After soldiers in Chiang Mai last week forced a squid vendor, who also sells coffee, to remove his red T-shirt showing a red-shirt leader’s face as he was selling the squid on the street, a different group of army personnel visited the squid shop again on Tuesday and demanded that the vendors remove stickers with the Pheu Thai party logo and its slogan from an ice box used in the shop.
Five soldiers approached the shop on Thipanet Rd., Muang Chiang Mai District in a Humvee at around 2.30 p.m.
After soldiers in Chiang Mai last week forced a squid vendor, who also sells coffee, to remove his red T-shirt showing a red-shirt leader’s face as he was selling the squid on the street, a different group of army personnel visited the squid shop again on Tuesday and demanded that the vendors remove stickers with the Pheu Thai party logo and its slogan from an ice box used in the shop.
Five soldiers approached the shop on Thipanet Rd., Muang Chiang Mai District in a Humvee at around 2.30 p.m. and walked around the shop as they claimed to be checking “order” in the place. The officers also took photos of the shop, its customers and stickers and banners in the shop.
The soldiers removed stickers with the Pheu Thai logo and its slogan stating "reduce expense, increase income" from an ice box as they apologised to the shop owner, saying that the military did not want to see political symbols in public.
The video shows that the soldiers politely, but stubbornly, demanded that the vendors remove the stickers. The soldiers said the stickers must be removed for reconciliation. The vendors argued that they had the freedom to keep and forcing them to remove the stickers is not reconciliation.
After arguing for almost three minutes, the vendors complied and removed the stickers.
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