Military and police officers came to inspect a seminar about environmental impacts on a disputed oil field in Isan, Thailand’s Northeast.    

According to Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR), 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’

The event was organised at Maha Sarakham University in the northeastern province of Maha Sarakham to discuss about problems related to the process of making EIA in the potential oilfield called ‘Dongmoon’ in Na Moon Village of Kranuan District in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen.

It was participated by about 120 students and villagers from other northeastern provinces.

Before the seminar started, the officers summoned Chainarong Sretthachau, a lecturer of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the university, who was one of the speakers of the seminar, for a 10 minutes discussion about the event, reported TLHR.

At the the seminar, the officers demanded that no comments on the junta should be made and that anything symbolizing opposition against the regime would not be tolerated. Moreover, the organisers of the seminar were ordered to always invite officers to participate in future seminars on the same topic.  

On Wednesday, military officers also came to the university to inspect the room that the seminar was scheduled to be held, added TLHR.

In early February, about 200 police, military, and volunteer defense officers escorted a convoy of 20 trucks of Apico (Korat) Limited, a US-based oil and gas exploration company, into the potential Dongmoon oilfield.

Despite an order by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) for the company to halt operations to explore the field due to the project’s controversial Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), on 16 February the company transported the oil drilling equipments into the village with the state officials’ approval.

TLHR reported that before assisting the company, the military also threatened to use martial law if the villagers obstruct the company’s operations because the Department of Mineral Fuels permitted the company to explore the field.