Thai Ombudsman Offers Deal To 'Innocent Encroachers'

[webfact]

SPECIAL REPORT

Deal offered to 'Innocent encroachers'

Thanapat Kitjakosol

Ombudsman Sriracha gives them 15 years to wind up farming

In an independent inquiry into land acquisition and encroachment in Wang Nam Kheo forest in Nakhon Ratchasima, Ombudsman SrirachaCharoenphanich offered a new solution to innocent encroachers at greatest number of 40,000 living in 80 villagers in the park compound among all violators allowing them to stay and farm on for another 15 years before they move away.

Those who acquire the land from unlawful ownership transfers, or with apparent intent to trespass after the end of latest legal deadlines will face legal actions. The time frame to verify their ownership and acquisition should end within three of six months from now. "Those benefiting from this extension will be required to grow trees and plants in 30 per cent of their areas," he added.

Villagers who purchased the land innocently should also benefit from the 15year extension, while it has not been decided on those who aquire the land before legal deadlines and do the farming together with doing resortrelated businesses should also benefit from this new solution, said Srirachai who received petitions from villagers living in the park.

The longstanding Wang Nam Kheo land encroachment issue has become even more controversial when the The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation (DNP) lanuched a crackdown late last year, targetting many resorts for demolition while taking out two of them in December, which prompted protests from villagers and blockades of important Route 304.

During the sixmonth period, the DNP, the Royal Forest Department, will recheck maps and borders of protected areas in individual cases before deviding encroachers into various groups according to their intent, the time they trespassed. Those did the farming before 1978 before the first deadline associated with The Agricutural Land Reform Office regulations could stay on and do farming freely.

In 1998, the Chavalit government initiated a solution to solve the encroachment problem, and redrew protected areas two years later. But no legal actions had since been taken while encroachment and resort business have been expanding in the Wang Nam Kheo forest, which is part of Thab Lan national park, covering 1,397,375 rai or 2,235.8 squre kilometres, in four Nakhon Ratchasima districts and one district in neighbouring Prachin Buri.

Sriracha’s inquiry also finds that a key factor of the problem is that the RFD and the ALRO, lacked coordination dealing with the issue after the latter was established in 1975 and tasked with assigning deserted RFDsupervised land to landless farmers. Both agencies have been working separately using different and independent regulations, resulting in expansion of encroachment and unregulated transfer of land onwership since.

-- The Nation 2012-01-23

[abcz9]

thailand number 1. if in the uk they would use tear gas and smash your head in .

[EyesWideOpen]

This is classic Thailand !!!! When this story first came out, I posted on the original thread that not one person would have to move their illegal houses and resorts. The right amount of money changed hands , and voilà ! everything is fine now. I am not really sure why Thailand considers itself to be so mysterious to foreigners. I have never seen any spot on earth where the investigative process of " follow the money" works better.......

[JurgenG]

If I remember correctly, at the beginning we were talking about a few rich and well connected politicians who had built mansions and 5 stars resorts in the National Park. Now, it's 40,000 (forty thousands !!!!) people in 8 villages, some who have been there for more than 30 years ( people who have moved in after 1978 are now considered encroacher). People who were visiting the place after reading the news about the encroachment were all surprised, they were expected a forest and all they can see was villages and cultivated fields.

A few points first. The area in the 70's was a hide-out for communist insurgents, that's when the government commissioned a couple of logging companies to clear the area. THERE IS NO MORE FOREST IN THIS AREA SINCE THE 70's ! And the forest was cleared on government order. The land that was cleared was then given to landless farmers. If you had called the Forest Department a few years ago (some did), they would have been told that the land has already been given away and was not National Park anymore.

One week ago a few hundreds park officials arrived in the area and start terrorizing the inhabitants. They were going ten by ten from house to house, even tried to arrest a local farmer because he had built two bungalows in his backyard, starting a riot in the village and the Kamnan had to come to free the officials. Now they are gone and nobody knows what's going to happen, There are rumor of a list of a few hundred villagers that are going to be indicted but nobody knows for sure for what exactly. The great talk of the town is now "how are you on list ?".

There is much more to say but at least I hope people will understand that there is much more going on that what is printed here.

Edited January 23, 2012 by JurgenG

[djayz]

thailand number 1. if in the uk they would use tear gas and smash your head in .

