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.