Police charged dead man, minister reveals

       An investigation into a massive illegal land-grabbing scheme in Chiang Rai has hit another hurdle with the discovery that local police have filed charges against a suspected land encroacher six years after he died, Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said yesterday. Suwit cited a ministry report on progress in the case, saying Khamron Khammool was charged by Mae Chan police for encroaching on Mae Salong forest in 2004, when the scheme was first investigated, but he had died years before.
       Suwit did not explain whether Mae Chan police deliberately took action against a "non-existent wrongdoer" in order to undermine or derail their investigation. But the case was dismissed in a documentation process, based on the reason "the suspect had died".
       Suwit said three relevant agencies still did not know exactly how much forest had been encroached on. Despite a number of joint surveys, "the three agencies - the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, the Royal Forest Department, and the Forest Industry Organisation - still cannot tell in detail the condition of forest in the forests under their supervision," he said.
       Suwit said he would query the Royal Thai Police to seek clarification about Mae Chan police charging a dead person as a suspected encroacher on state forest.
       A high-ranking source at a provincial authority said all relevant agencies, including the provincial land offices, acted to avoid a legal process that would lead to revocation of illegally-issued land title deeds - the most practical solution to end the problem and trace wrongdoers.
       That was because "a large number of state officials involved in the overall process would be identified" if title deeds were revoked.
       Meanwhile, deputy permanent secretary Damrong Phidej revealed that title deeds he said he signed in 1997-1998 to grant land ownership to seven farmers, covering a total area of 200 rai, on the forestation, were later leased to a company.
       Damrong said he signed the documents legally, and if the deeds were issued illegally, all officials involved in the entire documentation process would be held responsible.
       Asked if he was aware title deeds could have been illegally approved, Damrong said that, as a forestry official, he was not aware. "The responsibility to verify the legality of documents and transfer process belongs to land officials, not a forestry official."
       Damrong said he was part of a National Anti-Corruption Commission panel that recently endorsed revocation of ownership documents issued on illegally-obtained areas in the Mae Salong forest and in mountainous areas. "But in practice, I have not seen any land plots whose ownership was revoked and repossessed by the state," he said.