By Nopporn Wong-Anan
BANGKOK (Reuters) - A major Thai truckers group that isthreatening to blockade the capital this week is due to meetenergy and transport officials on Monday over its demands forgovernment help against rising fuel prices.
Thongyu Khongkan, head of the Land Transport Federation ofThailand, which has 400,000 trucks under its banner, said hehoped the meeting would yield "positive results", but said hewas not yet backing off his call for action on the streets.
"Our stance is clear that if we don't get what we want, ourmember organisations will start moving their trucks toBangkok," Thongyu told Reuters.
"Imagine what will happen to Bangkok traffic when you havethousands of trucks driving very slowly into the capital andpolice can't stop us."
Last week, thousands of truckers nationwide went on ahalf-day strike demanding help against rising fuel prices, thelatest in a series of protests that have swept across Asia andEurope as oil prices have soared to above $130 a barrel. Theirspecific demands included a discount of 3-baht ($0.09) perlitre of diesel for six months, as well as cheap loans toconvert engines to compressed natural gas.
State-run refineries agreed last month to sell diesel toBangkok bus companies at an 8 percent discount under a cheapfuel scheme that has ample scope to incorporate other sectorssuch as fishermen and truckers.
Facing a sustained protest on the streets of Bangkok andshaky public support, Thailand's four-month old government istrying to shore itself up with handouts to everyone from ricefarmers to bus operators.
Also on Tuesday, state utility workers will meet to draw uptheir formal response should the government choose to use forceto break up the protest by the People's Alliance for Democracy(PAD).
"If the government opts to use violence against thepeaceful rally we will react by calling a strike," SawitKaewvan, head of the State Enterprise Labour RelationsConfederation, told Reuters. Unions under its banner command200,000 members.
He added that the level of reaction would depend on thelevel of violence used against the PAD, the same group thattargeted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2005, triggeringhis eventual removal in a 2006 coup.
Possible measures included cutting electricity and watersupplies to Government House, the seat of administration, or anationwide bus and train strike, Sawit said.
The PAD rally, which has been blocking traffic for threeweeks, has a fraction of the support it did in 2006, althoughany attempt to use force against them is likely to boost theirpopularity and standing, analysts say.
(Editing by Ed Cropley and David Fox)
