Thailand coup

Weapons confiscation underway. Turn in your firearms now, or face up to 20 years in (Thai) prison. Junta's rules!
 


Weapons confiscation underway. Turn in your firearms now, or face up to 20 years in (Thai) prison. Junta's rules!

Do you mean raids on weapons caches at the homes of the militant members of the protest groups?, ala Weapons confiscation continues after coup - Pattaya Mail - Pattaya News, Communities, Opinions and much more...

I'm not surprised. After months of attacks back and forth between rival groups they probably think it's a bad idea for those guys to have M16s and grenade launchers. (Apparently they are easy to get.)

Do you mean nation-wide turn-in-your-guns orders? Link please.
 
Do you mean nation-wide turn-in-your-guns orders? Link please.

hxxp://thainews.prd.go.th/centerweb/newsen/NewsDetail?NT01_NewsID=WNPOL5705300010001

(replace hxxp with http in above URL)

BANGKOK, 29 May 2014 (NNT) – The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has declared that any individuals who have wartime weapons in their possession must turn in the items soon or face imprisonment of up to 20 years.

In its recent announcement, the NCPO ordered all possessors of armament, such as firearms, ammunition and explosives, to report themselves to local authorities and give up the illegal items by June 10. After having done so, the culprits would be given penalties stipulated by the Firearms, Ammunition, Explosive Articles, Fireworks and Imitation of Firearms Act 1947.

However, failure to surrender the weapons would result in more severe punishment, that is, a jail term of 2-20 years.

The announcement was made after the NCPO had raided the properties of several political activists and discovered and confiscated a large amount of heavy weaponry.
 
Right, those are military grade weapons, which are illegal for civilians to possess. I believe those types of weapons are illegal for civilians to possess in just about every country. There is no order to turn "normal" guns, of which there are very many in Thailand.
 
Well, I take "illegal firearms" to mean "illegal firearms". So as long as you have the proper registration and everything for your guns, you're good to go. Otherwise, you're facing a far more severe penalty than normal if caught with them.
 
On Koh Samui I didn't notice any difference, and during the first days of the coup very few people observed the curfew.

Back in Chiang Mai now and once again I don't notice any difference except the hotel is observing the curfew.

Perhaps I don't scare easily or you're all pussies, but I'm in no rush to head back home.

However, if they block the sports channels and the World Cup starts, I'm outta here.
 
I like how they say right up front that after you turn in your illegal firearms you will be given penalties. That'll make them rush right over and turn 'em in.

You might think that because they are illegal the junta wouldn't know where to look for them so they would just stay in hiding. But the junta knows who's who in the various groups and they have plenty of mass surveillance resources at their disposal. So anyone who has been involved in the rival groups is on their radar and has probably had their electronic communications snooped. Their choices now are to turn themselves in for a potentially lighter sentence or leave the country before they get raided.
 
Back in Chiang Mai now and once again I don't notice any difference except the hotel is observing the curfew.

I've been in Chiang Mai all of May and have hardly noticed a difference either. Two days ago the curfew was changed to midnight. I see a handful of army dudes around a few popular areas, but nothing else going on.

If you did want to come out now, you could probably negotiate a good deal on rent.
 
Let's see, when was the last time we had a military coup and curfew throughout the US? Oh that's right, never.

It's illegal to be out past 11pm in Nebraska. The cops will beat the fuck out of you if you are dark skinned.

I'm sure they have it in other places as well.
 
Hilarity guaranteed to ensue

Facebook, Twitter, et al won't play ball with the military junta, so they decided they will build their own social networking site
Thai authorities to build state-owned social network site | Prachatai English

Malware creators are beyond themselves with excitement since...
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Facebook, Twitter, et al won't play ball with the military junta, so they decided they will build their own social networking site
Thai authorities to build state-owned social network site | Prachatai English

Malware creators are beyond themselves with excitement since...
625009.jpg

LOL, oh wow. They're just totally oblivious, aren't they? It reminds me of just after 9/11, when Bush popped up and said that's it, he's creating the Internet v2 to protect us from terrorism. Didn't pan out too well for him.

So I'm curious, with how heavy handed the military has been lately, do you still believe this is just another typical coup that will blow over? Or are you by chance starting to think something a little more serious is going to happen?

Again, not referring to our personal safety, as we're fine. I see a few soldiers in town when I go shopping or whatever, but that will be about the extent of my coup experience. If I thought my personal safety was in jeopardy, I would have already been gone, but I know it's not. Nonetheless, I'm referring to the country as a whole. Do you think some dark days are ahead, or it's just "mai bpen rai", and will blow over? You have to admit, the military is being pretty heavy handed, which tells me they're scared, and they know things we don't.
 
Yeah, I LOL'd when I saw that chart. I wonder...would government backlinks from a Thai government site be worth much? Must be darn easy to hack .go.th sites.

As for the future of Thailand, it's probably going to get very chaotic for a couple of reasons. One big one is we are approaching the succession to the throne, and despite the country owners' extreme desire for that to go smoothly it's not going to be received the way they want. The other thing is that the country owners are on the wrong side of "progress" - a large portion of the educated Bangkok middle class and the rural masses have already progressed beyond the old ways of thinking. So there is a fork in the road, the old guard releases the reigns, or they become a brutal military dictatorship complete with abductions by secret police. Early signs are the latter. How about this video (won't embed so here's the link to the story and video)
Anti-coup protester forced into taxi | Bangkok Post: multimedia
 
Good question, I hadn't thought of that. They probably requisitioned some taxis for their street abduction actitivies. That way they can nab people without drawing much attention so tourists remain oblivious to what is going on around them.