Thailand: More violence feared as farmers rally
Thailand’s National Security Council (NSC) on February 9 warned of a possible escalation in violence as rice farmers link up with anti-government protesters to mount pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her crew to step down.
There is reason to believe that. In the latest incident, six street cleaners working for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration were wounded, two of them seriously, by a bomb explosion on the median strip on Ratchadamnoen Avenue on the same day.
Thousands of farmers have vowed to rally on February 10 at the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence to demand not only that the government’s rice-pledging scheme pay them, but also that the whole cabinet step down to let others solve the problem for them.
Yingluck reportedly often works at this office instead of the Government House after the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) sprang up and won solid support from Bangkok residents.
NSC secretary-general Paradorn Pattanatabut said flocks of farmers have now taken to the streets to seek overdue payment and the PDRC is apparently keen on wooing them to its side.
Some of the farmers have already shown up on PDRC stages in the past few days and some of them have petitioned the anti-graft body to investigate the controversial rice scheme and impeach the government.
The PDRC on February 10 went on another fund-raising march to help the farmers’ fight for their claim to payment after the first such drive last Friday.
The government’s rice-pledging scheme now owes about 130 billion baht ($4 billion) to over 1 million farmers. The repeatedly postponed payments have made many farmers desperate and others furious. Protesting farmers have come from many provinces, including some seen as the Pheu Thai Party’s strongholds.
Northern Farmers Network chairman Kittisak Rattanawaraha said more than 10,000 farmers from his zone have already headed to Bangkok to join the demonstration. Hundreds of farmers were seen leaving Phitsanulok for Bangkok for the same cause.
“Violent incidents have often taken place at the PDRC rally site on Chaeng Wattana Road,” Paradorn said.
This rally site is close to the Defence Permanent Secretary’s Office, where the farmers converged.
Paradorn remained vague about whether Yingluck would meet with the farmers.
“If she does not come to the office, other ministers will directly talk to the farmers,” he said.
The government is now planning to consult the Election Commission (EC) on the legality of using 1.2 billion baht from the central budget for the payment of interest to rice millers who agree to accept farmers’ certificates in the rice-pledging scheme as mortgages for loans. It has been struggling for months to secure a bridge loan to continue financing the rice-pledging scheme. After Yingluck dissolved the House of Representatives on December 9, her government is just a caretaker and needs EC approval on several issues.
Caretaker Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach said the ministry would release 1.2 million tonnes of rice from the government’s stocks in the hope that it would earn 10 billion baht to pay off farmers for the latest crop under the rice-pledging scheme, Nation Channel reported. Some 227,000 tonnes from 11 granaries in eight provinces would be offered through the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand, of which 167,000 tonnes will be 5-per-cent white rice and the rest jasmine rice. Some 460,000 tonnes will be sold through a general auction and the remaining 500,000 tonnes to millers.Manus Kitprasert, president of the Thai Rice Millers Association, said he would circulate letters to members to inform them that the government has proposed to sell rice to them.
“We are ready to buy the rice from the government, but the rice we buy will be at the same prices as those set by the general bidding,” he said.
Thailand's National Security Council (NSC) on February 9 warned of a possible escalation in violence as rice farmers link up with anti-government protesters to mount pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her crew to step down. There is reason to believe that. In the latest incident, six street cleaners working for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration were wounded, two of them seriously, by a bomb explosion on the median strip on Ratchadamnoen Avenue on the same day. Thousands of farmers have vowed to rally on February 10 at the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence to demand not only...
Thailand’s National Security Council (NSC) on February 9 warned of a possible escalation in violence as rice farmers link up with anti-government protesters to mount pressure on Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and her crew to step down.
There is reason to believe that. In the latest incident, six street cleaners working for the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration were wounded, two of them seriously, by a bomb explosion on the median strip on Ratchadamnoen Avenue on the same day.
Thousands of farmers have vowed to rally on February 10 at the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence to demand not only that the government’s rice-pledging scheme pay them, but also that the whole cabinet step down to let others solve the problem for them.
Yingluck reportedly often works at this office instead of the Government House after the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) sprang up and won solid support from Bangkok residents.
NSC secretary-general Paradorn Pattanatabut said flocks of farmers have now taken to the streets to seek overdue payment and the PDRC is apparently keen on wooing them to its side.
Some of the farmers have already shown up on PDRC stages in the past few days and some of them have petitioned the anti-graft body to investigate the controversial rice scheme and impeach the government.
The PDRC on February 10 went on another fund-raising march to help the farmers’ fight for their claim to payment after the first such drive last Friday.
The government’s rice-pledging scheme now owes about 130 billion baht ($4 billion) to over 1 million farmers. The repeatedly postponed payments have made many farmers desperate and others furious. Protesting farmers have come from many provinces, including some seen as the Pheu Thai Party’s strongholds.
Northern Farmers Network chairman Kittisak Rattanawaraha said more than 10,000 farmers from his zone have already headed to Bangkok to join the demonstration. Hundreds of farmers were seen leaving Phitsanulok for Bangkok for the same cause.
“Violent incidents have often taken place at the PDRC rally site on Chaeng Wattana Road,” Paradorn said.
This rally site is close to the Defence Permanent Secretary’s Office, where the farmers converged.
Paradorn remained vague about whether Yingluck would meet with the farmers.
“If she does not come to the office, other ministers will directly talk to the farmers,” he said.
The government is now planning to consult the Election Commission (EC) on the legality of using 1.2 billion baht from the central budget for the payment of interest to rice millers who agree to accept farmers’ certificates in the rice-pledging scheme as mortgages for loans. It has been struggling for months to secure a bridge loan to continue financing the rice-pledging scheme. After Yingluck dissolved the House of Representatives on December 9, her government is just a caretaker and needs EC approval on several issues.
Caretaker Deputy Commerce Minister Yanyong Phuangrach said the ministry would release 1.2 million tonnes of rice from the government’s stocks in the hope that it would earn 10 billion baht to pay off farmers for the latest crop under the rice-pledging scheme, Nation Channel reported. Some 227,000 tonnes from 11 granaries in eight provinces would be offered through the Agricultural Futures Exchange of Thailand, of which 167,000 tonnes will be 5-per-cent white rice and the rest jasmine rice. Some 460,000 tonnes will be sold through a general auction and the remaining 500,000 tonnes to millers.Manus Kitprasert, president of the Thai Rice Millers Association, said he would circulate letters to members to inform them that the government has proposed to sell rice to them.
“We are ready to buy the rice from the government, but the rice we buy will be at the same prices as those set by the general bidding,” he said.
