<div> <div>Villagers in Loei have vowed to fight against gold mining and urged the junta not to prolong its power after the election. </div></div>

<div>On International Women’s Day, police officers pressed charges against seven female villagers for opposing a local gold mine.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 8 March 2016, officers from Wang Saphung Police Station <a href="http://prachatai.com/journal/2017/03/70476">pressed charges against seven villagers</a>&nbsp;for protesting against a local gold mine. The seven were accused of threatening officials and violating NCPO Head Order 3/2015, the junta’s ban on public gatherings of five people or more. </div>

<p dir="ltr">The Central Administrative Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by anti-mine villagers against both a gold mine company and Thailand’s Industry Minister, saying villagers’ claims about the environmental effects of the mine are not credible. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">On 28 December 2016, the Central Administrative Court in Bangkok dismissed a lawsuit filed against the Minister of Industry, the Director-General of the Department of Primary Industries and Mines, and Tungkum Company, a gold mine operator in Loei.</p>

<p>Loei Provincial Court has dismissed a civil lawsuit filed by a gold mining company against key leaders of an anti-mine group. &nbsp;</p> <p>The Provincial Court of the northeastern province of Loei on Wednesday, 30 March 2016, dismissed charges against six key members of Khon Rak Ban Koed (KRBK), translated as ‘People Who Love Their Home’, an anti-mine group comprising villagers from six villages in Wang Saphung District of Loei.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The Thai military officers in Isan, northeastern Thailand, summoned a student filmmaker for talks because the student did not asked for permissions to film a documentary in a restricted area with protracted mining conflict.</p> <p>On 24 July 2015, the military officers of the northeastern Maha Sarakham Province summoned Pariwat Kampeera, a 21 years-old student of Maha Sarakham University for a discussion over a documentary he had filmed for a TV program called ‘Thi Nee Ban Rao’ (This is my home) of Thai Public Broadcasting Service (Thai PBS).</p>

<p>Protection International and the Asian Human Rights Commission are seriously concerned about the Royal Thai Army’s latest intervention in the conflict between the Wang Saphung community in Loei Province with a neighbouring gold and copper mine.&nbsp; On Monday, 25 August, the Wang Saphung community organization, the Khon Rak Ban Kerd Group (KBRK), invited community members to take part in a campaign in the village on the following day. This activity was aimed at restating the KBRK’s community-based support at a time when KBRK members are facing judicial harassment and death threats.</p>