On July 23, the Chiang Rai Provincial Court sentenced three farmers’ leaders to one year in jail for violating the Highway and Land Traffic Acts, and fined them 200 baht each for advertising with amplifiers without permission.  The penalties were commuted by half because they had pleaded guilty.

In early June, the three men, Amphon Wiangsima, 32, Pol Sgt Phuchich Sola, 50, and Manit Kampuk, 33, led a group of farmers in Chiang Rai’s Phan district to block the Chiang Rai-Phan Road to call for government help with falling prices of off-season paddy.

The court ruled that the defendants had caused trouble to the public without respect for the law, so to provide a lesson to others the punishment was not suspended.

Pol Maj Gen Songtham Alpach, Chiang Rai Provincial Police Commander, said that the case should be taken by other protest groups as a warning to act within the laws and not to infringe on other people’s rights.

‘The police have understanding and sympathy for people who come out to make demands, but if anyone violates the law, that person will be prosecuted, with no exception,’ said the commander.

On July 24, in Udon Thani, about 200 local people blocked the Mitraphab Highway to Khon Kaen, and verbally attacked the provincial governor through loudspeakers in their protest against a potash mining project which they argued would destroy the environment and their livelihoods.

However, they re-opened the road after the governor came and talked to them for over half an hour.

And in Pattaya, Chonburi, over 100 residents living alongside the railway tracks blocked trains by standing and parking a van on the tracks near Pattaya Station. They demanded the State Railways of Thailand renew their land rental contracts.  Six trains were cancelled.

After the Secretary of the Mayor of Pattaya came to talk to them, and agreed to hold a meeting on July 30, the protesters called off the blockade.