Bangkok's Coup Leader "Saddened" by U.S. State Department

Inside a lavish chamber in Grand Palace, decorated with antique thrones and portraits of past kings, Thailand's fearsome coup leader Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha arrived alongside foreign diplomats, Thai nobles, and his senior military regime colleagues.

Wearing an immaculately white uniform, Gen. Prayuth's thick furrowed eyebrows, serious mouth, stocky torso and quick-scanning, hunter-like gaze, confirmed his reputation as a tough, moody, military officer aggressively alert even in this safe setting where only a handful of people deferentially approached him.

U.S. Embassy Charge d'affaires W. Patrick Murphy, wearing a tuxedo, was also in this palace in Bangkok on Wednesday (January 28) waiting with guests to be ushered into the Chakri Throne Hall to witness a medical award presentation.

But diplomatic relations between Bangkok and Washington were rapidly deteriorating.

After the standing-room-only presentation, Gen. Prayuth and his officers joined the 200 guests at a black-tie banquet dinner honoring the awardees, hosted by Princess Sirindhorn deeper in the palace in its huge Borom Raja Sathit Maholarn Hall.

Mr. Murphy accompanied American awardee Dr. Donald Henderson, a smallpox eradicator.

While the banquet's small orchestra played "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and other smooth tunes, there was no indication that Gen.

Prayuth warned the U.S. envoy that American diplomats are now under surveillance to determine if they are interfering with the junta's affairs by meeting dissidents.

"We honor and respect them [U.S. Embassy diplomats], but we also have to monitor them," Army Chief Gen. Udomdej Sitabutr, who is also deputy defense minister, announced two days later.

"Prayuth Orders Army to Monitor U.S. Diplomats," the English-language Bangkok Post headlined the surprising news on Saturday (January 31), ensuring it would be publicly known.

Gen. Udomdej did not reveal how U.S. diplomats are being monitored, but America has provided extensive lessons and technical equipment to the military for monitoring suspected Islamist separatists in the south and other illegal activity.

"We regularly engage with a diverse range of Thai stakeholders to exchange views and opinions, including officials, academics, political figures, and civil society," U.S. Embassy Spokeswoman Melissa Sweeney said in a terse e-mail on Saturday (January 31) when asked for a response.

She declined further questions.

Monitored dissidents include Red Shirt civilians who support former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who Gen. Prayuth toppled in his May putsch, plus Ms. Yingluck's now-taboo Pheu Thai or "For Thais" party politicians.

Ms. Yingluck is the sister of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra who Gen. Prayuth helped overthrow in a 2006 coup.

Mr. Thaksin is currently a fugitive abroad, dodging a two-year prison sentence for corruption during his administration.

In a fresh crackdown, the regime is again summoning Red Shirts, Pheu Thai politicians, and others for "attitude adjustment" to "build understanding about the political situation," Gen. Udomdej said.

Re-education includes confinement in a military camp for several days until the person "agrees" to stop all anti-coup activity or face lengthy imprisonment.

"You like to whine about your problems to all the foreign nations.

Stop doing that," Gen. Prayuth demanded on Friday (January 30), targeting anti-coup Thais during his weekly TV and radio broadcast.

"It is shameful.”

At the banquet, Gen. Prayuth's fans boosted him.

"General Prayuth is a good man, we need him, he is taking care of Thailand," said a Thai woman finishing her entre of salt-cured Atlantic salmon and crab drenched with remoulade, at one of several long tables under gigantic chandeliers.

"We need General Prayuth because there is a crisis in Thailand, and there is danger because of Thaksin's family. I know because my husband is a military officer and every morning he wakes at 4 a.m. to work on the crisis," she said, beginning to fork a fish vol-au-vent while silent wait staff poured Chablis into nearby glasses.

Some civilian guests at the palace debated whether American diplomats should publicly or privately criticize Gen. Prayuth's coup, during which he also shredded the constitution and put civilian dissidents on trial in a military court without appeal.

"The Bangkok Military Tribunal, affirming its jurisdiction over civilians, violates international law and represents another serious setback for human rights in Thailand," the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists said on Thursday (January 29).

"It saddens me that the United States does not understand the reason why I had to intervene, and does not understand the way we work, even though we have been close allies for years," Gen. Prayuth told reporters on Wednesday (January 28).

The U.S. has bestowed billions of dollars in military training, weapons supplies, and other aid to Thailand since the 1950s including when the two countries fought side by side in wars they lost in 1975 against Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

During the 21st century, America used Thailand's territory for logistic support to attack Afghanistan and for the Central Intelligence Agency's imprisonment, waterboarding and other torture of one or more suspected foreign Islamists.

Gen. Prayuth expressed disappointment after Daniel R. Russel, the State Department assistant secretary of East Asian and Pacific affairs, visited Bangkok as the most senior U.S. official since the coup and said in a speech at Chulalongkorn University on January 26:

"Although this is being pretty blunt, when an elected leader is removed from office, is deposed, then impeached by the authorities -- the same authorities that conducted the coup -- and then when a political leader is targeted with criminal charges at a time when the basic democratic processes and institutions in the country are interrupted, the international community is going to be left with the impression that these steps could in fact be politically driven.”

Mr. Russel was referring to Ms. Yingluck, who the envoy met during his visit several days after she was retroactively impeached, banning her from political office for five years.

Ms. Yingluck was then slapped with criminal charges for an upcoming Supreme Court trial, with a possible 10-year prison sentence, for involvement in costly rice subsidies during her administration.

In his speech, Mr. Russel called for "ending martial law throughout the country, and removing restrictions of speech and assembly" after meeting Foreign Minister Gen. Tanasak Patimapragorn and others.

Putting Mr. Russel's visit into perspective, Pompetch Wichitcholchai, president of the coup-installed National Legislative Assembly, said: "Well, it was better than sending CIA agents to intervene.”

Gen. Prayuth's new displeasure erases much of the benefit President Barack Obama gained during his 2012 Bangkok trip -- accompanied by Mr.

Russel who was at the National Security Council -- when Mr. Obama met then-Prime Minister Ms. Yingluck.

On Friday (January 30), curses began flooding the U.S. Embassy's Facebook site, including a lengthy English-language statement repeatedly posted by different Thais.

"We, the majority of Thai people are warning you, don't interfere in Thailand's internal affairs regarding Martial Law. We are very happy with this law," the multiple Facebook posts stated.

"And please steer your Big Uncle Sam's nose away from our election.

It's our own choice when we should have general election...we don't mind if it takes 10 years because we need to reform our country first.

"We all know you always want something such as natural gas, natural resources, and money from our country. You are Satan," it said.

"There have been certain opinions about America spreading on Facebook and other sites," Deputy Foreign Minister Don Paramatwinai told reporters on Friday (January 30). "The U.S. should think about it.”

Shortly after the May 22 coup, Washington suspended a token $5 million in military aid and some security training programs.

Richard S. Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San Francisco, California, reporting news from Asia since 1978, and recipient of Columbia University's Foreign Correspondent's Award. He is a co-author of three non-fiction books about Thailand, including "Hello My Big Big Honey!" Love Letters to Bangkok Bar Girls and Their Revealing Interviews; 60 Stories of Royal Lineage; and Chronicle of Thailand: Headline News Since 1946. Mr. Ehrlich also contributed to the final chapter, "Ceremonies and Regalia," in a new book titled King Bhumibol Adulyadej, A Life's Work: Thailand's Monarchy in Perspective.

His websites are:
http://asia-correspondent.tumblr.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/animists/sets
https://gumroad.com/l/RHwa

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