<div> <div>As a model for its ongoing reconciliation efforts, the Thai junta will follow the amnesty programme for communists implemented during the Cold War.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The Thai government has made political reconciliation a policy priority, to resolve chronic unrest between different political movements.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Plans include a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to be signed by various political parties and movements in acknowledgement of a promise to build peaceful relationships with each other. </div></div>

<p>Amid widespread public opposition, the Thai junta has given the green light to a controversial plan to spend billions of baht on a Chinese submarine.</p> <p>On 24 January 2017,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.matichon.co.th/news/438518">Adm Jumpol Lumpiganon, spokesman of the Royal Thai Navy (RTN), announced</a>&nbsp;that the government of Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, has approved the purchase of a submarine from China. The 13.5 billion baht purchase has been cleared by the junta-appointed National Legislative Assembly.</p>

<div>A commission tasked by Thailand’s junta with achieving political reconciliation will be dominated by military appointees, even though military interference in politics is itself a prime source of conflict.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Last week, Gen Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy junta head, revealed the military government’s national reconciliation plans, <a href="http://www.prachatai.org/english/node/6833">receiving both criticism and support from politicians.&nbsp;</a></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The plans include political amnesties and Memorandum of Understandings (MOU) between all </div>

<div> <div>Thailand’s deputy junta head has confirmed BBC Thai will be prosecuted for publishing a controversial biography of the newly instated King Vajiralongkorn.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On 6 December 2016, deputy junta head Prawit Wongsuwan told media that the biography contains false information, so he has urged authorities to investigate whether the article is in breach of the law. </div></div>

<p dir="ltr">A deputy junta head has revealed that the Thai government has set up a committee to discuss with Malaysia plans to build a wall along the Malaysian-Thai border. The wall would aim to counter transborder crimes and resolve dual citizenship issues. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p>The military government Monday defended the expenditure of 20.9 million baht for the junta’s No. 2 general and his entourage to fly to an informal discussion with American military in Hawaii last week.</p> <p>The cost, which included 600,000 baht for&nbsp;in-flight dining, was to fly deputy junta chief Prawit Wongsuwan, also a former Defense Minister, and his entourage of 38 officials to Honolulu to attend the “ASEAN-US Defense Informal Meeting” from Thursday to Saturday, according to&nbsp;<a href="http://spm.thaigov.go.th/multimedia/onanong.y/Su59/su%2045.pdf">government records</a>.</p>

<div>In response to recent bomb attacks, the junta will establish a ‘front-line cabinet’ working directly under the junta’s supervision to resolve conflicts in Thailand’s restive Deep South.&nbsp;</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The junta is in the process of establishing a ‘front-line cabinet’, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta head and Prime Minister, told the media at Government House on 13 September 2016. This cabinet is expected to work directly under the junta on the peace talks process with Deep South insurgents. </div>

<p dir="ltr">While Thailand’s junta leader has enacted an order halting the trial of civilians in military courts, the deputy junta head has said this order could be nullified if ‘instability’ returns. &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p dir="ltr">On 13 September 2016, Gen Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy junta head and Defence Minister, said that Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, has shown his commitment to a democratic system of governance by authorising the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Head’s Order No. 55/2016.</p>

<p>After settling on a controversial plan to spend 36 billion baht on submarines, the Thai junta deputy head has announced that the regime will buy more tanks from China.</p> <p>Gen Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy junta head and Defence Minister, on Wednesday announced that the Thai military will buy more tanks from China after Andrii Beshta, Ambassador of Ukraine to Thailand, informed the authorities that the delivery of the OPLOT tanks, which Thailand has already ordered, will be delayed, the&nbsp;<a href="http://www.tnamcot.com/content/507276">Thai News Agency reported</a>.</p>

<div> <div>The deputy junta head has said now is not a proper time to demand freedom of expression since the country is in a ‘transition period,’ adding that the arrests of the anti-junta activists were not human rights violations.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Wednesday, 29 June 2016, Gen Prawit Wongsuwan, the deputy junta head told the media that freedom of expression was not necessary for Thailand at this time since the country was in a so-called ‘transition period’, adding that the junta never suppressed discussion of the August referendum but everything must be done through the junta-provi </div></div>

<p>Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, the junta leader and Prime Minister, has retracted his earlier statement allowing the anti-establishment red shirts’ referendum watch centres, and declared that opening such centres is prohibited.</p>

<p>After prohibiting anti-establishment red shirts from opening charter referendum watch centres, Gen Prawit Wongsuwan, deputy junta head and Defence Minister, has defended the use of army cadets to promote the referendum, maintaining that the authorities are not biased. &nbsp; &nbsp;</p>