Saya kepilkan bersama mesej ini 3 petikkan lapuran dari AP mengenai perkembangan di Hadyai. Satu Fokus Khas akan dikeluarkan nanti mengenai projek kontroversi ini.

Terjemahan ringkas :

SKANDAL GAS ASLI: POLIS DAN RAKYAT BERTEMPUR

Terdapat bantahan keras dari rakyat Thailand terhadap projek membina paip gas asli antara Thailand dan Malaysia yang bernilai $1 billion itu.

Beratus2 rakyat membantah dengan membaling batu bertempur dengan polis semasa kes di perdengar. Dilapurkan 40 tercedera. Satu trak bertayar enam merempuh ke pintu pagar yang mengunci rakyat dari memasukki kawasan mesyuarat tersebut.

Kes diperdengarkan sebagai pra-syarat "rasmi" untuk mengiyakan projek tersebut. Para pendemo merempuh masuk mesyuarat tetapi telah terlambat - kerana sebutan dengar kes sudah berakhir - ia mengizinkan pembinaan projek tersebut.

Rakyat dan pecinta alam sekitar bimbang projek itu akan merosakkan sistem ekologi, perlancungan dan hidup rakyat tempatan.

Mereka juga marah kerana kes sebut-dengar tersebut tidak bermakna kerana satu perjanjian untuk membina paip gas sejauh 215 batu itu telah ditanda tangani oleh Petroleum Authority of Thailand dan Petroliam Nasional Bhd.

"Sepatutnya kerajaan mengadakan sebut dengar sebelum perjanjian itu lagi", kata seorang penduduk di situ.

Dalam projek tersebut, kilang gas akan di bina di Songkla, dan dari situ ia akan disalurkan ke Malaysia melalui Kedah. Gas disedut dari Gulf of Thailand dibawah projek JDA (Thai-Malaysian joint development area).

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001021/wl/ thailand_malaysia_pipeline_3.html

Saturday October 21 9:39 AM ET

40 Hurt in Gas Pipeline Protest

By BUSABA SIVASOMBOON, Associated Press Writer

HAD YAI, Thailand (AP) - Hundreds of angry protesters wielding sticks and throwing stones clashed with police and then stormed a public hearing into the construction of a Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline, police said. At least 40 people were injured.

Officials at the hearing - a legal prerequisite for the $1 billion project - were led out by police after protesters in a six-wheeled truck broke open a locked gate and drove onto the grounds of the arena, chanting ``We have to fight, we have to fight.''

Protesters went on the rampage, eventually breaking into the meeting hall in Had Yai, the capital of Songkhla province, 590 miles south of Bangkok, but not before the hearing had been wrapped up quickly in support of constructing the pipeline.

Environmentalists and protesting villagers fear the project will damage the ecosystem, the tourism industry and the lives of local people.

They are also angry over the timing of the hearing, which they say is pointless since an agreement to build the 215-mile pipeline was signed last year by the state Petroleum Authority of Thailand and Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd.

``I can tell you this is not the end,'' said Akechai, head of a coordinating committee of citizens' groups in southern Thailand, after the hearing. ``I can predict more violence will come because the government does not want to listen to the people.''

Police Maj. Gen. Thawatchai Julsukon told a news conference that 20 police officers were injured in clashes with protesters.

Later Saturday, hundreds of protesters stoned the police station and police officers' residences in the town of Chana, about 25 miles from Had Yai in Songkhla province. The properties were damaged but there were no reported injuries.

Inside the station, police were holding two men suspected of firing warning shots to ward off protesters who had massed outside the Petroleum Authority office in Chana as they returned home after the public hearing.

Some 17 villagers who had gone into the hearing to support the pipeline project were also hurt, Thawatchai said. The extent of their injures was not immediately clear.

Akechai said that four or five protesters were injured in scuffles with police. Witnesses said they saw a female campaigner with a bleeding head wound dragged away by police.

Uthai Pohlee, 40, a villager from Chana district of Songkhla said his home lies on the planned pipeline route and he had been told by authorities to move out.

``This is not right, because the government should have had a public hearing before they signed the agreement with Malaysia,'' he said.

Under the project, a gas separation plant will be constructed in Songkhla province from where the pipeline will run to Malaysia's northern state of Kedah. Construction of the pipeline is set to start in 2001.

The gas will be fed from an offshore field in the Gulf of Thailand, which designated as a Thai-Malaysian joint development area.

The first public hearing, in July, was aborted when opponents were kept out and became violent. Some 1,000 police had been drafted in to keep order this time.

