<div>Surat Thani farmers have called for protection from to various government agencies after two companies initiated lawsuits against them and destroyed their corps.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 12 September 2017, <a href="https://prachatai.com/journal/2017/09/73214">13 farmers</a> from Southern Peasants Federation of Thailand (SPFT) filed a petition to Lawyers Council of Thailand (LCT), Royal Thai Police (RTP), and National Human Right Commission (NHRC) to help them in the lawsuit they are facing.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The prosecution against the farmers emerge from a land disput </div>

<div> <div>Three years after it staged a coup, Thailand’s junta is subjecting rural people to harassment and prosecution, but pleasing investors, according to local NGOs.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has been repeatedly criticised for its failure to solve economic problems and for the slide back to authoritarianism. </div></div>

<p>Police in southern Thailand have arrested eight landless farmers for allegedly occupying the land of development companies. &nbsp;</p> <p>Representatives of the Southern Peasants Federation of Thailand (SPFT) on 25 April 2017 submitted a letter to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in Bangkok after the arrest of eight villagers from Nam Daeng Pattana Development Community, one of six communities of the SPFT, located in Chai Buri District of Surat Thani.</p>

<div>An appeal court has refused to try the assassination case of a community rights defender killed earlier this year, ruling that the witnesses are unreliable despite being present at the crime scene.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 1 December 2016, the Surat Thani Appeal Court dismissed the assassination case of <a href="http://www.prachatai.com/english/node/4780">Chai Bunthonglek, a land rights activist who was killed in February this year</a>, reported the Human Rights Lawyers Association. </div>

<p>An unidentified gunman has shot an activist who is a key witness to the murder of a land rights activist in southern Thailand.</p> <p>Supot Kansong, 42, a villager of Khlong Sai Pattana Community in Chai Buri District of Surat Thani, was ambushed by an unidentified gunman at around 3 pm on Friday, 8 April 2016.</p> <p>Supot was injured in the right thigh, hip and leg, but survived. He is currently being treated at Chai Buri Hospital.</p> <p>He was shot as he was driving back to the village after the tires of his car burst because nails had been spread on the road leading to the village.</p>

<p>A Provincial Court has dismissed charges against a man accused of taking part in killing a southern land rights activist, citing weak evidence.</p> <p>The Provincial Court in Wiang Sa District of Surat Thani Province, on Tuesday, 15 March 2016, dismissed charges against Santi Wanthong, a suspect in the assassination of Chai Bunthonglek, a 61-year-old member of the Southern Peasant’s Federation of Thailand (SPFT) from Khlong Sai Pattana Community in Chai Buri District of Surat Thani.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Villagers from the southern Thailand currently facing an eviction order from the Thai authorities asked National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate how the eviction order was reached. &nbsp;</p>

<p>Thai military has dismissed the UN’s expression of concern and suggestion that Thai authorities should uphold human rights while solving land conflicts, saying that the information which claims that the military harassed villagers is false. &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>Thai authorities ordered the eviction of the villagers allegedly encroaching on public land and threatened to detain them if they did not comply, citing law and order as a justification. Meanwhile, the villagers said that the authorities were acting in the interests of an oil palm business.</p>

<p>(New York, February 14, 2015) – Thai authorities should immediately investigate the killing of a land rights activist in southern&nbsp;<a href="http://hrw.pr-optout.com/Tracking.aspx?Data=HHL%3d8%2c5195-%3eLCE593719%26SDG%3c90%3a.&amp;RE=MC&amp;RI=4432086&amp;Preview=False&amp;DistributionActionID=72612&amp;Action=Follow+Link">Thailand</a>, Human Rights Watch said today.<br /></p>

<p>One of the community leaders of an embattled farmers’ community in southern Thailand has been assassinated. He is the fourth villager assassinated during the on-going dispute with a palm oil company.</p> <p>Chai Bunthonglek, a 61-year-old member of the Southern Peasant’s Federation of Thailand (SPFT) from Khlong Sai Pattana Community in Chai Buri District of southern Surat Thani Province, was assassinated by two gunmen around 6 pm on Thursday. Chai was shot dead at his house by a .357 gun.</p> <p>He is the fourth member of the SPFT from Khlong Sai Pattana Community to be shot dead.</p>

<p>The military summoned a southern land rights activist for three days of detention after he led a group of local farmers to fight for their land rights.</p> <p>The military on Sunday issued a letter summoning Peerat Bunrit, one of the leaders of Southern Peasants' Federation of Thailand (SPFT) from Chai Buri District of Surat Thani Province in southern Thailand, to a so-called ‘attitude adjustment camp’ for three days.</p>