And rightly so in my opinion. There is only so much crap that the authorities should have to deal with.

[JurgenG]

thailand number 1. if in the uk they would use tear gas and smash your head in .

And rightly so in my opinion. There is only so much crap that the authorities should have to deal with.

And I guess they hit you one time too many on the head, that's why you are now in Thailand on a disability pension

Edited January 23, 2012 by JurgenG

[Bakseedaa]

If I remember correctly, at the beginning we were talking about a few rich and well connected politicians who had built mansions and 5 stars resorts in the National Park. Now, it's 40,000 (forty thousands !!!!) people in 8 villages, some who have been there for more than 30 years ( people who have moved in after 1978 are now considered encroacher). People who were visiting the place after reading the news about the encroachment were all surprised, they were expected a forest and all they can see was villages and cultivated fields.

A few points first. The area in the 70's was a hide-out for communist insurgents, that's when the government commissioned a couple of logging companies to clear the area. THERE IS NO MORE FOREST IN THIS AREA SINCE THE 70's ! And the forest was cleared on government order. The land that was cleared was then given to landless farmers. If you had called the Forest Department a few years ago (some did), they would have been told that the land has already been given away and was not National Park anymore.

One week ago a few hundreds park officials arrived in the area and start terrorizing the inhabitants. They were going ten by ten from house to house, even tried to arrest a local farmer because he had built two bungalows in his backyard, starting a riot in the village and the Kamnan had to come to free the officials. Now they are gone and nobody knows what's going to happen, There are rumor of a list of a few hundred villagers that are going to be indicted but nobody knows for sure for what exactly. The great talk of the town is now "how are you on list ?".

There is much more to say but at least I hope people will understand that there is much more going on that what is printed here.

None of that changes the fact that it is common land and not for developers...If someone has a real legal land title, then he or she has nothing to fear... but if a bunch of gypsies just inhabited some empty land , then the government has the right to evict and prosecute them... Seems to me that those squatters had a free ride for 30 + years and now the piper wants paying.. Thai people always want something for nothing.....

[hellodolly]

This is classic Thailand !!!! When this story first came out, I posted on the original thread that not one person would have to move their illegal houses and resorts. The right amount of money changed hands , and voilà ! everything is fine now. I am not really sure why Thailand considers itself to be so mysterious to foreigners. I have never seen any spot on earth where the investigative process of " follow the money" works better.......

Well technically you are correct no one moved the illegal resorts they just tore two of them down.

And I will double check your statement in 15 years as that is when it is supposed to be completed.

Most prophets wait until after the fact to claim their success.

[transam]

thailand number 1. if in the uk they would use tear gas and smash your head in .

In the UK folk who ''steal'' land always ''ask'' for gas and a fight because they take no notice of the Laws rulings. The biggest culprits are so called travelers.

[JurgenG]

None of that changes the fact that it is common land and not for developers...If someone has a real legal land title, then he or she has nothing to fear... but if a bunch of gypsies just inhabited some empty land , then the government has the right to evict and prosecute them... Seems to me that those squatters had a free ride for 30 + years and now the piper wants paying.. Thai people always want something for nothing.....

The problem is the reporting of The Nation is full of holes , intentionally or by lazyness I don't know. But there are no squatters there, maybe 4-5 resorts have encroached on forest land and everybody agrees they should be kicked out, but definitively not the 40,000 thousands farmers the article is talking about.

What are these fifteen years for ? Basically the Forest Department tells the land owners that they have invested in their land in good faith because until now (until the new head of the department took office) the interpretation of the law was the land title the farmers had gives them the right to sell their land and/or to develop it. So they have 15 years to get their money back. After that they will have to give back the land to follow the new interpretation of the law by the new Forrest Department head. It doesn't make any sense because in 15 years the head of the department will have changed again and we will have again a new interpretation of the law.

There are two agencies that are handling the land that have been given away following the clearing of the forest 40 years ago : the forest department and the land department. The problem is the land department doesn't agree with the new interpretation of the law of the forest department. So recently the forest department has allegedly asked the NACC (National Anti-Corruption Commission) to investigate the land department. Which is, in my opinion, a bit dangerous because the Forest Department has much more to fear from the NACC than the Land Department as it was the Forest Department that was the most active in the recent development of the area. But it just shows how alone the forest department is in its new interpretation of the law.

