VZCZCXRO2933
PP RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHCHI #0028/01 0570739
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 260739Z FEB 09
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0974
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RHMFIUU/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 1056

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 CHIANG MAI 000028 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT PLS PASS EAP/PD, EAP/MLS, PRM, G/TIP, DRL 
PACOM FOR FPA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PREF PHUM ECON SCUL KPAO TH
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR HIGHLIGHTS U.S. "SOFT POWER" IN VISIT TO NORTHERN 
THAILAND 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000028  001.2 OF 004 
 
 
------------- 
Summary 
------------- 
 
¶1. (U)  The Ambassador's February 17-20 visit to four northern 
provinces highlighted the array of "soft power" tools the USG 
brings to bear in its 175-year-old relationship with Thailand. 
After opening the visit by participating in the closing ceremony 
of the 28th annual Cobra Gold military exercise, a key theme of 
the remainder of the trip was the USG's emphasis on investing in 
people and protecting especially vulnerable populations.  The 
Ambassador's visit to a refugee camp in Mae Hong Son highlighted 
how the over 150,000 Burmese refugees in Thailand benefit from 
USG programs providing health and education support as well as 
U.S. resettlement.  The social protection theme was also the 
focus of the Ambassador and Mrs. John's participation in a 
ground-breaking ceremony to kick-off Habitat for Humanity's 
Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter Work Project, which will see 82 homes 
constructed in Chiang Mai in November.  Mrs. John's separate 
visits to two private American-run centers for at-risk youth, 
mostly ethnic hill tribe minorities, also showed Americans' 
support for vulnerable populations.  A second theme of the trip 
- promoting international understanding by underscoring the 
strength of U.S.-Thai relations at the people-to-people level - 
was addressed by the Ambassador's visit to Mae Hong Son 
Community College's Community Technology and Learning Center. 
The Center is a collaborative project between the Kenan 
Institute Asia, the Thai Education Ministry, and Microsoft's 
Unlimited Potential Program.  In Sukhothai and Kamphaeng Phet, 
the Ambassador and Mrs. John visited the area's three UNESCO 
World Heritage Sites and met with local press to praise 
Thailand's cultural preservation efforts.  Lastly, they visited 
the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences' 
Virology Research Unit, part of AFRIMS' 48-year scientific 
collaboration with the Thai military on tropical infectious 
disease research and development.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
Cobra Gold Concludes Successfully 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
¶2. (U)  The Ambassador's initial activity in Chiang Mai 
emphasized long-standing U.S.-Thai mil-mil ties.  He 
participated, with PACOM Commander Admiral Keating, in the Cobra 
Gold 2009 closing ceremony on February 17.  This was the 28th 
annual Cobra Gold exercise and the latest in a continuing series 
of exercises designed to promote regional peace and security. 
More than 7,000 U.S. military personnel participated in the 
multi-national event, which not only enhanced U.S.-Thai 
relations, but also strengthened the bonds of friendship with 
other countries in the region. 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------------- 
Investing in People:  Protecting Vulnerable Populations 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------------- 
 
¶3. (U)  The Ambassador and Mrs. John continued their four-day, 
four-province visit to northern Thailand on February 18, when 
they took part in a ground-breaking ceremony at the Chiang Mai 
build site of Habitat for Humanity's Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter 
Work Project, called "The Mekong Build 2009."  Joined by the CG 
and his wife, local dignitaries, and Habitat officials, the 
Ambassador and Mrs. John helped break ground at the site where 
82 homes will be constructed in November with the participation 
of President and Mrs. Carter.  Media turn-out was high, with 
extensive local coverage in the north's two leading newspapers 
(combined circulation over 60,000) of the Ambassador's remarks 
about his family's personal involvement in Habitat projects (his 
daughter was at a Habitat build site in northeastern Thailand 
that week) and the American people's interest in helping the 
underprivileged around the world. 
 
