Authorities visit Thai South, meet rubber farmers

BANGKOK, September 6 (TNA) - Authorities concerned have traveled to the Thai South to meet representatives of rubber farmers to jointly seek ways to address impacts from a plunge of rubber prices and related problems, following police's crackdown on protesting rubber farmers in Prachuap Khiri Khan Province on early Friday morning with 20 of the police officers injured subsequently. Deputy Prime Minister Police General Pracha Promnok, who heads a government committee to solve low natural rubber prices, led the other concerned authorities, including Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Kittirat Na-Ranong, Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Yukol Limlaemthong and Minister Attached to the Prime Minister's Office and Deputy Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister Varathep Rattanakorn, for the mission. The official delegation then arrived in Nakhon Si Thammarat province to listen to rubber farmers' proposals, before forwarding them to the government's Natural Rubber Policy Committee for further consideration later. Deputy Premier Kittirat acknowledged that a fall in rubber prices on the world market has resulted in ongoing low rubber prices on the domestic market, as Thailand normally exports up to 80-90 per cent of locally-produced natural rubber produce to overseas markets. Kittirat pointed out after earlier discussions between the Natural Rubber Policy Committee and representatives of rubber growers, rubber prices on both the domestic and overseas markets have gradually increased. Deputy Prime Minister Pracha told reporters, meanwhile, that the crackdown happened in Prachuap Khiri Khan's Bang Saphan district at about 2:30am, during which teenagers burnt reporters' vehicles and jail trucks and there were threatening gunshots, while police used teargas to disperse the protesters. According to the deputy prime minister, 20 police officers were injured, one of them was seriously wounded as a rock hit his head and he suffered from bleeding in his brain and has been treated in an intensive care unit (ICU) of a local hospital. Four defense volunteers were also injured in the incident, but no protesters were wounded and only one of them reportedly fainted. In Nakhon Si Thammarat's Cha-uat district, rubber farmers have ended their protest and blockage on roads and a railway track since Thursday evening. (TNA)