<p>Following the demonstration by refugees in Mae La camp in Tak Province on 14 December, Move Forward Party (MFP) MPs and representatives and NGOs urged a fair investigation that also addresses the root causes that turned a peaceful protest violent in one night.</p>

<p>Villagers in northern Thailand facing eviction have denounced the seizure of land by the authorities for industries in a Special Economic Zone (SEZ).</p> <p>About 70 representatives of villagers from Tha Sai Luat Subdistrict in Mae Sot District of the northern province of Tak and a local environmental group called Khon Mae Sot Rakthin on Tuesday, 22 March 2016, submitted a petition to Amonphan Suntharawiphat, a Land Department official for Mae Sot District of Tak.</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>UNHCR has devised a plan to send refugees from camps in Thailand back to their homes in Myanmar on a voluntary basis while some refugee representatives said that they were not involved in the plan.</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>

<div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The Thai military in the western province of Tak on Monday stopped a caravan of Lahu villagers travelling to Bangkok to complain to the junta’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), according to Thairath.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Around noon on Monday, Gen Narongsak Sasang, deputy commander of security forces in Tak, led military and police to stop a caravan of 15 vans of ethnic minority Lahu from Tak’s Mae Sot District.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The military believed that the Lahu wanted to complain about the reclamation of their farm lands, under th </div></div>