Ever since the Asian tsunamis swept away the homes in his Thai fishing community, Heed Harnthalay, a weathered elder of Taptawan village, has stayed in the hills, too frightened to return to the seafront where he says the group has lived for many decades.

Most of the other villagers - members of the Morgan sea gypsy community - are back in the coastal area they have long called home, living in temporary barracks erected by the Thai army and trying to rebuild their lives. But their efforts have run into a big obstacle: a powerful business family, backed by local Land Department officials, is claiming the valuable beachfront property as its own.