Criticism mounts as Thai junta replaces martial law

Martial law was replaced with a new executive order retaining sweeping powers for the military and junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, a move that has caused concern in the US and United Nations.

BANGKOK // The Thai junta’s decision to lift martial law was denounced by critics on Thursday as cosmetic, with Washington and the United Nations warning that replacement security measures would not loosen the military’s grip on power.

Thailand’s generals officially lifted martial law late on Wednesday, 10 months after seizing power in a coup.

But the controversial law, which western allies had called on Bangkok to revoke, was replaced with a new executive order retaining sweeping powers for the military and junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Those measures were passed under Section 44 of the junta-written interim constitution, a controversial provision handing Mr Prayuth, who was appointed prime minister a few months after the coup, power to make any executive decision in the name of national security.

The new order includes a continued ban on political gatherings of more than five people, while the military retains the right to arrest, detain and prosecute people for national security crimes or those who fall foul of the country’s strict royal defamation laws.

A new rule also appears to deepen censorship of the media, by allowing military officers to stop the publication or presentation of any news they deem to be “causing fear or distorted information”.

The UN’s human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein described the new powers as “even more draconian” than martial law.

He added he was “alarmed” by the move “which bestows unlimited powers on the current prime minister without any judicial oversight at all”.

A US state department official said Washington expected the Thai military to end trials of civilians in military courts, detention without charge and to allow people to express their opinions freely.

“We are concerned that moving to a security order under Article 44 will not accomplish any of these objectives,” the official said.

Thai analysts and critics denounced the new measures.

“Section 44 is actually worse [than martial law],” constitutional scholar Khemthong Tonsakulrungruang of Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University said, adding that the new order allows Mr Prayuth to execute key decisions without the oversight of a military court.

“When they ask for the martial law to be lifted, what the public is really asking for is the return of basic rights and liberties to Thais. Prayuth fails to understand that,” he said.

Political commentator Verapat Pariyawong described the move to replace martial law “with something even worse” as an “April Fool’s day trick”.

But the junta defended the order saying the potential remained for anti-coup protests to upset an uneasy peace imposed since the military power grab.

Mr Prayuth has vowed to return power to an elected civilian government, but only once reforms to tackle corruption and curb the power of political parties are codified in a new constitution.

* Agence France-Presse