By Human Rights Watch |
<p>Thai authorities should urgently and impartially investigate assaults on three prominent pro-democracy activists since May 2019, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/06/04/thailand-3-junta-critics-assaulted-past-month">Human Rights Watch</a> said last week. Thai police have yet to arrest any suspects for the violent attacks, raising serious concerns about possible government involvement.</p>
<p>Soldiers and security officers have detained a member of an anti-establishment red shirt group at a market close to the Dhammakaya temple and told him not to enter the area again or risk imprisonment. </p>
<p>On 5 March 2017, officers of the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) and soldiers apprehended Anurak Jentawanit, a leader of a red shirt group called ‘Ford Red Path’ at Klang Khlong Luang market in Pathum Thani Province.</p>
<p>The market is close to the Dhammakaya temple and is currently used by Dhammakaya monks and disciples as a gathering point.</p>
By Janjira Linthong |
<div>Since the release of the draft constitution, the junta has formally and informally suppressed criticism of the draft as well as the referendum, scheduled to be held on 7 August, itself. Although it is obvious that Thais are not going to vote in the referendum in a free and fair manner, a group of red-shirt activists are determined to defy the junta’s rule by campaigning against the draft charter. They share with Prachatai how to mobilize campaign under such repression and what they've found about voters' attitude toward draft charter and politics. </div>
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<p dir="ltr">Military officers intimidated a politician from Pheu Thai Party, warning him over his criticisms towards the junta, while on the same day, visiting an anti-establishment red shirt campaigning against the controversial draft charter. </p>
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<div>Police on Tuesday detained a red-shirt activist and an expatriate for selling and buying campaign t-shirts to help Thai political prisoners. </div>
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<div>The police detained Anurak Jentawanit aka “Ford Red Route” and Franz Borbath, a red-shirt supporter from Austrai living in northeastern Mukdahan Province, at Ratchaprasong intersection for possession of t-shirts with a quotation of a poem by William Ernest Henley called Invictus.
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