Mining company returns to haunt Thailand’s Karen communities as resistance mounts

Mining company returns to haunt Thailand’s Karen communities as resistance mounts

MAE HONG SON, Thailand — The flashlight bouncing off the cave walls stopped abruptly as Sakda Khayankitphuanphon came to a halt in the dark. Scarcely 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) from Sakda’s home in Huay Tapab, where Sakda is village chief, the remnants of a now-dormant mining operation have left scars on the landscape of Mae La Noi district in northern Thailand. Nature is steadily reclaiming the exterior of the old mining site, but inside the tunn…