They’ll have to kill us: Mahakan Fort leader
CITY OFFICIALS put up eviction signs yesterday demanding that people in 44 remaining households at the old Mahakan Fort move out by September 3.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) plans to turn the area into a public park to conserve the heritage fort and to use the land for other public purposes.
BMA’s Land Acquisition Division head Sakchai Boonma led officials to put up signs at five locations around the fort amid a presence of police and residents.
Sakchai said the city administration would send a letter to each household ordering them to move out. He said the goal was to demolish all 56 homes by year’s end.
He said the first 12 homes would be torn down on September 3 after their owners gave consent for that to happen.
Sakchai said the city was in the right, although the National Human Rights Commission insisted the dispute could be resolved by a law amendment.
Defiant residents argue that living at the fort area is legal and they have household registration documents to prove it.
“If you want to tear down our homes, you must take our lives too,” community leader Pornthep Buranaburidet said.
He said 218 residents in the 44 remaining homes would not move out, as they had fought to stay for over 20 years.
He claimed owners of the 12 houses slated for demolition next month were recent arrivals to the community and the BMA gave them each the additional Bt50,000 to the original payout.
