Thailand: This is a coup it is official now !
One hour and a half ago toady, on Thai TV, Prayuth Chan- ocha , the thai army chief , announced a coup. 48 hours after declaring martial law, Thai Royal Army staged coup and now holds the reins of the country.
The announcement came, today May 22 at 5 pm local time. Yesterday , the army chief had repeated that it was not a “coup” but just martial law in Thailand to ensure security and order and force opponents to work on a solution to the political crisis. Prayuth showed the will to get out of the political crisis Thailand knows since November through dialogue. A meeting between all stakeholders wa held yesterday.
But this afternoon everything changed. Negociations failed during the meeting between all parties involved and Army decided for a coup and held all attendees including Suthep in detention at Army Club. The desire to renew dialogue now appears as a maneuver to be able toarrest them easily. National Peacekeeping Committee ( NPKC ) was created and will lead Thailand now. It promises to protect foreigners in the kingdom and keep the same relations with foreign countries.
A curfew is imposed fom 10 pm to 5am in the country. There is nothing on TV or radio only the army station on all channels, BTS will stop at 21h tonight. Other restrictive measures could be taken. Thailand has just experienced its 18th coup since it became a constitutional monarchy. Today Thailand is no longer a democracy … and not a destination that we can continue to advise you at this time even if foreign tourists probably risk nothing except having less fun holidays because of curfews or others décisions. We will keep you informed via this blog and our Twitter page with the hashtag # thaicoup ) .
