<p>Thai junta leader has used his absolute power to scrap regulations on the construction of power plants and factories in a bid to secure energy needs and woo investors. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, on Wednesday, 20 January 2016, issued National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Orders No. 3/2016 and 4/2016, using his authority under Section 44 of the Interim Constitution, which gives him and security officers absolute power to maintain national security.</p>

<p>A network of people from marginalised communities countrywide has urged the military government to halt plans to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZs), claiming that the plans violate the rights of the poor.</p> <p>A network of seven organisations from different regions including the Love Mae Sod Group, the Sa Kaew Environmental Protection Network, the Northern Development Foundation, the Citizen Council of Chonburi Province, and the Community Leaders Network on Monday, 30 November 2015, submitted a petition addressed to Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister.</p>

<p dir="ltr">As the Thai military government starts opening up new Special Economic Zones along the border to provide cheap labour and a deregulated business environment for investors, villagers in the quiet northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom by the Mekong River are to be evicted from their homes.</p> <p></p>

<p>The Thai junta leader has urged the relevant authorities to speed up a special economic zone project in northern Thailand despite opposition from local people who are to be evicted.</p> <p>On 18 September 2015,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.prachachat.net/news_detail.php?newsid=1442392815">Prachachat News</a>&nbsp;reported that Suttha Saiwanit, Deputy Governor the northern border province of Tak, revealed that Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, has ordered him to speed up plans to construct a special economic zone (SEZ) in Tha Sai Luat Subdistrict, Mae Sot District.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A provincial court in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast, told villagers in a disputed area to leave their homes to make ways for the construction of Special Economic Zone (SEZs).</p> <p>According to the Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), the provincial court of the Isan province of Nakhon Phanom on 24 August 2015 during the preliminary hearing told 33 villagers accused of encroaching into public land plots called ‘Kok Phu Kratae’ in Aaj Samat sub-district, Muang District, of province to relocate.</p>

<p>Military and police officers in northeastern Thailand recorded and monitored a seminar on environmental issues facing the Mekong River Basin and asked to have private talks with the event organisers.</p> <p>About 10 military and police officers in uniform and plainclothes on Thursday afternoon came to the Thai-Laos Riverside Hotel in the Isan province of Nong Khai to record and monitor a public forum about Thai government projects in the Mekong River Basin.</p>

<p>Villagers on Thailand’s northern border have called on state authorities to stop the expropriation of land that they have been using while a local official said that it is being done under orders from the junta. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>