800 arrested in fiery land clash

[Khun Don]

800 arrested in fiery land clash

By Supapong Chaolan & Kultida Samabuddhi

Force used to end rally
31 injured, charges filed, calls for probe amid claims villagers were 'tricked' into joining Force used to end rally

Gas attack
Riot police fired tear gas to scatter protesters trying to block officers with pick-up trucks during a farmers protest in Surat Thani's Khiri Ratthanikhom district.

Around 2,000 angry villagers clashed with police in a protest over a land dispute in Khiri Ratthanikhom district yesterday which culminated in 31 people being injured and 800 arrests. The incident prompted a human rights activist to demand an investigation by Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont on whether police over-reacted.

The rally broke out into violence after villagers, some with long knifes, threw fire bombs, logs, and liquor bottles at 1,000 riot police and security officers sent to force them out of the 1,732-rai palm plantation area owned by Taksin Palm (2521) company.

The protest leaders told other villagers to block a road leading to the plantation with four trucks, and had women stand in front. They placed spikes on the road to hinder the police.

The protesters led by villager Wimon Cherdchoochon, 50, have occupied the land since April 25 to pressure the government to distribute the land to landless farmers.

The group, calling itself the Land Development Farming Organisation, accused the firm of occupying more land than permitted in land documents. The documents, they said, certify only 300 rai of land for its business.

But company president Tanarak Pongpetra denied the allegation, saying the occupied land had been certified by the Land Department since 1980.

Police asked the protesters to leave but they refused. Finally, police responded by firing tear gas to disperse the crowd, which ended the protest.

Police said villagers ignored a court order on May 8 telling them to leave the area and pay more than 16 million baht in damages to the company, whose palm trees were damaged by the two-week occupation.

Twenty-one villagers and 10 police were injured, six seriously, while around 800 villagers were detained by police for interrogation.

The arrested villagers included one of six leaders, identified as Mana Kandee, 47. Other protesters, including Mr Wimon, Aree Pesawat, 38, Reung Ketkaw, 53, Maaee Lateh, 59, and Parita Lateh, 33, managed to flee the scene.

Surat Thani police chief Thesa Siriwatho said police decided to disperse the protesters following a report that more farmers from neighbouring provinces were preparing to join the occupation.

''[Cracking down on protesters] is the last resort after several rounds of negotiations yielded no result,'' said Pol Maj-Gen Thesa.

The police had to end the protest before the situation worsened, he said.

Surat Thani governor Niwat Sawatkaew believed many villagers were tricked into joining the rally. They were told that they could occupy the land if they wanted some plots for farming, he said.

Khiri Ratthanikhom police chief Saharat Saksilapachai said police had filed charges against Mr Mana and 21 other villagers, for trespassing on private land and attacking police.

Most villagers who were tricked into joining the mob were released, Pol Col Saharat said.

National Human Rights Commissioner Sunee Chaiyarose called on the prime minister to order police to withhold charges against the protesters.

NHRC probes into police crackdowns on demonstrations found that in many cases, violent action was approved by senior officers, she said.

''Although the court has ordered the protesters to get out of the company's plantation, police must not use harsh measures,'' she said. The incident should not have happened under Gen Surayud's administration, which pledged to work for reconciliation, she added.

[FaranginPhetch]

so what are you supposed to do when people are causing damage to personal property and do not obey legal police orders???

maybe take them to burger king and buy em a double whopper with cheese and an ice cream sundae.

Between Human Rights org, Political Correctness and the ACLU in the US, the law abiding citizen had better find another world to live in/on.

maybe ACLU/Human rights is one and the same???

[Peterg]

so what are you supposed to do when people are causing damage to personal property and do not obey legal police orders???

maybe take them to burger king and buy em a double whopper with cheese and an ice cream sundae.

Between Human Rights org, Political Correctness and the ACLU in the US, the law abiding citizen had better find another world to live in/on.

maybe ACLU/Human rights is one and the same???

You run over everyone with tanks like the Chinese did in Tiannamin square!

That's what you get when the ACLU or the Human Rights people aren't around!

[FaranginPhetch]

"They say over there 'We'll give you only half an hour to leave, to evacuate. If you don't, you will have to bear the consequences.'"

Yes they did kill some people, but do you support mob rule?

That does not seem to be the democratic way things are done. and due to the communist govt. of China I see no reason for the mob to have thought that the army was not telling the truth.
Mobs are always controlled by someone that really wants a bunch to be killed to make their demands seem reasonable while they stand back and watch.

There are a lot of govts. in SEA that are not democratic, where the govt is ran by the military, where you can not say things on TV, Watch what you want on TV because it is govt controlled content, same as with which web sites you can look at, those will also be controlled when the new law is passed so freedom granted in the first amendment of the US constitution is not here anymore.

But I also believe that you have a right to gather for a peaceful demonstration, but when that gathering is disrupting the operation of the roadways and the public safety of all, then it should be disbursed by police order and police orders should be obeyed in public interest of safety.

[Khun Don]

Thieves, vandals target rally site
SUPAPONG CHAOLAN


Surat Thani _ Several protesters returned to the site of the clash in areas controlled by the Taksin Palm (2521) company in Surat Thani's Khiri Ratthanikhom district after being released by police yesterday, only to find their belongings damaged or missing.

Surat Thani police chief Thesa Siriwatho said police allowed 681 protesters to go home yesterday after charging them only with trespassing.

Mob leader Mana Kandee, 47, and another two leading protesters, Anek Pattakaew, 47, and Pichet Sangpho, 32, remained in police custody yesterday.

