Update: At least 100 more police and military officers were deployed at Khao Luang Tambon (Subdistrict) Administration Organization office at about 10 am on Tuesday to maintain order. At 10:20 am, Samai Pakmee, the chief of Khao Luang TAO council, informed the villagers that the meeting to finalise the renewal of a mining concession for Tungkam mining company will be postponed until further notice.    

The Thai authorities deployed officers to bar anti-mine villagers to enter a meeting over renewing a mining concession.

The local authorities of Wang Saphung District of the Isan province of Loei on Tuesday morning, 16 February 2016, deployed more than 50 police and military officers to prevent local villagers from entering a meeting at Khao Luang Tambon (Subdistrict) Administration Organization office (TAO).

At the meeting, the TAO officials will decide whether or not to renew a concession over a protected area of Khok Phulek for Tungkum Company, a mining operator.

Villagers opposing the mine gathered at 2 pm yesterday in front of Khao Luang TAO and demanded that the authorities let them participate in the meeting, but they were not allowed in.

The officers from a Center for Peace and Order in the area at 3 pm yesterday put up a banner reading “Prohibited Area, Keep Out” on the gate of Khao Luang TAO.

The villagers were later allowed to enter the TAO compound, but were not allowed to enter the main building.

They camped out overnight in the presence of many security officers.

At press time, about 100 villagers were still gathered at the venue.

According to a Facebook page of the Neo E-saan Movement, the security officers guarding the TAO meeting told the villagers that they would not be permitted to participate in the meeting and vote for or against mining activities in the area.

The conflict between Wang Saphung villagers and Tungkum mining company has been ongoing for many years.

The villagers from six districts of Wang Saphung founded Khon Rak Baan Koed (People Who Love Their Home) (KRBK) to counter the interests of the mining operator, alleging that throughout 12 years of mining, villagers have suffered numerous environmental problems. The most chronic is the contamination of water sources from cyanide waste on the mountain in Loei where the mine is situated.

The company, however, said that there is no solid evidence to back up the villages’ claims.

Tension between villagers and the company reached a peak in September 2013 when the villagers barricaded the mine entrance, blocking trucks, each of which normally carries 15 tons of cyanide waste, from passing through the villages. Although the sound of the machines disappeared and the sound of chirping birds returned, the villagers had to live in fear of judicial harassment, thugs, gunmen and death threats.

Officers from a Center for Peace and Order in the area yesterday put up a banner reading “Prohibited Area, Keep Out” on the gate of Khao Luang TAO

Wang Saphung villagers stayed overnight at Khao Luang TAO

Officers deployed on 16 February 2016 to keep the villagers out of the TAO meeting to discuss the mining concession (images courtesy of the Neo E-saan Movement)