THAI AUTHORITIES CRACK DOWN ON PROTESTERS
BANGKOK— Thai authorities rounded up protest leaders under sweeping emergency powers announced Thursday as it launched a crackdown on escalating prodemocracy demonstrations that have also targeted the unassailable monarchy.
Three top activists were among nearly two dozen arrested under a decree that also banned gatherings of more than four people after months of student-led protests against the government.
It comes a day after protesters challenged a royal motorcade—flashing the three-fingered salute adopted from “The Hunger Games” books and films—in an unprecedented act of defiance against the monarchy.
Arrest livestreamed
After the emergency measures were announced early Thursday, riot police dispersed hundreds of protesters who camped overnight outside the prime minister’s office in Bangkok.
Army spokesperson Lt. Gen. Santipong Thampiya played down the presence of military officers around some government buildings, writing on Facebook they were there “to assist the law enforcement.”
Premier Prayut Chan-o-cha was army chief when the military seized power in a 2014 coup before winning a disputed election in March last year as a civilian.
Student leader Parit Chiwarak was among those arrested, according to Panusaya Sit hiji raw at tan akul— another prominent activist, whose own arrest was livestreamed on Facebook.
Anon Numpa, another senior figure of the protest movement, said he was forcibly taken by helicopter to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand “without my lawyer.”
“This is a violation of my rights and is extremely dangerous to me,” he wrote on Facebook.