¶4. (U)  The previous day, Mrs. John paid visits to two centers 
for at-risk youth, mostly ethnic hill tribe minorities, that are 
run by private Americans.  The Ponsawan Child Development 
Center, founded and run by an American couple from Oklahoma, has 
70 students who are taught to read and speak Thai so they may 
enter a nearby Thai public school at the first-grade level.  The 
Center's students and boarders are poor tribal migrant children 
whose parents have come to the city in search of work, mainly as 
day laborers or hawkers of flowers and trinkets.  The goal is to 
integrate the children (some of whom are AIDS orphans) into Thai 
society by providing basic education, life skills, and 
assistance in obtaining documentation needed for registration, 
education, and in some cases Thai citizenship. 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000028  002.2 OF 004 
 
 
 
¶5. (U)  Mrs. John also made a return visit to Chiang Mai's New 
Life Center, which provides educational and therapeutic services 
to young women who are victims of or at risk of human 
trafficking.  She had previously visited the Center in January 
2008, and visited the Center's Chiang Rai shelter last May as 
well, where she subsequently donated books provided by the Asia 
Foundation.  The New Life Center, founded and run by American 
Baptist missionaries, is active in urging Thailand to implement 
anti-trafficking laws, improve protection for victims, and 
report suspected cases.  The Center works with Thai social 
workers and government officials to obtain residency documents 
for many of its boarders and teach them essential life skills. 
Mrs. John joined the girls in making handicrafts while answering 
questions about herself and discussing general life issues. 
She also spoke one-on-one with a recently arrived 14-year-old 
resident, who spoke of how family poverty drove her to work in a 
local bar so that she could help pay for food for her two 
younger siblings. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
USG Supports, Resettles Burmese Refugees 
--------------------------------------------- ------------ 
 
¶6. (SBU)  The Ambassador and Mrs. John, accompanied by CG and 
additional Mission staff, arrived in Mae Hong Son February 18. 
They spent the ensuing 24 hours focusing on USG humanitarian 
efforts along the Thai-Burma border to address the health, 
education, personal safety, and advocacy needs of the more than 
150,000 Burmese refugees who have fled repressive rule in their 
home country and taken shelter in Thailand.  Over lunch with the 
Governor and his senior staff, the Ambassador raised the issue 
of the four camps located in Mae Hong Son province.  He noted 
the strain this 45,000-strong population places on provincial 
resources, and thanked the Governor for his cooperation as a 
willing host to the refugees.  The Ambassador also asked about 
the effectiveness of border controls in the area, and heard from 
the Governor about the structured relationship with his 
counterparts in the three Burmese states that border Mae Hong 
Son (Shan, Karen, and Karenni states). 
 
¶7. (U)  Thereafter the Ambassador drove 15 miles (a nearly 
one-hour trip over mostly rough dirt track) to the Ban Mae Nai 
Soi refugee camp, located in a remote hilly forest about a mile 
from the Burmese border.  The camp, which houses more than 
18,000 registered refugees (nearly all ethnic Karenni), is the 
largest in the province and the second-largest in Thailand. 
The Ambassador and Mrs. John were cheerfully greeted by over a 
hundred young refugees, many holding hand-made signs proclaiming 
"We Love Obama" and "Take Us To America."  They then met with 
Camp Committee members (elected refugee leaders) and a group of 
several dozen camp students.  In the ensuing free-form 
discussion, the students spoke of their desire to resettle in 
the U.S., and the Ambassador emphasized the importance of 
English language skills.  He and his wife donated books, toys 
and personal supplies that had been collected by the staff and 
families of Consulate Chiang Mai.  They then visited the 
International Organization for Migration's (IOM) cultural 
orientation program center, which provides hands-on classroom 
training for refugees on basic knowledge needed to understand 
their journey to the U.S. and life in America. 
 
