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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
-Peoples
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,
Junichi
-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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