It's hard to believe that anything truly positive could materialise from the tragedy of the tsunami three years ago.

However, should a team of veteran lawyers have their way the events of December 26, 2004 will trigger a major rewriting of Thailand's land act, spelling relief for many villagers along the Andaman Coast - and throughout the country.

"The land-grabs from seaside communities affected by the tsunami were unconscionable," says Suwit Thonghom, chief lawyer of the Andaman Law and Community Rights Centre. "Hopefully this will be the last straw in decades of injustice of illegally evicting villagers from their homes to line the pockets of land officers and developers."

As Andaman communities commemorate the loss of thousands of their loved ones today on the third anniversary of the tragedy, Suwit and his alliance will submit their proposal to Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham to amend the 1954 Land Act to allow community consultation in issuing future land titles. This will enable people in communities to scrutinise the dubious process of issuing land rights.

"Right now it's up to Land Department officials and individuals who apply for the papers. So what we got is papers being issued for land that had already been occupied and used by villagers," Suwit explained. "We found many new title deeds showed up for land once occupied by fishing communities prior to the tsunami."

A few months after the 2004 tragedy, hundreds of families along the Andaman coast woke up from the traumatic experience of the giant waves only to find more devastating news; they could no longer rebuild their homes where they used to be. The lands their ancestors had lived on now had new owners, mostly investors from companies they had never heard of.

"I lost my parents and four other family members and the land they developed to the tsunami," lamented Sanchai Puttamas, 29, of Baan Laem Pom, Pang-nga province. "My mother was a hard working woman. She turned the land once full of dry sand into a green fruit orchard. But she never bothered to apply for a land title deed. Now she is gone and I can't even protect her legacy."

This lack of a legal land title is a common problem of fishing and small-scale farming communities throughout Thailand, and those on the Andaman coast like Sanchai's are no exception. After the tsunami, his neighbours at Baan Laem Pom - along with communities in Phang-nga, Phuket, Ranong, Trang and Krabi found the land they had lived on for generations was registered in somebody else's name.

In the eyes of the authorities, these new owners have every right to claim the land because they came with legal land rights papers. Local authorities in many areas turned a blind eye to the villagers' argument that they had lived on the land for decades, if not centuries, before the tsunami - and became instrumental in evicting the people.

Sanchai just lost his two-year legal battle over his land. The provincial court of Phang-nga last month ruled the land that Sanchai was fighting for does not belong to him. The ruling endorsed the ownership of a property company owned by a Bangkok politician, who just obtained the title deed for the land in a dispute earlier this year. Sanchai plans to take his case to the appeal court.

However, Sanchai is fighting a rather lonely battle. Many of his neighbours, some of them were sea gypsies who cannot read, have decided to settle by accepting new plots of land from the new owners in exchange for their beachfront communities.

"I received threats on my life and then an offer for a new plot of land for me not to appeal," Sanchai said. "But I've come a long way, and I just can't give up. My neighbours think I'm crazy to fight people in power. But if I give up like they did, how could my mother rest in peace?"

Prasong Boonsawang of Baan Lam Kaen near Khao Lak National Park, admires Sanchai's determination to fight for justice. When he found out the beachfront land on which his home once stood was claimed by a hotel owner from Phuket, he was devastated.

"I wanted to fight, but my parents are old and we have no resources. We have nothing to engage in a legal battle with rich people. I had to concede with the deepest pain I ever had in my life," he said.

To Suwit the villagers have no way to fight for their land if the law is not changed to recognise community customary rights. There are thousands of communities throughout Thailand facing eviction by property developers, he said.

But both Prasong and Sanchai supported Suwit's and his legal team's effort on the land law amendment although it will not have a retroactive effect on their cases.

"I'm just happy that at least some justice will be there for my fellow poor people elsewhere in the future," Sanchai said.