Chiang Mai — As planned, civil society groups wearing masks of "Min Aung Hlaing and Anutin" threw bottles of cross-border pollution-contaminated water, staged a procession, and then gathered in front of the Myanmar Consulate to submit a statement to Myanmar's president demanding stricter controls on mines leaching pollution and an end to environmental destruction.
Today (3 Aug.), at the Consulate General of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar in Chiang Mai Province, activities were held under the event titled "Joining Together to Declare Intent to Protect the Kok, Sai, Ruak, Mekong, Salween, and Kraburi Rivers," organized in the area in front of the consulate.
As for the atmosphere of the event, a group of activists assembled at Wat Santitham before marching in a procession to the front of the consulate. In addition, a symbolic activity was held involving the handing over of water described as contaminated water from the affected river basins.
Representatives wearing masks of the two countries' leaders — Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of Myanmar's military government, and Mr. Anutin Charnvirakul, the Prime Minister of Thailand — passed bottles of contaminated water back and forth to symbolize the act of passing the problem off to one another, until the bottles fell to the ground.
A statement addressed to Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of Myanmar's military government, was also read aloud, calling on him to cease the destruction of the environment and to take responsibility for the impacts on people and the ecosystems of cross-border river basins.
This gathering was attended by civil society and civic society networks to express concerns over environmental impacts linked to the Kok River, Sai River, Ruak River, Mekong River, Salween River, and Kraburi River — all of which are vital resources for communities in both Thailand and neighboring countries.
Subsequently, Police Colonel Sawek Choosiri, Superintendent of Chang Phueak Police Station in Chiang Mai Province, came to receive the letter on behalf of the consulate.
