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Purge of top Thai officials as military silences opposition
Sydney Morning Herald - May 29, 2014
Most of the scores of officials removed from their jobs have been aligned with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
The massive shake-up that began on Monday now includes the transfer of governors from 13 provinces, mostly in pro-Thaksin Red Shirt strongholds in the country's north and north-east, including Chiang Mai, the hometown of Mr Thaksin and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, who was removed from the prime ministership earlier this month.
The junta that seized power in a bloodless coup last week has stepped up efforts to silence criticism and freedom of political expression, blocking Facebook sites of activists like Red Shirt Sombat Boongamanong, who has defied an order to surrender to the army and faces two years' jail.
The junta denied plans to block all Facebook's 30 million users in Thailand after a one-hour outage of the site on Wednesday afternoon, which prompted a public outcry. But the junta said it has blocked more than 100 websites that it claimed were spreading provocative information.
The extent of the crackdown and purge is unknown because Thailand's media has been largely subservient since the coup. Media outlets are compelled to publish the junta's propaganda.
The junta insisted the Facebook outage was a technical fault and that it ordered the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission to fix it. Junta spokesmen have repeatedly warned about people using social media to post "provocative" messages or calls for people to oppose the military.
Ten key Red Shirt leaders have been released from an army base outside Bangkok on the condition that they do not take part in any political activities. "Those released must tell us where they live and where they plan to travel," said deputy army spokesman Winthai Suvaree.
All the key figures of Ms Yingluck's deposed government have been detained or are in hiding.
Ousted education minister Chaturon Chaisang, arrested in a dramatic swoop on the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand after defying a junta order to surrender, has been detained for 12 days ahead of a military court hearing.
Since the takeover, dozens of high-ranking police have been removed from their jobs because of their alleged links to Mr Thaksin, a billionaire tycoon who wields enormous influence over Thai politics despite living in exile to avoid a jail sentence for corruption.
The purge includes the top officers of the Department of Special Investigation, Thailand's equivalent of the FBI, that had charged anti-Thaksin protest leaders with treason.
Coup leader General Prayuth Chan-ocha has appointed two retired generals with palace connections as advisers, putting powerful establishment figures hostile to Mr Thaksin's family in the ascendant in the country's long-running power struggle, Reuters reported.
Former defence minister Prawit Wongsuwan and former army chief Anupong Paochinda are staunch monarchists who helped oust Mr Thaksin in a 2006 coup. Reuters said it was not clear what powers the generals would have but their appointment would suggest little prospect of compromise with the Shinawatras.
Ms Yingluck has not been seen in public since the junta released her from an army base earlier in the week. She is banned from leaving the country. About 130 other detainees have also been released.
The military crackdown is harsher and more widespread than the 2006 coup that is seen as having divided Thailand and led to the current crisis.
The junta is considering lifting a midnight-to-4am curfew in tourist areas like Phuket and Pattaya as long as there are no signs of unrest in those areas, said deputy junta spokesman Nattawat Chancharoen.
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