P-Move demonstrators have agreed to return home after signing a memorandum of understanding with authorities to kick off a process of hearing and solving their land rights problems.
Both sides signed the MoU on Saturday to set up on Wednesday a bilateral panel, with 12 members from P-Move, to solve their problems. The panel will be under the administration steering and reform committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon.
After being formed, it will hold a meeting to follow up on the progress every 30 days.
Army chief of staff Gen Nattapol Nakpanich represented the government at the signing near the Finance Ministry where the protesters had stayed for 10 days.
The MoU focuses on the protection of community land of which applications for titles had already been submitted and the delay of legal action against people affected by the government’s forest reclamation policy.
Under the MoU, action can be taken immediately to solve urgent issues faced by the protesters without having to wait for the panel to be set up. Solutions to resolved issues will be tabled for the cabinet meeting on Tuesday. (continued below)
P-Move protesters show a banner while walking to Government House on Thursday. (Photo by Amornthep Chotechalermpong)
Despite the initial agreement, the demonstrators made clear their intention to see concrete results.
“The end of the protest does not mean the end of the follow-up on solutions. In fact, it marks the beginning of the implementation under the agreed guidelines,” P-Move said in a statement on its Facebook.
“If a plan or solution is not implemented as agreed upon, we stand ready to move again,” it said.
P-Move, short for People’s Movement for a Just Society, is a network of people with land rights problems and those affected by government policies.
After coming to the capital on May 2, they moved to Government House on Thursday where 35 of them met with Prime Minister's Office Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana.
P-Move protesters walk to Government House on Thursday. (Photo by Amornthep Chotechalermpong)