Wednesday, April 23, 2014

70 Sanam Luang

History Repeating.

 

The Dead Kennedy's on their single "Holiday in Cambodia" used a photograph taken by Neal Ulevich, showing the lynched, dead body of a left-wing student being defiled by ultra royalist right-wing activists in 1976. The photograph was awarded the Pullitzer Prize in 1977.

History, today in Thailand, is repeating itself...

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Radicalising Thailand: New Political Perspectives (2003).
G.J. Ungpakorn, Contributing editor. Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University.
"In the early hours of 6th October 1976, Thai uniformed police, stationed in the grounds of the National Museum, next door to Thammasat University, destroyed a peaceful gathering of students and working people on the university campus under a hail of relentless automatic fire. At the same time a large gang of ultra-Right-wing “informal forces”, known as the Village Scouts, Krating-Daeng (or “Red Gaurs”) and Nawapon, indulged in an orgy of violence and brutality towards anyone near the front entrance of the university. Students and their supporters were dragged out of the university and hung from the trees around Sanam Luang; others were burnt alive in front of the Ministry of “Justice” while the mob danced round the flames.

Women and men, dead or alive, were subjected to the utmost degrading and violent behaviour. One woman had a piece of wood shoved up her xxxxxxx. Hopefully she was already dead. Village Scouts dragged dead and dying students from the front of the campus and dumped them on the road, where they were finished-off. A young man plunged a sharp wooden spike into the corpses while a boy urinated over them.

Not only did the state’s “forces of law and order” do nothing to halt this violence, some uniformed members of the police force were filmed cheering-on the crowd."

Article continues here... http://data3.blog.de/media/661/2347661_35e0d731fd_d.pdf
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Those Defaming The Monarchy Are "Trash" To Be Removed.
The Nation. Pravit Rojanaphruk. April 23, 2014.

"So says Dr Rienthong Nanna, the leader of a new ultra-royalist vigilante group. The group that Rienthong, a retired major general, founded on Facebook is aptly named in Thai, "Organisation for the Removal of Trash of the Land".
To Rienthong and his supporters, those who criticise or offend the monarchy are no longer regarded as humans, but as trash. Rienthong, director of Monkutwattana General Hospital, rose to fame literally within days after leading the latest vigilante crusade to eliminate all expressions of dissent, criticism and defamation against the royal institution.

"I don't accept differing ideas from those who think differently by defaming or citing academic freedom that enabled lese majeste acts [to occur]. I can conclude that these people who think differently are trash of the land," he declared on the organisation's Facebook page last week.
Besides the call to hunt down all those who insult the monarchy, Rienthong, who appears to be in his late fifties, is also calling for the practice of "corporate loyalty responsibility"...

As of Monday, the organisation's Facebook page was asking for police to refrain from taking any action against the group, which will arm itself with war weapons for its own safety and protection."

 
Thai Activist Who Opposed Lese Majeste Law Killed
The Associated Press. April 23, 2014.

"BANGKOK — A pro-government activist who opposed a law punishing critics of Thailand's monarchy was fatally shot Wednesday in the capital, police said.
Police Col. Thanawat Watthanakul said Kamol Duangphasuk was shot by gunmen on a motorcycle in a restaurant parking lot in northern Bangkok. Kamol, a poet also known as Mainueng Kor Khuntee, was a member of the "Red Shirt" political movement which supports Yingluck and her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
 
Thailand has been plagued by political strife since a 2006 military coup ousted Thaksin from office, after demonstrators accused him of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
 
Kamol was a strong opponent of Thailand's lese majeste law, which provides up to 15 years in prison for anyone who defames the country's monarchy. A newly formed vigilante group has threatened to hunt down people who oppose the monarchy, describing them as trash.
 
Kamol's poetry had a hard political edge, and he advocated that the Red Shirts organize in a military fashion at the local level in order to protect Yingluck's government.
 
Yingluck faces court rulings that could force her from office, in what her supporters call a "judicial coup."
 
The judiciary is seen as part of the Thai establishment, which has long been hostile to Thaksin. Thaksin's supporters believe the country's elite felt their privileges threatened by Thaksin's popularity."
 
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