¶8. (SBU)  Adjacent to the camp is a small village of so-called 
"Long-neck Karenni," or ethnic Padaung.  The Padaung, whose 
women are renowned for the coiled brass rings worn around their 
necks, fled to Thailand from Burma in the last two decades and 
recently received approval from the RTG for third-country 
resettlement.  At the village, the Ambassador and Mrs. John were 
briefed by International Rescue Committee (IRC) staff, who 
guided them through the village's USAID-funded health post. 
They also spoke informally with several villagers, who support 
themselves by receiving tourists interested in seeing their way 
of life and buying locally-made handicrafts.  About one third of 
the villagers have opted to pursue resettlement and thus are 
relocating to Ban Mae Nai Soi camp to begin the process. 
 
¶9. (SBU)  The next stop was to observe on-going pre-screening 
and interviewing of the nearly 11,000 camp refugees whom UNHCR 
has referred to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.  Over 1,600 
of these are now travel-ready and awaiting exit permits from the 
Interior Ministry; the first group of 27 people will depart the 
camp for the U.S. on February 25.  The Ambassador and Mrs. John 
were briefed by Overseas Processing Entity (OPE) staff who 
conduct pre-screening of the refugees.  The next step is 
conducted at the adjacent DHS/U.S. Customs and Immigration 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000028  003.2 OF 004 
 
 
Service interview site, where the Ambassador briefly observed 
the adjudication process.  DHS officers there are in the process 
of interviewing the first tranche of the 11,000-plus Ban Mae Nai 
Soi refugees who have been referred by UNHCR and have expressed 
interest in being considered for resettlement in the U.S.  The 
majority of Burmese refugees expected to resettle in the U.S. in 
FY09 will come from this camp.  The following day the Ambassador 
toured the Mae Hong Son provincial hospital, where State's 
Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) has 
partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and IOM in 
setting up and operating a state-of-the-art facility for the 
pre-admission medical screening of U.S.-accepted refugees. 
 
¶10. (SBU)  The Ambassador met on February 19 with UNHCR and NGO 
officials who provide humanitarian services in the refugee 
camps.  This included the IRC, which runs assistance projects 
(health and gender-based violence) funded by PRM, provides 
USAID-funded capacity-building grants to local NGOs in the area, 
and collaborates in a USAID-funded migrant workers' health 
outreach program with the Thai Ministry of Public Health. 
Another participant in the briefing was the Thai-Burma Border 
Consortium, which receives PRM funding to provide food and other 
basic supplies to refugees living in all four camps in Mae Hong 
Son province.  A primary focus of the discussion was the effect 
of U.S. resettlement on local NGO service providers - as 
resettlement picks up speed, most of the best NGO-trained medics 
and teachers decide to depart for new lives in the U.S. Another 
topic was the desirability of moving the residents of the 
smaller, more remote Ban Mae Surin camp to the larger, more 
accessible Ban Mae Nai Soi camp to permit processing for the 
U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.  Our interlocutors cited 
economies of scale in providing services, and some concerns over 
domestic violence in the isolated Ban Mae Surin camp, as reasons 
for the move.  The Ambassador undertook to raise this issue with 
appropriate officials in Bangkok, to supplement the Embassy's 
ongoing efforts with RTG officials on this issue. 
 
¶11. (SBU)  The briefers, noting that well over 90% of the Ban 
Mae Nai Soi refugees who seek resettlement are bound for the 
U.S., praised the USG as "uniquely" open in receiving refugees 
and imposing few restrictions in terms of health, education, 
language and family reunification requirements.  They also 
welcomed recent progress by Mae Hong Son officials to reduce a 
backlog in registration of recently arrived refugees by its 
Provincial Admissions Board (from 8,000 pending adjudications 
last summer to about 5,000 as of early this year).  Regarding 
the well-being of those refugees who elect not to resettle 
(about half the population of Ban Mae Nai Soi), the briefers 
spoke of the need to bolster their self-sufficiency and quality 
of life by expanding their freedom of movement and granting them 
the right to employment outside the camps. 
 
