| |
Riot police clash with
protesters
The BBC, Monday, 17 July, 2000, 14:09 GMT 15:09 UK
Thai dam protesters arrested
Thai police have reportedly arrested more than 200
people, who were occupying the grounds of important government buildings
in protest against a controversial dam.
The demonstrators say the massive Pak Mun dam in the country's north-east
has wrecked their livelihoods.
An injured protester is escorted away
About 100 of them staged an overnight sit-in inside the grounds of
Government House in Bangkok - which holds the offices of the Prime
Minister and other senior ministers - after scaling the perimeter fences
late on Sunday.
Riot police moved in when a second wave of demonstrators scrambled over
the wall on Monday.
Those arrested included 118 men, 83 women and one two-month-old baby.
Deprived
Villagers near Pak Mun have been demanding that the gates of the dam be
opened to allow fish in the reservoir to swim into nearby rivers.
The dam is located near to the northern city of Ubon Ratchathani
They say the dam has deprived neighbouring communities of water and fish
and should be opened regularly.
But the state-owned Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand, which
runs the dam, says opening the flood gates would cut its power generating
capacity and cause damage to farmers downstream.
Thailand's national police chief, General Pornsak Durongkaviboon, had
earlier said protesters would have to leave the compound because Chinese
Vice-President Hu Jintao was due to visit Government House on Wednesday.
'Illegal'
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai defended the police action, saying the
protesters had no right to breach the compound walls.
"They have the right to demonstrate outside, but they should not
enter Government House," he said. "The intrusion into the
compound is illegal."
The Thai Government says families displaced by the dam, completed with the
help of World Bank finance in 1994, were well compensated.
And it cites environmental studies which say Pak Mun has had no impact on
the fish population.
But protesters quote a World Commission on Dams report which says 56
species of fish have disappeared in the region.
|
|
