Parents claim intimidation

Roi Et Governor Somsak Changtrakul has denied making such suggestions.

Chalermsak and Neeranuch Soontararak, parents of Apiwat or “Noi”, a member of the Dao Din group and the New Democracy Movement (NDM), said last week that soldiers and state officials, including the governor, offered their son a job as a defence corps volunteer in exchange for him dropping out of the university in Khon Kaen, where he and his Dao Din friends flock together to stage social and political activities.

“The governor told us to encourage our son to quit school and he said he would take care of him. He invited our son for a meal at his official residence and offered him the volunteer job,” Apiwat’s mother said.

Her son did not take up the offer, she said.

“They have been visiting us very frequently after there was a legal case in which our son and his friends held up a protest banner against the junta,” she said.

She was referring to the arrest of the 14 students for protesting against the coup. They were detained for 12 days from late June to early July.

“They asked how we raised our son,” the parents said.

“They have called us often, asking about our son’s whereabouts and what he’s doing,” she said.

The governor insisted that all he did was invite the family for a meal at his residence and offered Noi an internship at the Damrongdhama Centre, a complaint centre set up by the junta, to fulfil his wish to work for the people and society.

However, Chalermsak, who is a schoolteacher, stuck with their account of what had transpired. 

The governor and his men made an offer for his son to leave school right away and become a defence volunteer leader to campaign against illegal logging in the province, he said.

More than 40 soldiers and state officials have also visited him at his workplace. The students as well as his colleagues were panic-stricken, he said.

“It affects my job because when they visit me at school I have to leave the class I’m teaching and talk to them. It is quite troublesome for me,” he said.

The two also said their neighbours are questioning what they have done and why the soldiers have to visit the neighbourhood so often.

Some of the 14 students arrested for violating the National Council for Peace and Order’s order and Article 116 prohibiting sedition have posted on Facebook how they have been stalked by security officials.

Chonthicha Jangrew posted on Facebook on Wednesday that some plainclothes officials attended the ordination of Suwitcha “Best” Pitankkorn, one of those detained, and took photos of the ceremony.

“You are unforgivingly intimidating our personal space,” she wrote.

Panupong “Nice” Sritananuwat, another NDM member, also complained on Facebook on Thursday that some police had visited his home, talked to him and took photos.