The Turtle Salutes... The Assembly of the Poor in Thailand!

Update! The valuable people at Focus on the Global South write to say that they have recieved word from some of the protesters of the Northern Federation of Peasants and the Assembly of the Poor in that the protestors are tired but keeping up their spirits. Negotiations with Government are proceeding slowly, and not always with the quality they hope. Messages of solidarity support will be very gratefully received:

Northern Federation of Peasants
Assembly of the Indigenous and Tribal Poeples of Thailand
Assembly of the Poor

24th of March 2002
Chiang Mai, Thailand

Dear friends,

Thank you for the gestures of support we have received, we hope to continue to receive them and present them to the community members. The negotiations currently progressing are the most vital period of the rally for the community members assembled in front of Chiang Mai City Hall. Of the eight demands of the initial petition presented to the government, the issued demands that were included in the government promise of the 12th of March, two have been negotiated and only one of those to a successful conclusion. For background information these eight demands are as follows:

1. Forestry and cultivation areas in designated forest areas (the issues here being forest conservation areas declared on top of community areas, and the right of communities to participate in management of community forests)

2. Water management (the issue being the centralized control of government management of water resources and almost complete lack of local participation. This has in the past led to mega-projects and serious impacts on quality and quantity of community supplies)

3. Land ownership (addressing the inequalities in land ownership that have emerged from structural issues of land rights and perceptions of land ownership)

4. Produce prices (long-term low prices for agricultural products and the over-arching plan of the government to "free trade" and the resultant continuing slump in prices)

5. Levels of farmer debt resulting from both the low prices mentioned, and the necessary capital input in the "new models" of agriculture supported by the government

6. Ethnic minority issues (involving the two major issues of citizenship and legal personal status, and the recently issued Master Plan for Community Development, Environment and Control of Narcotics in Highland Areas, 3rd Phase)

7. The ban on local whiskey production (protection of monopoly holdings and major producers to the detriment of local and traditional producers)

8. Addressing the past negative impacts of major government development projects on the local communities involved, with specific mention made of the explosion in the Lumyai Factory in Sanphathong two years ago, the Mae Mok Reservoir, the Mae Mo Power Plant and of rock-crushing factories throughout the north.

Of these eight areas of concern of the people rallying in front of the Chiang Mai Provincial Office negotiations have begun on two, and clear conclusions have been reached on only one. The Cabinet meeting on the 26th of March was the initial aim of the negotiators but the likelihood of negotiations being completed before this time is very low. The following Cabinet meeting of the 2nd of April may be the earliest opportunity, meaning that the rallying communities will have spent almost a month in front of the City Hall before any real response to the issues raised will be given. For the upcoming negotiations we would sincerely appreciate letters of solidarity written to the Prime Minister care of the Office of the Prime Minister urging both he, and his involved Ministers, to negotiate in good faith.

Attached here is the summary translation of the issues to be negotiated once the Assembly of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of Thailand have their chance to negotiate with the Minister of the Interior Mr Phuratchai. It must be stressed that these demands are continuing to be adjusted and discussed by the negotiation team, a team comprising of community representatives, the facilitators working with each of the six tribal networks involved in the Assembly and of academic advisors. As will become clear from the document itself, the demands concern recognition of the basic rights of communities, rights to travel, to education, to access to government services and the right to certainty and hope in pursuing ones livelihood.

Further information on any of the eight issues is available from the temporary coordinating office of the Northern Federation of Peasants, or the Assembly of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples for whom a number of the issues are of fundamental relevance. All of the information that we have is also available on the website of the Assembly of the Poor,

We look forward to hearing from you with either gestures of support sent to us or to the community
members, or with requests for further information.

In solidarity,

Northern Federation of Peasants
Assembly of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of Thailand
Assembly of the Poor

***

The Demands of the Assembly of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Thailand (AITT)

The demands of the Assembly of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of Thailand that follow here are a summary only.

The demands concern two issues of fundamental importance to the lives of every member of the highland tribal and indigenous communities in the north of Thailand. These are the issue of legal personal status and the issue of the recently released and unacceptable Master Plan for Community Development, Environment and Control of Narcotics in Highland Areas (Phase 3).

1. The issue of legal personal status of highland peoples

Without a legal definition in Thai law, highland peoples are without any access to recognition or respect of their rights as human beings. This situation is unacceptable, and the following demands are intended to address the issue that has plagued highland areas in Thailand throughout the 20th century. Confusion, repetition and ineptly implemented policies in the past have created problems that must be addressed, and we recommend the following steps:

Policy Level Demands

1) The Cabinet should pass a resolution to extend the definition of people legally residing in highland areas to accept the presence of two groups of people who have a legal permanent right to reside in Thailand. These two groups are defined below.

