Bueng Nakhon villagers are protesting against soldiers as they are trying to expel them from their farmlands where they have been making a living for over 50 years.
On March 4, 2022, in front of the Hua Hin District Office, Mr. Pansak Petch Phithakchon, a former member of the Seri Ruam Thai Party, Prachuap Khiri Khan Province, along with a group of 100 villagers from Bueng Nakhon Subdistrict, Nong Phlap Subdistrict, Hua Hin District, gathered together holding banners protesting “Are the soldiers bullying the people?” Walaisin, District Chief of Hua Hin regarding the trouble in the case of the Thanarat Camp Infantry Center (Sor.), Pranburi District, will use the area to conduct combat training using real ammunition, real bombs in the area, affecting most villagers’ work in agriculture with concerning impacts on income and debt burdens from the Covid-19 situation. The Ministry of Health and the Hua Hin Police Station are now taking care of the situation.
Mr. Pansak said that the Thanarat Camp Infantry Center and the Treasury Department sent a warning letter in December 2021 to villagers to evacuate the area and expedite the harvesting of agricultural crops. For training exercises in the military area in Nong Plub Subdistrict, 1.2 hundred thousand rai will be used for the practice area with live ammunition, actual bombing among Bueng Nakhon Subdistrict. The villagers are calling for military personnel from Thanarat Camp Infantry Center to stop intimidating and harassing them as expulsion. The villagers insist that they will not allow the military personnel to do anything that is nefarious. The call has been made to government agencies in all sectors to urgently solve this conflict while the villagers will gather to protest until the end, regardless of whether it increases risks of coronavirus infection or not. But, all the villagers are worried that they would have no place to live and work, affecting their families, while there is no serious war in the country at present. It is noted that the Thanarat Camp Infantry Center has tried to drive away people from their farmlands in order to hasten the maneuver, but does not pay attention to the land encroachment issue of the capitalists in many sub-districts which is under investigation after a group of investors falsely claim if a lot of lands are really allowed to be leased.
After that, Hua Hin Sheriff summoned the representatives of villagers to attend a meeting with Col. Att Uanithirat, representative of Thanarat Camp Infantry Center, Pol Col. Hongprom Wisitchanachai, police chief, Hua Hin, Mr. Prayoon Khankaew, president of Bueng Nakhon Subdistrict Administrative Organization, Kamnan, Village Headman, Village No. 1, Village No. 9, Bueng Nakhon Subdistrict, to solve the problem of arable land and housing overlapping the military district, and it is concluded that the district will work with the Subdistrict Administrative Organization, the village headman, to survey the houses, the population and the farming area of the two villages to provide information after not having received cooperation from the villagers, which has been a problem for many years. If the area is overlapping, the military area that will be needed for actual training will ask for cooperation because it may be dangerous, which, after surveying, will present the matter to the Thanarat Camp Infantry Center to be presented to the Ministry of Defense.
Reporters reported that after submitting the letter of protest, the Hua Hin sheriff had a meeting with the administration, military representatives from the Infantry Center, and local representatives, leading to the preliminary conclusion which is that there must be information about the people. their residential house location and land plot plans of the affected villagers for consideration and determination of overall solutions.
