Amnesty demands early lifting of restrictions on political activities

[webfact]

Amnesty demands early lifting of restrictions on political activities

By The Nation

 

 

Amnesty International on Tuesday demanded that the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) fulfil its promise to lift restrictions on political activities – in place since the 2014 coup – and remove them by the end of June.
 

“The sweeping and wholly unjustified restrictions on human rights put in place by the NCPO in the wake of the coup were supposed to be exceptional and temporary measures,” said Katherine Gerson, Amnesty International’s campaigner on Southeast Asia.

 

“Four years on and countless abuses later, they remain firmly in place and are relentlessly deployed by authorities,” she said.

 

Authorities continue to “flagrantly use deeply repressive laws and decrees”, she continued, in order to target human-rights defenders, activists and political opponents peacefully exercising their human rights to freedom of expression, association and assembly.

 

“These laws must be lifted without delay. Hundreds of people should not be facing criminal proceedings for voicing their opinions and joining peaceful protests,” she insisted.

 

According to democracy advocate Democracy Restoration Group, more than a thousand civilians have been summoned or tracked by security officers for actions deemed as security threats, and over 300 academic activities have been closed down or intervened in during the past four years.

 

Moreover, almost 400 people have been prosecuted for allegedly breaking the junta ban against political gatherings, the group said, while over 300 people have been charged for allegedly breaking the Public Assembly Act and committing sedition, and more than 2,000 civilians have been prosecuted in the military court.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30346043

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-05-23

[Get Real]

Now we know why this country is so high on the happy index. As seen on the photo, they just can´t manage to stop smile. Or it might just be that they not understand, this is an important issue and nothing to create a carneval of.

[YetAnother]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Moreover, almost 400 people have been prosecuted for allegedly breaking the junta ban against political gatherings, the group said, while over 300 people have been charged for allegedly breaking the Public Assembly Act and committing sedition, and more than 2,000 civilians have been prosecuted in the military court.

well the numbers Do add credibility, wonder what the junta supporters say about them ((please, please not country stability again...))

[rkidlad]

The elections were supposed to be in November and got moved back to February of the following year. There’s only one reason why political parties can’t convene and people can’t speak out. And that one reason is scary. 

[Eligius]

Very good article - bringing forward a few home truths. Well done, Amnesty, for saying these things. People need to hear and know them.

[alant]

Maybe Amnesty should ask governments like the EU and US why they support this?

[RichardColeman]

If they are angry now, just wait until they move the February '19 election !

[metisdead]

A troll post and a reply has been removed. 

[Shaunduhpostman]

I applaud the fact that an authority like Amnesty is around to make such statements and provide us with the bald statistics about what has been happening for the last 4 years. But I have my reservations.

 

A few months back, Amnesty were found to have accepted  contributions from George Soros and were ordered to return the money. Whether or not the money was actually returned, I don't know. Still you have wonder about the group's integrity, if they'll take Soros' money. They begin to appear as tools for the globalist corporate, finance and intelligence agency elites et al and that they may in fact have such authority and visibility world wide in order to help in a major way to  justify regime changes along with the subsequent chaos and mayhem and even worse human rights violating regimes and paramilitary groups etc that subsequently come to the fore. You then begin to question why such groups exist, they begin to look more and more like they are there to serve agendas they are not being forthright about.

 

 If people keep in mind that there are many powerful entities such as nations, corporate, finance and intelligence organizations who in fact oppose democracy while using various pro-democracy facades  to further an anti-democratic agenda, then we can keep what is said and done in the name of fighting for democracy in proper perspective. Of course the gloves are off, the elites have now decades ago found that they no longer have to maintain the illusion that democracy exists in the so-called developed world to get people's cooperation and collusion. You just have to look at how the Patriot Act is re-signed and strengthened every few years without hardly a whimper, or how people see Trump as a hero when in fact he is no better than the corrupt Clinton-Obama mob and he is literally owned by the Rothschilds who bailed him out of big time financial meltdowns he's had. Trump's Commerce secretary, investment banker Wilbur Ross is one of them having worked for Rothschild Inc for 20 years in their bankruptcy acquisitions dept and who personally handled the group's bailout of Trump's Atlantic City Taj casino bankruptcy. It comes full circle when you see that Genie Oil is owned in part by the same Rothschild group along with James Woolsey and Dick Cheney among others and that this group is very involved in maneuvers to secure oil claims in Syria, Israel, and Iraq at this moment. Even if people don't know those specifics, it is kind of a no-brainer to see that the US presidents have long been extremely compromised by US intelligence/corporate/finance power. The EU looks no better of course. But of course there is always the possibility that people might awaken barring any powerful new developments in mass mind control technologies.

 

But I suppose if Amnesty is a useful idiot (at best) for the elites and their totalitarian agenda, then they can be our useful idiot to provisionally put pressure on local tyrants. So, I'll take their statement for now. But, I would guess, it all boils down to whether Thailand will have a regime that supports the aims of globalist power elites or not. My best guess would be that those entities may feel that Prayuth will not cooperate should they have increasing problems with China and that they need someone more obedient. If Thai people want a successful push for democracy they should bear in mind that Thailand figures in with global politics and shifts and that these forces are always there as well and are also a major factor that may be foe or a temporary ally. I hope the students who bravely demonstrated against the junta yesterday are aware of that, I assume they are and  will pay attention to anything that happens suggesting the participation of 3rd parties in any struggle that begins to kick off here, question movement leaders and groups and information  and support purporting to be from sources that are pro-democracy.