tribe people in preparing documents needed to meet this deadline, say lawyers working to secure the rights of the stateless people in Thailand.

They say that about 400,000 people - nearly half of Thailand's almost 1 million hill-tribe people - stand to lose when the deadline lapses.

"There are about 200,000 people who have submitted evidence that they have roots in Thailand, but the local authorities have not informed them about their status," said Surapong Kongchantuk of a human-rights panel at the Law Society of Thailand. "A further 200,000 have no supporting evidence to show of a long connection in the country, although they were born in Thailand."

As of now, he pointed out, one cannot rule out the worst-case scenario: "The government has the power to expel these people, saying they are illegal migrants." It can also consider more humane alternatives, he explained, such as extending the deadline for this identity-card process by a year or giving the affected people temporary residence permits for a limited time until a new policy is formed. "But the government has not given any hints what it intends doing," Surapong said. "And the deadline is catching up."

Yet the August deadline is just one of a litany of woes that hill-tribe people endure as a result of being excluded from the Thai race in this country of 62 million people. Their movement, for instance, is severely restricted, and they can be arrested by the police if caught in areas beyond the districts - often in the north - where they have been granted permission to travel.

Likewise, the hill tribes' status puts limits on their seeking a university education. Students need the necessary paperwork to establish they are residents, but hill-tribe people lack these. Over the past decade too, hill-tribe communities have been accused by Thai officials of being the primary cause of deforestation because of their agricultural practices - a charge that consequently took the blame away from individuals and groups involved in the lucrative logging trade. "They have been used as scapegoats for our problems, like others who were similarly identified during events in the past," said Chayan Vaddhanaphuti, an anthropologist at Chiang Mai University. "The hill tribes have been blamed for destroying our forests, that they cannot speak Thai and that they are a threat to national security unless they are contained."

Yet at the same time, Thailand has not skipped a beat in playing up the colorful facets of the hill-tribe people to lure tourists to its northern towns, such as Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. The nearly 1 million people who belong to the Akha, Lahu, Lisu, Yao, Hmong and Karen tribes - and live on the slopes of the northern mountains in villages that evoke a rustic quality because of their bamboo house - offer a sharp contrast to the scenes of modern and urban Thai society. The headdresses with silver coins or turbans with splashes of color that the hill-tribe women wear, their loose black jackets with abstract prints, or their animist traditions are reminders of a bygone era. These semi-nomadic people migrated to Thailand from what is now Myanmar, southern China and Tibet a long time ago. The subject of their Thai citizenship did not come up until the 1980s, when there was spike in the number of migrants pouring into this country from neighboring countries.

"The government's attitude began to change after the 1986-89 period," said Chayan. "The officials believe that if they start granting citizenship to all the hill-tribe people, it will attract more migrants." That, however, has not been the case in two of Thailand's neighbors - Laos and Vietnam. "They have given citizenship to all their hill-tribe people," Chayan affirmed.

It is a state that two women in the Ban Hey Go community hope they too can one day reach here in Thailand. Avu Mae, 60, is a grandmother who has lived for the past 27 years in a village in northern Thailand. She has been deemed an outcast in this country, despite the fact that she has spent years in this village of some 320 people who belong to the Lisu. There are others who share her worries, including Avu Mae's daughter-in-law Sua Mec, 26, who shares the same home - a small, windowless structure that has walls of bamboo, a roof of intricately woven dried palm leaves and a clay floor. Living in this Lisu village some 50 kilometers west of the northern town of Chiang Rai, they have still to be recognized as having Thai roots.

"We are in a difficult situation. We have tried to apply for our Thai identity cards but nothing has happened," said Avu Mae, with a hint of sadness in her voice. "I think we need help to get the cards to stay."

"It is very trying for them, and they don't know what to do," said Chanparapha Nonttawasri, a researcher at the Hill Area Development Foundation, a Chiang Rai-based non-governmental body working with the hill tribes. "Their worries are genuine."

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