The Assembly of the Poor vowed yesterday to open Pak Mun Dam's gates with their own hands .

The group issued a statement condemning the juntaappointed government for forc¬ing Pak Mun villagers into more difficulties and destroying their livelihoods more than the pre¬vious government of Thaksin Shinawatra ever did.

Though distorting Ubon Ratchathani University's study on the impact of Pak Mun Dam, that suggested the gates could be opened allyear round, Thaksin's Cabinet in June 2004 allowed the gates to open for four straight months a year.

But the current government ruined the occupations of Pak Mun villagers by ordering the gates shut forever, the state¬ment said.

Some 70 assembly members from Ubon Ratchathani on Tuesday night were forced to leave from their position in front of Government House while they were waiting for the Cabinet meeting.

Fifty special operations police clashed with the mem¬bers, leaving four villagers including two elderly women - 70yearold Mun and 80yearold Porn - injured.

The villagers had come down to Bangkok after General Sonthi Boonyaratglin, chair¬man of the Council for National Security, promised them that the Cabinet would consider their appeal for the opening of Pak Mun Dam's gates in its meeting on Tuesday morning.

But government officials later told them that their pro¬posal wasn't tabled at the meet¬ing.

The Pak Mun villagers left Bangkok last night and said that would fight all injustice and outlawed power to continue their existence on the Pak Mun River.

They said that they had already tried their best to resolve the problem by using all democratic means as well as academic research to convince the government to heed their request.

"But government refused to deal with us in the same way. We'll go back to open the dam's gates with our hands," the statement said.

The Cabinet on May 29 agreed that the Pak Mun Dam's gates could be opened four months a year but on June 12 it reversed that decision.