An indigenous
Karen community in Thailand has returned to their land in a national park years
after being forcibly evicted and seeing their homes burned by authorities. The
move has prompted heightened tensions in the saga of Kaeng Krachan National
Park as the Thai government threatens to remove the villagers once again and
prosecute them.
Editorial
In central
Thailand’s Phetchaburi province, a group of indigenous Karen villagers have returned to their
former homes in Kaeng Krachan National Park a decade or more after they were
forcibly relocated from their homes.
In mid-January,
over 70 residents returned to their homes
in Bang Kloi and Jai Paen Din villages inside the national park, reclaiming
16 The photos of the late human rights defenders Tatkamon Ob-om (left) and Porlajee Billy Rakchongcharoen (right) were exhibited during a ceremony in memory of their fight to protect the rights of indigenous Karen forest dwellers in Kaeng Krachan forest. Photo by Sanitsuda Ekachai
After two decades of hunger and hardship and a life without dignity in a prison-like resettlement village a group of indigenous forest dwellers decided to return to their ancestral home deep in the Kaeng Krachan jungle in Phetchaburi province.
It s about time! The ethnic Karen forest dwellers made their exodus home in mid-January amid a new wave of the coronavirus pandemic. They have no choice. Given the lack of farmland, village lockdowns and a life of near-starvation, the pandemic has made it clear that going home is the only answer for their safety and survival.