Protests update

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Opinion: Epidemic of Top Thai Cop тАШSuicidesтАЩ Continues
Posted on February 17, 2016 By Charupong Ruangsuwan Headline, Opinion, ThailandOpinion: Epidemic of Top Thai Cop тАШSuicidesтАЩ Continues
On Feb. 12, a Thai police spokesman announced that a high-ranking official, Lt. Col. Chan Chaisawatra, had committed suicide.
We believe he didnтАЩt commit suicide. We believe he was murdered..... (read more).... /www.asiasentinel.com/opinion/another-suicide-in-top-thailand-police-ranks/

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Pravit Rojanaphruk
20 February 2016
Reject the Draft Charter to Break the Cycle of Coups
BANGKOK тАФ Has giving a middle finger to the juntaтАЩs draft charter become a crime in Thailand? When I posted such a photo recently тАУ along with another version in which I gave it a thumbs-up тАУ junta reps rang me up twice to express their displeasure before putting pressure on my employer Friday.

But none of thatтАЩs why I will reject its proposed constitution.

While many will reserve judgment until the final draft is issued by the end of March, I will not. I have already decided that I must reject it.

ItтАЩs not because..... (read more)....http://www.khaosodenglish.com/detail.ph ... 1455955163

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Wed Feb 24, 2016
Ousted Thai PM Thaksin's influence shows signs of waning
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Andrew R.C. Marshall

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Sitting in her busy Bangkok noodle shop, Bunruen Klinnak professes "love" for Thailand's former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled in a 2006 military coup and later fled abroad.

But Klinnak, 55, also fears Thaksin's return to politics could spell further unrest in a country rocked by coups and bloody street protests over the past decade.

"We need to save money and be frugal because we don't know what politics will be like in the future," she says.

This ambivalence among even his admirers suggests Thaksin's political influence in military-run Thailand could be flagging despite a new publicity blitz by the self-exiled billionaire.

From his base in Dubai, Thaksin has thrown money and clout behind street protests and election campaigns, helping to install his sister Yingluck as prime minister in 2011.

But the military overthrew her three years later - she is now on trial for corruption..... (read more)..... http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN0VX0PA

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February 23, 2016
Exiled Thai ex-prime minister Thaksin says he fears for his life (VIDEO)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VfMsXxj7zAA

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February 19, 2016
The Guardian view on military rule in Thailand
Editorial
Thailand’s generals have failed: it is time that democracy, in spite of its problems, is restored
Thai political life after last year’s military takeover hovers somewhere between farce and tragedy. Farce, when the government had to hurriedly delete a scene showing a schoolboy painting a picture of Hitler in a film promoting prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha’s “12 core values”, a list of duties and responsibilities vaguely reminiscent of Vichy France’s “travail, famille, patrie”.

Incompetence, sabotage, or what: who knows? It was farcical.... (read more)...
http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...-rule-thailand

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Thai judicial system needs reform as well as the military: activists, academic
Submitted by editor2 on Tue, 23/02/2016

Well-known pro-democracy activists and an academic have concluded that in addition to reforming its military, Thailand needs to reform its judicial institutions as well to get out of the endless cycle of coups d’état.

Resistant Citizen, an anti-junta activist group, on Monday, 22 February 2016, organised a well-attended public seminar on Judicial Institutions under Special Circumstances at Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus, Bangkok..... (read more).....http://prachatai.org/english/node/5879

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A good read, Thomas Fuller's last article from the Asia desk of the NYTimes. Reporting on Life, Death and Corruption in Southeast Asia. http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/22/wo...east-asia.html

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Thai PM Prayuth snaps at Reuters reporter over Thaksin interview
by Asian Correspondent Staff | 24th February 2016
BANGKOK THAI Prime Minister and junta head Prayuth Chan-ocha lost his temper at a Reuters journalist at Government House today, apparently over the news agency’s recent interview with former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra...... (read more)....
https://asiancorrespondent.com/2016/...sin-interview/

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How Thailand’s Junta Abuses Its Critics
One junta critic on the treatment he and his family are receiving under the ruling junta.
By Pavin Chachavalpongpun
February 25, 2016
On February 24, just a few hours before my lecture at Oxford University began, I received a message from my sister who lives in Bangkok requesting me to contact her urgently. Upon contacting her, she informed me in a distressed voice that the military had sent four officers to my house in Bangkok.

As someone who has been outspoken on the sensitive issue of the future..... (read more)..... http://thediplomat.com/2016/02/how-t...s-its-critics/

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Chavalit tells NCPO to relinquish power, hold elections in 2016 Published: 25/02/2016
Former prime minister Chavalit Yongchaiyudh on Thursday told the National Council for Peace and Order that its time was over and it should hand power to a neutral body to hold elections this year and restore... (read more).... http://m.bangkokpost.com/news/876612...kokpost.com%2F