There have already been several accounts of meetings with the men sent out by the junta to round up the people they consider opponents. A reader has alerted us to one such encounter in the south. We found the account by Hara Shintaro at Deep South Watch to be illuminating. Not only does it show that the military is remarkably incompetent, it also indicates that the military dictatorship is attempting to settle old scores.
The military has been an abject failure in dealing with problems in the south. It is unable to comprehend complex issues due to the extreme hierarchy it maintains, its politicization rather than professionalization and because of its adherence to feudal trappings and ideologies.
PPT won’t set out the report in detail here as it seems that it is widely accessible.
Update: Prachatai reports that the military junta has again arrested Thanapol Eawsakul, editor of Fa Diaw Kan or Same Sky magazine, “for another seven days stating that Thanapol violated his release order by posting messages deemed violating the junta’s order on Facebook.” Military operatives called him to “a talk” at a cafe on Phaholyothin Soi 7, and several plainclothes officers arrested him there. He is said to have been “taken to the King’s Guard, 2nd Cavalry Division in Sanam Pao area. Later he was taken to the Police’s Crime Suppression Division where he will be detained under the Martial Law for seven days.”
THe same report tells us that “academics from Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Political Science Assoc. Prof. Puangthong Pawakapan and Asst. Prof. Pitch Pongsawat were also invited for talks on July 3 and 4 and released on the same day…. The two academics led a group called Assembly for the Defense of Democracy which held anti-coup campaign and advocated for election prior to the May 22 coup.”
Political Prisoners in Thailand 