2 replies to this topic

[Hedda]

The following are exerpts from a Nation article called: Thailand's Human Zoos

"When Mu La talks, her voice sounds muffled because of the 27 heavy brass rings that the 44-year-old wears around her neck. But the message from the refugee from Burma - who lives in north-western Thailand in a mock village purpose-built for tourists - is crystal-clear: "We want to leave here, never mind where to, only away from here. We feel like prisoners."

Visitors call the village a "human zoo," but Thailand's government rejects the term as "absurd."

Mu La is a member of an ethnic group whose women wear brass rings around their necks as status symbols. For them, the longer the neck, the more beautiful the woman. . .They are part of an ethnic group called the Padung in Thailand, but they reject that term as denigrating and call themselves Kayan and their village Kayan Tayar. . .

Like most of her fellow villagers, Mu La fled her home country Burma in the late 1980s to escape its brutal military regime. "The soldiers came all the time," she says. They forced the men to become porters on the front lines of the government's war against rebel armies and drove the women ahead of their ranks in case land mines were laid in their path. She and many like her fled. Initially, she was sent to one of the many refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border.

But when Thai business people recognized the money-earning potential of the exotic-looking women, they suggested they move to three artificial villages near Mae Hong Son. . . The village of Huay Sua Thao is populated mainly by economic migrants who were enticed to settle there to create a tourist attraction. . .

In 2005, she applied with 20 other people from the three tourist villages for resettlement to New Zealand. The country accepted them and the United Nations agreed to cover the air fare, but her plan to start a new life was shattered when the Thai authorities refused to issue an exit visa.

"Those who don't live in the temporary shelters are not considered as refugees," says Tharit Charungvat, a spokesman for Thailand's Foreign Ministry in Bangkok. To grant the exit visas "would be unfair to those in the camps who are waiting in line for resettlement," he says. "Apart from that, they voluntarily went to live outside of their camps," he adds. "They are free and earn money."

But the term "free" leaves a bitter taste in the villagers' mouths. If they are caught outside their villages, they are arrested, they say, because they are not permitted to seek jobs elsewhere.Kayan Tayar's women are particularly upset. They think the Thai authorities might deny them exit visas so their country doesn't lose a lucrative tourist attraction.

Disillusioned and angry, some of them decided to protest by removing their neck rings. They say they hope this makes it easier to get exit visas. . . Mu La, a mother of eight, also contemplates taking off her 27 rings, which give her the longest neck in the village. "I am proud of our tradition," she says but concedes that she is willing to sacrifice for a ticket to freedom.

"If that is the only way for me to leave here, I will take them all off," she asserts."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/04/23...al_30071361.php

[Gene]

What's really outrageous about the Thais refusal to let these folks leave for New Zealand is that the Thais also refuse to consider granting them Thai citizenship. They are left to live as refugees confined to one place in Thailand, even though they desperately want to leave for another home In New Zealand. They are like prisoners being punsihed for being refugees.

[mauRICE]

http://www.baht-stop.com/forums/index.php?...ic=3446&hl=