THAILAND

Land reform an unkept promise

Spectrum, Tunya Sukpanich, Published on 03/06/2012

» On June 6, the Supreme Court will decide the fate of three village leaders who are among more than 100 people arrested in 2002 for trespassing on private land in Lamphun's Ban Hong district. The villagers say they were justified in taking over the idle private land for cultivation, as the pledge of successive governments to distribute such land to the poor has not been fulfilled. So far, 35 villagers from Ban Hong, including the three village heads, have gone to court and 23 have been sentenced to jail.