Land Conflict ความข้ดแย้งเรึ่องที่ดิน

Consider this a work of journalistic fiction for the time being. I was there, I understood some of what was said, some was explained, during and after, but I still have lots of questions.

Monday, Bing asked if I wanted to go back to the second village we visted Monday. They were going to resurvey the land. I always say yes. I usually have little or no idea where they are taking me. I'm starting to ask more questions.

Summary

Here's a brief synopsis of what I think happened. The 'rich' (I'm hearing the story from the farmers' side, so it is the poor farmers having their land stolen through the corruption of the rich) companies were having the land surveyed. The farmers blocked the survey in the morning. We arrived around noon, took about seven of the villagers about 20 kilometers to the district land office. About 50 more villagers were already there. The group went into a large open air hall where the land office was clearly ready. The spokesman for the farmers put up some charts, took the mic and started into his articulate arguments. Then the head of the land office replied. He was polite, he listened carefully when S spoke, nodding his head demonstratively and smiling on occasion. He spoke with deference and authority at the same time. He said
กฎหมาย (law) often, which I took as a bad sign. He was apparently referring to the law, and I'd been told that the rich guys had an official title to the land, but which the farmers alleged was fake and bought from corrupt officials because they already owned the land.

Some people from the audience spoke and/or asked questions which the official answered , again seriously and with deference. A representative of one of the companies spoke and answered a few questions.

The audience applauded politely for all the official speakers.

Then farmers went back to the tree outside the building, where there was some thank yous and discussion of what happened. Then people got back into pickups - I saw three with at least ten in the back of the pickups - plus ours. We dropped people off back in the village where they went through copies of land titles, and then drove home.

The conversations with Bing afterward led me to believe that the representative of the company (who apparently wasn't with the company when the land was acquired) said that the company thought they were buying forest land and it is possible that they were swindled by the person who sold them the land. If that is an accurate description of what Bing said, then it was a concession to the farmers. But I have no idea of how Thai law works, except I do know that powerful people tend to win over people who have no power. Not much difference from other places.

That was easy. I should do more summaries. OK, now I'll add the pictures, video, and some details of what I think Bing said happened.




Bing in the driver's seat.












This huge reclining Buddha is on the mountain side where you turn off the highway into the area of the village.









Although, it is still the dry season, areas near rivers are able to irrigate for rice. Other fields wait dry for the rains.










We are almost at the headman's house.















The headman had lunch ready - not for us - and invited us to join him.













Bing had brought some maps of the village area and the men gathered there looked through them and picked out the two that covered most of the land.





We drove to the land office with three people in the bed of the pickup and three more (besides Bing and me) in the front. About 50 farmers were already there waiting for us under the big tree.





We all went into hall, took chairs, and sat down.

























The village spokesman spoke.












Here are several pictures of the land office official responding and the audience listening. I thought I had a picture of the company representative, but I must have erased it. I did save some on another computer and maybe I can find that for the video.


















Afterwards, people gathered under the tree again, piled into the pickups and left.







We took some people back to the headman's house where they dug out old land documents to review what they had. Then we left.