Thai authorities have issued notifications, urging villagers allegedly encroaching into a protected area in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast, to move out or risk eviction and charges.
Esaan Land Reform News, reported that 40 Royal Forestry Department (RFD) and military officers, including, administrative officials at about 11 am on Thursday, 10 March 2016, entered Khok Yao Community of Tung Luilay Subdistrict, Khon San District, in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum.
Once entering the community, Janewit Kamnuegphon, head of the 4th provincial forest ranger unit, attached a notice from the staff of the legal execution department on a billboard informing that people allegedly encroaching into Phusab Pak Nam protected forest especially rubber plantation owners will face charges and have to move out of the area.
The notice was attached on top of a poster which the RFD officers put up earlier to inform the locals of a policy to reclaim the protected forest of Phusab Pak Nam in accordance to the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)’s Order No. 64/2014.
The notice, however, added that community members who do not work with the alleged land encroachers can submit a request to the provincial court within eight days if their residences are located on the area which will be reclaimed by the authorities.
Boonmee Wiyaroj, deputy head of the community, pointed out that the measure will cause a lot of problems for the locals many of whom will be evicted under such order.
He added that people of Khok Yao community repeatedly faced threats of eviction by the state after the NCPO’s Order No. 64/2014 was issued in June 2014.
In August 2014, the officers informed the villagers that they have move out from an area and that their houses and plantations will be demolished within 15 days, reported Boonmee.
He said that the officers entered the community again in February 2015 and gave them the same warning, but informing the villagers that the have to move out within 30 days.
The eviction was only halted then after the community leaders participated in the national land reform movement with People’s Movement for Just Society (P-Move), a civil society group, which urged the government to halt the measure.
Since mid 2014, P-Move and the government established a national committee to solve land conflicts. However, the committee has not come up with any concrete resolution to the prolonged land rights issue.
Boonmee urged that in order to solve land encroachment problems sustainably, the authorities must allow people to participate in the process to determine the national resolution to the land problem while allowing people currently facing eviction to stay on for the time being.
Royal Forestry Department (RFD) and military officers, including, administrative officials entering Khok Yao Community of Tung Luilay Subdistrict, Khon San District, in the northeastern province of Chaiyaphum on 10 March 2016 (Photo from Esaan Land Reform News)