While the Myanmar government forces death and starvation on its people, rather than admit what an oppressed country it is, the west stands by wringing its hands about what can be done.

After their own NORAD report stated clearly that in fact sexual abuse of Akha women and girls had occurred on the part of Norwegian Church Aid NCA staff in northern Laos, the Norwegian Delegate stood up at the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues at New York last week and stated clearly that the allegations of sexual abuse were unsubstantiated.

The long awaited Batik report has now been issued and gets a response from Eisel Mazard.

A little background. The Akha of north Laos made the allegation in many villages that the aid workers of Norwegian Church Aid and Action Contre Le Faim were sexually abusing their women and girls. Rape. Both organizations fought the title. Rape. But according to definition that is what is is. Both organzitions admitted there was a lot of sex going on, women and girls getting pregnant, sex with girls as young as 12, but no "rape".

You may see the report here:
http://www.akha.org/content/sexualabuse/acfbatikabusereport.pdf

You may see the response here:
http://www.akha.org/content/sexualabuse/sexandcelibacyinthepovertyindustry.pdf

The Report from Batik International on the allegations of sexual abuse of Akha women and girls by Action Contre Le Faim staff has been released.

It can be found at a number of sites including:
http://www.akha.org/content/sexualabuse/acfbatikabusereport.pdf

The report by Batik International on the activities of ACF in Laos is out. You can read it over on this site:
http://www.akha.org/content/sexualabuse/batikacfreport.pdf

The report points out many of the situations involving ACF staff and the Akha while leaving out others.

We will note rebuttals when we see them.

What we note.
Akha are at the bottom of the pay scale.
Sexual contact is occurring between staff and Akha villagers.
No mention is made of ACF ethic or guidelines on the issue.
Context of the life situation in Muang Long is not brought up even though it is one of the poorest locations in Laos.

NORAD's report is out on the allegations of sex abuse by NCA staff in Laos.

The report makes interesting reading, interesting maneuvering.

Lots of sex, paying for sex, asking for sex, all while working for NCA, but no coercion of course, somehow it was the Akha's fault.

Would you pay aid workers who ask for sex in the village your church sends them to help?

NORAD Report

The Batik International Report on the similar situation with ACF is still to be released.

After months of gathering data on the rape of Akha women by ACF workers in Laos, we note very carefully the langauge used in an ACF press release where THEIR people are the VICTIMS.

http://www.aahuk.org/Press%20Releases/SriLanka8August2006.htm

We didn't get much cooperation from ACF, they said it was all bunk, that no one raped any Akha girls, they did, but they didn't do it THAT much, and so it may as well not have happened at all, even if they DID know about it, and didn't stop it.

But now when their staff are killed, lord knows what they were doing on the side, suddenly the nouns and verbs change. Its a WAR CRIME (raping girls in the course of humanitarian aid is not of course). It is violation of SACRED aid workers. Ones just back from rape missions in rape camps maybe.

Funny how the shoes look on the other foot.

We wonder what would have happened to the ACF workers in Laos had the Akha girls all had f'n guns.

What goes around, comes around.

Today a letter is published in http://www.bistandsaktuelt.no/img/pdf/200605.pdf the Norwegian magazine. Page 2.

A woman who used to work for NCA in Africa tells how she complained about NCA staff hiring prostitutes and sexually abuseing young indigenous women in the project area and how she was persecuted for speaking about it by NCA staff all the way up to the Oslo end of things.

Its funny how we were ridiculed on this list, for speaking about what we saw clearly and documented clearly that the Akha stated NCA and ACF staff were doing to the Akha women in north Laos.

The articles in Norway regarding the rapes of Akha women in Laos continue to grow. ACF's story is not far behind. Anonymous reports come that NCA had this problem before in other countries and after advised of the situation still did not correct it.

What else can you expect from the church?

http://www.vg.no/pub/vgart.hbs?artid=117912
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article1332263.ece
http://ekstra.itromso.no/article.jsp?id=4691
http://ekstra.ht.no/article.jsp?id=4691
http://ekstra.framtidinord.no/article.jsp?id=4691

Rape of Akha women in Laos by NCA staff and ACF staff hits the press in Norway.

Other agencies soon to follow.

In what has been a long battle for Akha human rights and from abuse by governments, UN Agencies, Opium eradication programs and the efforts of the world's best to eliminate the Akha race, we hope that people are paying attention.

Next: Justice for the "Architect of Death" for the Akha in Laos, UNODC's Antonio Maria Costa
Link

Totally clueless as they have always been, senior staff of Action Contre Le Faim have not a wiff of the firestorm that is brewing over their mismanagement of their NGO and tolerance of the rapes of Akha women and girls in Laos, in what we have dubbed the ACF Rape Camps in the Akha villages.

Rather they have threatened activists who reported it with legal action.

They have demanded that websites pull down their press releases.

So just who exactly did ACF think would get the story out, the Akha who they have held powerless pinned to their beds?

Two transcripts of video testimony in Muang Long District of Luang Namtha Province, Laos from Akha people documenting the rape and abuses of Akha women and girls, as well as the conditions imposed on the Akha forcing them to feed Aid Agency workers from Norwegian Church Aid and Action Contre Le Faim.

The video and transcripts of Akha testimony of their women being raped by staff of Norwegian Church Aid and the staff of Action Contre Le Faim have made their way to New York City at the UN for the 5th Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues. The largest meeting in UN history at the General Assembly. Indigenous People. And the sooner the UN Agencies and NGO's figure it out the sooner they will realize that the rules on reform are changing, not mandates from govenments but mandates from people, very determined people tired of being ripped off of everything from their land to their bodies.

Indigenous people determined to make the UN a responsive organization that listens to the people affected by their policies.

Action Contre Le Faim, the French organization against hunger seems to be satisfying a lot of its own appetites in the Akha villages of north Laos.

1. Akha villagers claim that ACF forces them to feed their entire work crews for the duration of any project, no matter how many people that is, no matter how long they stay in the villages and no matter how many pigs, chickens, cows are required to be slaughtered and how much rice and other foods are eaten. ACF is suppose to be the organization that fights hunger. So why are they forcing the target villages to feed their troops in Muang Long District of north Laos? Villages are already without food for much of the year, have a high rate of malnutrition, have endured forced relocations and no longer have enough farm land or water resources. Muang Long District is listed by the Lao Government as one of the poorest 47 districts in the nation. Despite the fact that Long District has severe forms of malaria, ACF refuses to provide free mosquito nets. This despite the fact that ACF in their own reports place mortality rates after relocation as high as 20-50% of village populations in the first year, due to intestinal upset and malaria. Some villagers stated that they buried villagers at the rate of 3-4 people per day. Mosquito nets are approximately $1 each and are the most cost effective way to prevent malaria and the high cost of treatment or outright death. This should be noted in comparison to bloated staff levels and salaries. (NCA staff stated that they list nets as costing $9 each in their budget.)