Thai police said yesterday they had briefly arrested about 800 farmers after a clash in the country's south, where they used tear gas on a crowd who had occupied private land.
Landless farmers had been gathering at a palm oil plantation in the province of Surat Thani since last month, demanding that the land be allocated to the poor. By Saturday, the number of protesters had swelled to 2,000.
Surat Thani police chief Thesa Sirivatho said that about 1,000 police armed with shotguns, batons and tear gas on Saturday waded in to break up the protest after a court ordered the eviction of the farmers.
Local hospital staff said that 12 police officers and 20 protesters were injured in the hour-long confrontation on Saturday morning.
"We told them to leave, then we started firing water cannon, but they retaliated by throwing handmade grenades," Thesa said. "We later used the tear gas and arrested approximately 800 people."
He said that most of the farmers were released later on Saturday, while 140 people were charged with illegally occupying private land and obstructing the authorities.
Many of the protesters had travelled to Surat Thani from the mainly Muslim southern provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani, Thesa said, where a separatist insurgency has killed thousands and forced many from their homes.
He said that the farmers mistakenly believed that a Thai company was illegally occupying the palm plantation.
"It is difficult for them to live in those three provinces as the violence goes on, and they believed the protest leader because they hoped they could start working here," Thesa said.
The Bangkok Post newspaper yesterday reported that local rights group the National Human Rights Commission had called on Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont to investigate whether the police had used unnecessary force against the farmers.
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