Thread: Junta Targets Scholars for New Detentions as Thai Forces Are Sent to Protests

Junta Targets Scholars for New Detentions as Thai Forces Are Sent to Protests
THOMAS FULLER and ERIC SCHMITT
MAY 24, 2014


Demonstrators clashed with Thai forces in Bangkok on Saturday as they protested Thursday’s military coup.
Credit Adam Ferguson for The New York Times

BANGKOK — Thailand’s military junta on Saturday ordered two dozen professors and writers to turn themselves over to the military authorities, broadening a sweep in which nearly 200 political officials have already been detained, and sent more troops into the streets of Bangkok and other cities to discourage protests.

The Pentagon, responding to Thursday’s military coup, announced Saturday that it was halting a military exercise with Thai armed forces that was already underway and canceling the visit here of a top American admiral. The Obama administration, which suspended military aid to Thailand last week, called off other projects for police and military cooperation.

The junta continued to consolidate power, “terminating” the upper house of Parliament and purging the bureaucracy of senior officials who were seen as allies of the deposed government.

The military said Saturday that the detained politicians, including former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra and other leaders of the former governing party, were being held to give them “time to think.” A spokesman for the junta declined to say when they would be freed.



Nearly 200 people have been summoned for detention by the Thai military. Credit Wason Wanichakorn/Associated Press The two dozen scholars and writers who were summoned Saturday also appeared to be supporters of the former government; most were advocates of elections, which a protest movement led by the Bangkok establishment had blocked.

The commander of Thailand’s army overthrew the country’s elected government on Thursday, a move applauded by members of the Bangkok establishment but one that risks a violent backlash from voters in northern Thailand who supported the overthrown government.

The junta said Saturday that it had discovered a cache of weapons in the northeastern city of Khon Kaen and had arrested members of a group it said was planning acts of sabotage.

The military also faced a spike of violence in Thailand’s troubled deep south, where an insurgency has raged for a decade. At least two people were reported killed in more than a dozen explosions at convenience stores and gas stations in the city of Pattani on Saturday night, according to Thai news media reports.

In Bangkok, several hundred protesters who confronted troops in Bangkok on Saturday held up a large banner that read, “We want an election.”

The army chief, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, outlined the junta’s plans in a meeting with foreign diplomats on Friday, saying that elections would be held only when there was a “conducive” environment, according to an account by a meeting participant.

According to the same participant, General Prayuth said he would appoint reform councils that would draft a new constitution and study unspecified “social” changes. The military on Thursday voided the Constitution, which it had helped write after a previous coup in 2006.

In Washington, officials said about 700 sailors and Marines were participating in the Cooperation Afloat Readiness and Training exercise when it was cut short. The annual exercise, which started on Tuesday, was scheduled to run through May 28 as the first of nine bilateral exercises the Navy conducts with maritime forces in Southeast Asia.

The Pentagon also announced that it was canceling a visit to Thailand by Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., the commander of the Navy’s Pacific Fleet. In addition, the Defense Department rescinded an invitation for a senior Thai commander to visit the military’s Pacific Command in Hawaii next month.

“As we have made clear, it is important that the Royal Thai armed forces end this coup and restore to the people of Thailand both the principles and the process of democratic rule, including a clear path forward to elections,” Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement.

In addition, the State Department announced Saturday that it was canceling a firearms training program for the Royal Thai police that was to start here on Monday, as well as a trip next month by senior Royal Thai police officials to the United States to visit F.B.I. facilities and meet with American law enforcement officials.

The steps taken Saturday are the Obama administration’s latest rebukes to the Thai coup leaders. On Friday, the State Department said it had suspended $3.5 million in financing for military sales and military training, and was reviewing the rest of the $10.5 million in assistance it was providing Thailand.

“We again call on the military to release those detained for political reasons, end restrictions on the media, and move to restore civilian rule and democracy through elections,” Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement.

The department also issued a warning to American citizens to “reconsider any nonessential travel to Thailand.”

The coup has been cheered in social media messages by some Thais who see it as a way to purge the influence of the governing party and its de facto leader, Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in exile and was himself ousted in the 2006 coup when he was prime minister.

Members of the Bangkok establishment who helped lead protests that led to Thursday’s coup are in favor of a suspension of democracy.

Thailand’s king, Bhumibol Adulyadej, who is 86 years old and ailing, has been silent on the country’s crisis.

He has not been seen in public since the coup. A television announcement by the junta on Saturday featured a letter from the king’s principal private secretary, Krit Kanchanakunchorn, saying only that the king had been “informed.” The British news media have reported that Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn is in Britain.

As Thais adjusted to life under military rule, questions grew about the army’s ability to handle the complexities of governing a modern economy, especially if there were a protracted period without a Parliament and an elected government. After the 2006 coup a military-appointed government was largely seen as a failure.

“It boggles the mind that they think they can run so many government departments,” said Nattakorn Devakula, a television host whose station was ordered off the air by the military. “They don’t have the expertise.”

The junta, which blocked all television stations after the coup, allowed most channels back on the air on Friday.

For a country with a traditionally freewheeling news media, sweeping guidelines banning unfavorable coverage of the coup were surprising.

A prominent Thai reporter for the newspaper The Nation, Pravit Rojanaphruk, was summoned to an army base by the junta on Saturday, and the Thai news media reported that editors from the country’s largest newspapers were also asked to attend a meeting with the military rulers.

The Canadian ambassador to Thailand, Philip Calvert, posted a message on Twitter saying that “friends in Beijing have more access to television news — including on the coup — than I do.”

Mr. Nattakorn, the television presenter, predicted a backlash.

“I don’t think the media will be as subservient as they think,” he said.

The junta has also struggled to respond to criticism on the Internet.

In talks with diplomats on Friday, General Prayuth said the army could block social media but had shown leniency.

On Saturday, the junta said on Twitter that it had ordered the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology to “search websites with agitating content aimed at causing confusion.”

The army was ready to “take action immediately,” message said.

nytimes.com

The soldiers are conscripts, they are between a rock and a hard place.

Fek sake Mid stop posting threads that could interest readers.

He'll be wanting anyone who wares glasses next.


Is his middle name Pot?