Indigenous and historically Thai tribal communities (legally those who were born in the period since the Royal Declaration of 1913 was in effect, from the 10th of April 1913 through until 1991) who should be granted citizenship by right of birth and their descendants should be granted citizenship by right of descent.

Problems with lack of identification in communities in this group stem from the use of the Revolutionary Council Declaration 337 to divide and define peoples in highland areas, a declaration that was inappropriate in both intention and implementation. As a result many peoples living in the highlands were not surveyed or registered at that time, and missing this opportunity for registration through inept government work resulted in them being classed today as "aliens". Yet these people were born or have lived in Thailand for great lengths of time and are an integral part of Thai society, their children and descendants have been through the Thai education system and feel themselves to be a part of Thai society.

Newly immigrant highland peoples (legally those who have migrated into Thailand between 1991 and the 15th of September 1999) should be granted temporary residence in Thailand as authorized by Article 7 of the Immigration Act of 1979.

This applies to people living in the highlands who have had community history documentation issued (Blue ID Cards) and community survey documentation issued (Green ID Card with Red Border) together with their children. Right of residence should be granted until such time as the government has a clear approach to addressing this problem and a strategy to issue final legal status for these people. The government must pass an urgent resolution to achieve this before the 28th of August 2002.

We further recommend that the National Human Rights Council coordinates the resolution of any problems that arise in granting citizenship by right of birth to the children of people in this group.

Citizenship should also be granted, under the supervision of the Council, for those children whom the Council concludes are children with a permanent domicile in Thailand, and those children who are without any citizenship. Children born in Thailand should receive citizenship by right of birth within the Kingdom, a right protected by Article 7 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international legal instrument of which the Thai nation is a signatory.

2) The Prime Minister, under the authority of Article 11 (6) of the Local Administration Act of 1991, should issue orders for the establishment of a cooperative committee between government agencies, non-governmental organizations, academics and representatives of community organizations.

This Committee should be assigned with the following roles and responsibilities in order that these pressing issues can be resolved.

• Receive petitions, examine documents and reconcile the inaccuracies of documentation, such as conflicting documents or documents that conflict with reality.
• To urgently follow-up and solve any practical problems of issuing legal personnel status and/or granting citizenship.
• To establish sub-committees or working groups as needed
• The Committee should be established within 30 days of the Cabinet Resolution that will consider the results of these negotiations
• The government should provide a budget to support the committee╲s work by requesting support from the Budget Bureau so as to allow urgent and rapid implementation.

Demands for Solutions to Urgent Problems

1) The Cabinet should pass a resolution granting people who have had community history documentation issued (Blue ID Cards) and community survey documentation issued (Green ID Card with Red Border) the right of temporary residence in Thailand, including the right to travel and to pursue legal occupations. This should be granted until such time as the government has a clear policy to solve these problems and has completed consideration of people's legal status and must be granted before the 28th of August 2002 when the temporary period of residence and petition consideration closes.

Justification: The government has been not able to implement and complete the full consideration of people who fall into this group within the granted one-year period. Pushing for the temporary period to be closed as planned on the 28th of August 2002 without considering whether the process has been completed or not is unjust, and will have enormous impacts on peoples living in highland areas.

Thai tribal communities are not ╚those who have fled into the country╲ but rather are people who were born, or have lived in the Thai nation for long periods of time. These peoples, who have families and permanent places of residence here but have yet to gain consideration of their legal status from the government, would effectively become stateless if their petitions are not processed before the 28th of August and the government pushes for their deportation.

In the families of people who fall into this group there are people who have Thai citizenship, those with "alien status" and those with no legal status whatsoever and who may thus be deported - that is with in a single family many different levels of legal status can exist. The government policy of deporting people after the 28th of August this year thus means that Thai tribal families of the 157,184 persons who have been declared to be illegal immigrants (including mothers, fathers and children born in Thailand), the 134,786 people who have submitted petitions for citizenship to the District offices and the 49,850 persons who have submitted petitions for alien status will be separated. If the deportation of these people is pushed through, it is difficult to see how these people will survive.

2) The Minister of Labour and Social Welfare should declare under the authority of Article 12 of the Alien Labor and Work Bill of 1978 that those people who have not yet received the results of the consideration of their status should be granted the right to work to feed themselves and their families.

Justification: Members of highland communities who hold the Blue Card or Green Card with Red Border (not including those who missed the surveying) number 377,450 people who are classed as "aliens" or illegal immigrants while waiting the results of consideration of their status. While waiting they are unable to work as it is in contravention of the Immigrant Labor Law.

