The Thai authorities forced a halt to an environmental rally to study the river ecosystem in Isan, Thailand’s northeast, claiming that it was illegal under martial law.

More than ten military and police officers and civil servants stormed into Thammawiwek Temple in Mueang District of the northeastern province of Yasothon on Thursday morning and forced the environmental rally to be cancelled.

The authorities claimed that the rally was not permitted while the special circumstances under martial law are still in force and that the organizers needed to obtain permission from public officials before organizing any rally.

Military officers negotiated with the Walk for the River rally organizers on Thursday morning at Thammawiwek Temple in Mueang District of the northeastern province of Yasothon

The walking rally to study the river ecosystem along the Chi River entitled ‘Walk for the River’ began on Wednesday and with about 30 participants, who walked along the Chi River tributaries to study the environmental changes in the areas and collect data for community-based water management.

Although the rally is aimed at raising awareness and education about the ecosystem and is not about national politics, the paranoid authorities still forced the rally to be cancelled. According to Nimit Harapan, the coordinator of the rally, military officers told the organizers that if the rally organizers insisted on continuing, they would have to take the organizers to talk to the Yasothon Governor.

“Actually, for this Walk for the River rally, we were really determined to learn about the changing environment of the river resulting from water source development projects, which altered the course of the stream. We have submitted a petition on this to the provincial administration many times, but none of the relevant agencies seem to care seriously enough to solve the problem. We did not bother anyone with the rally and only intended to study the water course to make suggestions for alternative water management,” said Nimit in a group statement.

Military officers closely monitoring the river rally

After an hour of negotiation with the organizers on Thursday morning, the authorities allowed the group to resume its activity, but prohibited them from rallying and showing the flags of the rally. Moreover, the military would follow them all the way.

In response to the incident, Sirisak Saduak, the coordinator of Chi River Community Resource Management, said that the measures taken by the authorities were unthinkable because the participants of the rally did not even walk on the main road, but merely walked along the small alleys beside the river and other waterways.

He urged the authorities instead to cooperate with rally participants to study the environmental problems and pointed out that the rally was necessary to prevent state agencies from wasting public revenue with failed water projects, which did not answer the needs of the river communities.