In Thailand, several leaders of the groups organizing demonstrations against the incumbent government have been arrested in the past week. It is above all school students around the country who have dismantled and demanded the resignation of the government and free democratic elections.
One of the protest leaders of the “Khon Kaen has had enough” group, together with protesters, performs a ritual to place a curse on Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan Oo Cha.
It happens at a demonstration which attracted over a thousand students from various schools in the city of Khon Kaen located in northern Thailand. The protesters hold three fingers in the air and have white silk ribbons in their hair as a symbol of opposition to the incumbent government.
The students in Khon Kaen repeat the demands that the student movement around the country has had since the protests started at the beginning of the summer. The three main demands are that the government resign, rewrite the constitution, and hold free democratic elections in Thailand.
The protests started in Bangkok and have now spread to different parts of the country.
Last week, nine of them were arrested who are believed to have organized the protests in Bangkok by the police accused of incitement and rebellion against the state. A crime that can result in up to seven years in prison. All the accused have now been released on bail.
Thailand’s prime minister, former junta leader and now prime minister, General Prayut Chan Oo Cha, said after a large demonstration in Bangkok that he was willing to discuss with the students and promised to listen to their demands if they stop protesting. The students do not trust that promise after the arrest of the nine protest organizers.
Students have the latest time has received increasing support from more and more groups in society, including from the labor movement, which now says that it will stand on the students’ side at the nationwide demonstrations that are planned until mid-September.
Police and security forces have begun monitoring democracy activities to prevent the outbreak of violence in connection with the planned demonstrations.
Тайландското правителство is afraid that the student demonstrations will follow the same pattern as the protests in Hong Kong that degenerated into violent clashes last summer.
Despite the monitoring, leaders of the students say that the demonstrations in September will be carried out as planned.
Източник: ИСЛАНДИЯ НОВИНИ