US Activist Detained At Suan Phlu IDC

[englishoak]

Another example of social genocide. In this case it's Thailand. Around the world it's all the same but in many different forms. Humanity has always been, and will probably continue to be cruel to it's own kind.

Shameful and sad that the more we learn the less we use that knowledge to preserve cultures before it's too late. The real culprits are the governments as they have the power and money to realy do something about it. Problem is there's no money to be made, just the satisfaction of having done something that is right. And thats never enough.

Mathew I applaude you for trying !

[george]

Update (from akha.org):

Matthew McDaniel Arrested--Imprisoned in Thailand.

Contact your MP/Senator and

Demand his Immediate Release.

As of Monday April 19th, he has had no access to a lawyer or telephone. HIs family is unprotected and he claims that the U.S. Embassy has full knowledge of his deportaiton, but failed to act. He believed that the Embassy is working in collusion with the Thai government in expediting his deportation. However, he has yet to be visited by the Embassy and cannot confirm the validity of the claims.

You can visit him and speak with him directly during vising hours at the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center. To do so, you must arrive between 10:00-11:00 to receive a form. The doors open for visiting at 11:00, but it is good to be there early. Bring your passport, which you will have to check at the door. You can visit his room (2) from 11:00-12:00 and speak openly with him.

For more information on his arrest, see the information below.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

EMERGENCY alert!

American Akha Activist Matthew McDaniel Arrested in Thailand!

Matthew McDaniel was arrested on 11:00 AM Thursday, April 15th at the Maisai Immigration Checkpoint while going to deliver vitamins to an Akha friend in Burma. Matthew McDaniel was fighting to save the land of Aooh Yok Akhe that was being taken by the government. In January 2004, Matthew McDaniel officially filed a report with the U.N., citing 47 cases of murder, extrajudicial killings, torture and other abuse by the Thai Army and Police against Hill Tribe People.

For three weeks, Matthew McDaniel had heard serious rumors from leaks at the U.S. Embassy in Thailand that he was going to be deported. He complained via email to Embassy Personnel that such leaks were reckless and illegal and asked for the reports to be confirmed. However, the Embassy gave no reply, negligence that prevented Mr. McDaniel from making arrangements to protect himself and his wife from police abuse, arrest and deportation. Matthew McDaniel’s wife is pregnant and he has four children living in Chiang Rai.

Mr. McDaniel is currently held by the Thai Authorities at the Suan Phlu Immigration Detention Center and awaiting deportation. He has been informed of the charges against him or been able to speak with a lawyer about his case. The U.S. Embassy has not sent a representative to discuss the status of his case or the possibility of stopping the deportation proceedings. For now, Mr. McDaniel waits, knowing his wife and children are at risk, and hoping that he can challenge the legality of his arrest and deportation through formal channels.

What You Can Do:

1. Write to your Nearest Thai Embassy and demand the immediate and unconditional release of Michael McDaniel! Demand an official apology from the Thai authorities.

2. Write your MP/Senator and demand a full inquiry into the arrest of Mr. McDaniel.

3. If you are American, demand a full accounting from the U.S. embassy in Thailand for its failure to protect an American Human Rights Activist.

4. Pass this article far and wide. Encourage international and local press to write articles, condemning the actions of the Thai authorities and calling for Mr. McDaniel’s release.

5. Visit www.akha.org for more information.

6. Make a donation to the Akha projects. Deported or not the projects will continue.

--Akha.org 2004-04-21

[mcdaniel]

Anyone know of any visitors to Soi Suan Plu? I have been asked by a couple of members about getting some money to Matthew if possible.

Easiest way is usually the Prison Visitors since the embassies aren't much chop, based on posts over the weekend. Perhaps Chris Hill might know.

Maybe too late. If he have good connections, and can arrange a one way flight ticket to US, he can fly out as early as Monday or Tuesday. Why sit there and wait?

I am a sister of Matthew McDaniel who is being held at the Immigration Detention Centre in Bangkok. On Friday, April 16, I put the requested amount of money in an account which detention center staff can access so an airline ticket can be purchased for Matthew to come back to the US. US Embassy staff said this is common and the detention center takes a "ding" out of the money. US Embassy staff said that the embassy makes the airline reservation. The last time I checked, earlier today, none of the money had been withdrawn.

I will communicate with the embassy again. I don't know what is holding things up. I wonder if there are people who want Matthew to serve an IDC "jail term" before he is allowed to leave.

Are there suggestions from anyone who has dealt with this kind of situation in Thailand?

[george]

As soon there is a ticket ready he will be released within 24/48 hours. He is in IDC because they want to kick him out, not to hold him for long.

