BANGKOK: Thailand’s martial law will not be lifted for the foreseeable future, the justice minister said yesterday, despite an earlier pledge to lift the law in some provinces to help the tourism industry which has struggled since a military coup in May.
The announcement comes as Thailand prepares to enter its peak tourism season, over the Christmas and New Year period. The tourism sector accounts for nearly 10 per cent of GDP. Thailand expects around 25 million tourists this year, down a million from 2013, the government said this month, thanks in part to protests in Bangkok that kept many visitors away.
The army imposed martial law nationwide in May, days before it took power in a coup that it said was necessary to end months of street demonstrations aimed at ousting Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
“Martial law is necessary and we cannot lift it because the government and junta need it as the army’s tool,” Thai Justice Minister General Paiboon Koomchaya told Reuters.
“We are not saying that martial law will stay in place for 50 years, no this is not it, we just ask that it remain in place for now, indefinitely.”
The United Nations criticised Thailand’s junta yesterday for detaining people caught throwing a three-fingered protest salute inspired by ‘The Hunger Games’ movies, as the prime minister warned that people using the defiant gesture could ‘jeopardise their future’.
The salute has become the unofficial symbol of resistance against the army’s May coup with scores detained for using it, including six students this week.
The same gesture is used in the fictional Hollywood blockbuster franchise by rebels fighting against a dictatorial regime.
General Prayut Chan-O-Cha, the prime minister, said he felt unthreatened by such protests but warned those caught using the gesture risked creating problems for themselves.
“I’m not concerned by the three-finger protest,” the junta chief told reporters yesterday. But he added ominously: “I don’t know whether it is illegal or not but it could jeopardise their futures.”
His comments came as the UN Human Rights Office for South-East Asia (OHCHR) criticised the authorities for a recent spate of instances where people were led away for questioning after making the salute.
“This case is the latest illustration of a worrying pattern of human rights violations, which has the effect of suppressing critical and independent voices,” local OHCHR representative Matilda Bogner told AFP.
On Thursday a female university student was detained by plainclothes officers outside an upmarket mall in Bangkok for flashing the salute in front of a large publicity poster for the film.
A day earlier five students were briefly held by the military for flashing the three-finger sign during a speech by Prayut in the northeastern province of Khon Kaen.
All have since been released.
“I don’t want to punish them (the students) so they were merely reprimanded, released and told not to do it again because it’s of no benefit to anyone,” Prayut said.
Some cinemas in Thailand have cancelled screenings of the film. Set in a dystopian future, it stars Jennifer Lawrence as the survivor of a bloody reality TV contest who goes on to become a rebel leader that topples a totalitarian state. — Agencies