UPDATE:, Anti-coup, Gathering, Bangkok

UPDATE: The Washington Post reports on the protesters were able to get around the new proclamtion from the military junta banning political gatherings of more than 5 people:

Resistance to military control has already begun to fester. A group of about 100 university students staged an ingenious protest on Friday near an upscale shopping mall. To avoid violating the new military rules against political gatherings, they clustered themselves in groups of twos or threes across a broad public area.

On Friday, there was a gathering of people opposed to the coup. I have a roundup of blog, Thai media, and international media coverage below.

Blogs

• Kitty was there and has posted with photos.
• Jotman also went and has photos and videos with protesters - go to the front page to see his full coverage .

COMMENT:Jotman reports that some people were arrested - the Independent (below) also reports on someone being dragged away.

Thai Media

Bangkok Post has an article with a photo with this interesting comment:

''The CDRM is doing the right thing,'' said Sudatip Kamnuansil, a Chulalongkorn student with a major in accounting.

With the recent poll showing a majority of respondents in Bangkok and the hinterland agreeing with the coup, she said, Mr Giles' group should also ''respect'' their opinions.

COMMENT: Does a poll trump the majority of voters at the last election? The Bangkok Post only says there were 20 protesters.

The Nation also reports (The Nation reports 100 protesters):

The demonstrators urged the public to resist the new military regime and vowed to continue their fight until democracy was restored. They called on people who opposed the coup to wear black or carry black banners.

"We believe that a military coup is not the answer," said Giles Ungphakorn, a well-known political scientist at Chulalongkorn University.

He said the 1997 Constitution should be restored along with press freedom and freedom of assembly.

Giles said the coup had annihilated the rights and liberty of Thais. When asked if he was speaking for the majority of Thais, he said: "We believe we speak for a significant number of Thais who are too worried or too afraid to speak."

It is proving difficult to find many reports from the Thai language media. There are two articles I have found. The online newspaper Prachatai reports there were about 200 people and protestors don't agree with the coup as it is against democracy. Krungthep Turakit reports that most of the protesters were students including Chulalongkorn, Thammsat, Silapakorn, and Rahmkamhaeng.

COMMENT: It is difficult to know precisely why many sections of the Thai media were not reporting on the coup - there might be other articles which have been buried - but given the strict censorship imposed by the junta leaders after the coup one should not be surprised.

International Media

The international media gave the coup protests widespread coverage although most coverage are based on wire reports. One AP's report includes:

Krich Aremcharoen, 33, another student, said he anticipated more protests.

"I think we are the first wave. We are the first people to say we love democracy," he said. "I don't care if I'm arrested. We need people dedicated to what we believe."

There is another slight different AP report at Yahoo. ABC Australia has two different reports (1)(2) and Electric New Paper has their own report.

IPS have a good summary of the protest including details of some of the protestors:

'No to Thaksin, No to coup,' read a protest sign held up by the dissidents, who numbered about 20. ''Don't call it reform. It's a coup,'' said another.

Although limited in number, the dissidents, by standing up, are punching a few holes in the glowing picture painted by the mainstream Thai media that the junta has universal support for its power grab on the night of Sep. 19 to rid Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from office.

Thanaphol Eiwsakul, no stranger to controversy here when it comes to fighting for political and civil liberties, is among the leading voices daring to challenge the coup's leaders. ''This coup is against democracy; it is against the law,'' the 33-year-old editor of 'Fah Diew Kan,' a Thai magazine known for its progressive views, said in an IPS interview hours before the gathering. ''The announcements on TV supporting the coup are asking us to support something that is illegal. Would you support an act that is against the law?''

Sombat Boongnam-among, a prominent activist for minority rights who works in the northern Chiang Rai province, is also standing up to the new political order being imposed in this country through martial law. ''They (the coup leaders) are censoring people's opinion and only one side -- their side -- is being presented,'' he told IPS. ''I am not afraid of being arrested. It is my right to express my political opinion openly.''

The 38-year-old activist, who is leading this protest, has already got a taste of the new censorship climate in force. A website he had launched on Thursday to express opinions about the coup -- as part of the '19 September Network against Coup d'Etat' group-- was shut down early morning Friday. ''We had nearly 5,000 hits on our first day,'' he said. ''The ISP (Internet service provider) said our information was too dangerous.''

Sombat made his displeasure known during the Friday protest by wearing a white mask muzzling his mouth that had the words ''freedom, freedom, freedom'' written on it.

The dissidents, who include students, academics, journalists and activists, appear determined to raise a voice for democracy and human rights as the junta revealed tough measures to consolidate its grip on this South-east Asian nation.
...
The irony of these impositions by a junta that is now calling itself the Council for Democratic Reform under Constitutional Monarchy (CDRM) has not been lost on Giles Ungpakorn, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. ''One of the criticisms against Thaksin that was used to justify this coup was his control of the media. What we have now is ten times worst,'' he told IPS. ''I am glad there are voices of dissent.''

''We belong to a network of people opposed to the coup. We have always been against Thaksin,'' Giles said Friday to a group of reporters at the protest. ''But we do not want political reform that takes place in a climate of a military dictatorship.'

The Independent has some good quotes:

When the first protester, a female student, began reading out a statement, armed police forced their way through the crowd and grabbed her. One witness said he saw a police officer jab a gun into her stomach and tell her: "You're coming with us." The protesters tried to hold the woman back, and for a moment she was caught between protesters and police.
...
Mr Ungpakorn admitted: "I'm scared. I don't want to be dragged off to prison. I'd rather not be doing this." But he said: "We have something of a family tradition." Mr Ungpakorn's father is famous in Thailand for defying the 1976 coup, when student protests were brutally put down. When the protests failed, he fled to London, where he met Giles's British mother.

"I have never supported the Thaksin government," said Mr Ungpakorn. "We were protesting against Thaksin's human rights abuses long before the anti-corruption protests began."
...
"It's a tale of two countries," he said. "You have the urban middle classes and the rural poor. Thaksin was the first to really provide political programmes for the poor. There is this argument that he won elections fraudulently, but there's no real evidence for that. I think the rural poor voted for him because he provided policies for them. That's democracy and if you don't like it you have to set up a political party and offer something better. In this country it's the rural poor who respect democracy - and it's the educated elite who don't."

COMMENT: The last quote from Giles is a real classic. For more on Giles, read this post of mine for a few months ago - check the comments as well. The protests so far have been small, but then again as political scientist says:

Like many observers, he doubts the rural countryside will mount a popular uprising to support Thaksin, fearing confrontation with the military. "Villagers will not rise up to bring Thaksin back. They know if they do, they'll get shot," he said

As I said I imagine the protests will slowly expand - how quickly or slowly will depend on the military junta's behaviour - but look for more protests in October.