Why don't you buy the ticket instead, to avoid delays and "dings"?

[Adjan]

What will happen to Matthew's family ?

[Guest IT Manager]

Matthew, unlike the Chinese Baptists in Mae Sai has not sought to separate his family from their roots. He went to the source and stayed. They will remain part of the extended family.

This may well turn around and bite the DEA rather hard I suspect since most Americans thought little Ollie North was the end of the US silent invasion of other countries and a final curtain to the US Government abuse of third world countries such as our beloved LoS.

As long as the United States of Cheney and LoS believe that by silencing one, they silence all, the nastiness Matthew found so revolting from his own government will continue.

For my part I think I will encourage tourists not to go prancing off into the woods in search of the meaning of life, and thereby deprive a few of the natives of some income and see how the natives like it.

Currently Mr T and Company are disliked intensely by the students who are disadvantaged by his son and daughters' cheating in University entrance and final exams, the writing on the wall is there. Whilst I doubt Kim IL T is able to read that writing, there are plenty who can.

Dad.

[Jeepz]

Getting out of jail is normally a good thing, but while McDaniels sits in jail his incarceration is an actual embarressment to the Thai government. Once he leaves, he becomes just another person on the black list for re-entry. At least to them.

Since he is from Oregon, I sent emails concerning his situation to local news stations in the area. Probably won't do much good, but you never know. There is a local angle for them, so it might get some mention.

Jeepz

[george]

Embassy helping activist in Thailand

The Salem man has been jailed there since his arrest a week ago.

BANGKOK: -- The U.S. Embassy in Thailand is helping a Salem activist awaiting deportation from that country make arrangements to leave the country.

Matthew McDaniel, 46, remains jailed in the Immigration Detention Center in Bangkok, where he has been held since his arrest a week ago.

He will be deported at the “earliest opportunity,” a U.S. Embassy spokesman said. The embassy is helping McDaniel find a flight from Thailand to the United States and to gather his own money to buy an airline ticket.

McDaniel was arrested at a Thai immigration checkpoint while on his way to deliver vitamins to an Akha friend in Myanmar, his Web site for the Akha Heritage Foundation says.

McDaniel is the founder of the organization, which says that it seeks to promote the human rights, health and culture of the indigenous Akha people. The Akha live in Thailand, Myanmar and surrounding countries.

The foundation is based in Thailand, where McDaniel has lived for several years, but it also uses a Salem mailing address.

McDaniel was being held under a Thai immigration law that allows deportation of people whose behavior is dangerous to the security of the public and the nation, the embassy spokesman said. The Thai government revoked McDaniel’s visa.

All of McDaniel’s years in Thailand have been supported by 30-day or 90-day tourist visas, which alone stretched Thai immigration law, the spokesman said.

The Nation, an English-language newspaper in Thailand, reported that McDaniel told his family and associates that he thinks the Thai authorities want to expel him because he arranged for a U.S. lawyer to file a case about human-rights abuses with the United Nations.

McDaniel is married to an Akha woman and has four children who live in a remote village, the report in The Nation states.

The embassy spokesman said he had no information about any family McDaniel might have or whether they will seek to join him in the United States.

McDaniel, who attended Willamette University in the mid-1980s, made news in Salem in 1986-87, when he rode horseback across the country from Oregon to North Carolina.

Portland human-rights activist Edith Mirante said she can imagine what McDaniel is going through. Mirante has followed McDaniel’s work since she met him several years ago.

In 1988, she was imprisoned in the detention center where McDaniel is detained now. She later was deported. She thinks her detention was an attempt by the Thai government to make an example of her.

Mirante said McDaniel has exposed what he thinks is the role of the Thai government in exploiting the tribal Akha people.

He also has opposed what he called misguided missionary efforts and has spoken out against the impact of U.S. antidrug efforts.

“He’s gone up against powerful folks,” she said.

His effort at exposing the plight of the Akha people has been extremely important, Mirante said.

McDaniel has not caused the Thai government to change policies, but he probably has empowered the Akha in small, day-to-day ways, she said.

“I can just visualize where he is right now,” Mirante said, “and it’s not a good place.”

--statesmanjournal.com 2004-04-22

[george]

Arrested on the orders of the Thai National Security Council

BANGKOK: An American activist reportedly fighting alleged mistreatment of ill tribes people by Thai authorities has been arrested and will be deported for threatening national security, officials said Thursday, a foreign news agency reported.

Matthew McDaniel was arrested April 15 in northern Thailand on the orders of the National Security Council, which had been monitoring his activities for some time, an Immigration Police official said.

