About 40 hooded men raided the village of Pak Moon dam protesters and tore down more than 250 shelters early yesterday after the occupants left for a meeting with the prime minister in Bangkok to demand that the dams gates be opened. Parts of the dismantled shacks were later set on fire by a group of men. The village head, Kamtan Viangchan, told police that the men, wearing hoods and with faces covered, stormed into the camp in Khong Chiam district and began demolishing the makeshift quarters. In Bangkok, about 200 Pak Moon villagers who had been gathering near Government House responded to news of the raid by marching to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's residence.
The raid on the Pak Moon dam site was the second made on the protesters in 10 days. After the first raid, Mr Thaksin quickly said the government had nothing to do with it (although the police did not seem to take the attack very seriously saying that the incident was not serious as no one had been injured), and defused tension with a visit to the camp site on Dec 8. Somkiat Ponpai, a protest leader, said the villagers may have welcomed the private conversation with the premier but they would not budge. They would not disperse as they mistakenly did last year. ``We learned our lesson well. We believed his word when he sat down here last year to eat with us,'' he said. Vanida Tuntivithayapitak, an Assembly of the Poor adviser, said the meeting was a positive step. The prime minister had admitted he had not looked at the gate study.
The village, called Mae Moon Mun Yuen 1, was set up over three years ago by villagers affected by the construction of the dam. They have used it as a base to call for the government's attention to their problems.
Nanthachote Chairat, an adviser to the Assembly of the Poor, which supports the dam opponents, said that although the culprits had yet to be caught, the government should take responsibility for the incidents and should not pass the buck. "The attack took place in broad daylight. It was a challenge to the government's power," he said.
The villagers say a study by Ubon Ratchathani University, commissioned by the government, recommended that the dam's sluice gates be opened throughout the year to allow rehabilitation of the eco-system of the Moon river and the livelihood of local people. The findings of the study were the same as one conducted by the Pak Moon fishermen themselves, which clearly showed the revival of fishery and the river ecology when the gates were kept open. Despite the recommendation, the cabinet on Oct 1 resolved that the gates should be opened only four months during the rainy season.
The Pak Moon Dam - Pak Moon means 'mouth of the Moon River' - has disrupted the lives of more than twenty-five thousand villagers. NGOs have been working with the local communities campaigning for its gates to be permanently opened. Only then will fish migration in the Moon River be restored. The villagers affected by the dam have watched their homes being destroyed and the abundant fisheries of the Moon River decimated, destroying their livelihoods. Already more than half of the 156 species found in the Moon River have disappeared. This includes one of the most prized of fish, the Mekong Giant Catfish.
Earlier this year, The World Commission on Dams declared Pak Moon dam a flop in all respects.
It said the dam was economically unjustifiable, caused serious damage to the ecosystem of the Moon river, and destroyed villagers' livelihood. On the question of who gained and who lost, the report concluded "all stakeholders stand to lose, not only from a disrupted eco-system but also from increased expenditure at mitigation efforts that is unlikely to mitigate the losses". The report blamed the authorities for not consulting affected villagers in the early stages of the decision-making process, nor making attempts to include them in decision-making on the project or mitigation measures. When the project was first mooted, local fisherfolk mounted an international campaign to prevent the World Bank from financing it. However, EGAT, the Energy Generating Authority of Thailand, and the bank dismissed the villagers' concerns.
Sources: Probe International, Assembly of the Poor, Nation (Thailand), Bangkok Post, Radio Netherlands
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