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20001021/wl/ thailand_malaysia_pipeline_2.html

Thai-Malaysia Pipeline Protested

By BUSABA SIVASOMBOON, Associated Press Writer

HAD YAI, Thailand (AP) - Hundreds of angry protesters wielding sticks and throwing stones clashed with police and then stormed a public hearing into the construction of a Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline, police said. At least 37 people were injured.

Officials at the hearing - a legal prerequisite for the $1 billion project - were led out by police after protesters in a six-wheeled truck broke open a locked gate and drove onto the grounds of the arena, chanting ``We have to fight, we have to fight.''

Protesters went on the rampage, eventually breaking into the meeting hall in Had Yai, the capital of Songkhla province, 590 miles south of Bangkok, but not before the hearing had been wrapped up quickly in support of constructing the pipeline.

Environmentalists and protesting villagers fear the project will damage the ecosystem, the tourism industry and the lives of local people.

They are also angry over the timing of the hearing, which they say is pointless since an agreement to build the 215-mile pipeline was signed last year by the state Petroleum Authority of Thailand and Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd.

``I can tell you this is not the end,'' said Akechai, head of a coordinating committee of citizens' groups in southern Thailand, after the hearing. ``I can predict more violence will come because the government does not want to listen to the people.''

Police Maj. Gen. Thawatchai Julsukon told a news conference that 20 police were injured in clashes with protesters.

Some 17 villagers who had gone into the hearing to support the pipeline project were also hurt, Thawatchai said. The extent of their injures was not immediately clear.

Akechai said that four or five protesters were injured in scuffles with police. Witnesses said they saw a female campaigner with a bleeding head wound dragged away by police.

Uthai Pohlee, 40, a villager from Chana district of Songkhla said his home lies on the planned pipeline route and he had been told by authorities to move out.

``This is not right, because the government should have had a public hearing before they signed the agreement with Malaysia,'' he said.

Under the project, a gas separation plant will be constructed in Songkhla province from where the pipeline will run to Malaysia's northern state of Kedah. Construction of the pipeline is set to start in 2001.

The gas will be fed from an offshore field in the Gulf of Thailand, which designated as a Thai-Malaysian joint development area.

The first public hearing, in July, was aborted when opponents were kept out and became violent. Some 1,000 police had been drafted in to keep order this time.

http://asia.biz.yahoo.com/news/asian_markets/article.html? s=asiafinance/news/001021/asian_markets/dowjones/ Police__Protesters_Clash_At_Mtg_On_Thai-Malaysia_Pipeline.html

Saturday, October 21 12:30 PM SGT

Police, Protesters Clash At Mtg On Thai-Malaysia Pipeline

HAD YAI, Thailand (AP)--Hundreds of Thai police with riot shields on Saturday clashed with villagers and environmentalists trying to block a public hearing on a Thai-Malaysian gas pipeline project that locals fear will ruin their lives.

Four or five protesters were injured in scuffles as a phalanx of police officers barged their way past villagers waving green flags, said Akechai Isarata, head of a coordinating committee of citizens' groups in southern Thailand.

Witnesses saw one female anti-pipeline campaigner with a bleeding head wound dragged away by police.

One police officer was also injured as the force cleared a way for participants in the hearing to get into the venue in Had Yai, the capital of Songkhla province, 950 kilometers south of Bangkok, the Itv television network reported.

Officials and 300 villagers who had registered names to attend were then able to get inside where the hearing then started.

Protesters, who had managed to evade police overnight to form a blockade around the venue, which is the town sports arena, object to the hearing, fearing the planned 350-kilometer pipeline is a fait accompli.

The state Petroleum Authority of Thailand, or PTT, and Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd, or Petronas, have already signed a deal for the $1 billion project.

"My land is exactly where the pipeline will go through. They told me I will have to move out," said Uthai Pohlee, 40, a villager from Chana district of Songkhla.

"This is not right because the government should have had a public hearing before they signed the agreement with Malaysia. I think this public hearing is wrong and the government is wrong too."

Under the project a gas separation plant will be constructed in Songkhla province from where the pipeline will run to Malaysia's northern state of Kedah.

A public hearing and an environment impact assessment are the legal prerequisites in Thailand for such megaprojects.

Social and environmental activists fear that the project will damage communities, the ecosystem and tourism.

The first public hearing, in July, was aborted when opponents were kept out and became violent, prompting fears of violence at today's gathering. Some 1,000 police have been drafted in to keep order this time.