Bangkok Post, 23-01-08
Prachuap Khiri Khan _ Police and soldiers were sent to prevent a clash between proponents and opponents of Sahaviriya Group steel mill project in Bang Saphan district yesterday.
Dozens of supporters and their adversaries turned up at the 1,142-rai mill construction site in Ban Thung Lan Khwai village of tambon Mae Ramphueng about noon as company workers were digging a drainage canal.
The firm was awarded a licence by local administrators in November to set up the steel mill.
Within weeks opponents had the licence revoked after it was pointed out to the Mae Ramphueng tambon administration organisation that the company had not prepared a flood-prevention plan.
The company later came up with a plan and the project was approved again.
Part of the plan is to dig drainage canals on both sides of the mill site, to prevent flooding in surrounding communities.
Opponents showed up to block the work yesterday after learning that the Natural Resources and Environment Ministry would declare Mae Ramphueng a conservation area on Feb 3. They forced a Sahaviriya excavator to discontinue digging.
However, minutes later villagers backing the mill turned up with knives, pistols and batons.
About 20 men from the Bang Saphan police station and the Surasee military camp were quickly deployed to prevent a clash. But moves to disarm the two sides did not go very far.
As the stand-off continued, gunshots were heard and the excavator's windshield was shattered.
After a three-hour stand-off the company had the machine's driver cover over the partly dug drainage canal.
Sahaviriya stated later that the project's opponents had entered its property armed with knives and catapults and that a piece of lead fired by a catapult shattered the excavator's windshield, narrowly missing an employee.
It also claimed that opponents scattered road spikes on an inner road of its compound and had planned to set the excavator ablaze, even though the drainage canals were being dug on private property for the benefit of the surrounding communities.
Trouble at mill
Trouble at mill
May you be in heaven half an hour before the devil know`s you`re dead!
(BangkokPost.com, dpa)
Hua Hin - Clashes between supporters and opponents of a planned steel mill got out of hand on Thursday, leaving one protester dead and four wounded by gunfire.
Protesters clashed at the site of the Saha Viraya steel mill project in Bang Saphan district of Prachuab Khiri Khan province, despite the deployment of hundreds of police to keep the peace.
The red-shirted supporters of the plant rushed to the site after hearing that more than 200 opponents in green T-shirts had assembled to protest against plans to build the mill.
Rapsap Kongrakul, 36, a supporter of the steel project, was shot dead in the melee, police said.
"I think he was probably shot by his own people because most of the people opposed to the steel mill project are elderly," Suphot Songsiang, a leader of the project's opponents was quoted by the Thai media as saying.
Saha Viraya, one of Thailand's leading steel producers, has been trying to build a new mill in the area for years but opponents claim the mill will pollute the area.
Hua Hin - Clashes between supporters and opponents of a planned steel mill got out of hand on Thursday, leaving one protester dead and four wounded by gunfire.
Protesters clashed at the site of the Saha Viraya steel mill project in Bang Saphan district of Prachuab Khiri Khan province, despite the deployment of hundreds of police to keep the peace.
The red-shirted supporters of the plant rushed to the site after hearing that more than 200 opponents in green T-shirts had assembled to protest against plans to build the mill.
Rapsap Kongrakul, 36, a supporter of the steel project, was shot dead in the melee, police said.
"I think he was probably shot by his own people because most of the people opposed to the steel mill project are elderly," Suphot Songsiang, a leader of the project's opponents was quoted by the Thai media as saying.
Saha Viraya, one of Thailand's leading steel producers, has been trying to build a new mill in the area for years but opponents claim the mill will pollute the area.