Call for more talks as fresh rally looms
The Chiang Mai provincial governor has been ordered to initiate new talks with parties involved in the conflict over the controversial housing project for judges and staff of the Administrative Office of Appeal Region 5 at the foot of Doi Suthep mountain.
The move was revealed by PM’s Office Minister Suwaphan Tanyuvardhana yesterday.
It came the same day that a network of activists opposed to the housing project called on people to join a June 30 protest outside the Administrative Office of Appeal Region 5 building.
The governor was being instructed to hold talks with the three committees set up in Chiang Mai to resolve the dispute over the housing project to improve understanding among them, he said. He called on the protesters to think twice about the rally.
He insisted that their complaint that they were previously barred from entering the construction site was a misunderstanding.
The minister also said he had already assigned his secretary to go to Chiang Mai and hold talks with all sides regarding all recent misunderstandings about the project.
Teerasak Rupsuwan , a coordinator of the activist network, calling itself the network reclaiming Doi Suthep forest land, said the planned rally would be a symbolic protest against broken promises.
The controversial complex was in the process of being built when fierce opposition to the project erupted earlier this year. It prompted the government to announce last month that the 113 rai of Treasury Department-owned land where the project is located, would no longer be used for residential purposes.
Despite a promise that construction would stop as soon as the construction contract expired on Jun 18, it has continued, Mr Teerasak said.
A security source, meanwhile, admitted that some frustrations may be unavoidable while efforts resolve the dispute continues; but the end result will definitely be the same as agreed by all side previously.
The reason is the government wants to soften its handling of the conflict so that whoever signs this case off would be spared any possible legal action for violating the law, said the source.