Violent protests scupper Thailand gas pipeline hearing

October 21, 2000
Web posted at: 3:37 PM HKT (0737 GMT)

HAT YAI, Thailand (Reuters) -- A public hearing on a controversial southern Thai gas pipeline project was cancelled on Saturday after thousands of rock-throwing protesters blocked the gymnasium where it was to be held and clashed with police.

The last public hearing on the Thai-Malaysia gas pipeline, in July, also had to be abandoned due to unrest. Protesters say the hearings are biased.

The proposed pipeline would transport gas from offshore fields in the Gulf of Thailand to southern Thailand and Malaysia. The state-owned Petroleum Authority of Thailand, PTT, and Malaysia's Petronas PETR.UL are co-operating on the project.

Thousands of police had been stationed in the southern town of Hat Yai where the hearing was to be held. But as more protesters massed outside, the hearing had to be called off after just a few minutes.

"The local opposition to the public hearing emerged from the government's failure to provide a just and neutral forum for an open and genuinely democratic debate of the numerous social and ecological impacts of the project," a group of non-governmental organizations opposed to the project said in a statement.

"The flawed public hearing process has been consistently biased in favor of the project developers, thus preventing transparency and full disclosure of information relating to the project's impact on local communities and the environment."

Thongthip Ratanarat, a government-appointed member of the hearing panel, said the panel had already canvassed most of the opinions it needed for a report on the project.

"The hearing has been completed and we have listened to quite a large number of people already," she said. "We will wait another 15 days to hear the opinions of people who did not attend the hearing."

But the protesters said the hearing was a sham. One local councilor said protesters would destroy the pipeline with a suicide arson attack if it went ahead.

"If the project is built, more than 40 villagers will burn themselves to death along with the project," Samaae Jaemad told reporters.

The protests by locals and NGOs against the pipeline are part of a growing trend in Thailand of grass-roots political activism against government projects. Thousands of villagers have been camped outside the prime minister's offices in Bangkok for months, protesting about government policies.

Thailand is due to hold general elections in December or January, with the ruling Democrat Party of Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai running second in opinion polls to the Thai Rak Thai party led by telecoms tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra.

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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