Mr Mana has been charged with mobilising people for the protest and trespassing. Mr Anek is facing a charge of attempted murder for cutting a policeman's hand with a knife and Mr Pichet has been charged with illegally possessing a gun and fighting with police.

Arrest warrants have also been issued for six other leading protesters who fled the scene of the clashes on Saturday.

Pol Maj-Gen Thesa said Wimon Cherdchoochon and Aree Pesawat, believed to be key leaders of the protest, were among the six suspects.

The Police Region 8 bureau and the palm oil firm have offered rewards of 400,000 and 100,000 baht respectively for the arrests of Mr Wimon and Mr Aree.

The suspects were among around 2,000 people who had been occupying areas of the company's palm plantations and clashed with police on Saturday, injuring 31 people, including policemen.

Those going back to the protest site on Saturday night and yesterday morning found that the windows of their vehicles had been smashed and valuables kept inside had been stolen. Returning protesters said items stolen included car radios, gold necklaces, Buddha amulets, cash, mobile phones and even car batteries.

They also lost stoves, cooking gas cylinders and cookers used during their occupation of the land from late last month.

Villagers had set up camp on the land to protest against what they claimed was the company's illegal use of the land. They accuse the company of occupying more land than stated on its land documents and have been calling on the government to redistribute the plots to landless farmers. However, the firm has strongly denied the allegations.

Vilai Manphat, a 55-year-old protester from Surat Thani's Muang district, said she returned to collect her belongings yesterday. However, police told her she was not allowed to enter the area, but promised they would take care of protesters' belongings.

Yesterday morning, however, she found that her brand-new motorcycle, a gas stove and cooker were gone.

Phayungsak Chanpromkaew, 32 of Khiri Ratthanikhom district, said he lost 30,000 baht worth of antique amulets, cash and goods he had kept in his pick-up truck.

Later yesterday morning police found a pick-up truck registered in Surat Thani loaded with protesters' belongings. However, no one has come forward as the truck's owner.

Most of the released protesters, including Vichien Promsuk from Narathiwat, admitted that they had been tricked into joining the rally.

Mr Vichien, 40, said he and around 400 other people from Narathiwat went to the scene after being told that land would be distributed to people attending from the restive southern border provinces. He said each of them had paid 80 baht to organisers to lead them to the rally.

Pol Maj-Gen Thesa said opportunist thieves took advantage of the fact that police were away from the protest site, interrogating protesters. Some villagers had also damaged the protesters' vehicles to express their frustration, he said.

Surat Thani governor Niwat Sawatkaew said fraudsters had lured the protesters into staging the rally and defended the police break up of the demonstration, saying the authorities had acted according to court orders.

Bangkok Post

[Peterg]

Yes they did kill some people, but do you support mob rule?.

I suppose you applauded when you heard about Kent State!

You have obviously never heard the term "appropriate response"?

[FaranginPhetch]

"They say over there 'We'll give you only half an hour to leave, to evacuate. If you don't, you will have to bear the consequences.'"

Means one thing I would say, I know I would have left, that is a communist country and not a Democracy, but that should mean nothing during riot/mob control.
I want to live in an orderly society, not one with mob rule, whatever it takes.

[Khun Don]

Violent repression a big mistake
By Kultida Samabuddhi

Saturday's confrontation between farmers and Surat Thani police at a private oil palm plantation in Khiri Ratthanikhom district has tarnished the interim government's much-vaunted "soft approach" and reconciliation policy.

The pictures of several hundred men sitting half-naked, hands tied behind their backs, reminded many of 1992's Black May and the Tak Bai tragedy in 2004, when state officials violently cracked down on demonstrators.

The Surayud government had done a laudable job in handling mass gatherings of farmers and political demonstrators.

It tried to avoid banning the gatherings, and crowd control was non-violent.

So, it was a big mistake for the government to let such a ferocious clash occur in the southern province where the landless farmers seem to pose no harm to national security.

The slow response in investigating the incident and in looking into the farmers' problems that led to the mass protest is an even bigger mistake.

On Saturday morning about 1,000 riot police with shotguns, batons and tear gas broke up the protest after the court ordered the farmers' eviction. Twenty-one villagers and 10 police were injured in the hour-long clash.

The farmers had gathered at the oil palm plantation, owned by Taksin Palm (2521) Co, since late last month, demanding that the 1,732 rai, rented from a state agency, be given to the poor.

Police and the Surat Thani governor claimed about 2,000 villagers were "lured" to join the protest in exchange for plots of land.

Police said their action was necessary because the demonstrators ignored the May 8 court order to leave. They also feared that farmers from nearby Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat would join the land protest and worsen the situation.

These claims, even if true, cannot justify the use of force to disperse the villagers.

Provincial police chief Thesa Sirivatho accused the villagers of attacking his men first, but he could not deny that ordering an armed police battalion to raid the gathering actually led to the melee.

Gen Surayud should urgently set up an investigation into the decision. He should also seek ways to solve the problems of these landless farmers, who have repeatedly called on the government to reclaim state land from private occupiers and re-allocate it to needy farmers.

When asked about the Surat Thani clash, Gen Surayud appeared callous in saying he had "nothing to explain about it" and would leave the matter to the local authorities.

A study by the National Human Rights Commission showed large areas of state land owned by agencies such as the forestry and the treasury departments are leased cheaply to private companies.

In many cases, agri-business has encroached on nearby land and even refused to return the land to the state when the contract expired. In Surat Thani alone, over 34,000 rai of state land is rented by just eight agri-business firms.

The oil palm protest leaders' alleged luring of farmers to join the demonstration and whether the protesters were "real" landless farmers needs investigation.

But the government should not exploit these suspicions as an excuse to ignore serious flaws in the state's land lease scheme and the police use of violence.

Bangkok Post