[governance] FWD: Thailand Anti-coup leader Sombat Boonngam-anong is detained

[Izumi AIZU]

[Please forward since no Press is going to publish this news]

RTG Army initimidating abduction of social activist Sombat Boonngam-anong
6th of July, 19h00 at ChiangRai local time

According to three well informed websites,
http://www.prachatai.com/05web/th /home/index.php
http://www.nocoup.org/autopage/show_page.php?h=22&s_id=11&d_id=8
http://www.chiangraiplus.com/board/index.php?topic=638.0

Anti-coup leader Sombat Boonngam-anong is detained in MengraiMaharat
military Camp.

Mr Sombat Boonngam-anong also known as Bokolaychud, his pen name as
anticoup activist, was upcountry to organise the response for the
referendum on the new constitution, which is slated for later this
year.

It was about 19H00 local time this 6th of July, when 4-5 army men
arrested Mr. Sombat during a Hyde Park styled protest at the ChiangRai
Bus Terminal.
No reason have been issued for the arrest but it is confirmed he is
confined in Mengrai Maharat military Camp. For sure the ChiangRai area
is still kept under no civil rights but the marshall law.
Some of Mr Sombat followers have been protesting some of their basic
rights still are effective even after the military coup of late Sept
19.

Gen Jiradet, Chief of the 3rd Military Region recognised the arrest of
Mr Sombat, but dismissed as a casual invitation for Mr Sombat to tell
the Army who enrolled him to speak.
As reporters asked why he could not be visited, Gen Jiradet said that
Mr Sombat is not arrested We just question him, there is no reason to
visit him.

Sombat Boonngam-anong, director of the Chiang Rai-based Krajok Ngao
Foundation is a respected social activist. The intimidation manoeuvre
of the Army is a good sign the dictatorship is nervous about
it’s perennity.

Last June 10th, Sombat Boonngamanong said: It is well known that these
days the Information Communications and Technology Ministry spends
most of its time blocking websites that express political views not to
its liking. We all know what the political climate is, though it's the
people who should decide what they ought to believe or not believe.
People can think for themselves! As to
http://www.melonfarmers.com/in.htm

Helaas, it is not the first time the Army is abusing activists,

- On May 19, Mr Noparuch Worachitwutikul, an anticoup leader and five
other people have been abducted to Kavila military camp in ChiangMai.

- On Sunday June 17, 2007, 6 Chiang Mai innocent people who were
arrested for putting on the T-Shirt saying The Northern People Love
Democracy Group and gaving out the leaflets to lift Chiang Mai
Province from the Marshall Law and going back to use the 1997
Constitution. The abused group included a 10 year old girl whose name
is Bai-Fern Watayajinda, a Chiang Mai Christian Girl School. They all
now are kept in the Kawila Military Base in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
Among 6 of them, beside Bai-Fern, are Manop the Lampoon Farmer
Representative, Nattawut Construction Company Rep., Dr. Chaison, Miss
Rakchanok the lawyer, and Mr. Pisit a businessman.

We express our concern and warn the foreign press and Embassy our
country is under marshall law, it means no law anymore for the
population, but are you ready to have the tourists resort manned by
army potential abducters. Warn your tourists to exchange their
currency for sand sun sea and sex but to keep their mouth and ears
shut as in ill fated Burma.
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