VZCZCXRO3017
RR RUEHCN RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHCHI #0060/01 1200945
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 300945Z APR 09
FM AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1032
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHCHI/AMCONSUL CHIANG MAI 1114

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHIANG MAI 000060 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR G/TIP, EAP AND DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KTIP KWMN PHUM TH
SUBJECT: STATE DEPT GRANTEE HIGHLIGHTS RISKS OF TRAFFICKING TO 
VULNERABLE POPULATIONS 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000060  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
Sensitive but unclassified; please handle accordingly. 
 
------------------------------------ 
Summary and Comment 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Consulate staff spent the night in a hill tribe 
village April 7-8 to monitor an NGO's implementation of a 
$20,000 grant it had received from the Department's Women's 
Issues Fund to conduct anti-trafficking-in-persons campaigns. 
Village authorities and the NGO have different views of the 
extent of the trafficking problem there.  With the grant, this 
NGO - the New Life Center (NLC) -- has carried out the campaign 
among over 7,000 highlanders in some 30 villages, far surpassing 
the target of 2,500 people it had set as a target in its grant 
proposal. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Comment:  Mission Thailand has a strong relationship 
with the New Life Center, founded and run by American Baptist 
missionaries.  The Ambassador has visited its Chiang Mai 
shelter, as has Mrs. John, who has also visited and donated 
books to the Center's Chiang Rai shelter.  Commensurate with 
G/TIP's current focus on labor trafficking, we note that the NLC 
has chosen trafficking for labor exploitation as the key theme 
of the campaign it is carrying out with the grant.  We encourage 
the Department to give favorable consideration to further 
funding requests by the NLC to support this campaign and its 
other activities.  End Summary and Comment. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
American NGO Focuses on Labor Trafficking 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶3.  (U) On April 7, New Life Center staff took us to an Akha 
hill tribe village in northern Thailand's second-largest 
province of Chiang Rai to observe a campaign the Center is 
carrying out to prevent trafficking-in-persons with a grant it 
had received from the Department's Women's Issues Fund (WIF). 
The NLC's interactive approach consists of preparing short stage 
productions in local hill tribe languages about the risks of 
trafficking, and acting them out with Center residents and 
staff.  This particular village is composed of three distinct 
groups broken down by religion:  animists, Catholics, and other 
Christian denominations.  All three groups were well-represented 
at the production; the audience totaled about 300 people. 
 
¶4.  (U) In the NLC-produced drama, two hill tribe villagers are 
promised jobs in South Korea by an acquaintance.  When they get 
to Korea, they find themselves subjected to forced labor in an 
isolated agricultural setting.  Their documents are confiscated, 
and they are not given adequate food and water.  When they ask 
if they can leave, they are told they are in debt for all the 
expenses the company incurred to get them to Korea, and that if 
they don't have money they have to repay the debt by working. 
Back in their home village in Thailand, a mother whose daughter 
had left for Korea laments that she no longer receives money. 
After the passage of several months or years, the women are able 
to escape and return to their village, though the production 
does not go into detail about how. 
 
¶5.  (U) Before the drama, NLC staff and residents sang songs and 
played interactive games with younger spectators.  They also 
asked the adults questions regarding their awareness of the 
risks of trafficking.  Immediately after the performance, they 
asked many of the same questions again to see what the audience 
had learned.  Responses indicated that the event was an 
effective educational tool.  The entire spectacle ended with 
performances of traditional Akha songs and dances in typical 
Akha dress.  The NLC views this as a key component of the 
campaign, noting that it attracts villagers who otherwise might 
not attend if trafficking were the sole topic covered. 
 
¶6.  (U) Since it began carrying out activities under the grant 
in June 2008, the NLC has presented the drama in over 30 hill 
tribe villages throughout northern Thailand, and estimates it 
has reached between 7,000-8,000 highlanders.  This far exceeds 
the NLC's target of 2,500 set out in the grant proposal it had 
submitted to the Department. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------- 
The Extent of the Problem:  Whom to Believe? 
--------------------------------------------- ------------------- 
 
¶7.  (SBU) According to one of the village's elected 
representatives, who sits on the district's administrative 
council, the village does not have a problem either with drug or 
human trafficking.  Villagers commented that many female 
residents leave the village to work in Pattaya and other cities 
in Thailand, and one villager said many of them do not return. 
 
CHIANG MAI 00000060  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
(Comment:  We do not know in what industry these women sought 
work, or if they did so involuntarily.  Even if they were sex 
workers, we cannot conclude that they are trafficking victims; 
in Thailand, including in the city of Pattaya, many commercial 
sex workers are willing participants.) 
 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Separately, NGO workers in the village noted that it 
is much better off economically than other villages in the same 
area, and that just 10-15 years ago, it was much poorer than it 
is today, with housing that was much more rudimentary.  They 
also spoke of vehicles swiftly entering and departing the 
village in the middle of the night as if they were trying to 
hide their presence, but could not explicitly link these 
observations to any illicit activity. 
 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
Strange Tale of Buddhist Novice Induction 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) One anecdote we heard highlighted a lack of awareness 
of the risks of exploitation.  About a week before our trip, 
about 12 boys from the village were taken by a Buddhist monk to 
a monastery, where they were apparently forcibly inducted as 
novices.  According to the villagers (none of whom are 
Buddhist), the monk lured them there by promising to take them 
to Chiang Rai City for an outing.  While at the monastery, the 
boys were treated as typical novices:  heads shaved, forced to 
pray, sought food donations with monks, and carried out routine 
maintenance on monastery grounds, such as picking up trash and 
cleaning.  The father of one of the boys told us he didn't think 
much of their absence, since his son had said he'd be with the 
monk in Chiang Rai.  (Note: many Thai boys serve as novices, 
informally called `wat boys," during the March-May summer 
vacation.  Parents often send them for stints lasting up to two 
months, and there are government programs supporting novice 
stays at Buddhist wats.  We do not have further details about 
this particular wat, the monk in question, or the incident, and 
are seeking additional details from the NLC.  Nonetheless, the 
incident is surprising given that none of the villagers are 
known to practice Buddhism.) NGO and UN contacts we met with on 
April 29 expressed surprise, saying this was the first such 
incident they had heard of involving non-Buddhist children. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Though the boys with whom we spoke did not report any 
other abuses, one of the 12 boys drowned in a river near the 
monastery and died.  According to the other children, several of 
them were playing in the river, and the deceased had managed to 
save the lives of others before succumbing.  Although he was the 
only child who did not return safely to the village, the 
children told us they were not the only boys taken to the 
monastery against their will.  One with whom we spoke estimated 
there were some 20 other boys from other villages forcibly 
inducted as novices at the same monastery.  During our visit, 
the deceased boy's father went to report the entire incident to 
the police.  However, he did not return prior to our departure, 
and was therefore unable to give us an update on any impending 
investigation into the matter. 
 
¶11. (SBU) We subsequently learned from NGO contacts that the 
monk who took the boys to the monastery is now residing in the 
village with his mother.  Our contacts also told us two more 
senior monks went to the village and gave some $600 to the boy's 
family to assist with funeral expenses.  The villagers warned 
the monks not to take children from there in the future without 
the knowledge of their parents.  Our contacts told us the family 
of the deceased boy is unlikely to press charges  due to the 
monks' gesture of kindness and the family's belief that doing so 
would not allow his spirit to rest in peace. 
 
¶12. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Bangkok. 
MOORE