Thailand police arrest anti-junta protesters

Police in Thailand have taken into custody several people protesting against the military government in the country on the first anniversary of a coup that saw the rise to power of incumbent Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha.

According to an AFP report on Friday, at least four anti-junta activists, members of the ‘Resistant Citizen’ campaign group, were detained in the capital, Bangkok.

The anti-junta campaign had called on supporters in a Facebook post earlier in the day to begin marching on the Bangkok Criminal Court at 3:00 p.m. local time (0800 GMT) in line with a plan to file treason charges against Prayut.

The opponents of the junta in Thailand accuse it of having carried out an unconstitutional overthrow of the elected government of former Premier Yingluck Shinawatra.

In addition to the four activists, police arrested at least seven students holding an anti-coup banner on a street in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen.

Earlier on Friday, Prayut said he led the coup “because I thought that both the country and the people were in severe danger,” adding, “If I didn’t do it, I wonder if our country may already have collapsed.”

The Thai military seized power on May, 22, 2014 following months of anti-government protests and violence in the country. Prayut’s administration imposed nationwide martial law, banning political gatherings of five people or more. It also ordered security-related offenses to be handled by military courts.

Red Shirts silent?

Despite small protests throughout Thailand, there was silence on the part of the so-called Red Shirt movement, which is allied to the ousted government of Shinawatra, and her brother, ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was also ousted in a coup in 2006 and who now lives in self-exile.

“Soldiers are very strict. There is nothing to gain from any movements. It’s better to wait,” said a senior Red Shirt leader, speaking on condition of anonymity, in Thailand’s northeastern region of Isaan, which was heavily patrolled by the police.

Condemning Prayut’s year in power, Nattawut Saikua, the leader of the Red Shirt movement, accused the junta in a Facebook post of “putting duct tape on top of a fresh wound without applying any medicine.”

Ever since the junta seized power in Thailand, individuals accused of national security offences have been prosecuted in military courts with no right of appeal. Senior junta officials say the military courts are used for security offences, but convictions could be appealed in higher tribunals.

Human Rights Watch says the Thai military has thrown the country’s rights situation into a free fall.

MIS/HSN/HJL

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