Thai anti-coup protesters defy junta ban with Bangkok march

BANGKOK: Public anger at the Thai military's coup grew Sunday as more than one thousand protesters shouting "Get Out!" marched across the capital Bangkok in defiance of an army warning against protests.
Demonstrators began marching in the Chidlom district and made their way across the city to the Victory Monument cheered by onlookers, an AFP reporter at the scene said, after a tense standoff with armed soldiers in the city's retail heart.
It was the largest expression of dissent since the army seized power on Thursday after months of political turmoil.
There was no sign of soldiers or police on the streets during the march Sunday, which went ahead despite a junta statement calling on people not to protest and a martial law ban on gatherings of more than five people.
"I am not afraid of them because the more we are afraid of them, the more they will stamp on us," protester Kongjit Paennoy, 50, told AFP. "We want an election -- to choose our own boss."
The military has detained former premier Yingluck Shinawatra and scores of other ousted government leaders and political figures since the coup, which brought sharp international criticism.
"I ask for people's understanding on the current situation and that they refrain from anti-coup rallies, because democracy cannot proceed normally at the moment," said junta spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvaree Sunday morning, adding a warning against using social media to "incite" unrest.
Bangkok has seen several smaller outbreaks of protest against the junta since army chief General Prayut Chan-O-Cha launched his takeover on Thursday.
Witnesses also reported demonstrations overnight in parts of the Shinawatra family's northern power base, with rallies in the city of Khon Kaen and a heavy military presence in Thailand's second largest city Chiang Mai.
The junta on Saturday announced it had disbanded the Senate and placed all law-making authority in Prayut's hands.
Civil liberties have been curbed, media restrictions imposed and most of the constitution abrogated.
Thai journalist Pravit Rojanaphruk was the first reporter to be summoned by the junta. He reported to a Bangkok army conference centre on Sunday with black tape across his mouth in protest, according to witnesses.
Analysts have said the developments were an ominous signal that the army is digging its heels in and may be unwilling to hand over power to a civilian government in the near term.
Winthai said those detained by the military were being held without restraints and had not been "tortured or beaten" and reiterated that they would be released within seven days.
Those being held include politicians and leaders from both sides of the country's warring protest movements, while the army has summoned academics seen as critical of the coup.
Thailand has been rocked by persistent and sometimes violent political turmoil for nearly a decade, with bitter divisions intensifying in the years following the 2006 ousting of Yingluck's brother, then-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, by pro-royalist generals. – AFP