A growing number of Thai citizens and human rights advocates all over the world is calling for the immediate release of 14 young activists who are currently in jail for participating in a peaceful protest against the military-backed government of Thailand.
Posted 6 July 2015 7:46 GMT
A growing number of Thai citizens and human rights advocates all over the world is calling for the immediate release of 14 young activists who are currently in jail for participating in a peaceful protest against the military-backed government of Thailand.
The 14 activists, mostly students who are members of the Neo Democracy Movement, were arrested on June 26, 2015, after they organized a rally denouncing the military dictatorship. The army grabbed power last year to restore political stability. It drafted an interim constitution which became the basis in establishing a new government appointed by the military.
A referendum is tentatively scheduled next year to bring back civilian rule. Meanwhile, protests and the public gathering of five or more people are prohibited by authorities.
One of the activists in detention, Rangsiman Rome, said their group will not post bail because they do not recognize the jurisdiction of the military court:
We insist that we will not post any bail, because we are confident that we didn’t break any laws. If they want to release us, they have to release us as innocent people.
The defiance of the activists drew praise from many sectors including academics who urged authorities to respect the right of citizens to express dissent. The Network of Academics Concerned about Arrested Students issued a statement signed by 280 people asserting that “only a tyrant would react using brute force and enforcement of barbaric laws on students using their citizens’ rights to call for reinstatement of internationally-held values and governance.”
Various activities were held in many campuses to call for the release of the activists. A popular form of protest is the writing of Post-it messages on bulletin boards and freedom walls. Some teachers and students wrote ‘I’m proud to have been your lecturer’, ‘Nobody is behind this except ordinary people who love democracy’, and ‘Dictatorship will be destroyed and democracy will triumph’.
The Thai Student Center for Democracy warned the government that protests will continue:
They might imprison us but they will never imprison our wills and ideas. We will make them know that ideas is bullet proof.
Worachet Pakeerut, a law professor at Thammasat University, visited one of his students and reiterated the right of citizens to participate in a peaceful political action:
I’m visiting them and speaking on their behalf as their teacher. In fact, one of the students in there just got his grades and it turns out he passed my class, so I’m really happy about that.