Thai parks’ protectors must recognise ethnic group’s rights, experts say
Thailand must follow the example of neighbouring countries and honour the constitutional right of Karen people in Phetchaburi’s Kaeng Krachan National Park to live on what has been their ancestral land for centuries, say academics.
Kittisak Prokati, a law lecturer at Thammasat University, said the Constitution recognises the communal rights of all indigenous groups in Thailand. Forcibly evicting the Karen from their land in the village of Ban Bangkloibon violated that right, he said. The action was not rendered legal simply because the National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP) was in charge, he said.
Pratch Rujivanarom
