Another Case for Double Standards in Thailand by Phairath Khampha 31 May 2002 While many people's attention was drawn to the censure debate in Thailand's parliament during the latter half of May 2002, a disgraceful incident involving hundreds of police took place in Lamphun's Pasang district on May 22. Despite its vital effects on many local farmers, this event received little attention from the government or the media alike. According to the Northern Farmers Federation (NFF) and other non-government organisations which held a press conference on May 27, some 400 Thai police officers and their K-9 corps raided the land of some farmers in the district, burnt down their huts and destroyed their crops. This is the type of the measure the authorities have employed frequently over the past few years whenever a conflict has arisen over alleged land encroachment by villagers. In the latest incident in Pasang district, the authorities claimed the farmers had encroached on the plots they eventually raided and were illegally using them. This was so that they could 'liberate' the land in order for it to be used for economic development by Thailand's corrupt economic and political elite. Apart from the raid, police also arrested some villagers and issued an arrest warrant for several members of non-government organisations whom they accused of provoking the villagers to encroach on the controversial land. Disputes over land use have long been a major problem facing many of Thailand's farmers, particularly in the northern region. It is one of eight issues over which the NFF had reached an agreement with the government after it staged a week-long protest in front of the Chiang Mai City Hall a few months previously. The conclusion was to have the government address this problem. After a discussion between the NFF and the government, the Cabinet resolved on April 9 to establish a committee to work on a resolution to the problem. While the committee was still working to find a way out, it was required that police refrain from arresting villagers who encroached on land, the resolution stated. Therefore, the raid and arrest of villagers by the police was in direct violation of this Cabinet resolution. The local authorities refused to acknowledge the April 9 Cabinet resolution and that resulted in this latest incidence of violence. It is true the villagers in Pasang district had encroached on the controversial land. But the most important point was that villagers had already proved, in their decades-old fight with the land owners (members of Thailand's economic and political elite), that these owners had attained some of the plots illegally. Besides, it was proven beyond a reasonable doubt that local officials had no authority to issue land deeds to the elite since the area was part of national forest reserves. With the debate over the Alpine golf course still lingering in their minds, Cabinet ministers involved with the Pasang case must prove wrong the accusation by the NFF and the NGOs that they were applying a double standard with regard to land encroachment by villagers and by influential figures. This is especially after it seems the government itself seems to apply a double standard when dealing with the interests of the economic and political elite and the interests of Thailand's ordinary people.