Growing up, knowing that not forgetting someone is a form of struggle.

In the last post, we wrote about Chaiyaphum. Many people who didn't know Chai Chai and didn't know what was going on today, so we want to get everyone to know and understand this at the same time.

"Chaiyaphum, the forest.

An ethnic friend, Lahu, who was shot dead by a military officer. "

Who is Chaiyaphum?

Chaiyaphum Phuang or Woo, is a Lahu resident at the village of Khun Khun Waeng, Chiang Dao, Chiang Mai, Chai is a Lahu native born in Thailand but not of Thai nationality. There is no Thai ID card and he tried to ask for it many times, but it was unsuccessful, which affected Chai's life (and many villagers there) was harder than the average person. The people are not equal or how they are still denied citizenship to this day.

Activist

Chai is the leader of the Lahu youth group, a group of youth who tell their community stories as well as maintain their traditional culture to keep the youth away from drugs and fight for indigenous and stateless rights that really come from their voices. Phi Maitri is the big brother and adult of the group (Phi Maitri is very close to Chai). Chai has both activities and has a period of employment to carry corn to support his family (which, speaking, Chai is a youth. If you remember correctly, Chai was born in the same year as us in 1996. At the scene of 9 years ago, Chai was 20 years old).

What happened?

March 17, 2017 After Chai got in a car with a friend and was searched, Chai was shot dead by a military officer at the Rin Luang checkpoint. Military officials claimed that Chai tried to resist and would injure the officer with a knife weapon and throwing grenades, as well as claiming to have found 2,800 methamphetamine hidden in a car air filter pot.

Demand.

After the incident, friends of this area network became so famous, including us, that we did not believe what the state was trying to tell us. Justice was called for and CCTV footage was revealed. We were not afraid of the truth. We were afraid of the falsehoods the state was trying to create.

After the incident,

A spokesman for the Army reported that the incident was the military's most active duty because Chaiyaphum fought against it with the purpose of inflicting harm on the officer to the death of the military commander, Major General Chai Chaiyaphon, in an interview saying that he had viewed the CCTV footage but could not determine who was wrong and would not intervene or order the release of the footage.

Auto Press

March 23, 2017, General Vijakkhan Sirib, General of the Third Region, gave an interview to the media: "If it were me, I could have pressed the auto. He fired one shot. The other threw a bomb. I think it makes sense in self-defense. Because the soldier shot his arm but missed the important point. Your merit is only." Listen, I was very angry and couldn't help questioning that this is the point of view of a real powerful person, right?

CCTV

There were nine CCTV cameras at the scene and six were operational, but the military authorities did not immediately hand over the footage of the incident to the interrogator, and later found that there was no footage of the incident in the data recorder. Eh, but the military commander said that he had looked at it. Until today, March 19, 2026, there was no CCTV release.

Mae Chai sued the Army.

The evidence at the scene, the knife that the military claimed was a weapon found at the scene, did not have Chaiyaphum's fingerprints on it, and the bomb he said Chai would throw at the authorities found the DNA of several people mixed with Chaiyaphum's, and the fingerprints wrapped in the drug did not appear to be Chaiyaphum's fingerprints, despite being full of suspicions, but the interrogator turned the case over to the prosecutor.

Dismiss the lawsuit.

October 26, 2020, the Court of First Instance read the judgment in the case of Chaiyaphum's mother as a plaintiff against the Army. The military in Chaiyaphum Extrajudicial Army. After the analysis of the plaintiff's testimony, the court saw that the soldier who shot the deceased acted in self-defense was worthy of a violation against the plaintiff.

Parallel

Besides the story of Chai that happened, there are many more stories that happened at the same time. After Chai lost, the authorities built a big scene, closed the village for siege, and more troops than the people in the village. The people near Chai were accused of being involved in drugs, even the court dismissed 1 year later, but that was 1 year in prison. The youth group guarded Lahu, a safe area of children, became an area where no one wanted to mess around. The people near Chai were threatened, put bullets in front of the bathroom and were followed by the soldiers.

The lost truth.

We don't know the whole truth and may never even know it, but what we do know is that one person has died and there are questions that have never been answered. Growing up, we know that sometimes not forgetting is the only thing we can do to keep the truth from being drowned out with time.

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