Gangsters beat up protest
villagers
Bangkok
Post November 20, 2000
About
200 men yesterday staged a violent raid on a village founded by anti-dam
protesters on the crest of the Pak Moon dam in Ubon Ratchathani's Khong
Chiam district.
The unidentified assailants left 30
villagers injured, two of them seriously.
Some villagers blamed the Electricity
Generating Authority of Thailand.
The Campaign for Popular Democracy said
the raid took place about 3pm on the Mae Moon Mun Yuen 1 village, set up two
years ago as part of a marathon protest against Egat.
The CPD issued a statement denouncing
the action, which it attributed to those holding state power.
It accused the caretaker government of
having colluded with the raiders.
The CPD called on Prime Minister Chuan
Leekpai and Interior Minister Banyat Bantadtan to justify the use of
violence against innocent villagers.
The government should refrain from
taking any action over problems involving the Pak Moon dam and leave them
for the next government to solve, it said.
__________________________________________________________________________
Dam Protestors
Attacked
The
Nation, November 20, 2000
ABOUT
30 villagers were injured, at least two of them seriously, when scores of
baton-wielding men forcibly evicted Pak Mool Dam opponents from the dam site
in Ubon Ratchathani yesterday morning and set fire to their makeshift wooden
shelters, witnesses said.
The
attackers, who were alleged to have been paid by the Electricity Generating
Authority of Thailand (Egat) to neutralise the protest site, stormed the Mae
Mool Man Yuen 7 and Mae Mool Man Yuen 1 camps at around 5 am and 11 am
respectively. After forcing the villagers out, they started dismantling the
shelters or setting them ablaze. A makeshift school was also destroyed.
Hundred
of families had occupied the area to show their opposition to the
controversial dam project. Egat has said their presence created security
concerns.
The
raids yesterday took place when only women and elderly villagers were in the
camps. Most of the male villagers had left the area for harvesting work.
The
villagers regrouped before noon not far from their seized camps. Tensions
ran high as the two groups hurled stones and fired slingshots at each other.
The
police later deployed security forces in the area and brought the situation
under control.
Villagers
said those who resisted the eviction were assaulted, and up to 30 people
were injured. Some protesters told Ubon Ratchathani Senator Niran
Pitakwatchara that the attackers used guns and knives. "I saw a
70-year-old man run away with his belongings. When I tried to help, several
men armed with knives and batons attacked me," said Dusadee Chanthong,
a wounded villager. "I also heard that a villager was stabbed and
seriously hurt."
Another
villager, Boonpeng (surname unknown), was reported to be seriously wounded
when he was hit in the head. "Those who tried to resist were beaten.
They burned everything in sight. Even a school was not spared," said
Somparn Khuendee, an activist of the Assembly of the Poor, which spearheads
the anti-dam protest.
Jarin
Watwarin, another Assembly of the Poor activist, insisted that Egat, which
has tried repeatedly to get the villagers off the dam site, was behind the
raid.
"Obviously
they were hired by Egat. This is not the first time they have tried to force
the villagers out," he said.
In
July, the protesters also accused Egat of masterminding a failed attempt to
dislodge them from their camps.
Because
of security concerns, Egat reportedly hired young men to help guard the dam
site in addition to police. The agency had declared the protest area
off-limits but failed to drive the protesters away.
Ubon
Ratchathani police chief Pol Maj Gen Bamrung Sukpanit said he had ordered an
investigation into the incident.
The
Assembly of the Poor will organise a media tour of the area today.
The
Campaign for Popular Democracy issued a statement condemning the raid. It
said the Chuan government should take responsibility for the
"barbarian" act against peaceful villagers.
There
was no official response from Egat yesterday. The agency's officials based
at the dam, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the protest site had
been declared off-limits and the villagers were repeatedly told to move out.
BY
THANIN KITNANTHAKHUN and
PENNAPA
HONGTHONG
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