Karen elder files arson claim
KO-EE MIMEE, a 104-year-old Karen spiritual leader and grandfather of missing activist Pholachi "Billy" Rakchongcharoen, filed a compliant with police yesterday against former Kaeng Krachan National Park head Chaiwat Limlikhit-aksorn over the eviction of
Ko-ee, accompanied by lawyer Waraporn Uthairangsi, lodged a complaint at the Kaeng Krachan police station for the alleged arson and demolition of his home during the eviction in May 2011.
Many Karen from Ban Pong Leuk-Bangkroy and Ban Yang Namklad Neu – including Billy’s wife – were there to give the old man moral support.
He claimed that armed park officials ordered him and relatives out of the house and, when he refused, dragged him out to a helicopter with disregard to his request to pack first and pleas for them not to destroy their grain stocks. He said he later learned that his home and rice stocks were torched. So, the park head and subordinates’ action was arson – an offence punishable with the death sentence, life in prison, or years in jail.
The National Human Right Commission investigated and resolved last September that Chaiwat and his subordinates’ action was a violation of the Karen people’s human rights. Ko-ee and others have already filed an lawsuit with the Administrative Court against the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation and the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry seeking compensation for the officials’ operation and for the right to return to “their ancestors’ forest”.