A 62-year-old grandmother works to reduce tensions between Chiang Mai's notorious gangs

Chiang Mai's street gangs are often described as dangerous, sword-wielding maniacs with nothing to lose.

But talking with the former head of the Samurai Gang, one gets a different impression about the supposed threat this gang poses to residents in the North.

"We just started the gang as we were getting bullied by older boys in school," Dew, a smartly dressed 24-year-old, explained.

Ten years ago there were very few gangs, he said. His was one of the first, but many others formed soon after.

"It got to the point there were so many gangs everybody feared the other, so we all started carrying knives to protect ourselves. There'd be an occasional fight but nothing really major happened."

Dew said things changed one day when he and his friends fought back when another gang tried to steal one their motorcycles. "We wanted revenge, so we got hold of some Samurai swords and went looking for the gang that had attacked us. When we found them we attacked them with the swords and almost killed a few of them. Luckily for them there was a hospital nearby and no one died.

Samurai Gang

"After that the police named us the Samurai Gang. We never actually called ourselves that," Dew said.

Soon stories were heard around town about people being chased down on motorcycles or stopped in the street and hacked with swords. The city was in a frenzy, and other gangs went out to buy swords, but he said there were few fights and no-one targeted foreigners.

"We never went anywhere near a farang - it was a thing between us and other gangs."

To speak to Dew, we spoke first to Yai Aew. Grandmother Aew - real name Laddawan Chaininpun - who for the last 10 years has been trying to rehabilitate gang members in Chiang Mai, is the founder of NDR (No Drugs Rule), an organisation that brings gangs together and tries to eliminate tensions and give youths a semblance of stability.

Currently, No Drugs Rule has 28 gangs on its books - 4,000 boys and 300 girls. On registering, each gang agrees to meet twice weekly with Yai Aew at the local stadium. They also agree to avoid drugs and make peace with other gangs.

The 62-year-old said that in all the years NDR has existed she'd had no violence at meetings. "If there is ever a disagreement between gangs they call me, then come here and we try to talk about it. It's better than starting a war … If I can't help them sort things out then the boys can fight each other while I am here - just the two boys."

This may sound harsh but Yai Aew assured it was a much better solution than the way boys exacted revenge in the past.

Out of the 40 well-known gangs in Chiang Mai, 12 are still not registered with NDR, and it is with these 12 gangs where much of the trouble starts.

"I am trying to get all the gangs here but some aren't interested," she said. "But so far we've had a great success rate. Since I started NDR, we've had 28 boys die but most have been in traffic accidents, although four boys have been shot, two stabbed, and two others disappeared.

In jail

"Some kids have also gone to jail for selling amphetamines or being caught with guns, which can be bought for as cheap as Bt500."

NDR is sponsored by the governor of Chiang Mai, but not affiliated with the police. Yai Aew said the police weren't fond of her or her group, hinting that she protects gangsters and is thus a kind of "God-mother" to the gangs.

Yai Aew maintains the boys with her pose no problem to society, and singled out because they choose to hang out in large numbers.

"Most of them come from out of town, their parents send them here to study. They are lonely and bored, so they get mixed up in gangs. Very few of them are interested in fighting. This is often just leaders of the gangs, the tough guys. The rest of them just like hanging out together."

xtra

no drugs rule

>> Twenty-eight gangs comprising about 4,000 boys and 300 girls, who are registered with NDR.

>> Meetings between the gangs held twice weekly at the municipal stadium.

>> Gang members registered with NDR agree to avoid drugs and make peace with other gangs.

>> NDR is sponsored

by the governor of Chiang Mai, but not affliated

with the police.