<p>A provincial court has once again refused to release Jatuphat ‘Pai’ Boonpattararaksa, telling his defence lawyer to stop saying that his client’s rights are being violated.</p> <p>On 21 March 2017, the Provincial Court of Khon Kaen held the preliminary hearing on the case of Jatuphat, a law student and key member of the New Democracy Movement (NDM).</p>

<p>After seven years of operation, a small non-profit public library is calling for book lovers and others to help prolong the life of Bangkok’s rare space for knowledge and the arts.</p> <p>Narawan Pathomvat, founder of the Reading Room, a small public library on Silom Road in central Bangkok, told Prachatai she is now trying to raise funds to maintain the library.</p> <p style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" src="https://deklanghong.com/sites/default/files/cover-picture/reading.jpg" style="width: 640px; height: 516px;" /></p>

<p>The military has forced villagers in Sa Kaeo to cancel a protest against plans to construct a factory to separate industrial and toxic wastes, saying only protests about dengue fever or illicit drugs would be allowed.</p> <p>On 21 March 2017, soldiers intervened in a meeting of a group of teachers and village headmen of Khlong Thap Chan Subdistrict of Aranyaprathet District in Sa Kaeo Province.</p>

<p>To promote its controversial pro-coal policy, the junta has set up a committee to gather public feedback and promote understanding. But military officers occupy more than half of the committee seats.</p> <p>On 22 March 2017, the Royal Gazette website published&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ratchakitcha.soc.go.th/DATA/PDF/2560/E/047/1.PDF">the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)’s Order No. 5/2017</a>&nbsp;to establish a committee on energy policy in Southern Thailand.</p>

<p>A police commissioner has concluded that a young Lahu activist summarily killed was a drug dealer and has warned people who criticise the authorities over the killing that they could face defamation charges. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>On 22 March 2017, Pol Lt Gen Poolsap Prasertsak, Region 5 Police Commissioner,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.matichon.co.th/news/504387">announced&nbsp;</a>that officers will investigate comments on social media about the summary killing of Chaiyapoom Pasae, a 17-year-old Lahu activist.</p>

<div> <div>The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has initiated an investigation into the recent killing of a Lahu activist after the incident raised great concern among both international and domestic human rights organisations.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 21 March 2016, National Human Rights Commissioner Angkhana Neelapaijit <a href="http://www.bbc.com/thai/thailand-39337564?ocid=socialflow_facebook">stated</a> that the NHRC will collect reports and documents related to the recent summary killing of Chaiyaphum Pasae, She said that the incident has made her lose faith in the Thai </div></div>

<p>After almost a decade-long legal battle, the Supreme Court has dismissed lawsuits against 2 members of the Karen ethnic minority in northern Thailand accused of land encroachment.</p> <p>On 22 March 2017, the Provincial Court of Mae Sot District in Tak Province<a href="https://www.facebook.com/naksit.org/posts/1308639735871188">&nbsp;dismissed the</a><u> case</u>&nbsp;against Nohaemui Wiangwicha and Dipaepo or Dipaepho, two members of the Karen ethnic minority of Ban Mae Omki, Mae Wa Luang Subdistrict, Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province.</p>

<p>The authorities have accused three more youth activists of contempt of court for joining a peaceful gathering demanding Pai Dao Din’s release from prison.</p> <p>On 20 March 2017, <a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=3760">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights</a>&nbsp;reported that the well-known anti-junta activist Sirawit ‘Ja New’ Serithiwat; Panupong Sritananuwat, an activist from the&nbsp;<a href="https://prachatai.org/english/category/dao-din?page=1">Dao Din group</a>&nbsp;based at Khon Kaen University; and another law student who requested anonymity had received court notices.</p>

<p>A provincial court in southern Thailand has sentenced six people, including the President of the Kantang Fishing Association (Trang Province), to 14 years in prison for human trafficking. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>On 17 March 2017, the Provincial Court of Trang sentenced Sompol Jirotemontree, President of the Kantang Fishery Association and managing partner of Boonlap Fishery Limited Partnership (BFLP), to 14 years in jail for violating the 2008 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.</p> <p>Sompol and five other people were indicted for trafficking and abusing 15 migrant workers from Myanmar in 2015.</p>

<p>The Thai authorities have arrested nine red shirts after seizing military weapons from nine different locations in central and northeastern Thailand, claiming the weapons were intended to be used to assassinate the junta leader.</p> <p>On 18 March 2017, a combined force of police and military&nbsp;<a href="http://manager.co.th/Crime/ViewNews.aspx?NewsID=9600000027834">searched a house in Pathum Thani Province</a>&nbsp;belonging to Thirachai Utarawichian, an anti-establishment red shirt linked to Wuthipong Kachathamkun, aka Kotee, a fugitive prominent hard-core red-shirt leader.</p>

<p>Soldiers have summarily killed a Lahu youth activist after attempting to arrest him as an alleged drug suspect.</p> <p>On 17 March 2017, soldiers and other security officers of the Pha Muang Task Force deployed at a checkpoint in Mueang Na Subdistrict of Chiang Dao District in Chiang Mai Province summarily killed Chaiyapoom Pasae, a 17-year-old member of the Lahu ethnic minority.</p> <p>The soldiers claimed that they found a certain amount of amphetamine in the car Chaiyaphum was sitting in and that he resisted arrest by pulling out a knife before running into a bush.</p>

<p>Overriding the decision of prosecutors to drop charges, police in the Deep South have decided to press ahead with the prosecution of the outspoken niece of a draftee who was tortured to death. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>On 16 March 2017, Naritsarawan Kaewnopparat, the niece of&nbsp;<a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/5524">Wichian Puaksom</a>, a military conscript who was tortured to death by other soldiers in 2011, submitted a letter to the Office of the Attorney-General at the Government Complex in Bangkok to call for justice.</p>