Protesters invade car park, urge dialogue
Villagers given until Friday to clear out.
Bangkok Post, May 17, 2000
Protesters at Pak Moon dam remain locked in a
stalemate with the authorities and have vowed to continue their sit-in at the
adjacent car park until their demands are met.
Deputy provincial governor Praphat Bunyindee said there was no
progress in talks with the protesters.
The protesters, who have been there since Monday, can stay
where they are until Friday as long as they remain peaceful, he said.
"We will not intervene for the time being but we will try
to ensure peace and order and prevent intervention by a third party," he
said.
Led by the Assembly of the Poor, more than 1,000 villagers on
Monday morning stormed the car park effectively sealing off the power generator
monitoring plant.
They said they would stay past the Friday deadline.
They also rejected Mr Praphat's request that they allow
workers to enter the plant for maintenance, saying that the control centre of
the dam and power generator was at the Sirindhorn dam compound.
The protesters wanted the electricity generating authority to
open all eight of the dam's spillways to restore the river ecology, allowing
fish to migrate from the Mekong river and spawn in the upper Moon.
This would also allow many of the protesters, who claim to
have lost their livelihoods, to return to their original occupations of fishing
and farming.
Their leader Wanida Tantiwittayapitak blamed the government
for ignoring the villagers' demands since they began protesting next to the dam
more than a year ago.
In what appears to be another tactic to force a government
response, a number of protesters walked down to the river below the dam and
threw rocks into the water channel.
The rocky bed of the Moon was blasted to create a deep water
channel to help in the power generation.
Ms Wanida said this was a ceremony "to return nature to
the river" because fish was abundant before the blast destroyed the rapids
which served as a fish nursery.
"The villagers will return rocks to the river every
day," she said.
In another incident which nearly turned violent, an Egat
official speaking through a speaker system on a pick-up truck, criticised the
protesters and urged them to return to their temporary homes across the road.
The villagers did not take this well and a heated argument
ensued.
Governor Siva Saengmanee refused to rule out attempts by the
authorities to end the protest.
"We will carry out our lawful duty but I will not say
how.... What has been happening here is illegal.
"State officials cannot be expected to sit idly by.
Violence will not come from officials but from the protesters' behaviour,"
he said |
