<p>UN human rights* experts urged the UNESCO World Heritage Committee to defer Thailand&rsquo;s bid to get a prized heritage listing for the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex, saying the indigenous Karen are being subjected to rights violations in the park.</p>

<p>Thailand&rsquo;s nomination of the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex for World Heritage status should once again be deferred due to concerns about violations of the rights of local indigenous communities, says the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).</p>

<p>Following a report that&nbsp;members of the Bang Kloi Karen community have returned to their ancestral land at Chai Phaen Din, the remaining community members and a network of civil society organizations have issued a statement calling for the authorities to allow the community to stay at Chai Phaen Din until a resolution is reached, and must not conduct any operation that affects them.&nbsp;</p>

<p>After the boundary of the Kaeng Krachan National Park was re-drawn, Wansao Phungam, a Karen indigenous villager, was charged with encroaching on national park land for farming on a piece of land which has been passed down within her family.</p>

<p>Concern continues to rise among civil society for the safety of members of the Bang Kloi Karen indigenous community who returned to their ancestral land at Chai Phaen Din in the Kaeng Krachan forest, after reports of a possible military operation to evacuate them from the forest. &nbsp;</p>

<p>Members of the indigenous Karen communities living near the Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex have raised concerns over unresolved community rights issues ahead of the Thai government&rsquo;s 4th nomination of the forest for world heritage status in 2021.</p>

<p>On the 6th anniversary of the disappearance of Karen community rights activist Porlajee &quot;Billy&quot;&nbsp;Rakchongcharoen, Amnesty International calls on the authorities to ensure that Billy&#39;s family learn the truth about what happened to him and that those responsible are brought to justice.&nbsp;</p>

<p>At 13.00 today, the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) held a press conference to reveal that DNA tests have confirmed that bones found in Kaeng Krachan Dam are those of the missing Karen environmental activist and community rights defender Porlajee &ldquo;Billy&rdquo; Rakchongcharoen, who disappeared in 2014.</p>

<div><a href="https://www.facebook.com/UNHumanRightsAsia/photos/a.657330534369993.1073741828.654755261294187/1248290651940642/?type=3&amp;theater">The UN Human Rights Office for South-East</a> Asia is concerned with the lack of progress on the investigation of the enforced disappearance of prominent Karen human rights defender Mr Pholachi “Billy” Rakchongcharoen who has been missing for four years. </div> <div> </div> <div>Billy was last seen when he was arrested by Kaengkrachan Park officials on 17 April 2014 for allegedly possessing illegal bottles of wild honey. </div>

<p dir="ltr">The Thai Administrative Court has ruled that national park officers did not break the law in&nbsp;<span>burnin</span>g the houses of members of the Karen ethnic minority&nbsp;in Kaeng Krachan National Park. &nbsp;</p>

<p>The Administrative Court of Thailand has acquitted National Park authorities accused of burning down the houses of a Karen ethnic minority village in an attempt to evict them, saying that the Karen encroached into protected areas. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>According to the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dailynews.co.th/politics/378291">Daily News</a>, the Central Administrative Court at 10 am on Monday, 8 February 2016, acquitted the Department of National Parks and the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of malfeasance charges.</p>

<p>The Karen tribes living in protected areas and national parks of western Thailand are worried about losing their livelihoods and being sidelined when the areas are declared a UNESCO natural world heritage site.</p>