<p>Embattled villagers in Thailand’s Northeast Isan region have urged the Thai authorities to consider the environmental impacts of oil drilling before it is too late.</p>

<p>Thai military officers have detained students activists in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast, for holding an anti-junta political activity on the first anniversary of 2014 coup d’état. &nbsp;</p> <p>At 1:27 pm on Friday, police and military officers arrested and detained seven student activists from the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.prachatai.org/english/category/dao-din">Dao Din group</a>, a student activist group based in Khon Kaen University, in front of Khon Kaen Province’s replica of the Democracy Monument.</p>

<p>Military and police officers came to inspect a seminar about environmental impacts on a disputed oil field in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/lawyercenter2014/posts/826426717407184">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)</a>, about 30 military from Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) and police officers in plainclothes and in uniforms on Tuesday morning came to monitor a public seminar titled ‘EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Na Moon: the Injustice of Land Based Petroleum in Isan’</p>

<p>A student in Thailand’s Northeast has displayed a banner and distributed leaflets against university privatisation.</p> <p>A student of Khon Kaen University, the largest university of the northeastern region of Thailand, at around 4 pm on 8 April hung a banner with a message reading “Khon Kaen University Company President-(Dictator) Ltd” from the top floor of the Food and Service Centre on the university campus.</p> <p>The student also distributed leaflets identifying four main reasons why the university should not be privatised.</p>

<p>The authorities continue to suppress local activists and villagers who oppose petroleum exploration in villages in Thailand’s Northeast.</p> <p>According to <a href="https://www.facebook.com/lawyercenter2014/posts/800328040017052?fref=nf">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)</a>, the military on 25 February brought Thawatchai Surat, a northeastern energy activist, to Buriram Muang Police Station and tried to force him to sign an agreement not to campaign against a petroleum operator.&nbsp; However, Thawatchai refused to sign any document. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>Amid tension with villagers, the Thai military continues to help oil company transport equipment into a potential oilfield in the northeast, despite an NHRC order to halt the process.</p> <p>Despite a recent order by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for the company to halt operations due to the project’s controversial Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), military officers and district officials have helped the company to occupy major roads leading to the oil field to secure the convoy’s access to the area since Saturday.</p>

<p>The military has helped a petroleum company bypass proper environmental impact assessment procedures and an NHRC order to halt petroleum exploration and threatened villagers opposing the exploration with martial law.</p> <p>About 40 armed police and military officers on Friday morning assisted&nbsp;<a href="http://www.amchamthailand.com/ACCT/asp/corpdetail.asp?CorpID=1029">Apico (Korat) Limited</a>, a US-based oil and gas exploration company, to move oil-drilling equipment into a potential oil field called Dongmoon in Kranuan District of the northeastern province of Khon Kaen.</p>

<p>The woman accused of lèse majesté for wearing black close to the King’s birthday last year has resigned from her job after being stigmatized by the public.</p> <p>According to<a href="http://www.manager.co.th/Local/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9580000001954">&nbsp;ASTV-Manager Online</a>, Witoon Prasertcharoensuk, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Khon Kaen University in Thailand’s Northeast, revealed on Wednesday that Aree K., an employee of Srinagarind Hospital, the teaching hospital of Khon Kaen University, who was accused of lèse majesté, has resigned. &nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Seven months ago twenty-six people were arrested in Khon Kaen and now face charges of terrorism and treason—offences that could exact the death penalty. The case, known as the "Khon Kaen Model," is the most high-profile case to be tried in a military court since the junta took power in May.&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr"> </p>

<div> <div>After lèse majesté complaints were filed by royalist groups in Bangkok and two northeastern provinces against a woman from Khon Kaen who allegedly wore black around the King’s birthday, the Thai authorities have decided to have the case investigated.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>According to the Thai Public Broadcasting Service, after a meeting on Tuesday of Internal Security Operations Command, the police, and personnel of Khon Kaen University, the Khon Kaen police will look into the accusations against Aree K., an employee of Srinagarind Hospital of Khon Kaen University.</div> <p>&lt;</p> </div>

<div><span>High ranking military officer followed and “requested” to see a female member of Khon Kaen student activist group and continue to monitor the activities and whereabouts of the group members closely after the arrest of the five student activists flashing three-fingered in mid november.</span></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The student activist told Prachatai &nbsp;that the continuous intimidation from the authority stir up fear and greatly affected their studies during examination period. </div>

<div> <div>The military in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen summoned a woman bullied for posting a picture of her and her friends wearing black around the King’s birthday to teach her how to properly show love to the King. </div></div>