Clarify status of border land, villagers in South tell govt
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Over 200 villagers from Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat called on the government yesterday to clarify the status of land on the Myanmar boundary after claiming officials allowed them to work on rubber plantations there for more than 10 years.
They said they had grown and tended rubber trees in the area – inside Myanmar – since 1996 and had also established a community in this area. The district chief and other officials had also visited and organised a meeting with them on the eighth day of every month.
Moreover, the officials had taken a helicopter last month to inspect the geographic landscape of a waterway in the area.
They said the officials had asked villagers to continue working at the rubber plantations for the next 10 years then they would get land ownership documents. The officials told them they could not issue land-title deeds as the boundary between Thailand and Myanmar had not yet been demarcated.
Meanwhile, Kriengkrai Seutrong, who was accused of leading a group of Thais to encroach on Myanmar forestland, insisted he was not involved in rubber plantations, or selling war-weapons which were discovered in the area in Myanmar.
Kriengkrai and another 92 Thais were arrested earlier in this month and detained by Myanmar authorities at an Army camp in Koh Song Island. They were accused of encroaching on forest land and working on rubber plantations there. The Thais were released on Friday.
Kriengkrai said he would explain what happened and who was behind it.
