Surayud among 50 accused

       The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment's panel investigating the Khao Yai Thieng forest land scandal has accused 50 landowners, including former premier Surayud Chulanont,of encroaching on the forest reserve.
       Withoon Chalayonnawin, chief of the Forest Department's forest protection and forest fire control office, yesterday said aerial image studies show that these landowners occupied the land plots in Nakhon Ratchasima's Sikhiu district after the area was declared a forest reserve.
       Khao Yai Thieng was declared part of Khao Tien-Khao Khuen Lan forest reserve in 1965. The aerial images of Khao Yai Thieng taken two years after the declaration show the forest was fertile with no traces of human activity.
       "Judging from the aerial images, it's
       clear these 50 landowners occupied the land plots when it had already been declared a protected forest," he said.
       This means the landowners were not protected unSurayud: Occupies der the June 1998 a 20-rai land plot cabinet resolution,which states that forest dwellers will not face encroachment charges if they can prove they have lived there before the designation of the protected forest area.
       In the latest survey by the department, more than 500 rai of forest land in Khao Yai Thieng were owned for agricultural and tourism purposes, said Mr Witoon, a member of the inquiry panel.
       A source on the panel said Gen Surayud, who occupies a 20-rai land plot on Khao Yai Thieng, was one of the 50 landowners who allegedly encroached on the forest reserve.
       The Khao Yai Thieng land scandal surfaced in 2007, shortly after Gen Surayud was appointed prime minister of the coup-installed government.
       Gen Surayud, now a privy councillor,has repeatedly insisted the land acquisition was clean and transparent. He said he had owned the land and a house on Khao Yai Thieng mountain since 1982, and had consistently paid local taxes on the property.
       After the 2007 debate on the ethics of cabinet ministers by a group of members of the National Legislative Assembly, Gen Surayud said he was ready to return his land plot to the state if the property in question was proved to encroach on the forest reserve.