The frail centenarian, who has become a widely known icon of indigenous land rights, was not there. In 2016, the Administrative Court of First Instance ruled that he and other Kaeng Krachan forest dwellers were illegal forest encroachers. It is an area of pristine forest where small pockets of indigenous Karen forest dwellers have lived for centuries. To be fair, the June 12 verdict is far more favourable to indigenous land rights than the previous one. Had this verdict been upheld, forest officials could just torch the homes of any forest dwellers anytime, anywhere.

Source: Bangkok Post June 15, 2018 23:26 UTC