Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is pressing the Royal Forestry Department to move quickly on the dispute over land owned by Privy Councillor Surayud Chulanont in Khao Yai Thiang forest reserve.
The prime minister yesterday said the department should settle the case as soon as possible as the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) had provided guidelines on how to deal with it.
Mr Abhisit said he wanted to defuse the political tensions between Gen Surayud and the red shirt forces because he did not want to see a conflict over a single block of land.
The OAG has concluded Gen Surayud had not violated the forest reserve law. But it suggested the land be returned to villagers who had the right to use it but not sell it. Gen Surayud said on Tuesday he would only give up control over the land in Sikhiu district in Nakhon Ratchasima after a ruling by the Royal Forestry Department.
Public prosecutors in Sikhiu district decided in January last year to drop the case against Gen Surayud as they thought he was not aware he had broken the law when he bought the land.
But the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship has piled pressure on Gen Surayud to resign his seat as a privy councillor. Both government and opposition MPs on the lower house panel on law, justice and human rights yesterday questioned Gen Surayud's land holdings after it was found he owned more land than the 20 rai he declared. Gen Surayud and representatives of agencies such as the Royal Forestry Department, the OAG and local authorities in Sikhiu and Natural dhResources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti were invited yesterday to testify before the panel. Gen Surayud and Mr Suwit did not show up.
Democrat MP and member of the panel Suthas Ngernmuen said Gen Surayud owned about 30 rai. He asked why prosecutors had not ordered a probe into Gen Surayud's acquisition of the additional land and why the department had not surveyed it.
Puea Thai Party MP Manit Jitjanklab asked whether the prosecution had dhinspected Gen Surayud's land before deciding to drop the case.
Ittiporn Saengpradap, deputy chief of prosecution zone 3, which includes Sikhiu district, admitted prosecutors did not inspect the property as police said the department had stated the land covered just 20 rai.
Democrat MP Suwarot Palang, a member of a house committee following up on budget management, said his panel would invite the Royal Forestry Departdhment chief and other agencies to testify about Khao Yai Thiang on Jan 19 and on the alleged diversion of funds, set for forest reserve surveys, to buy 45 vehicles. Mr Suwarot asked why the department, which was allocated 700 million baht for the 2002-2009 fiscal years to survey forest encroachment, had not surveyed some forest reserves.
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