<p>An environmental conservation group in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast, says that the Thai junta are siding with an oil and gas corporation to plunder resources and urges the US government to take action against the multinational petroleum company.</p>

<p>The police have prevented a local conservation group from showing a documentary film on controversial petroleum concessions in the region, saying it might breach the Copyright Act. &nbsp;</p>

<p>Embattled villagers in Thailand’s Northeast Isan region have urged the Thai authorities to consider the environmental impacts of oil drilling before it is too late.</p>

<p>Military and police officers came to inspect a seminar about environmental impacts on a disputed oil field in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="https://www.facebook.com/lawyercenter2014/posts/826426717407184">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)</a>, about 30 military from Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) and police officers in plainclothes and in uniforms on Tuesday morning came to monitor a public seminar titled ‘EIA (Environmental Impact Assessment) Na Moon: the Injustice of Land Based Petroleum in Isan’</p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-4add403e-c508-eba1-b50f-ac180db41f42">A people’s forum on reform pointed out that the junta uses martial law to silence people while plundering natural resources in communities nationwide against the will of the local people. &nbsp;</span></p>

<p>Amid tension with villagers, the Thai military continues to help oil company transport equipment into a potential oilfield in the northeast, despite an NHRC order to halt the process.</p> <p>Despite a recent order by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for the company to halt operations due to the project’s controversial Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), military officers and district officials have helped the company to occupy major roads leading to the oil field to secure the convoy’s access to the area since Saturday.</p>

<p>The military has helped a petroleum company bypass proper environmental impact assessment procedures and an NHRC order to halt petroleum exploration and threatened villagers opposing the exploration with martial law.</p> <p>About 40 armed police and military officers on Friday morning assisted&nbsp;<a href="http://www.amchamthailand.com/ACCT/asp/corpdetail.asp?CorpID=1029">Apico (Korat) Limited</a>, a US-based oil and gas exploration company, to move oil-drilling equipment into a potential oil field called Dongmoon in Kranuan District of the northeastern province of Khon Kaen.</p>