<p><strong>Military claim ‘vicious harassment’, appeal to NHRC</strong></p> <p>The military junta who have taken total control of Thailand have started to make public complaints of political harassment, claiming that ‘unscrupulous opposition forces’ are mounting relentless attacks that leave them humiliated, frustrated and barely able to administer the country.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><span id="docs-internal-guid-c69fad9d-1134-73ce-a725-04eebe6040c0">The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) on Thursday 18</span>th June "red flagged" Thailand over major safety concerns within the country's aviation system due to its failure to reform the sector within 90 days, following an earlier warning in March. The ICAO is a United Nations agency tasked with overseeing the world’s management of air safety, air navigation capacity and efficiency, security, the economic development of air transport, and environmental protection.</p>

<p>The extraordinary spectacle of crime re-enactment in Thailand has a new star.&nbsp; Former Chamberlain of the Royal Household Bureau Montri Sotangkur, who worked for the erstwhile Royal Consort Srirasm (family name withheld for reasons of total confusion) but never for HRH Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, has for days been ferried around town in what looks suspiciously like the same perp shirt to the scenes of his various nefarious alleged crimes.</p>

<p>Since the coup of May 2014, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and the military regime of Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-o-cha, have arrested more than 100 politicians, mostly from the ruling party, activists, journalists, and others accused of supporting the deposed government of Yingluck Shinawatra. While some were released, the army has also ordered several hundred others to report. Those summoned by the military faced arrest and prosecution if they failed to report, and have prohibited from leaving Thailand.</p>

<p>HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver from June 1^st, 2015, includes a major segment on the use of images of Hitler in Thailand:</p> <p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wraq6VnXmGo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wraq6VnXmGo</a></p>

<p>A call to summarily sack the Bangkok Governor over recent flash floods in the city has started an outpouring, nay, an overflow of similar calls.</p> <p>The Stop Global Warming Association called on Prime Minister and NCPO leader Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha to use his powers under Article 44 of the Interim Constitution to sack Bangkok Governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra.&nbsp; The Association blamed the Governor for the fact that a torrential overnight downpour caused widespread flooding on Monday morning, paralyzing traffic and deluging newspaper front pages with pictures of watery wastes.</p>

<p>“The road to hell is paved with good intentions” is a traditional English proverb.</p>

<div>The brutal crackdown on a student led protest against the provisions of the new National Education Law was just the latest attempt by the government of Myanmar to keep control of the political reform process and the pre-election agenda that threatens to escape their iron grip. Students are protesting against the establishment of an Education Council which would control the curriculum without any consultation with or participation by students.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The response of the international community, and in particular the EU, has been extremely weak. </div>

<div>Since the absolute monarchy was abolished in Thailand in 1932, over a dozen successful military coups have taken place in our country. </div>

<p>I have a theory about Thai society.</p> <p>Don’t worry.&nbsp; This happens every 30 or 40 years or so and eventually I get over it.</p> <p>The last Georgian Thai Social Theory (c 1980) explained why Thais are described in the guide books as an extremely polite people and yet drive like homicidal maniacs, prefer push-and-shove scrums to orderly queuing, and politically vacillate between anarchy and autocracy.&nbsp;</p> <p>(The pushing and shoving has since begun to fade with the introduction of new technology, i.e. queue tickets and yellow arrows on mass transit floors.)</p>

<p>International pressure is building on Bangladesh and Myanmar to take urgent measures to save boatloads of stranded asylum seekers in danger of death by drowning or starvation in the Bay of Bengal.&nbsp; The ramshackle boats, thought to be loaded with Riphab refugees from Thailand, are organized by people smugglers, who prey on the migrants, often selling them into virtual slavery if they manage to make landfall undetected.&nbsp;</p>

<div><em>Netiwit Choltiphatphaisal, a student who was among<a href="http://prachatai.org/english/node/5088"> those detained</a> on the first anniversary of the 2014 Coup commemoration, wrote a memo on what happened before he and his friends were arrested.</em></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div style="text-align: center;">---------------------------------</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>On Friday after school, I heard that there would be a symbolic activity to commemorate the first anniversary of the coup. </div>