Thai farmers protest falling crop prices
Thai farmers protest falling crop prices
BANGKOK (Agencies): Thousand of Thai farmers yesterday staged a protest against falling crop prices and government actions in land rights disputes and said they were prepared to camp outside Government House for months.
Around 8,000 farmers and villagers staged a sit-in outside Government House yesterday and more were expected to join them, police at the scene said.
The rural protesters, who complained of hardships caused by dam projects, land rights disputes and agricultural policies, came with food, cooking pots and makeshift tents so they could stay until the government acted.
"I plan to stay here one or two months until the government comes up with solutions to our problems. Our group will provide more food. It is on the way, " one of the demonstrators said.
The crowd was calm yesterday, but some 400 police and soldiers were on hand to keep order.
Prime Minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh will open a meeting today between representatives of the demonstrators and ministers, said Mana Khusakul, a deputy secretary-general in the prime minister's office who was quoted in local news reports.
But the premier would leave the actual talks to the responsible ministers, Mana said.
The organizers of the protests, a coalition called the Assembly of the Poor, said in a statement issued Saturday that it wanted to address 123 specific problems.
The issues included falling crop prices, the impact of dam and government development projects, forest land disputes, problems of slum dwellers, and worker safety.
"We are well prepared for an indefinite stay. More people will keep coming. It will be our biggest rally," said Bamrung Kayotha, the leader of the assembly.
The government should not think of trying to buy time like its predecessors by setting up committees and hoping everyone would go home, he said.
Bamrung said he welcomed the government's quick response but was pessimistic that much would be done about the villagers' problems.
The Assembly of the Poor came to prominence during a month of protests which ended in April last year with promises by the former government of further action after investigation by committees.
Police said around 3,000 more rural villagers had boarded buses and were on the way to Bangkok.
Faced with a lack of facilities, Bamrung had gone off yesterday to ask some of those coming from the northeast to wait in Saraburi, about 100 kilometers from Bangkok, for the results of today's talks, assembly sources said.
Interior Minister Sanoh Thienthong softened his previously antagonistic stance yesterday, telling reporters that the government had provided mobile toilets, drinking water, an ambulance and a medical team, and thanking the crowd for refraining from violence.
The villagers' presence around Government House irritated some officials.
"This is not right, for everyone to come to Bangkok and camp here and demand what they want," said Chingchai Mongkontham, a minister attached to the Prime Minister's office.
He said government could only try to solve the tapioca price problem.
"The problems of land disputes and debt are not easy tasks. Especially on the debt, those who borrowed money from the bank should have known that they would have to repay the debt by themselves and not that the state would repay their debt for them," the minister said.