It has been alleged that plots were sold unlawfully to land developers at inflated prices.

A total of 33 landholders have been summoned for interviews with military investigators from the First Cavalry Division for allegedly violating a deal in which the land plots - allocated to them for farming only - could not be transferred or sold, Colonel Phichet Suphongphisit, a deputy division commander, said.

The Tambon Administrative Organisation said around 10,000 rai of land in Khoa Khor and Kheg River Basin, of about 30,000 rai allocated to combat volunteers, was now owned by land developers, who had excavated farmland and transformed some areas into tourist resorts and hotels.

The First Cavalry Division, with the help of hilltribe

combat volunteers, defeated communist fighters in a

series of bloody battles in 1974-1975 in the two areas in Phetchabun.

The fall of the largest communist stronghold to the military led to the end of armed struggle and the eventual disbanding of the Communism Party of Thailand.

Some landholders and their families were stripped of their right to live on their plots and evicted after they were found to have sold the plots at inflated prices. The Army rented the entire 30,000-rai area from the Forestry Department in a 30-year contract which ends this year.

The First Cavalry Division has begun the latest investigation to pre-empt legal efforts by land developers to launch civil lawsuits against the military in defence of claims they "innocently" bought the plots from the combat volunteers.