Good morning,

Around 15,000 demonstrators marched on army headquarters on Saturday night to demand the resignation of junta ring-leader General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/11Jun2007_news02.php). The General, who spent most of last week trying and failing to meet his favourite fortune teller in Chiang Mai, appears to think that protests will die down for some reason. Meanwhile, his puppet General Surayud Chulanont, who is acting as ‘prime minister,’ is still claiming that the Constitutional Court decision to dissolve the three times democratically elected Thai Rak Thai party was a genuine one and not the result of judges acting according the orders of the junta (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=29849). He continued in his speech, which was covered by all media outlets, to try to justify his position by blaming the previous three times democratically elected government for ‘destroying the rule of law’ and ‘corruption’ (http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/06/11/headlines/headlines_30036517.php). No meaningful evidence of corruption has been brought forward despite an intensive nine month effort to find some. Nearly half of those polled do not believe in the general’s often repeated claim that elections will be held this year (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=29845).

Insurgents are being blamed for an attack on a school bus carrying Muslim students in the South in which eight students and the driver were shot (http://www.bangkokpost.com/topstories/topstories.php?id=119361). A variety of other atrocities took place over the weekend, with several deaths and injuries caused (http://etna.mcot.net/query.php?nid=29830).

The demonisation of Cambodians, particularly Cambodian Muslims, continues. In recent days, military government figures have claimed that Cambodian muslims are travelling to the South of Thailand in order to take part in terrorist activities and may be part of the JI group, although evidence of this has been in short supply. Today, more booted figures claim that the casinos on the Thai-Cambodian borders are acting as centres for money laundering and drug smuggling (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/11Jun2007_news25.php).

Back tomorrow.