McDaniel, 46, will soon be deported and declared persona non grata, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. He said he could not give details of the threat to national security.

--Agencies 2004-04-21

[Ajarn]

From:http://www.hackwriters.com/saveMathewMcDaniel.htm

American Activist Jailed in Bangkok Awaiting Deportation

• Antonio Graceffo

To those of us who knew, and worked with the American, Matthew McDaniel, the question had always been "when" not "if" he would be declared persona non-grata in Thailand. So, it came as no surprise last week, when an anonymous email reached my inbox, informing me that Matthew was being held in Suan Phlu prison, awaiting deportation.

Akha Hill Tribe folk

For the last thirteen years, Matthew had been living in a remote village, among the Akha Hill Tribe, serving as their councilor, friend, and teacher.

He spoke the language fluently, married an Akha woman, and fathered five Akha children. In his work as activist and friend of the Akha he composed an Akha dictionary, helped villages build roads, and wrote a book, entitled The Akha Journal, a chronicle of allegations of corruption, misconduct, false arrest and imprisonment, murder, and abuse of the Akha people.

In addition to being a thorn in the side of police and army units in Northern Thailand, Matthew took what he called his "fight for human rights" to government and non-government agencies, all the way up to the UNHCR.

Although there are numerous reasons why any number of people would prefer for Matthew McDaniel to just disappear, it is rumored that his involvement, in a class-action lawsuit against the Thai government was the nail in his coffin. Most people feel that after living in Thailand on a 30 day tourist visa for thirteen years, Matthew's luck had just run out. He was arrested when he attempted to renew his visa in Mae Sai.

Issues of human rights and allegations of "genocide" (Matthew's words) are sensitive subjects in the best of contexts. On the one hand, any reasonable, thinking, feeling human being would like to champion the cause of human rights, and see an end to human suffering. On the other hand, full time activists, no matter how noble their cause, often suffer from tunnel-vision, which blinds them to greater issues, or concessions and advances made on the part of a benevolent government. In the time I spent living in the village, I often found Mathew's worldview to be unsound. Among the Akha, he lived in a world where he was the only person with a western education, the only one with knowledge of the outside world, and the only one with access to news, information, and learning. He was the authority on every subject, from farming to medicine. And no one in his world had the intellectual capacity to challenge him.

In short, after a long reign of being the authority, it is my belief that he had become Joseph Conrad's character, Colonel Kurz, from his novel "Heart of Darkness" (Apocalypse Now) about a westerner who makes himself a god among the hill tribes of Lao. He was given to delusions of grandeur and megalomania. He suffered from paranoia, and subscribed to conspiracy theories. Among the people he professed to hate were the government, the police, the army, the DEA, the missionaries, other NGOs, the CIA, journalists, researchers, photographers, The Shan State Army, Americans, backpackers, tourists, Thais, and any person, connected with any project involved with the Akha, other than his own. He even hated the volunteers who came to help him in the village, calling them hippies with cameras and free loaders. Over half of the volunteers who worked with Matthew, during my time in the village, either left, or were kicked out, after a heated argument. My intent is not to kick a man when he is down, but to demonstrate that some of Matthew's methods may have become unsound, causing needless tension with the Thai government, and leading to Matthew's inevitable expulsion from the Kingdom. Although many of Matthew's allegations of abuse are verifiable, the best way to get anything done in Thailand is to work with, not against the government. His Majesty, The King is one of the most responsive and most popular leaders in the world.

If Matthew is deported, his wife and children will not be able to accompany him, as they are stateless persons. This fact at once demonstrates the impact on his family, as well as one of the legitimate issues facing the majority of Thailand's hill tribes. Denied Thai citizenship, it is virtually impossible for hill tribe people to immigrate to other countries. Matthew had often said that if he were deported, he would become stronger, furthering the Akha cause from the US. This remains to be seen. But what is certain is that with Mathew gone, his hands-on work in the villages will end. Many of the villages are in dire need of assistance. One village in particular, Hoo Yo village, is facing starvation, as their land has been seized, and the villagers only have enough rice to last until September. On a micro level, Matthew was doing good work for a number of needy people. He was personally subsidizing the food budget of a family of fifteen, who were existing on less than $150 Baht ($5.00) per day. In another village he was supporting a widowed healer woman, her grandson, and her blind daughter.

Recently, Matthew had asked me to find an artificial leg for a man, whose inability to work, after an amputation, will result in his death by starvation. Now, even if I secured the leg from a donor, I wouldn't know how to find the man. So much of Matthew's work, the names and locations of villages and individuals, was kept inside of his head. Even if there were a second, waiting on the sidelines, to step up and continue his work, it would be impossible.

