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Re: Protests update
VOA: Thailand Political Parties Criticize Proposed
Ron Corben
May 06, 2015 10:58 AM
BANGKOKтАФ
The new constitution drafted by ThailandтАЩs military-backed government is aimed at returning the country to democratic rule, but the draft version is already under criticism by a wide range of political parties.
This will be the 20th constitution since Thailand became a constitutional monarchy in 1932, and its supporters say it tries to succeed where the others failed тАУ to create a stable and enduring democracy.
But it has drawn opposition from the countryтАЩs two major political parties, who say it weakens their influence and will do little to end the political polarization that has divided the country over the past 15 years.......... (read more)........
http://www.voanews.com/content/thailand ... 52332.html
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Re: Protests update
PM orders camp cleanup
Sets 10-day deadline to expunge trafficking
7 May 2015
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has given local authorities in all provinces 10 days to eliminate all Rohingya detention camps and related activities in their areas.
Deputy government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Gen Prayut also has ordered the authorities to eliminate any other illegal migrant detention camps in Songkhla within 10 days.
Authorities concerned would face punishment if illegal human-trafficking detention places and activities are still found after that time frame......... (read more).......
http://bangkokpost.com/news/politics/55 ... mp-cleanup
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Re: Protests update
Is the Mass Grave a тАЬTurning PointтАЭ for Thai Policy on Trafficking?
May 6th, 2015 @ 06:43 pm тА║ Joshua Kurlantzick
Last Friday, Thai police discovered a mass grave near the countryтАЩs southern border with Malaysia. Twenty-six bodies have been exhumed from the grave thus far. According to a report in the New York Times, the mass grave was located in an abandoned detention camp that was likely used by human smugglers. These camps, primarily for Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, are common in southern Thailand. This one, the Times reported, was тАЬmade up of bamboo cages, watchtowers and what the Thai police described as a тАШtorture room,тАЩ without giving more details.тАЭ
Both Thai officials and many Thai media outlets said that the discovery of the mass grave would mark a dramatic shift in how Thailand addresses trafficking.... (read more)........
http://blogs.cfr.org/asia/2015/05/06/is ... afficking/
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Re: Protests update
BP Editorial: Take down the traffickers
8 May 2015
The Prayut government should be commended for taking swift action against human trafficking rings following the shocking discovery of Rohingya death camps in the dense jungles of Padang Besar by the Thai-Malaysian border.
On Wednesday, the government transferred a high-ranking army officer and 38 policemen in Satun, Ranong and Songkhla where Rohingya detention camps and graves are located. That these officers were in charge of immigration, marine surveillance and law enforcement in the areas confirms long-held public suspicions of government officials' collusion with trafficking networks...... (read more).......
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... raffickers
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Re: Protests update
The Changing Face of ThailandтАЩs Junta
A year after coup, Gen. Prayuth gives no sign of exit plan
By
James Hookway
Updated May 7, 2015
BANGKOKтАФ Prayuth Chan-ocha likes a nice uniform. There was the army chiefтАЩs outfit he wore when he seized power a year ago. Then there was the lavishly embroidered white civil servantтАЩs get-up for when he appointed himself ThailandтАЩs prime minister.
Business suits, well, they donтАЩt seem to fit him so well.
For while Gen. Prayuth is still a popular figure in many households for his bluff soldierтАЩs humor, ThailandтАЩs economy, once one of the fastest-growing in the world, is stumbling badly. Add to that the absence of a timetable for ThailandтАЩs return to democracy and the relief many Thais felt when he took over has given way to apprehension..... (read more)......
http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-changin ... 1431027002
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Re: Protests update
Amnesty condemns Thai junta over media censorship
Submitted by editor2 on Wed, May 6, 2015
Amnesty International urged the Thai junta to remove censorships over media and stop the prosecutions of people of the press in the name of national security.
On Sunday, Amnesty International issued a public statement to the Thai junta on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, which is on 3 May of every year.
The statement pointed out that since the imposition of the martial law on 20 May 2014 and the subsequent coup dтАЩ├йtat, the junta maintains tight control over media, claiming that it is necessary for national security.
Although the martial law is now lifted, the military government still repeatedly prosecute people of the press and media outlets, who are allegedly presenting informations deemed as inciting conflicts, divisive, and distorting of facts, Amnesty concluded.
Amnesty international illustrated the repression of media in Thailand with the case of Somyos Pruksakasemsuk, a former editor of Voice of Thaksin Magazine, who was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment under Article 112 of the Criminal Code, lese majeste law. He was denied bail 16 times........ (read more).....
http://prachatai.org/english/node/5029
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Re: Protests update
Thai junta leader implies charter referendum тАШwaste of moneyтАЩ
Submitted by editor2 on Fri, 08/05/2015
ThailandтАЩs junta leader expressed reluctance to hold public referendum before passing the draft constitution, saying that it could cost billions of baht.
According to Prachachat News, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, on Thursday afternoon told the media that holding a public referendum on the draft constitution may cost the government three billion baht (about USD 89 million).... (read more)....
http://prachatai.org/english/node/5038
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Re: Protests update
Boonsong, Poom, Manas impeached for fake rice exports
The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Friday voted to impeach former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom, former deputy commerce minister Poom Sarapol and former foreign trade chief Manas Soyploy for fake government-to-government rice deals.
Published: 08/05/2015 at 01:41 PM
Writer: Mongkol Bangprapahttp
(read more).......
//m.bangkokpost.com/topstories/555659
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Re: Protests update
May 8, 2015 8:54 am
ThailandтАЩs junta dances lightly abroad amid crackdown at home
Michael Peel in Bangkok
The Khon тАФ or masked play тАФ is the visually spectacular meeting point of Thai arts and culture.
A tale of two Thailands is about to be played out in LondonтАЩs most prestigious traditional concert venue and the jails of Southeast Asia.
In the British capital, a gala show at the Royal Albert Hall will next month honour a Thai princess, in a performance of a masked court dance last staged there for Queen Victoria 130 years ago. Almost 10,000km away, student dramatists and even a bookseller languish in prison cells because they are deemed to have insulted the very same Thai royal family..... (read more).....
http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/77297316 ... z3ZjG6q7rg
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Re: Protests update
BP Opinion: Thailand needs to make rational decisions
11 May 2015
WRITER: JOHN DRAPER & PEERASIT KAMNUANSILPA
In the uncovering of mass graves and 21st-century death camps тАФ essentially forced labour camps where the twist is that the victim's relatives must work and sell their possessions in the hope their relatives will be freed тАФ as well as in the detection of hundreds of unregistered fishing trawlers, Thailand has a choice.
The first is to deny everything and avoid injuring vested interests and thereby potentially causing disharmony along social cleavage lines such as the military versus the police.
The second option is an onslaught on the evil that Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha has acknowledged lies within the system тАФ an evil perpetuated by xenophobia. The Thai military seems to have chosen this alternative and has initiated command and control centres to eliminate human trafficking and revolutionise the Thai fishing industry.
Thailand does not have much time. The next US Trafficking in Persons Report comes out in June....... (read more)......
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opin ... -decisions