End justice wait for KarenSeven years after Karen activist Porlajee "Billy" Rakchongcharoen's death in 2014, issues close to his heart, like ancestral rights of fellow ethnic villagers in Kaeng Krachan National Park, remain unfulfilled. He was last seen in the custody of Chaiwat Limlikit-aksorn, then park chief, on April 17, 2014, at a time when he was pursuing the Karen rights issue in court. In 2011 Chaiwat led a brutal eviction of the Karen from their upper Bang Kloi village to a namesake relocation site. Once again, park officials applied a heavy-handed approach, forcing them down to the lower area. While it agreed to form a fact-finding panel, the National Park Office slapped the Karen returnees with lawsuits.

Source: Bangkok Post April 15, 2021 23:15 UTC