In addition to this, a Cabinet Resolution of the 28th of August 2001 allowed immigrants from Burma, Laos and Cambodia to register as immigrant laborers but did not mention Thai highland and tribal peoples who hold the Blue ID Card or the Green ID Card with Red Border. This Cabinet Resolution created misunderstanding about the groups of immigrant workers and Thai tribal peoples in highland areas. Thai tribal peoples who gained access to paid employment were pushed to register as immigrant workers, causing them to lose their rights to petition for status in line with the reality of their history and meaning that they may be deported from Thailand once the period of authorized work has finished. This has been caused by a lack of understanding by staff in the relevant agencies, and the employers, of the difference between immigrants who have illegally entered the country for work and highland tribal peoples. It is a confusion that must be addressed.

3) The Cabinet should pass a resolution authorizing the Ministry of the Interior to issue community history registration documents (Green Card with Red Border) as a specific documentation for people in the highlands if those people, or groups, are able to provide witnesses and evidence. This evidence could be as human witnesses, documentation or material evidence, that proves that they,
their families or their communities are "original tribal peoples" or have migrated into the country prior to 1985.

4) The district officers of Mae Suai, Chiang Dao and Fang must rapidly consider and authorize the granting of citizenship to highland peoples who have submitted their petitions for citizenship already. In Mae Suai 1,582 petitions (4,795 persons), in Chiang Dao 920 petitions (1,859 persons) and in Fang 537 petitions (1,123 persons) have been submitted, and the consideration of these case
s should be completed before the end of April 2002. (Lists of submitted petitions were attached)

Justification: Highland peoples in this group have submitted their petitions for citizenship in Thailand almost a year ago. These petitions have been processed by government staff, community representatives and non-governmental organizations and have been examined and considered to have both the documentation and assets required by the conditions established by the Department of Administration of the Ministry of the Interior. They are awaiting only authorization by the District Head Officer yet it has not been issued.

The refusal of District Head Officers to consider and authorize the granting of citizenship, without providing any reasons to the petitioner, is in violation of the regulations of the Registration Bureau regarding the issuing of legal personal status to highland peoples, Section 21, 2000.

Note: It was agreed with the Registrar that the authority to refuse or grant citizenship and house registration (Tho. Ror. 14) to highland and tribal applications would be given to District Head Officers, together with a time limit on consideration of no longer than 30 days In which the results of consideration would be given to the Registrar for further processing.

5) The Minister of the Interior should order the Administration Department to investigate the implementation of these strategies to consider personal legal status and issue citizenship where appropriate. In the cases where there are delays or problems with local district implementation there should be a system of checks to assist, transfer or discipline those district officials.

Justification: In the past District Heads in many of the involved areas have not implemented the orders of the Department of Administration. Whatever the reason for this, whether not having had clear implementation plans or not having clear practical mechanisms for implementation, it has meant that answers have still not been given to petitions submitted months ago. These people are living in fear of being deported from the country after the 28th of August and have no security to live their lives normally.

6) The Cabinet should pass a resolution directing the Ministry of Public Health to issue Health Care Cards (Gold Card) to highland peoples who hold Blue Cards or Green Cards with Red Borders

Justification: Article 52 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand states that "all people have equal rights to access to standard public health services and those in poverty will receive free health care from government public health services". Peoples living in the highlands, especially those with uncertain legal status, are both socially marginalized and the most poverty-stricken in the nation. They have suffered the restriction of their rights in the past in pursuing their livelihoods, in travel and in accessing basic government services.

This group of highland peoples have official community history documents and are awaiting the result of consideration of their rights to be citizens of Thailand. The fact that they are awaiting the results of their petitions and their final status either as citizens or permanent residence immigrants should not mean they are subject to discrimination or to restriction of their rights. This is especially essential in regards to the right to access government health services which are of suc
h importance to communities in the highlands.

7) We call for the immediate halt of the oppressing, threatening and detaining of highland peoples (holding Blue Cards and Green Cards with Red Borders) who are awaiting the completing of consideration of their legal status, except in cases where laws have been broken.

Justification: Department of Administration in the Ministry of the Interior has issued an order allowing Thai tribal peoples and highland peoples in this group the temporary right to travel outside of their province.

Note: Interior Ministry 0310.1/Wor. 21st of May 2000. Issued to the Governor of every province, regarding the temporary right of all highland peoples to travel outside of their provinces of residence.

However they continue to be threatened, persecuted and detained by police with the reason always given at the time that "they are illegal migrants in the country". This causes suffering, and danger to the lives and possessions of highland peoples, and these actions by the police are a violation of our penal and civil laws and a violation of human rights.

8) We ask the government to pass a resolution lessening the red tape and regulatory conditions for granting the status of "permanent residency". We also call for the government to facilitate the granting of Thai citizenship according to Article 7 of the Citizenship Act (Second Amendment) of 1992 to the children of highland peoples who were born in Thailand by reducing the steps of consideration and authorization at the Provincial level.

