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Published on January 31, 2008

The company's environmental impact assessment (EIA) has not yet passed the Onep, so it would ask the Prachuap Khiri Khan governor to suspend Sahaviriya's activities there, Santi Boonprakub, chief of Onep 's EIA division, told a Bangkok seminar on the matter yesterday.

Onep officials will survey the site in Tambon Mae Ramphung of Bang Saphan district next week, he said.

After withdrawing its first EIA early last year, the company re-submitted another one on December 4.

Onep's initial glance through the new EIA turned up eight questions and the company was required to answer them before the review could progress.

The EIA, performed by Panya Consultant Co, describes the location as it is without a landfill. This means that after the December 4 submission, the company must refrain from preparing the site or else it would violate the protocol stated in the EIA and the Environment Act of 1992, Santi said.

Since the report did not mention the wetlands at the site, this was regarded as the consultant's fault and it would face an ethics probe, he said.

Deputy village headman Bamrung Sudsawas, suspected of killing one of the smelter's supporters during the January 24 clash between the project's supporters and protesters, reported to police headquarters in Bangkok yesterday afternoon.

Bamrung, accompanied by Nakhon Ratchasima MP Kraisak Choonhavan and party-list MP Somkiart Pongpaiboon, told reporters he had nothing to do with the protest and the death of Raksak Khongtrakul.

Bamrung said he had a good alibi but could not tell reporters where he was. His surrender at police headquarters was due to his lack of faith in local police, he added.

Kraisak used his position to apply for Bamrung's release and police, considering that the suspect turned himself in and had not attempted to flee, granted bail pending the next interview on February 20.

Jintana Kaewkhao, a protester at the clash, said she and fellow protesters believed that Bamrung was innocent and that none of them shot Raksak dead. She insisted that none of her group carried guns or knives, while some had only slingshots.

The two guns police claimed as evidence actually belong to Bamrung's mother and they were not kept at his home, she said.

Bamrung did not join many of the group's protests but his mother did, she said, adding that he was accused because he was the only community leader in the circle of anti-plant protesters.

The Nation