-
Re: Protests update
Human trafficking cases handed over to prosecutors
The Nation June 24, 2015
With issue of 30 more arrest warrants, the number of suspects has risen to 119
POLICE HAVE ISSUED another 30 arrest warrants for suspects in the trafficking of Rohingya and other migrants, with details and evidence handed over to Office of the Attorney-General yesterday for prosecution and other legal action, which could impact on Thailand's international reputation.
National police chief Pol General Somyot Poompanmuang said initial arrests of suspects involved in trafficking the Rohingya had led to the discovery of mass burial sites in southern Thailand, paving the way for subsequent arrests of ringleaders of these cross-border human trafficking syndicates....... (read more)......
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 62973.html
-
Re: Protests update
How the New US Ambassador Views His Role in Thailand Under Military Rule
By US Congress press release
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
THE NEW US Ambassador designate to Thailand, Glyn Davies, has provided his testimony to Congress. Here's what he told them in his job application:
Senate Foreign Relations Committee
June 23, 2015
Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee,
Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. I am honored to be President Obama's nominee to serve as the United States Ambassador to the Kingdom of Thailand. I thank the President for the confidence he has placed in me by putting me forward to the Senate for consideration, and thank Secretary of State Kerry for his strong support. I am grateful to all the members of the Committee for this chance to speak to my qualifications and intentions...... (read more).....
http://phuketwan.com/tourism/ambassador ... ule-22709/
-
Re: Protests update
Prayuth Rebukes Reporters in Gloomy Rant [Transcript]
Junta chairman Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha at the Government House on 24 June 2015.
BANGKOK тАФ Junta chairman and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha lashed out at the press today, accusing reporters of being paid to criticize his government, and warning that the country is on the brink of collapse.
Gen. Prayuth, who is known for his long-winded and often irritated asides during speeches and press conferences, delivered the tirade at an air force base following his return from a state visit to Myanmar today.
The following is an excerpt from the encounter:
Prayuth: I try to do everything in the best way I can. I am responsible for all problems at this time, no matter what. I will do my best. Today may not be good, but tomorrow will be good. Or do you want things to be good today but face bankruptcy in the future? You have to choose, I guess. You can spend all the money and get yourself in debt. Eventually you will be bankrupt. It depends on everyone. If you want the country to be peaceful, you have to think things through again.
I am never an enemy of reporters, but these days you still write and attack me everyday.(read more)..... ( I think it would be to the General's advantage to hire a press secretary to explain the government's policies and he stay out of the limelight ..... Up2U)
http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.ph ... map=%5B%5D
-
Re: Protests update
Students file charges against police
KASAMAKORN CHANWANPEN
THE NATION June 25, 2015
'PROTESTS NOT BENEFICIAL', PRAYUT WARNS, |AS YOUNGSTERS SHOW UP TO FIGHT BACK
A GROUP OF students wanted by the authorities for protesting against the junta showed up at Pathumwan Police Station yesterday to deny the charges against them.
Of the 14 present, seven were Dao Din activists, who were there to offer moral support.
Some Bangkok-based university students filed complaints against police for alleged abuse of power after their heavy-handed arrest for protesting against the first-year anniversary of the May 22 coup in Bangkok.
The move came as Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha urged people to stop protesting, saying the country was dying.
"Why do they keep on protesting?" said Prayut, mentioning the name of group incorrectly. Be it Dao Fah or Dao Nam Ngern it won't be beneficial. I think the country cannot move because [people] don't understand what sort of situation we're in nowтАж"
The students arrived at the police station around 1pm, as they had said they would earlier. But instead of reporting to the police and acknowledging the charges against them, they said they were there to file complaints for alleged police assault and abuse of power on May 22. The crowd grew to about 200 to 300 by the evening, with some 50 police officers guarding the premises......, (read more).....
http://linkis.com/nationmultimedia.com/k9bOi
Political Anniversary in Thailand Puts Focus on Freedoms
Ron Corben
June 24, 2015
BANGKOKтАФ
Pro-democracy activists in Thailand are using the anniversary of the founding of the country's democracy to protest the ruling military junta, which seized power from the elected government in a bloodless coup last year. But Thailand's current rulers are showing little tolerance for criticism.
