Mae Sot Villagers Protest for Safety Amid Years of Cross-Border Shelling

At 10:00 a.m. on October 27, 2026, at the Ban Mae Kon Kaen School grounds in Village 9, Mahawan Subdistrict, Mae Sot District, Tak Province, over 200 residents from Ban Mae Kon Kaen and neighboring villages along the Thai-Myanmar border in the Mahawan area assembled to submit demands for the government to safeguard their lives and property. The villagers have been affected by ongoing combat across the border in Myanmar. Several community representatives spoke on a makeshift stage for over an hour, while protesters held signs highlighting the impact of war bullets and shells from the neighboring country. They then submitted a petition to the government via Mae Sot District Chief Kanphong Phiphathanamonkul, representatives from the Ratchamanu Special Task Force, local border-area MPs, and other relevant agencies, to be forwarded to the Tak Governor and onward to the central government.

After receiving the petition, District Chief Kanphong Phiphathanamonkul summarized the villagers' five demands: 1) Provide compensation to those affected under the Ministry of Finance's emergency disaster relief regulations; 2) Have relevant agencies prevent and stop the warring factions from fighting directly opposite Ban Mae Kon Kaen in Mahawan Subdistrict; 3) Develop long-term prevention measures such as designated evacuation areas, shelters, and bunkers in all four villages of Ban Mae Kon Kaen; 4) Establish warning systems and install alert signals for combat in all four villages; and 5) Seek ways to end the fighting along the border or limit the deployment and combat zones of the warring parties to prevent impact on Thai sovereignty. The Mae Sot District Security Office will forward the villagers' letter to the government for further action, after which the protesters dispersed peacefully and satisfied.