The removal of a small brass plaque, no larger than a dinner plate, embedded in the tarmac in front of Bangkok's Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, has become a symbol of the continuing military repression in Thailand. The plaque commemorates the 1932 overthrow of the rule of absolute monarchy and a new constitution. A number of activists have now been detained for daring to ask the police to investigate its theft (see here and here). A Lese Majeste prisoner, Pai Dao Din, has been awarded a human rights prize by a South Korean organisation. He was awarded the 2017 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights from the South Korea-based May 18 Memorial Foundation. Meanwhile Somyot has just marked his sixth anniversary in jail under the Lese Majeste Law.
The removal of a small brass plaque, no larger than a dinner plate, embedded in the tarmac in front of Bangkok's Ananta Samakhom Throne Hall, has become a symbol of the continuing military repression in Thailand. The plaque commemorates the 1932 overthrow of the rule of absolute monarchy and a new constitution. A number of activists have now been detained for daring to ask the police to investigate its theft (see here and here). A Lese Majeste prisoner, Pai Dao Din, has been awarded a human rights prize by a South Korean organisation. He was awarded the 2017 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights from the South Korea-based May 18 Memorial Foundation. Meanwhile Somyot has just marked his sixth anniversary in jail under the Lese Majeste Law.
