Soldiers have visited the school of a student activist, asking him to cease criticising Prayut on threat of further intimidation.
On 21 July 2017, Sanhanutta Sartthaporn, the Secretary General of education reform group Education for Liberation of Siam (ELS), posted on his Facebook account that he was visited by two plainclothes soldiers on Wednesday morning.
The soldiers approached the student when he was having breakfast at school. They asked him about a recent ELS statement that condemned junta head Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha for his excessive interference in Thai education.
After finding out that Sanhanutta drafted the statement, a soldier asked him to stop criticising “his boss” and showed a quote from Lt Col Burin Thongprapai that read, “I will catch them all, those who condemn the honorable Prayut and the NCPO. I’m a soldier. Slaves like you can meet me at anytime if you have guts.”
“If you don’t stop criticising my boss, I will pass on your name and I don’t know what will happen to you,” said the soldier as quoted by Sanhanutta.
Sanhanutta Sartthaporn (Photo from Sanhanutta’s Facebook)