Land protest in Krabi turns deadly, leaving one dead and two injured

A man was killed and two others were seriously injured in a fight between a group of protesters and employees of an oil palm company in Plai Phraya district of Thailand’s southern Krabi province on Friday evening.

About 20 landless villagers from Khao Chon sub-district tried to stop a backhoe, which was being used by the oil palm company to dig a trench to prevent the villagers, who are laying claim to a part of the 560-hectare plantation, from entering.

The protesters claim that the company is occupying land that used to belong to the Ao Luek cooperatives and that it has used its employees as nominees, to claim occupation rights to half of the land. The other half is allegedly illegally occupied by the company without any land rights documents.

During the tense confrontation, the protesters tried to prevent the manager of the plantation, identified only as “Thanom”, from leaving, resulting in a brawl.

Gunshots were heard and one protester, Sanong Nooroom, was fatally wounded. He was pronounced dead on arrival at the district hospital.

The angry protesters attacked Thanom and his son, seriously injuring both of them.

Sumiontri Sookdam, leader of the landless villagers, said that they had asked the relevant authorities to settle the land dispute a long time ago, but without success. So, they decided to encroach on the plantation to lay claim to part of the land.