Red shirts meet with UN’s OHCHR
Key red-shirt figures on Monday discussed human rights infringement issues with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) ahead of the upcoming referendum on the constitution.
In the wake of the junta’s Sunday crackdown on referendum anti-fraud centres established by the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (UDD), its key members, led by Jatuporn Prompan, voiced concerns over red-shirt supporters arrested by the junta after defying the authorities and opening centres.
"The people who wear black T-shirts like me and post their pictures on the fraud watchdog's Facebook page are threatened and arrested by military officers," he said before meeting OHCHR officials.
Jatuporn claimed that red-shirt supporters were being tried in the Military Court.
He urged Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to stop intimidating opposition voices as it was undemocratic. He also urged the PM to allow the people to get involved in the referendum process, vowing to address the issue with the OHCHR.
Out of 76 anti-fraud provincial centres, 24 have been successfully opened while 30 were prevented from opening and there were intimidation by the junta's security personnel at 22 other centres, he said.
Another key red-shirt member, Nattawut Saikuar, said he would bring up his concern to OHCHR over a TV programme set up by the Election Commission (EC) to disseminate the content of the charter draft to public.
The EC claimed that the programme was designed to explain the constitution draft to the public, but Nattawut said it seemed to be promoting people supporting the draft. The programme, he said, mostly detailed information from the EC, the Constitution Drafting Commission (CDC) and groups that support the referendum.
"Out of the 13 times the TV programme has aired, there have been 10 records from the EC and the CDC [members] are the guest speakers," Nattawut said.
