On June 17, Assembly of the Poor (AOP) gathered at the Oct 14 Memorial to condemn the Council for National Security for its meddling in the government's decision to close the Pak Mun dam's sluice gates.
They said June 17 was supposed to be the first day of opening the dam's gates according to the Cabinet resolution on May 29, but the CNS intervened, resulting in the Cabinet resolution on June 12 to permanently close the gates.
The resolution instructed the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) to maintain the reservoir water level at 106-108 meters above mean sea level. The 108-meter level is the normal retention level of Pak Mun dam. And after the dam releases the water for electricity generation, the level will come down to the 106-meter level. In effect, the dam's sluice gates will never be opened to allow migration of fish from the Mekong into the Mun river. Fishing communities along the river will inevitably suffer, they said.
On April 23, Prime Minister Surayud Chulanond promised them to open the gates following the previous Cabinet resolution. And on May 29, the Cabinet still confirmed the decision to start opening the gates on June 7, until all 8 gates are fully open on June 17. After only 2 weeks, the Cabinet changed its mind. On June 15, the premier said to them that the government made the best decision.
The Assembly of the Poor said that the change of mind resulted from the pressure by the CNS, which had assigned an Internal Security Operation Command (ISOC) officer Gen Surin Pikuntong to collect villagers' signatures to claim the majority opinion, despite the dam's failures in economic, social, and environmental aspects, as concluded in an academic study.
They said the CNS employed the same tactic used by former premier Thaksin Shinnawatra who instructed the National Statistics Office to conduct a poll, and turned the result against them. At least, Thaksin agreed to open the gates for four months in a year, but the CNS gave them no choice.
They vowed to fight till the end.
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