Murder trial of Karen Indigenous activist Porlajee “Billy” Rachongcharoen starts in Bangkok

On 24 April 2023, the trial of four Kaeng Kachan National Park officials started in Thailand. The four officials are accused of murdering Porlajee “Billy” Rachongcharoen, a Karen Indigenous rights activist. The trial starts nine years after he went missing.

Porlajee was last seen on 17 April 2014, when he was detained by Chaiwat Limlikitaksorn, then-chief of Kaeng Kachan Park, and several other park officials for allegedly foraging for wild honey. He was detained at a checkpoint at the entrance to Bang Kloi village in Kaeng Kachan district of Phetchaburi.

Porlajee was travelling to meet Karen villagers and activists when the enforced disappearance took place. The meeting was in preparation for a court hearing in the villagers’ lawsuit against Chaiwat and the Department of National Parks of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. When he was arrested, Porlajee was carrying case files and documents relating to the lawsuit. The files have never been recovered.

“Not worried”

Chaiwat insisted that he only detained Porlajee for questioning and then release him. The Bangkok Post reports him as saying that he was not worried about the case.

Five years after Porlajee disappeared, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) carried out a search under the Kaeng Krachan Dam suspension bridge. DSI officers found fragments of a human skull, a 200-litre oil drum, two steel rods, four pieces of charcoal, and fragments of the oil drum lid.

DNA tests confirmed that the bones found were those of Porlajee.

In August 2022, Chaiwat and three other officials, Bunthaen Butsarakham, Thanaset Chaemthet, and Kritsanaphong Chitthet, were charged with pre-meditated murder, abduction, illegal detention, and other charges.

Violent evictions

Chaiwat was dismissed from his position as chief of Kaeng Kachan National Park for misconduct after National Park officers burned the homes of Karen Indigenous people living in the Park. In May 2011, officers forcibly evicted the Karen from their homes and burned about 100 houses and rice barns in Chai Phaen Din village deep in the Kaeng Krachan forest.

Ko-i Meemi was a spiritual leader of the Karen community. He died in 2018 at the age of 107. He was one of the people forcibly evicted in 2011. Park officers ordered him to leave his house immediately. He told them that he was blind and had nowhere to go. The armed park officers detained him and put him in a helicopter.

Administrative Court rules Karen cannot return

In 2016, an Administrative Court ruled that the National Park Department had not broken the law when National Park officers burned down the Karen villages.

The Administrative Court argued that the Karen had “encroached” on the forest to expand their village and increase the area of farmland. The Department’s decision to burn down homes was therefore permissible under the 1961 National Park Act. The court ruled that the Karen could not return to their ancestors’ territory.

Ko-i Meemi told The Nation,

“I swear on all sacred spirits that I have lived on that land [Ban Bangkloi Bon] all my life. When I first remembered the taste of my mother's milk, I was there. That is my ancestors' land, but if the court tells me to stay elsewhere, I'll follow. But I would like to say that it is against my will and the authorities |have forced me out of my home.”

Kaeng Krachan National Park was established in 1981, long after Ko-i was born.

Chaiwat told The Nation that the Court’s ruling would set a precedent for more evictions from national parks in Thailand:

“The case would be used as a model for similar cases and could be considered a signal for forestry officers to carry on with their mission to protect natural resources and forests without fear of legal action.”

World Heritage List

On 26 July 2021, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee added the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex (KKFC) to the World Heritage List. They did so despite the pleas of Indigenous Peoples, the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand and the UN human rights system to defer listing.

In a statement, the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs said that,

“We strongly object both to the decision to inscribe the KKFC and the way this decision has come about. We consider that the decision to list the KKFC under the given circumstances represents one of the lowest points in the history of the World Heritage Convention, and indeed in the history of UNESCO.”

Lives turned upside down

On 23 April 2023, a panel discussion took place organised by the Cross-Cultural Foundation, the Karen Network for Culture and Environment, the Save Bangkloi Coalition and other organisations. Prachatai reported from the discussion at the Bangkok Art and Cultural Centre.

Pinnapa Pruksapan, Porlajee’s wife said that their lives have been turned upside down by his disappearance. The past nine years have been difficult, she said. Since Porlajee’s disappearance her community lives in fear. Park officials often stop her from visiting family members in villages in the national park.

“It’s like living in a refugee centre or something, where outsiders need to be stopped from getting in easily,” she said.

Pornpen Khongkachonkiet, Director of the Cross-Cultural Foundation, said that if park officials had been prosecuted for burning down Chai Phaen Din villages, it might have helped prevent subsequent events such as the Porlajee’s disappearance.