Irrespective of personality flaws, over-zealous behavior, and indelicate treatment of our Thai hosts, Mathew's cause, helping the Akha people was a just one. And now, there is no one to take up the baton.

If you want to help Mathew or know more - contact the author at: [email protected]

Paddling the Maekok River

Antonio Graceffo in Thailand

[Dutchy]

To those of us who knew, and worked with the American, Matthew McDaniel, the question had always been "when" not "if" he would be declared persona non-grata in Thailand. So, it came as no surprise last week, when an anonymous email reached my inbox, informing me that Matthew was being held in Suan Phlu prison, awaiting deportation.

It's sad that do gooders are not appreciated in Thailand, I fear that Matthew's story will end with this. Too many foreigners are afraid to act on the behalf of those in need, in fear of their own existence in this country where only the rich smile.

Is there nothing that the expatriate community could do about this? Is this just a submission we read before watching HBO movies...? It is the life of a man destroyed by the Thai governmnet as well as the lives of many people who have no other people to rely on...

Dutchy

[george]

Detainee in Thailand will return soon

The man will try to reunite his family after he comes back to Salem.

This weekend, Matthew McDaniel is expected to leave behind his home of many years, his pregnant wife, his three children and the Akha, an indigenous people in southeast Asia, for whom he has been an outspoken advocate.

In Salem, the activist will return to his roots and begin a fight to reunite his family.

McDaniel, imprisoned in an immigration detention center in Thailand since April 15, is expected to be deported from Bangkok to the United States this weekend.

His brother, Nathan McDaniel of Salem, is waiting for him.

Nathan McDaniel said he feels certain that Matthew is being kicked out because he has raised the ire of the Thai and U.S. governments.

Matthew McDaniel recently has worked with an international-law attorney in the United States to file a petition with the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, accusing the Thai military and police of ethnic cleansing, execution, torture, denial of due process and discrimination against the Akha hill-tribe people.

“Look at the timing,” Nathan McDaniel said. “It seems to be just beyond credibility that it could be anything else.”

Jonathan Levy, the Washington, D.C.-based attorney who updated Matthew McDaniel’s petition in January, said it appears to him that the deportation and the complaint are connected.

“He’s certainly been a thorn in the side over there for years,” Levy said.

Matthew McDaniel, 46, was arrested last week by Thai officials, who revoked his visa and made arrangements to deport him under a Thai immigration law that allows them to do so with people whose behavior is dangerous to the security of the public and the nation, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Thailand said earlier this week.

On Friday, the spokesman declined to respond to Nathan McDaniel’s comments. He said that the U.S. Embassy was not involved with the Thai government in having Matthew McDaniel deported and that the United States helped him in his effort to get out of detention and return to U.S. soil.

McDaniel, who moved to Salem with his family when he was 16, began spending extended periods of time in Thailand in 1991 and soon discovered the Akha. In 1996, he started the Akha Heritage Foundation to help the tribe and began living with them.

Travis Brouwer, district aide for U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore., has been trying to help the McDaniel family.

Brouwer twice contacted the embassy in Thailand this week on the family’s behalf. He asked officials to visit McDaniel and to help his Thai family get visas.

“We find that when a member of Congress contacts a U.S. Embassy, it makes sure they’re aware of the problem,” Brouwer said. “… It ensures they will put their full efforts into the situation.”

Matthew McDaniel has been outspoken against actions of the Thai government, missionaries and U.S. antidrug efforts there. His intent has been to preserve Akha traditions while getting them the same rights that other Thai people have, Nathan McDaniel said.

“His goal,” Nathan McDaniel said, “was to let them get to the point where they could make their own choices instead of get pushed around.”

--Statemanjournal.com 2004-04-24

[mcdaniel]

Matthew arrived in Portland, Oregon, on April 24, 2004, and is now in Salem. Thank you for all your kind thoughts. If anyone would like to communicate with Matthew, you can look at his website, Akha.org for contact information.

Andra McDaniel

[alice711]

One wife?

Not quite....I know of at least 3 young Akha women in different villages who have babies from Mathew. I feel sure that Mathew will never be serious about bringing any to America, either.

--- snip ---

Post edited. Reason: Personal attacks

/Admin

--- snip ---

The Thai government made Mathew into a Martyr, But we who knew him here will always remember him as a scammer with very few real morals who maybe created as much or more damage than he fixed.

Edited April 26, 2004 by george

[george]

This thread is going astray and some postings breaks the Furum Rules.

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?act=boardrules

Thread closed.

/Admin