Akha villagers in Northern Laos testified on video that Norwegian Church Aid staff coming to their villages to do various projects had demanded village girls to rape on repeated occasions. Staff often stayed for weeks at a time in villages while doing projects. Akha villagers said that the practice was widespread on the part of numerous NGO’s in the Muang Long area. Akha villagers gave the names of many villages where the rapes occurred and the names of specific girls who had been raped and became pregnant.
Girls ranged in age from 15 to 17.
(The Akha make up nearly 80% of the population of Muang Long District. )
Staff demanded on ALL occasions that the Akha villagers feed them, including the killing of valuable animals, for meat. As many as ten staff members demanding meat on a daily basis placed a huge burden on the village food supply. Villages which had already been forced to relocate, were devestated with disease and starvation, could only do their best to comply and not say anything such that they would be singled out.
Numerous villagers stated that NCA staff threatened to hit the girls if they didn’t come to their huts and provide sex. Afterwards they offered the girls a small sum of money to “make things ok”. A number of girls got pregnant and had to find someone to marry them to help take care of the child. Girls would return home, hide themselves from their parents and other villagers and cry.
Norwegian Church Aid staff implied that they would pull out of the village and not complete the projects if the girls they picked for sex were not given to them immediately. The practice was described as widespread throughout villages that NCA worked with in Muang Long District.
NCA had also been the fierce hand of opium eradication and forced relocations in the region, receiving funding from UNDCP now UNODC.
Villagers stated that NCA forced them to move to locations and told them to grow terrace rice when there was no cleared land for the rice, and not sufficient water. NCA offered to jury rig water supplies but within a short time these water supply systems were broken and no water was available so the rice only died.
Villagers stated that the areas that NCA told them to grow rice in had massive stumps, making it impossible to farm the rice easily, and that with primitive tools one could not thresh the terrace soil in a mud condition with water buffalo as it is normally done. If the soil is not made into mud and leveled while full of water, then the water will not supply evenly to all the rice.
Village food supply was reduced from a full year to less than five months. Villagers were forced to travel by foot long distances to find day work on various projects. Villagers had to sell all their livestock to buy food, and then fell on further poverty. Some villages stated that of a population of 350, 85 people died in the first year after they moved.
NCA also withheld payment of rice, after having Akha villagers build roads or do other projects, leaving their own work behind. When the contract work was done, the villagers got only a small portion of rice. Villagers stated that the bulk of the rice the NCA office in Muang Long had for payment was sold to the Chinese for a profit.
Two villages were shorted 40 tons of rice for one large project that they worked on for more than a month.
Village headmen told how they were unable to stop the rapes in their villages, girls who tried to run away were told by NCA staff that they would be beaten if they did not comply. Village men were unable to oppose the NCA staff for fear of retribution against the village.
Villagers were afraid that NCA staff would transmit HIV to the village girls, which is already a great hazard in the region due to truck drivers buying sex along the road while moving products between Thailand and China.
The video and audio reports have been taken to Europe for consideration of pressing criminal charges.
NCA staff in Muang Long threatened journalists making the documentation.