----------------------------------------- 
Investing in People:  Education 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶12. (U)  Prior to departing Mae Hong Son, the Ambassador and 
Mrs. John visited the province's Community College, to 
underscore the Mission's commitment to strengthening U.S.-Thai 
relations among youth.  The College President received them at 
the school's Community Technology and Learning Center.  The 
Center is one of four pilot locations in Thailand developed in 
collaboration between the Kenan Institute Asia and the RTG's 
Bureau of Community College Administration, with funding 
provided by the Microsoft Unlimited Potential Program.  The 
program seeks to bridge the digital divide and improve 
information technology capacity in under-served communities. 
The school spoke warmly of the support it received from USAID at 
its founding six years ago, and of its ongoing connections to 
Casper Community College in Wyoming.  Last year the school 
established a Tai Yai (Shan) Study Center, aimed at documenting 
and displaying the culture, architecture, traditions, arts, and 
language of the ethnic Shan culture, which is richly represented 
in Mae Hong Son.  Another current focus of the school is to 
build up the materials and curriculum offered via its 
USAID-funded self-access English language center, another 
partnership with the Kenan Institute Asia. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
Celebrating Thailand's Rich Cultural Heritage 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
¶13. (U)  On February 19-20 the Ambassador and Mrs. John 
travelled with CG and Consulate staff to the lower north 
provinces of Sukhothai and Kamphaeng Phet, the seat of the first 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000028  004.2 OF 004 
 
 
great Thai kingdom in the 13th and 14th centuries.  There they 
visited the area's three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which 
preserve the stunning architectural glory of ancient Siam, and 
met with local electronic and print media to praise Thailand's 
cultural preservation efforts.  Coverage of the visits was also 
carried by the National News Bureau. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Economic Downturn Worries 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶14. (SBU)  During courtesy calls in both of these lower north 
"rice bowl" provinces, the governors said they did not yet have 
a clear picture of the local impact of the global economic 
slowdown, but were evaluating potential effects carefully.  The 
Kamphaeng Phet governor said agriculture - the province's 
leading sector - was beginning to face falling prices due to 
sluggish world demand.  Local farmers would soon feel the impact 
as their incomes dropped; however, the RTG's 2,000 baht (57 USD) 
economic stimulus payment to laborers earning under 15,000 baht 
(430 USD) per month would help lessen the blow.  The economic 
crisis has also pushed down sales of the Chang beer company, 
whose Kamphaeng Phet factory is its largest in Asia.  Chang's 
shrinking sales revenues have caused the company to delay its 
planned ethanol project investment in the province. 
 
¶15. (SBU)  In Sukhothai, dependent primarily on tourism and 
agriculture, the governor said he was conducting a survey to 
evaluate the effect of the economic crisis on local 
unemployment.  The province also planned to implement RTG 
stimulus policies, including cash payments to laborers, 
agricultural price guarantees, and school subsidies.  Another 
area of concern was water management.  Sukhothai's Yom River is 
the only northern Thai river without a dam, leaving the province 
vulnerable to both flooding and droughts.  To address this, the 
province plans a flood control/water management system that will 
cost USD 142 million. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
Investing in People:  Health Cooperation 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
¶16. (U)  Wrapping up their four-day visit to the north, the 
Ambassador and Mrs. John met with and were briefed by staff at 
the Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Sciences' 
(AFRIMS) Virology Research Unit, which is co-located with 
Kamphaeng Phet Provincial Hospital.  For over 48 years, AFRIMS - 
a joint scientific collaboration between the U.S. and Royal Thai 
armies - has been a benchmark of success in tropical infectious 
disease research and vaccine development.  The Kamphaeng Phet 
field site has been active for over 20 years in infectious 
diseases surveillance and vaccine development.  Early efforts 
led to the successful conduct of two phase III vaccine trials 
(Japanese encephalitis and hepatitis A), with over 100,000 
volunteer participants.  Both trials resulted in product 
licensure and helped shape Thailand's current national 
vaccination strategy.  Research initiatives since the mid-1990s 
have focused primarily on dengue and influenza disease 
surveillance.  AFRIMS' Kamphaeng Phet field site is currently 
readying for prospective investigations of influenza 
transmission, and is under consideration as a future dengue 
vaccine phase III trial site. 
MORROW