Assembly of the Poor, a civil society organisation in Thailand issued a statement, condemning the Thai junta’s eviction of poor communities and urging the international organisations to pressure the regime to protect human rights.
The Assembly of the Poor, a political voice for the marginalised communities in Thailand, issued a statement on Thursday to condemn junta’s forest protection policies, saying that the policies harm the country’s poor.
The statement pointed out that after the junta issued Order 64/2014 and 66/2014 to protect and reclaim Thailand’s protected area in June 2014, many poor communities countrywide have been evicted by the authorities.
“The governance of the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is repression on the poor and aid the rich and their clan” declared the statement.
The group urged that international organisations should send personnel to observe the situation and pressure the junta to respect human rights.
Recently, the Royal Thai Navy filed charges against the villagers in Khao Khitchakut District in the eastern province of Chanthaburi for allegedly encroaching on public land plots, which the navy wanted to reclaim for operational practices. The villagers were later evicted despite the fact that they had no where to go, the Assembly of the Poor claimed.
In Thailand’s Northeast, the Subdistrict Administration Organisation (SAO) of Chalermprakiet District of Nakhon Ratchasima Province evicted a villager out of the public land plots after he opposed a private company, which were allegedly permitted to dug the sand on the Mon River bank for commercial purpose, the civil organisation illustrated.
In another case, the Assembly of the Poor claimed that on 17 March 2015 about 20 military and police officers, including, the civil servants forced the villagers of Dong Kam Noi Community in Muang District of the northern province of Chaiyaphum to sign an agreement to evacuate from their village.
The disputed was declared as protected area titled ‘Tad Ton National Park’ in 1981 although, in 1978, the local administration acknowledged the existence of Dong Kam Noi village.
According to NGO Coordinating Committee on Development (NGO-COD) of Isan, since last year, 103 small-scale farmers have already been accused of encroaching on protected areas and almost 1,800 in Isan have now been prohibited from using their farmland and are about to receive court warrants for allegedly encroaching on the land.
NGO-COD added that if this trend is allowed to continue, approximately 1.2 million people who are living on land that overlaps protected areas could be affected.
