By Kongpob Areerat |
<p dir="ltr">Citing arms race in Southeast Asia as a primary reason, the Thai junta has embraced a plan to equip the Royal Thai Navy with submarines. However, many wonder if the extra 36 billion baht in military spending could be a burden to the struggling Thai economy when it could be spent on other necessities.</p>
<p></p>
By Human Rights Watch |
<p>(Tokyo, February 6, 2015) – Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe should press Thailand’s junta leader to improve human rights and restore democratic civilian rule, Human Rights Watch said today.<br /><br />Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, who chairs the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) junta that staged a military coup in May 2014, is scheduled to travel to <a href="http://www.hrw.org/asia/japan" target="_blank">Japan</a> from February 8 to 10, 2015. According to his office, Prayuth will meet Abe to seek to boost Japanese investment in Thailand.<br /></p>
<p>The junta leader threatened to step up the use of martial law, warning that people who still engage in anti-junta activities, especially the media and the anti-establishment red shirts, will be detained and barred from making financial transactions.</p>
<p>Moreover, the junta Premier revealed that another ex-Pheu Thai politician has been summoned for taking an anti-junta stance.</p>
<div>British Ambassador Mark Kent on Thursday met with junta leader and Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha and urged the general to return democracy to Thailand and respect human rights.</div>
<p></p>
By John Sifton (Human Rights Watch) |
<div>Life in Thailand is growing more absurd by the day. Earlier this week Gen. Prayuth Chan-Ocha, the leader of the junta that seized power in May and later anointed himself prime minister, was beginning a speech in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen when five local university students stood up and stripped down to t-shirts emblazoned with “Don’t Want a Coup” in Thai.
</div>
<div>
<div>
<div>To highlight its important role in 60 years of promoting human rights and freedom of the press, the Thai Journalists Association (TJA) will organize a charity golf tournament, where the winners will be awarded trophies by Thailand’s current junta leader and a former unelected prime minister from the military.</div>
</div></div>
<div>
<div><em>Update: At around 6.30 pm, the military released the five activists but demanded them to come back with their parents and will officially charged them on Thursday. During the interogation, the military pressured the students to sign a document, stating that they will not hold any anti-coup activity nor expressing disaproval on the coup again.
</em></div></div>
By Human Rights Watch |
<p><span>(New York, October 29, 2014) – The Thai government should immediately investigate and prosecute security personnel found responsible for the killing of an ethnic Malay Muslim child in southern </span><a href="http://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand" target="_blank">Thailand,</a><span> Human Rights Watch said today.</span></p>
By Human Rights Watch |
<p> </p>
<p>(New York, October 25, 2014) – The Thai government has yet to bring to justice police and military personnel responsible for the deaths of scores of protesters in Tak Bai in southern <a href="http://www.hrw.org/asia/thailand" target="_blank">Thailand </a>in 2004, Human Rights Watch said today.</p>
<p>The Military Court rejected the bail request of a man who wrote messages mainly criticizing the junta and allegedly making reference to the king in a shopping mall’s restrooms.</p>
<p>On Monday, the Military Court refused to grant 2.5 million baht bail to Opas C., a 67 year-old man charged with lèse majesté after writing messages criticizing the junta and the Democrat Party and allegedly making reference to HM the King. The Court reasoned that the charges are serious and they could not grant bail because of the flight risk. </p>
<div>
<div>The military arrested and filed a lèse majesté charge against a 67-year-old man for writing messages in a shopping mall’s restrooms. The messages mainly criticized the junta and Article 112, or the lèse majesté law, and allegedly made reference to the King. He is likely to be tried in a military court </div>
<div> </div>
<div>The messages mainly criticized the junta leader Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha and the Democrat government which ruled the country from 2011 to 2013. They condemned the two governments for abusing Article 112.
</div></div>