Justification: The issuing of "permanent residency" and the granting of citizenship according to Article 7 of the 1992 Citizenship Act (Second Amendment) to the children and descendants of highland peoples, born in Thailand, is highly complex and must be authorized at the Ministerial level.

This need to have either of these documents issued results in long delays in the consideration process while petitions work their way through sub-district, district, provincial and national boards.

Devolving the authority to conclude consideration of a petition to the district level would alleviate these delays.

9) The Minister of the Interior should authorize highland peoples with identification cards (that is the Blue Card and the Green Card with Red Border) to travel outside of their Province of residence without requiring a previous declaration of the time or place of travel. This should be a permanent right under the authority of the Ministry of the Interior rather than a temporary allowance from the Department of Administration.

2. Problems with the Master Plan for Community Development, Environment and Control of Narcotics
in Highland Areas Phase 3 (2002 - 2006)

Policy Level Demands

1) Cancel the Master Plan for Community Development, Environment and Control of Narcotics in Highland Areas, Phase 3 (2002 â•„ 2006) and cease the planning and implementation of involved government agencies that is related to the Master Plan.

Justification: The concept, processes and contents of the Master Plan emphasize control of, and provide no protection for the rights of, communities in highland areas. The Plan is prejudiced in its consideration of tribal and ethnic minorities as "problems" and lacks any consideration of possible capacity or ability on our part. It reiterates images of highland peoples as the course of problems such as the production and trade of narcotics drugs, national security problems, destruction of natural resources such as water, land and forests. It portrays a group that causes problems and obstacles for the social and economic development of the country and a source of increasing population that will use increasing areas of land for cultivation and residence. These images, if constantly presented, will be the source of conflict between highland and lowland peoples in the future
.
The Plan contains internal contradictions, at the same time as it talks about promoting a new agricultural plan in highland areas it also talks of agricultural self-sufficiency and sustainability. It discusses the permanent security of the highlands while planning for the relocation of highland communities.

It rejects responsibility for resource problems, assigning all blame for water management issues to watershed communities without considering problems that have their sources in the valley areas or in water use. However these issues are all related, and all stakeholders must be considered participants in the care of conservation of these resources and appropriate use of them.

The process of creating this Master Plan lacked any real participation of the people or the networks of peoples organizations in highland areas, in direct contradiction of the principles of the Royal Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand as expressed in Article 36, 46, 56, 79 and 84. In addition there is a serious lack of clarity in the approach advocated in the Plan for highland community development, serious contradictions exist between the advocated approaches and the mechanisms established to achieve them. It is a non-participatory and discriminatory document that takes no account of the past lessons learnt in highland development in Thailand.

The implementation of the Master Plan emphasizes the use of authority of government agencies, in contradiction to the intention of the declarations in the Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand of 1997. It is implementation by the 8 relevant Ministries with no clear mechanisms for participation of local organizations or communities in contradiction of the policy of decentralization.

2) We call for study of the impacts of government projects and government policies that have entered highland communities and that impact on highland communities. This includes the impact on systems of resource management, on ways of life, on production methods, on culture and society, on quality of life and on health.

Justification: The main approach of the government to development continues to be according to past approaches, and there has yet to be a study, with real community participation, into the impact of this approach. This study needs to be implemented, and the process of conducting this study will be an important initiation of a learning process on cooperative work between all involved stakeholders, from both the government agencies and the people. Results gained will be an important foundation for future planning of highland development and can be applied in seeking real solutions to the problems faced by highland communities.

3) We call for the establishment of a plan for the development of highland communities, and the establishment of mechanisms of development that hold the highland peoples as being of central importance and that ensure their participation. The highland peoples who are affected are still without participation, and it is essential that they are involved in the establishment of the direction and processes of their own development.

Justification: Development plans in highland areas in the past have been restricted in their thinking, they must instead be concerned with diversity of culture, of ways of life and of systems of ecologically sustainable production. It is clear from the past that the centralized thinking and monopolization of development under the Master Plan of the government is not able to solve the problems facing highland communities, and a new approach should be considered.

4) We call for the Cabinet to pass a resolution to establish a committee to follow-up and to solve the problems facing tribal and ethnic peoples that has both community representatives and government officials in equal proportions with the following authority and duties. This Committee must have the authority to order solutions to urgent problems and to accelerate follow-up of the work of the government agencies and involved persons.

Demands for addressing the most pressing problems

Cease immediately the violation of the rights of communities in highland areas, cease relocation and detention, threats and the violation of individual and community rights in highland areas and the limitation of the development of communities in forest areas should cease. These actions are discriminatory, in direct violation of the Royal Constitution of the Kingdom of Thailand 1997, and creates long-term problems that will act as obstacles for the solution of our problems in the future.