<p dir="ltr">Despite talk from the junta about land reform in the form of a progressive land tax to tackle disparity and increase public revenue, research ironically shows that the Thai military is one of the country’s biggest landowners.</p> <p></p>

<p dir="ltr">The outspoken niece of a soldier who was brutally tortured to death in a military barrack has said that an army officer involved in the torture of her uncle has been promoted to a higher rank. The same army officer has accused the niece of offences under the Computer Crime Act.</p>

<div>An expert explained how the Myanmarese military took control of politics, which is similar to what the Thai military is trying to accomplish over the past 70 years, adding that when a military takes control of ‘the ring,’ politics is in trouble.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Thursday 28 July 2016, at Chulalongkorn University, Professor Robert H Taylor, a veteran expert in the military and politics of Myanmar was accompanied by Professor Surachat Bumrungsuk, an international relations professor at Chulalongkorn University, and Aung Thu Nyeen, a Myanmarese student at the National Institute </div>

<p>The Thai police have arrested the niece of a soldier who was tortured to death in the Deep South of Thailand after the authorities accused her of defaming the military. &nbsp;</p> <p>Three police officers from Makkasan Police Station, Bangkok, on Tuesday morning, 26 July 2016, arrested Naritsarawan Kaewnopparat, the niece of <a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/5524">Wichian Puaksom</a>, a military conscript who was tortured to death by other soldiers in 2011.</p> <p>She was arrested at her workplace in Bangkok and is currently in custody at Makkasan Police Station.</p>

<p>The military in northern Thailand has confiscated over 3,000 letters allegedly campaigning against the junta-sponsored draft constitution and is now hunting for the senders.</p>

<p>The authorities in Isan, Thailand’s northeast, have fired a Deputy Village Head because he allowed a human rights rally to take place.</p> <p>Phanthep Saokoson, District Chief of Chum Phae District of Khon Kaen Province, on 1 July 2016 summoned Charun Saeram, the 57-year-old Deputy Village Head of Sam Pak Nam Village in the district, to his office and informed him that he had been removed from his position, <a href="http://www.tlhr2014.com/th/?p=859">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR) reported</a>.</p>

<div> <div>An army corporal has died of heatstroke after his commander ordered him as a punishment to run 7.5 kilometres without lunch, plus 20 sets of burpees, despite the intense heat of the day. </div></div>

<p>The Office of Auditor-General said he wanted to give it another try in the effort to hold the authorities accountable for wasting millions of baht&nbsp;on bogus bomb detectors sold by a British conman.&nbsp;</p> <p>Five years since it came to light that more than one&nbsp;billion baht was spent on fake devices, a renewed call to hold someone accountable has come days after a British court&nbsp;<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-36540816">seized assets</a>&nbsp;belonging to the Briton behind the international scam.</p>

<p>The military have summoned key leaders of the anti-establishment red shirt group in northern Thailand to a military base over a draft constitution referendum watch campaign.</p> <p>Siriwat Jupamattha, a key red shirt leader in the northern province of Phayao, told the media that soldiers from the 34th Military Circle on Tuesday, 14 June 2016, summoned him and another red shirt leader for a discussion,&nbsp;<a href="https://tlhr2014.wordpress.com/2016/06/14/ban_referendum_center/">Thai Lawyers for Human Rights (TLHR)&nbsp;</a>reported.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><em>Thai kindergarten children have been taught discipline by wearing military uniforms, drilling, and practicing Nazi salutes in any other country should have immediately triggered a rescue operation by social services, involving psychiatric care and deprogramming. In Thailand, however, the central administration has praised the school.</em></p> <p></p>

<div> <div>The military has asked a university in the Deep South to ‘educate’ the opponents of a local coal-fired power plant. </div></div>

<p>The Thai military and police have attempted to break into the house of a Pheu Thai Party politician to detain him after he criticized the junta leader.</p> <p>According to&nbsp;<a href="http://news.voicetv.co.th/thailand/363591.html">Voice TV,</a>&nbsp;a news source from the Pheu Thai Party reported that soldiers and police officers in the early hours of Thursday, 12 May 2016, surrounded the house of Worachai Hema, a former Member of Parliament (MP) of the Pheu Thai Party from Samut Prakan Province, and attempted to break into the house.</p>