Harassed by palm oil company, Thai village defends land | Thailand | Al Jazeera
▻http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2017/06/harassed-palm-oil-company-thai-village-defends-land-170605105935706.html
Kalasong would have been killed had it not been for two villagers who, upon hearing the shots, ran down the hill towards the car less than 200 metres away. Spooked by their approach, the gunman fled into the dense undergrowth of a palm oil plantation. Kalasong was taken to a hospital in the provincial capital, returning to the village 12 days later to recover.
On that day, remarkably, he survived. Four other villagers from the Klong Sai Pattana community, however, were not quite as lucky.
Since 2008, this community of around 70 families have been embroiled in a conflict with a palm oil company that locals believe is behind the violence.
For decades the palm oil company Jiew Kang Jue Pattana Co Ltd has illegally occupied and cultivated palm oil trees on a 535-acre plot of land in the Chai Buri District of Surat Thani Province.
The company operated with no official legal documentation or land concession, until the Southern Peasant’s Federation of Thailand (SPFT) began investigating them and collecting evidence.
The SPFT was officially registered in 2008 but its founding members have long been fighting for land reforms in Surat Thani Province. The organisation works on behalf of landless farmers, identifying expropriated land owned by the state that can be made available for living and cultivation.