About 130 villagers effected by the Pak Mool and Rasi Salai dams were walking along a small street in Nakhon Ratchasima on Tuesday when the Cabinet announced that it had agreed with a proposal by the Prime Minister’s Office to keep the dams’ gates open for one year. The villagers were on the 64th day of their long march from the Pak Mool dam site in Ubon Ratchathani to Government House in Bangkok to demand the gates of both Pak Mool and Rasi Salai dams be kept open permanently.

Although, the Cabinet decision only concerned Pak Mool and not Rasi Salai dam as the villagers had demanded, they nevertheless were satisfied with the resolution and changed the destination of the march to the Northeast region instead of heading to the capital.

On October 9, the villagers left the dam site which they had occupied and turned into a protest site some months before. They believed this would force politicians in the House, 730 km away from the dam site, to listen to them after many months of voicing their demands.

Over the past eight years since the Pak Mool dam was built in 1993, the villagers could not make a living from the Mool River since fish could not swim up through the dam from the Mekong River to lay eggs. The “river of life” for these Northeasterners became completely useless to them after the Rasi Salai dam was finished in 1995.

The villagers have turned themselves from fresh water fishermen into road warriors armed with banners. Through the streets they roamed on their odyssey to Bangkok, staying overnight at temples along the way. At the moment they are camping in a small temple in Nakhon Ratchasima.

In 69 days from Ubon Ratchathani they have passed through Yasothon, Si Sa Ket, Roi-et, Surin, Buri Ram and now Nakhon Ratchasima, the villagers’ schedule is repeated day by day.

Getting up at about 4 am, they refresh themselves and rush into the street, forming two lines as they prepare to start the day’s journey.

Before the first light of day the march begins. With banners and flags demanding the permanent opening of all sluice gates of Pak Mool and Rasi Salai dams in their hands and plastic bottles of water hanging around their waists, the villagers walk slowly in silence.

A cassette of a monk chanting is played through an old speaker mounted on a pick-up truck loaded up with essentials which accompanies them.

“This is to show the public that our protest is not a violent action. Dhamma is always in our minds,” said Boonmee Khamruang , a Pak Mool villager who is leading the rally. Normally, the parade continues for three to four hours every day. The responsibility for searching for a temple in which to stay overnight belongs to a group of leaders. They always look for a destination that is not more than 15km away, otherwise it would beyond the ability of the villagers to walk to it.

Breakfast is cooked when the rally reaches that day’s destination.

To urban folk, the villagers might seem to be crazy people who are torturing themselves just to lure public and government interest, but to rural residents who have suffered a similar problem, the peaceful rally is the best way.

Through about 500 km from Ubon Ratchathani to Nakhon Ratchasima, the rally has received moral support from many people. Some give them small packets of sticky rice, some provide dried fish, and some help them to distribute leaflets to inform others of the objective of the rally.

Significantly, the protesters have received moral support from a friend in India. Medha Patkar, one of the leaders of Indian protests against a series of dams in the Narmada River, one of the country’s holy rivers, visit them when they were in Buri Ram.

After more than 16 years of fighting against the dams, Medha’s Save Narmada Movement was successful in halting the Sardar Sarovar dam, the largest of 165 dams designated to block the Narmada River. The dam was designed to be 139 metres high and would have required the relocation of about 300,000 villagers. Construction of the dam eventually stopped at about 90 metres.

“We [the movement] are here with you. Don’t give up,” she encouraged the villagers.

Although the dam gates are now open and the rally’s destination has changed, the desire of the villagers remains.

“Take the dam out, return our river,” one villager demanded.

So, the rally goes on around the Northeast. For how long, none of the protesters could say, but they are determined that they will not give up until the dams are completely knocked down.