Lecturers tell NCPO: Stop threats to academics and students

The group, gathered under the network of lecturers concerned for detained students, submitted a letter to chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) Prayut Chan-o-cha through the government’s public service centre. The letter carried signatures of more than 300 local and foreign lecturers.

Some ten lecturer-representatives, led by Thammasat University’s sociological lecturer Anusorn Unno, read a statement together with the submitted letter. 

The move was in response to an alleged police threat to summons at least six university lecturers for allegedly violating the NCPO order banning gatherings of more than five people. 

Chiang Mai University’s lecturers Attachak Satayanurak and Somchai Preechasilpakul were summonsed to report to the police in Chiang Mai today. They were among lecturers who had held the ‘Universities are not Barracks’ press conference last month to counter a criticism that universities were hatching condemnation of the government.

Anusorn yesterday stood firm that “universities were not barracks and Thailand was not a military camp.” He read the statement calling on the NCPO to stop interfering in universities’ affairs, including their teaching approaches and curriculums given to students.

The group also asked the junta to stop posing threats against them and their students for expressing political views.

“Pressing charges against academics who criticised the NCPO is considered a threat to and a violation of rights and freedoms. It is the academics’ job to educate the public,” said Anusorn, adding that lecturers in his group had been continually threatened while students were prohibited from holding political activities.

The group further claimed the junta had demanded an academic course that praised the military. They viewed this act as contradicting rights and freedoms of education, the activist lecturer said.