There is a lot going on beside the scene as it seems punishing a couple of greedy developers is one thing, but throwing in the street 40,000 villagers is an other. The government seems to be aware of what's going on and the new head of the Forest Department, who, according to some, is on a personal vendetta, has probably bitten off more than he can chew.

Unfortunately it seems we can't expect the Nation to help us understand what is really going on as so far they had only be able to print the information handed over to them by the the public relation office of the Forest Department. Lazyness or knowing which side their bread is buttered ? As THaiVisa seems to have good relation with The Nation, maybe the journalist who is covering this area can come here and give us an answer ?

To be honest, I'm just repeating what I heard there, I'm no professional investigator. It would be nice to have a real journalist come here and explain us how a real journalist works in Thailand and maybe gives more details about this affair.

Edited January 23, 2012 by JurgenG

[longtom]

Thanks JurgenG for your info on this subject. Nice that you take off the colored glasses when you write about this topic ,sorry, couldn't resist. Escpecially the part about the personal vendetta makes sense, was asking myself from the start why this urgency in this exact area.

Is there really no forest in this area, or 'only' where the 40'000 farmers live? All this talk about encroaching on national forrest the last months?

But rather than critisizing only the Nation, investigative journalism is lacking in all media in Thailand, out of fear mainly. If you want to keep your job and survive (!) you better don't dig too deep as a Thai journo.

Edited January 23, 2012 by longtom

[JurgenG]

Thanks JurgenG for your info on this subject. Nice that you take off the colored glasses when you write about this topic ,sorry, couldn't resist. Escpecially the part about the personal vendetta makes sense, was asking myself from the start why this urgency in this exact area.

Is there really no forest in this area, or 'only' where the 40'000 farmers live? All this talk about encroaching on national forrest the last months?

But rather than critisizing only the Nation, investigative journalism is lacking in all media in Thailand, out of fear mainly. If you want to keep your job and survive (!) you better don't dig too deep as a Thai journo.

There is a National Park as most people understand it, with a forest and wild animals. And there is the land where the forest have been cleared 40 years ago and that has been given away to landless farmers.

I don't know any houses or resorts that encroach on the forest but there are probably a few and everybody agree they should be demolished. There are also other problems with houses built on a slope or encroaching on public reservoirs. These houses too, everybody agree, should be demolished.

But the real problem, the one making the first page of the news papers and causing the protests is about the land that has been cleared and given to farmers. The farmers have title for these lands and are not squatters as a poster suggested. On these lands nowadays there are houses, villages and, recently, resorts. Not a few isolated farmers because we are talking about 40,000 inhabitants.

The new head of the forest department has a very restrictive interpretation of the law regarding the use that can be made of these lands, in contradiction of all the recent policies of development of the area. IMO the methods he uses and what he tries to achieved, dispossessing the farmers of their land, is not really legal. And anyway the kind of bullying techniques he uses to scare the villagers have no place in Thailand in the 21st century, exactly the same techniques used by party officials in China to deprive villagers of theirs rights. Two weeks ago there were a few hundreds officials camping in the National park and going ten by ten visiting houses one by one, asking people to stop any activities and leave or face jail with a minimum bail of 100,000 bahts. That's why I would like to have journalists doing their work and going there and report what really going on in Wang Nam Kheo

[OzMick]

Red shirt definition of "legal": If 40,000 of us break the law, its no longer illegal. Anybody who thinks it is still illegal is anti-democratic and persecuting us.

I guess to the semi-literate the difference between persecuting and prosecuting could be difficult to grasp.

[JurgenG]

What it has to do with red shirts ? We are in BJT territory there ! But I would surprise you have any knowledge of what going on there, I'm sure you can't even place the different areas we are talking about on a map.

Can you explain me what laws have been broken ? What are the difference of interpretation between the new and the old head of the Forest department ? and with the land department ? Some resorts have already been demolished , what was the legal reasons for each of them ?

The semi literate can answers these questions, what about the total moron ?

Edited January 24, 2012 by JurgenG

[JurgenG]

For people interested by the problem, here two articles in the local press

http://www.dailynews.co.th/politics/8340

http://www.thairath.co.th/today/view/198754