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  Letter of Concern and Request On the Recent Police Attack on Members of the Assembly of the Poor From the Japanese Civil Society

July 21st, 2000

The Honorable Mr. Chuan Leekpai

Prime Minister of Thailand

Dear Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai;

We, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and individuals in the Japanese civil society, express our grave concern as well as great regret, with regard to the recent cases of police attack on and arrest of massive members of the Assembly of the Poor, who had attempted to occupy the Government House to protest against the Thai Government's indifference to their demands for the Government to comply with the recommendations submitted by the committee, which had been set up by the Government itself, to resolve the sixteen on-going conflicts, the most salient of which is the Pak Mun Dam case. We are writing this letter, not only as members of the international community who strive for human rights and dignity, but also as stakeholders of the World Bank, which funded the Pak Mun Dam.

The Thai Government is fully responsible for the current situation, not merely because it plays a supervising role over the police force, but because the protestors' action was a reaction out of desperation to the Government's indifference to the recommendations made by the committee. The Government should not forget that the committee was established with its own initiative. We request that the Thai Government should immediately and fully comply with the committee's recommendations, the most immediate of which is to open the gates of the Pak Mun Dam to let fish swim upstream to spawn in the Mun River.

The police used batons and tear-gas to attack the protestors. This is absolutely intolerable and should be condemned, for the protestors had repeatedly vowed to be non-violent and indeed were. The protestors were totally off-guard, for the use of tear-gas was unexpected, inappropriate, and illegitimate. During the police attack on the July 16th, forty to fifty villagers were reported to be injured. On July 17th, thirty more were hurt. A few of them were very seriously injured and had to be sent to a hospital for treatment.

We strongly request that the Thai Government should immediately order the police force to stop using any more violent means against the protestors, who continue to stay and demonstrate outside the Government House. The protestors' action to occupy the Government Housing should not be used as the justification for the use of the force and the making of arrests.

The Thai Government should also order the police not to arrest any more protestors. Those who were arrested during the second police attack were mostly senior citizens, women, and children, including a one-year-old infant. This in itself deserves condemnation. We also request that the Government not make arbitrary use of judicial procedures to harass and intimidate the protestors, but make considerate and thoughtful decisions, including making an immediate public announcement to drop any charges it might have against the released protestors who are “on bail”.

We emphasize again, as our final remarks, that the Thai Government should take immediate action to settle the current conflict in a peaceful and a democratic manner. The Thai Government should, as it has so far, try to resolve the tension through open and sincere dialogues with the protestors, instead of resorting to violence, arrest, and any other illegitimate means.

Thank you very much for your earliest possible attention.

Sincerely yours,

 

Endorsed by:

Eleven Organizations (in alphabetical order)

-Consumers Union of Japan, Tokyo

-Friends of the Earth-Japan, Tokyo

-Fukuoka NGO Forum on the Asian Development Bank (FNA), Fukuoka

-Japan Chittagon Hill Tracks (CHT) Committee, Tokyo

-Japan ODA Reform Network, Kyoto

-Kyoto University Unicef Club, Kyoto

-Mekong Watch-Japan, Tokyo

-Network for Indonesian Democracy-Japan, Tokyo

-People’s Forum 2001, Tokyo

-Rivers ! Japan, Tokyo

-Trees of the Earth, Yokohama

 

Nineteen Individuals (in alphabetical order)

-ASAMI, Yasuhito, Associate Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences,

Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo

-FUJIWARA, Toshihide, Secratriate, Campaign for Future of Filipino Children (CFFC), Kyoto

-HARIKI, Keiko, General Secretary, Kansai NGO Council, Osaka

-HOSOKAWA, Komei, Dr., Department of Resource Management, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Saga, Saga

-IINUMA, Sayoko

-IKEDA, Mariko, Fukuoka

-ISHINAKA, Eiji, APEC Monitor NGO Network, Osaka

-IWASA, Jun’ichi

-KOIZUMI, Masahiro, Sapporo Freedom School YU, Sapporo

-MIZUTANI, Koichi, Student, Department of Human Environment, Hosei University, Tokyo

-MURAI, Yoshinori, Co-chair, Pacific-Asia Resource Center, Faculty, Institute of Asian Cultures, Sophia University, Tokyo

-NAGASE, Riei, Institute for Alternative Community Development, Kyoto

-OKAMOTO, Kazuyuki, Independent Writer

-SAITO, Tomoyo, Japan Center for a Sustainable Environment and Society, Tokyo

-SHIGETA, Yasuhiro, Development Education Council of Japan, Tokyo

-TAKADA, Naotoshi

-TAKAHASHI, Kiyoko

-TAKAHASHI, Kiyotaka, Japan International Volunteer Center (JVC), Tokyo

-USUI, Tetsuro, Free-lance Writer

Contact: Mekong Watch, Japan (5F Maruko-bldg., 1-20-6 Higashi-Ueno, Taito, Tokyo 110-8605, Tel +81-3-3832-5034, Fax +81-3-5818-0520, E-mail mekong-w@path.ne.jp)

cc: The Japanese Ministry of Finance

cc: The Japanese Executive Director at the World Bank

 
 

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