Environmental activists have started a hunger strike to protest against coal-fired power plant project in southern Thailand.
Two members of Save Andaman from Coal, an anti-coal powered plant group from southern Thailand, have vowed to undergo a hunger strike to death in order to halt the construction of a coal-fired power plant in the southern province of Krabi.
On 10 July at 10 am in front of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport in Bangkok, the two environmental activists stated their intentions to halt the coal-powered plant project through civil disobedience.
“We declare that if you do not halt the Andaman coal-fired power plant project, we are prepared to hunger strike to the death. We do not intend to pressure you, but we have exhausted all other means of petition, which the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) has obstinately ignored. This hunger strike is the only way that we, as citizens have left, which is by putting our own lives on the line. We are willing to protect our burgeoning tourism industry and the beauty of the Andaman [the South-western coast of Thailand] with our lives,” said the activists.
Two activists camped out in front of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport in Bangkok on 10 July 2015 to call for a halt of the construction of Krabi's coal-fired power plant
“Thailand’s Ministry of Energy is embarrassingly obsolete,” said the hunger strikers. “Other countries worldwide are shutting down coal-fired power plants and building plants based on clean energy, while we are going in the opposite direction.”
Save Andaman from Coal Network said that the junta promised energy reform, but instead chose to win over coal merchants. This was deliberate destruction of both livelihoods and the Andaman Sea, they said.
The statement said that hundreds of tourism industries would end in disaster. The junta had declared that tourism would be a main source of income for the country, but did not do anything to prevent the Ministry of Energy from building the coal-based power plant, even with numerous other options for clean energy, said the activist group.
At 12.10 on 10 July, the Director of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport Sutham Dechadee, by order from the Minister, came out talk to activists. He said, “Why don’t you go and sit in front of the Government House? Go tell the PM. We don’t have any power, so go to him.”
According to the group’s facebook page at 16.24 members the activists still camped out in front of the Ministry of Tourism and Sport.
The activists also called for Andaman people in Bangkok, as well as anyone in Bangkok that loved the Andaman Sea, to come support the protesters because “the junta will just ignore our group” and do nothing to stop the coal-based power plant.