In the early morning light a small gathering of Thai political activists and poets gathered in central Bangkok, laying flowers at a monument marking events 83 years ago during the toppling of ThailandтАЩs last absolute monarchy.
Reports said police monitoring Wednesday's gathering did not interfere.
The official reaction stood in contrast to recent crackdowns against small gatherings of students, the most recent in May, marking the first anniversary of the militaryтАЩs takeover with promises of political reform and fresh elections. Up to 40 activists were detained for holding peaceful rallies amid signs of increasing intolerance to free speech by the military government.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Watch criticized the militaryтАЩs dealing with the students, including a group known as Dao Din from the northern Khon Kaen University.,..... (read more)....
http://www.voanews.com/content/politica ... 35174.html
-
Re: Protests update
Sending Messages: The arrest of Thaksin loyalist Kamronwit in Japan
Posted on June 24, 2015 by Editor
News of the arrest of Thaksin loyalist Kamronwit Thoopkrachang in Japan while carrying a handgun and ammunition once again places the Thaksin loyalist in the news.
Kamronwit was former Commander of the Metropolitan Police Bureau (purged from his post after the 2014 coup) who gained fame by openly acknowledging that he owed his post to personally lobbying Thaksin in Hong Kong.
The arrest has generated waves of rumors about Kamronwit being set up in retaliation for the recent show of defiance by current Chief of Police Somyot Poompanmuang.
Chief of Police Somyot PoompanmuangтАЩs stunning ability to simply reject public calls by the junta to carry out their orders to strip Thaksin of his rank, even after the junta abandoned plans to reorganize the police force, demonstrates the limits of PM PrayuthтАЩs absolute power.
SomyotтАЩs further trumpeting of an old Thaksin favoriteтАУlegalization of gamblingтАУin the face of junta opposition further underlines the continuing ability of the police to resist military influence....... (read more).....
http://2bangkok.com/about-kamronwit-thoopkrachang.html
-
Re: Protests update
Graft probe sees 71 senior and local officials shifted
THE NATION June 26, 2015
Article 44 used to move Permanent Secretary of Tourism, Chonsawat Asavahame, and NHSO's Winai
WIELDING THE powerful Article 44 of the interim charter, the government yesterday ordered the transfer and suspension of 71 high-ranking civil servants and members of several local administrative bodies, including the Tourism Ministry permanent secretary to an inactive post and influential Samut Prakan figure Chonsawat Asvahame away from his long-standing stronghold.
Those affected include a number of deputy secretaries-general, public prosecutors and heads of tambon (TAO) and provincial administrative organisations (PAO), mayors, school and hospital directors, and one director-general, said Deputy Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd, reading out the order published yesterday in the Royal Gazette at a press conference..... (read more).....
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 63150.html
-
Re: Protests update
Anti-coup students 'ready for arrest'
KASAMAKORN CHANWANPEN,
PRAVIT ROJANAPHRUK
THE NATION June 26, 2015
The NEO Democracy Movement (NDM), a new anti-coup student group made up of Dao Din students and five Bangkok-based students, has said they're ready to be arrested by the authorities and will not seek bail. They say any act taken by the government is illegitimate and should be rejected.
The group marched to Democracy Monument yesterday afternoon to challenge the regime of Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who said one day the students will be arrested if they violate the law.
"Let them make the move and the day they break the law will be the day [they get arrested]. Don't try to tempt [me]," said Prayut, who asked others not to cooperate with anti-coup students.
"They should ask themselves if their parents are suffering or not? Having to face legal prosecution and being removed from student status. What will their future be?"
The new 30-strong group is a merger of seven Dao Din students from Khon Kaen University and pro-democracy students from various universities in Bangkok. It includes those arrested on May 22 for marking the first anniversary of the coup..... (read more)....
http://linkis.com/nationmultimedia.com/TltOy
-
Re: Protests update
U. S. State Dept. Report for Thailand on Democracy and Human Rights
EXECUTIVE SUMMARYS
Thailand is a constitutional monarchy. The king serves as head of state and has traditionally exerted strong influence. On May 22, in a bloodless coup, military and police leaders, taking the name of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and led by General Prayut Chan-Ocha, overthrew the interim government led by the Puea Thai political party. Puea Thai, led by Yingluck Shinawatra, had governed since 2011 following National Assembly lower house elections that were generally viewed as free and fair. The military-led NCPO maintained effective control over the security forces.
