<p dir="ltr"><em>To commemorate the second anniversary of the 2014 coup d’état, Prachatai presents interviews with some of those who had protested against the government and against elections, aka the PDRC, whose lives and political ideas have been changed under the junta. Branded as the ones who paved the way for the coup two years ago, they have now learned that it is better to have an elected government, even a ‘bad’ one, than a dictatorship.</em></p> <p></p>

<p><em>I have been detained and banned from travelling abroad for challenging militarisation. Those who refuse to kowtow to Thailand’s junta are paying the price</em></p> <p></p>

<div>(New York) – Sedition charges for a Facebook photo expressing symbolic support for Thailand’s political opposition shows the military junta’s utter disregard for peaceful dissent, Human Rights Watch said today. </div>

<h1><a href="http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/politics/891940/top-villain-crackdown-set-to-intensify" target="_blank">When it comes to crackdowns on “influential people,”</a><span>&nbsp;there are several reasons to worry.</span></h1> <div> <p>The first is that the people doing the crackdowns are usually acting in the service of “villains” at the top of the military and police.</p> </div>

<div>Latest draft constitution has a lot of issues for us to examine: an outsider PM, increasing the power of independent state organizations, unelected senators, a Constitution that can’t be amended, extending the duration of the National Reform Steering Assembly (NRSA), a trick to dispose of PMs and Cabinet members, infinite amnesty for National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) members, and continued use of Article 44.</div> <p></p>

<p>Arrest warrants against&nbsp;<strong>Sirawit Seritiwat</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Chonthicha Jaeung-Rew</strong>,<strong>&nbsp;Chanoknan Ruamsap</strong>,&nbsp;<strong>Korakot Saengyenpan&nbsp;</strong>and<strong>&nbsp;Abhisit Sapnaphapan&nbsp;</strong>were issued on 13 January 2016 by the Bangkok Military Court. The human rights defenders were accused of having held a political gathering of more than five persons on 7 December 2015, without official authorization. The five human rights defenders were arrested on 20 and 21 January 2016, and released on 21 and 22 January 2016.</p>

<div>BANGKOK (22 January 2016) – The United Nations Human Rights Office for South-East Asia (OHCHR) urges the Thai military to drop all charges against 11 student activists arrested for violating a ban on political gatherings .</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>Sirawit Seritiwat, a student activist with the New Democracy Movement, said he was apprehended by uniformed men near Thammasat University campus in the capital Bangkok late on Wednesday. </div>

<div>Allegations of torture committed by the Thai authorities against the Muslim Malay minority in Thailand’s restive Deep South doubled after the 2014 coup, a report says.</div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div>The report, released on Friday, showed at least 18 cases of alleged torture and ill-treatment since 22 May 2014, when Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha staged the coup d’état. In 2015 alone, there were 15 recorded cases, whereas a total of 17 were recorded in 2014. </div>

<div><em>After being forced to shut down since the 2014 coup, along with many other community radio stations in the area, Media Selatan, a local Malay radio station in the Deep South, is coming back on air early this year. The director of Media Selatan states that shutting down local media is tantamount to closing channels for citizens to express their opinions about the ongoing peace process.&nbsp;</em></div> <p></p>

<p>An independent academic has suggested that the coup-makers and their accomplices should face a special tribunal once the country returns to civilian rule.</p> <p>Prach Panchakunathorn, a former lecturer of the Faculty of Arts of Chulalongkorn University, has written an article in&nbsp;<a href="http://blogazine.pub/blogs/8december/post/5589">Prachatai’s Blogazine</a>, suggesting that a special tribunal should be established after country returns to the civilian rule.</p> <p>The academic points out in his article that human rights under the military regime have hit rock bottom.</p>

<div><em>Updates on the situation of the anti-establishment Red Shirt supporters in the North and Northeast, 2015: how their ways of thinking and living have changed since the 2014 military coup&nbsp;</em></div> <p></p>

<p dir="ltr">The veteran politician, closed-aid to ex-PM Thaksin Shinawatra has lived in self-imposed exile for 6 years. In part 3 of the interview, Jakrapob Penkair talked about the conflicts among the Thai elites within the junta regime, the role of Pheu Thai Party, and his life outside the country.</p> <p></p>