Organization: Central Michigan University
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.seasia-l
Date:         Tue, 26 Jan 1993 08:43:54 EST
From:         Elliott Parker <3ZLUFUR@CMUVM.CSV.CMICH.EDU>
Subject:      TH: Flesh trade 2/3

=======================  Forwarded  Message  ===========================
Date: Thu, 21 Jan 93 23:10:15+0700
From: Kamol Hengkietisak <kamol@ipied.tu.ac.th>
Subject: Bangkok Post Jan 17: Sunday Enquiry

17: Sunday Post Enquiry Part II



Hoping for a miracle

SIXTEEN-year-old Sriwan Maniwan was doing the ramwong with a
drunken customer at Pornsin Ramwong Bar outside the town district
of Phuket one night when the police broke in.

Sriwan and 40 other ramwong dancers, all under 18 years old, were
arrested, detained for the night and sent back to their home
towns.

In Ban Ton Thong sub-district outside Lamphun town, Sriwan now
spends most of her time at an old farm hut with her aging parents,
hoping for a miracle that would offer her a new life in the form
of a well-paid job.

"Besides the ramwong job, I don't know what else I can do," Sriwan
tells the Post Enquiry. "My friends from the bar are facing the
same fate, I know."

Sriwan and her other friends who returned to their homes in Chiang
Mai, Chiang Rai, Phayao, Phrae, and Uttaradit, could earn good
money as service girls but now they are jobless with little or no
money.

In almost all cases, there is either no work in their provinces or
the girls are not educated enough for the jobs.

"I don't have enough training to do anything else," Sriwan says.

Her parents -- Mr Ma, 54, and Mrs Kham, 50, sadly look at their
unfinished wooden house on which they have invested their entire
savings with the help of their daughter.

"We've run out of money and we cannot continue building the house
because Sriwan has lost her job," Mr Ma says.

The family has lived in their small farm hut for generations and
have faced many hardships over the years.

"But we managed to survive with the little money we earned from
our farm," they say.

A year ago, when a man from Phuket stopped by their shack and
offered Sriwan a job as a ramwong girl, the family knew their days
of suffering were over.

They were assured that the job would bring them good money, good
food, and probably, a good house.

It sounded too good a chance to miss, so they accepted the offer
and signed a contract, despite warnings from neighbours that the
deal was a bit "unusual".

Mrs Kham shows the document to the Post Enquiry, according to
which Sriwan would be paid a monthly salary of 1,000 baht for her
job as a ramwong girl. Her parents would receive an advance of
4,000 baht and another 6,000 baht after Sriwan completes 10 months
with her employer. During that period, Sriwan would not be allowed
to return home.

"The money meant so much to us," Mrs Kham says, adding that she
often felt  guilty about signing the contract.

"We had a feeling that it wasn't a good thing to do, it was like
selling our own daughter. But we didn't have a choice," Mrs Kham
says.

Several other families signed up with the same broker. One couple
signed up for all their five daughters.

"Shortly after we signed the contracts and got the money, someone
came from the South and drove Sriwan and other girls away in their
pick-up truck," Mrs Kham recalls.


Post Enquiry learned that many other families in the village also
succumbed to the offer of "big and easy money" and signed similar
contracts with other brokers who made the deals on behalf of bars,
night clubs and food gardens.

At work, the girls received two free meals a day and a "tip" from
customers.

But Sriwan insists that she had never been a prostitute.

"I never went out with any customer although many of them offered
money to spend the night with them," she says.

The "tip" she earned, she says was "enough" to keep her going and
save a little for her family.

"I could afford to send some money home to help with the
construction of our new house," Sriwan says.

Her parents agreed that Sriwan sent money home every month,
sometimes in thousands. "We used the money to buy wood and other
building material for the house," they say.

Now several carpenters are busy working on the house which is
about 80 per cent complete.

"Part of the house has been built with my money," Sriwan boasts.
"I will complete it at all costs," hinting that if she could not
find a job in her town, she would explore other avenues.

"I will work at some other place where they would pay me well
enough to send money home to finish the house and feed my family,"
she says.

A girl in nearby Ban Paen sub-district has done just that. Orapin
Mulrangsri, who was sent home last week in a child prostitution
dragnet, left her village again to return to a service job at a
bar in the South.

"She won't have any trouble with the police this time because she
is already 18 years old now," say her parents.
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