BKK POST: January 27, 1998: ENVIRON

[suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx]

BKK POST: January 27, 1998: ENVIRONMENT

              Activists face
              arrest threat

              Chakrit Ridmontri, Suebpong Unarat

              Thong Pha Phum police are ready to arrest conservation group
              members camping out in a Kanchanaburi forest if senior officers
              decide the protest has hampered the laying of the Thai-Burmese
              gas pipeline.

              "We will have to arrest them if our superiors give the order," said
              chief investigator Pol Lt-Col Phichai Pokpong yesterday.

              Local police have been on alert since the groups began setting up
              camps at an entrance to Huay Khayeng forest to stop tree
              cutting and the laying of the pipe.

              The project director lodged a complaint with police at the
              weekend saying the protesters had made it difficult for the
              Petroleum Authority of Thailand to lay the pipe. He asked police
              to evict protesters from the site.

              Police investigators asked Phinant Chotirosseranee, a core
              leader of the groups, to explain her actions yesterday. The
              information will be passed to the police commander for further
              consideration, said Pol Lt-Col Phichai.

              Mrs Phinant insisted the blockade would continue and it was a
              constitutional right to be allowed to protest.




                                     




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Last Modified: Tue, Jan 27, 1998