Organization: Central Michigan University
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 26 Jan 1993 08:35:48 EST
From:         Elliott Parker <3ZLUFUR@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Subject:      TH: Flesh trader

=======================  Forwarded  Message  ===========================
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 23:10:56+0700
From: Kamol Hengkietisak <kamol@ipied.tu.ac.th>
Subject: Bangkok Post Jan 17: Sunday Enquiry

17: Sunday Post Enquiry Part III



`Phayao flesh trader': My business is `a kind of merit-making'

AT the age of 40, Dej (not his real name) is a successful
businessman in Phayao Province -- thanks to the booming sex
industry.

Dej, who runs a food garden outside the town proper of the
province known to be a major exporter of sex workers, now plans to
open a second outlet at a prime location on the highway.

Approach him properly and you can place an order for a girl as an
escort or a virgin as your mistress. The initial asking price for
a virgin would be 100,000 baht.

"It takes several weeks for me to arrange a girl for a client who
wants a mistress," Dej told the Post Enquiry.

He said he supplied a good-looking 17-year-old virgin last week to
a wealthy businessman in Chiang Mai who wanted to keep her as a
"secret wife".

A week earlier, he said, a girl he "sold" to a Bangkok man as a
mistress visited him in her own pick-up truck.

"The girls who work for me are no longer poor. They're happy," he
claimed. "I'm happy, too, because I am able to arrange
opportunities for them to live a better life."

The on-going crackdown on child prostitution appears to have
benefited his business.

"People in the business, especially young girls are now more
careful than before. They are not as openly moving around as in
the past," Dej said, adding that young girls who needed money had
been increasingly relying on his service.

Dej insists that his business is "a kind of merit-making".

"All the girls whom I introduced to my clients were poor, very
poor. They needed money. So I offered them and their families a
better future," Dej says.

"More importantly, the girls and their parents are willing for the
job. Their parents do not seem to mind that their daughters are
going into prostitution."

Dej started his food garden five years ago in a lane outside the
town with some travellers. His restaurant sells food, but his real
business is to supply "poor" girls to those who have cash and are
looking for good time.

Dej has about 20 girls working as waitresses and their ages range
from 13 to 20 years. When the Post Enquiry team visited the food
garden last week, the place was full of male customers.

Dej said the girls who worked for him came from very poor families
and earned only a few baht a day.

"When they first started the job, they did not want to engage in
prostitution. But then they came to me for advice on how to solve
their financial problems.

"I never force them to go into prostitution. I would simply ask
them whether they would like to go out with a client and earn the
money they needed?"

He said after reaching an understanding with the girl, he would
arrange a meeting with the client.

Dej revealed that he had "agents" in the villages who would
conduct a survey on young girls in poor families.
"If girls or their parents complain about financial problems, I
would contact them and suggest ways to make quick money," Dej
added.

During the negotiations with the parents, Dej would tell them that
their daughter could "marry" someone who would help solve their
financial problems.

"Of course, all the marriage documents are fake. So the marriage
means nothing. But the girl and her parents know nothing about
this," Dej said.

"If the price for a good-looking girl is 100,000 baht, her parents
would get about 70,000 baht," Dej explains.

Most officials and community leaders in the North said they had
heard similar stories in the region.

Kamnan Kobkeo Thongsiew of Hueysak sub-district in Chiang Rai
confirmed that the money exchange existed but he said he would
"prefer to call it a human trade.

"The money paid to the parents is like an advance payment for a
promise of service to be rendered," he said. "It occurs
everywhere. Parents receive money and allow their daughters to go
into the service business."

He said a survey he recently conducted in his sub-district
revealed that about 1,200 girls had gone into prostitution.

According to the survey, the kamnan said, another 1,800 girls left
Hueysak to work elsewhere. "Two-thirds of the girls who left home
became prostitutes," he said.

The survey also found that about 300 girls from Ban Rong Phiew and
about 100 each from Ban Pa Khao and Ban Pa Lieng had become
prostitutes. "I think most of these girls are under 18 years old,"
he said.