Loei villagers need urgent help to prevent their blood and water from being further poisoned with cyanide, mercury, and manganese, allegedly from mining giant Tungkum, a subsidiary of Tungkah Harbour pcl (Mining giant fails to cow angry villagers, BP, March 14). Tungkum is mining gold in Loei, and extracting gold requires extensive use of toxic chemicals. Shortly after Tungkum began mining, villagers complained about health problems. Local and provincial health authorities confirmed that local water and even the villagers blood had excessive levels of poisons used in extracting gold. . To its credit, in 2011, the Yingluck Cabinet ordered Tungkum to fix the contamination problem and to reassess the economic returns to the state. In 2012, Tungkums waste water storage pond collapsed, causing cyanide-laced waste water to contaminate local water sources. Still, Tungkum applied for new licenses, which require environmental and health impact assessments (EHIAs). At the two EHIA public hearings attempted, hundreds of police, defense volunteers and company security guards prevented opponents from participating. Deprived of their constitutional right to participate in matters affecting their environment and health, opponents blocked Tungkums access to public roads, hindering operations. The local administrative organization helped dismantle the blockade, aiding Tungkum, and the firms sued for a massive 150 mln. baht in damages and filed criminal charges against 22 villagers. The villagers are brave but heavily out-gunned, in a classic David vs. Goliath confrontation. Political parties and civil society should jump in to ensure that the villagers constitutional right to be heard is upheld, and that they be given a fair trial, The local health departments tests have confirmed that serious damage to health has taken place, and damage to the land caused by open pit mining is obvious; what the government should do now is identify and try the alleged perpetrators. These damages must then be remedied in full by the perpetrators, plus, say, treble damages to act as a deterrent. Pheu Thai should be eager to defend the villagers and their environment, since Loei is Pheu Thai heartland and the PT will want to recover ground lost when Yingluck valued her brothers money over justice for the 92 killed during the 2011 conflicts by ramming through the amnesty bill, and by the rice plan fiasco which left so many farmers still unpaid. Likewise, the Democrats will want to grab the chance to show that they are not the hi-society nose-in-the-air ammart that the red shirts portray them to be, and to build on the amnesty and rice plan farces. Mass media should ensure thorough, in-depth coverage of the EHIA process, investigations, and court cases, to ensure that all views are not only heard but heeded, and that the matter isnt swept under the rug. The law society will want to show that we still have rule of law, not a culture where money talks louder than the law. As Victor Hugo said, There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come. The time for justice for poor as well as rich has come.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 07:04:25 +0000