Krathu police reported that at 4.20am they found the body of 25-year-old French national Akim Boukstbbouma with two stab wounds in torso outside a convenience store in Soi Saen Sabye. The body was taken to Patong Hospital morgue for autopsy. Police investigators were told the victim and friends visited a Patong Beach pub and had a fight with some of the bouncers there. They said Akim was stabbed in the chest while another man sustained a cut on his right palm. Akim fled the pub but succumbed to the fatal injuries in front of a store 100 metres away. Police arrested an unnamed individual as he sought medical treatment at Wachira Phuket Hospital. They are now now scanning CCTV footages at the pub and nearby area to find any accomplices.

More than 60 police and territorial defence volunteers were deployed, as the company sent a team of construction workers to the disputed land. Around 100 people from the sea gypsy community blocked the entrance to the land, as they feared the company would cut off a communal path to the sea people’s sacred shrine.

The sea people’s community leader, Ngim Damrongkaset, said workers for the firm showed up in the morning with police without prior notice and tried to enter the disputed land. “We are sure they [intended] to block the community way through the land to our shrine and the beach, as earlier a group of men from the company attacked the villagers and tried to block the entrance to our holy ground,” Ngim said.

He said people in the community came out to prevent the company entering the area, while police and defence volunteers guarded the area.

The disputed site covers 33 rai of seaside land, which has the sea gypsies’ shrine and cemetery. The sea people claim ownership of this plot, saying they have lived there for hundreds of years. The company says it has a legal land deed for the plot.

“My brother told me the police will arrest people who stand against the company’s move, but as of now in the area they still don’t threaten the people – just stand watching,” Ngim said.

He said the community had asked the Army to send troops to protect the sea people, but they refused, saying they could not help without a request from the province. And when the people tried to contact the Phuket governor, there was no reply.

Pol Col Noppadon Thiraprawat, the superintendent of Chalong Police, confirmed that they had been asked by the province to provide security for the company men, as they would need to enter the land to grade the area.

“We are just providing security and preventing clashes between two groups,” Noppadon said.

A reporter tried to contact Baron World Trade, but the company representative refused to give information on this issue, saying company executives would not allow it.

The conflict over this land at Rawai Beach has dragged on for decades. The sea gypsies claim the land they have lived on for generations was registered unlawfully.

In February, talks were arranged between two groups to try to find a solution to the issue. However, a mutual agreement has yet to be reached.

The company had offered half a rai of land to be a communal area and to relocate the shrine, but the sea people refused and called for the Department of Special Investigation to review the history of land-use of the block. The sea people also went to Bangkok to submit pleas to the National Human Rights Commission and other official agencies to help them with this issue.

SEA GYPSIES are facing double trouble – from disputes on land and limitations in making a living on sea. It was revealed that 13 out of 21 sea gypsies’ lands have been encroached upon.

“We have to live in very crowded housing on a small piece of land; we face frequent threats from the land owner and have limited choices in earning a livelihood, as we can no longer fish freely like we used to do in the past,” Utai Lakko, an elderly Moken woman who lives in the Rawai Beach sea people community, revealed.

Another Moken woman Taew Sengbut said that after the tourism boom in Phuket, the seaside land prices increased sharply and it led to loss of land for the sea people along Rawai Beach, which once stretched from one end of the beach to the other. “Our community now is just a remnant of the old sea-people community of Rawai Beach. More than 2,000 people have to live crowded into a small area. Our homes are frequently flooded after heavy rains because the canal nearby fills up and we are cut off from the beach by several shops and restaurants in front of the beach,” Taew said.

“The worst pain is our spiritual land has been invaded and the land owner has blocked us from practising our beliefs and celebrating our traditional festivals,”

An academic report presented by the group revealed that many sea-people communities in five Andaman provinces are having similar problems as the Rawai community, as there were 21 sea people holy places identified and 13 of them have been encroached upon and only two have been registered as public spaces.

On the livelihood problem, Utai said most of the sea people, including herself, did not own a fishing boat anymore because the tsunami 11 years ago sank her boats and fishing equipment.

“We did not receive any help from the authorities to buy a new boat. If we want to go fishing, we have to hire a boat at Bt100 per day and we cannot fish near the islands anymore because they are preserved for tourists,” she said.

“I have to find the clams on the beach, which is not sufficient for everyday life, so I have to sweep the street for Bt250 per day,” she added.

In contrast to the past, she said when she was young, the community could harvest plenty of food from the land and sea freely and we could also practise our beliefs.

“I was born and grew up here. We lived by fishing in the sea and grew food on the land. We have lived here since our grandparents’ time and never moved anywhere,” she recalled.

Pleas to authorities

Utai and Taew were among 30 local aboriginal Malay Urak Lawoi and Moken people who came to Bangkok to submit their pleas to several official agencies, as their community was assaulted by group of armed men on January 25 because of conflict over land ownership.

The group yesterday handed a petition to Interior Minister and Social Development and Human Security Minister as part of its effort to fight for the right to practice its beliefs on sacred ground, cancel the improper registered land deed, arrest the group of armed men who attacked them and protect similar sea people’s holy lands in five Andaman provinces.

Meanwhile more than 100 sea gypsies also gathered at Phuket City Hall to wait for the authorities to come up with a solution on the land problems.

THE sea gypsy tribe fighting to maintain its customs yesterday demanded that officials get to the bottom of who holds the rights to disputed land on Phuket’s Rawai Beach.

“We will neither withdraw our claims to the land nor accept the offers from the private firm or the local family,” said Sanit sae Sua, who represents the seafaring community

Despite threats of violence and tempting deals from parties to the conflict, the local sea gypsies insist that authorities should focus on thorough investigation, not negotiations.

Preeda Kongpaen, who sits on a committee addressing the sea gypsies’ land issues, said officials should also consider the change in the public beach area caused by breakwaters built in the wake of the tsunami disaster.

More than 1,300 sea gypsies occupy 19 rai of land in the Rawai area that has been claimed by a Thai family, the Mukdees. But the sea gypsies insist that they have lived there for generations and should have the rights to it.

Next to this disputed land is a 33-rai beachfront property that Baron World Trade Co is preparing to develop into a hotel.

However, this site was the ancient burial ground and is still a sacred ceremonial venue for the sea gypsies, who have refused to budge.

Last week, they clashed with the firm’s construction workers so violently that their case caught serious attention from the media and officials.

Phuket Governor Chamroen Tipayapongtada and representatives from several agencies showed up yesterday for a meeting with all |parties.

Department of Special Investigation officials presented aerial pictures showing that the tribe has long settled in the Rawai area, while Tan Mukdee has produced documents showing his family “owned” the land inhabited by the sea gypsies.

“Our ancestors have hired their ancestors as farmhands. But now their community has grown so big that it has occupied much of our land,” Tan’s heir Jindarat Thammajak said.

The Mukdees have proposed to sell a five-rai parcel to the government at a reasonable price so that the sea-gypsy community there can be developed properly and legitimately.

Baron World Trade has floated a solution of giving half a rai of land to the locals for their community use in return for their moving their ritual site to that place.

But Sanit has said the ritual venue can’t be moved because it is a spiritual zone.

Chamroen said authorities could issue documents for a narrow beachfront area from the Tamarind Tree, where His Majesty the King met with locals, to the ritual ground to |certify it as a public area so that |sea-gypsy locals can access their spiritual zone.

He said if any party to the conflict was not happy with the yesterday’s talks, it could take their grievances to court. “But definitely, we won’t allow any use of violence,” Chamroen said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha has urged all sides to coexist peacefully while officials examine the case.