The coup leaders repealed the constitution (except for provisions related to the monarchy), suspended parliament, continued martial law imposed two days earlier on May 20, and issued numerous decrees severely limiting civil liberties, including restrictions on freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of the press. The NCPO summoned and detained, without charge, more than 900 political leaders, academics, journalists, and others, holding many for up to seven days. The NCPO promulgated an interim constitution on July 22 and appointed individuals to a National Legislative Assembly on July 31, the members of which unanimously selected coup leader and head of the army, General Prayut, as prime minister on August 21.
In addition to limitations on human rights occasioned by the coup and implemented by the NCPO, the most persistent human rights problems consisted of abuses by government security forces and local defense volunteers in the context of the continuing Malay-Muslim insurgency in the three southernmost provinces, and occasional excessive use of force by security forces, including police killing, torturing, and otherwise abusing criminal suspects, detainees, and prisoners. After the May 22 coup, citizens no longer had the ability to change the government through the right to vote in free and fair elections.
Other human rights problems included arbitrary arrests and detention; poor, overcrowded, and unsanitary prison and detention facilities; insufficient protection for vulnerable populations, including refugees; violence and discrimination against women; sex tourism; sexual exploitation of children; trafficking in persons; discrimination against persons with disabilities, minorities, hill tribe members, and foreign migrant workers; child labor; and some limitations on worker rights.
Authorities occasionally dismissed, arrested, prosecuted, and convicted security force members who committed abuses. Official impunity, however, continued to be a serious problem, especially in provinces where the 2005 Emergency Decree and the 2008 Internal Security Act (ISA) remained in effect. The militaryтАЩs invocation of martial law nationwide on May 20 magnified this problem. Article 48 of the NCPO-imposed interim constitution grants immunity to coup leaders and their subordinates for any pre- or postcoup actions ordered by the NCPO, regardless of the legality of the action.
Insurgents in the southernmost provinces continued to commit human rights abuses, including attacks on civilian targets...... (read more).....
http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/hu ... 80#wrapper
-
Re: Protests update
Student Activists Arrested for Anti-Coup March in Bangkok
June 26, 2015
BANGKOK тАФ Police have arrested the fourteen activists who defied the junta's ban on protests and led a pro-democracy demonstration in Bangkok yesterday.
The activists, most of whom are university students in their early 20s, were arrested this evening at Suan Ngern Meema hostel in Bangkok's Charoen Nakhon district, where they had been staying for the past two days.
Police and army officers entered the hostel, which is owned by the prominent historian Sulak Sivaraksa, at around 5:30pm with arrest warrants approved by a martial court. The activists were taken in police vans to Phra Ratchawang Police Station.
According to the arrest warrant, the group, known collectively as the Neo-Democracy Movement, violated the military junta's Order 3/2015, which bans public gatherings "for political purposes" of more than five people.
The activists are also accused of violating Section 116 of the Criminal Codes, which outlaws causing "unrest and disaffection among the people in a manner likely to cause disturbances in the country."
They are now facing trial in martial court, where military officers serve as judges and appeals are not permitted...... (read more)...... .
http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.ph ... 1435318843
-
Re: Protests update
Revisiting US Policy toward Post-Coup Thailand
Posted on June 26, 2015 By Ernest Z. Bower and Murray Hiebert Headline, Opinion, Thailand
This isnтАЩt going to be easy
At a time when US relations with most countries in Southeast Asia are warming, the United StatesтАЩ ties with its oldest partner in the region are a critical outlier. Thailand-US relations have been in a deep freeze for the past 13 months since Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha ousted an elected civilian government following six months of disruptive political protests and installed a military junta.
Thailand is going through a historic political transition that has existential stakes for Thais. Meanwhile, much of the rest of Southeast Asia is seeing a nuanced shift away from centrally controlled political models as its fast-expanding and relatively young middle class, empowered by strong economic growth and technological innovations, has begun to assert itself and press governments for more transparency, access to decision-making, and stronger institutions....... (read more)......
http://www.asiasentinel.com/opinion/rev ... -thailand/