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Villagers locked in an ID cycle - N



Subject: Villagers locked in an ID cycle - No school, no card; no card, no

school
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BANGKOK POST - June 28, 1999

CITIZENSHIP

Villagers locked in an ID cycle
No school, no card; no card, no school

Uamdao Noikorn
Nong Kiew Village, Chiang Mai

The 2,000 residents of this border village say it is bad enough being
denied
Thai identity cards, without being cheated by corrupt officials as well.

They complain they paid "tea money" to speed up the processing, yet
Chiang
Dao district officials continue to withhold their approval.

The Muser villagers argue they were born and raised in Thailand and
their
ancestors have lived here for generations.

Nopparat Maneeduangporn said the village was officially established 27
years
ago with 30 families. Other settlers followed, mostly Muser, but no one
has
any ID papers.

"Our requests for Thai nationality were rejected on the grounds that we
were
illiterate. But that's why we need an ID card, to be able to go to
school,"
Mr Nopparat lamented. Officials still used the excuse today.

Lakira Jator said she was "overjoyed" when the Interior Ministry's
decided
to issue "blue cards" after surveys in 1989 and 1992.

"The whole village was filled with excitement," she said.

Although access to education, jobs, voting and property ownership
continued
to be denied, the villagers believed it would not be long before the
government finally acknowledged their existence.

Then they started to apply for house registration documents or Tor Ror
13,
which is issued specifically to highlanders as against the Tor Ror 14
issued
to lowland Thais.

They were even willing to pay the 250 or 300 baht demanded by district
officials to speed the process.

"The district usually produces Tor Ror 13 together with the blue card
and
stores them for the record. Technically, we don't have to pay anything,
but
if we don't we won't get the papers," said Mr Nopparat.

Some chose not to pay.

As a result, only 1,300 out of 2,000 villagers have a blue card.