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[B.I.G.]

"Two weeks after turning himself in to police, political activist Somyot Pruksakasemsuk is being held without charge at a Thai army base -- one of hundreds of people jailed over the anti-government street protests of the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD).

Critics say the government may be fanning the crisis as it uses sweeping emergency powers to clamp down on and censor the protest movement -- which was calling for immediate elections -- rather than addressing its grievances. Their detention has dismayed human rights campaigners, who say the government's use of a state of emergency across one third of the country, including Bangkok, lacks transparency and violates freedom of expression.

The Netherlands-based Clean Clothes Campaign, spearheading the call for Somyot's release, says it is "seriously concerned" for the health and safety of the labour- and rights advocate, believed to be in solitary confinement.

Somyot, the editor of a magazine that supports the red-shirts, held a news conference on May 21 at which he called on Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign and vowed to continue the opposition movement's struggle.A day later, an arrest warrant was issued for him under the emergency rule. "There is no charge against him. He is only suspected of causing violence or chaos," Somyot's lawyer Krisdang Nutjaras told AFP.

The UDD rally, broken up on May 19 by a military assault on their huge encampment in the heart of Bangkok, sparked outbreaks of violence that left 89 people dead, mostly civilians, and nearly 1,900 injured.

Critics say the government may be fanning the crisis as it uses sweeping emergency powers to clamp down on and censor the protest movement -- which was calling for immediate elections -- rather than addressing its grievances. "We're concerned about the chilling effect on society and on freedom of expression," said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Southeast Asia researcher. "We're concerned the political space has been closed down."

The premier declared a state of emergency in the protest-hit capital on April 7, banning public gatherings of more than five people and giving broad powers to the police and military. While the rally has ended, the strict measures remain. Determined to weed out the extremists, including those who ended their rally with an onslaught of arson and looting, authorities have jailed more than 300 suspects, the justice ministry told AFP, without elaborating.

Leading rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) has written to Abhisit demanding a full list of names, numbers, locations and conditions of the detainees, who can be held for 30 days without charge under emergency rule."The public has been kept in the dark about the arrests and detention," said Sunai Phasuk, a Thai analyst at HRW. "The arrests may potentially force the Red Shirts underground and radicalise them."

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/thaksin-ju...e-freedom-fears

[Garcia]

It's a military dictatorship with the extreme royalist army men running things and Abhisit acting as their front:

"The political situation was back to normal - but it was necessary for the government to maintain the state of emergency for a time yet due to fears of fresh unrest, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said yesterday.

At the same time, observers see cracks in his ruling Democrat Party after the latest cabinet shake-up.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday, Abhisit said Thailand was back to normal, stable and secure. It was the premier's first foreign trip since the riots and unrest sparked by the red-shirt group over the past two months. Abhisit had skipped all previous foreign trips, including an Asean summit in Hanoi in April, saying he would miss this one if the country had not returned to normalcy."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/home/2010/...M-30131013.html