Pro-democracy protesters stage rare rally in Thai capital

Pro-democracy protesters in Thailand’s capital defied a ban on protests and staged a rare rally Saturday against the country’s ruling military government. More than 200 people marched peacefully to Bangkok’s Democracy Monument, a symbolic location that has become a rallying point for protests in recent years. They carried anti-junta banners and shouted pro-democracy slogans as a ring of police kept watch over the event but did not break it up.

Peoples’ rights have been taken away, too many have been detained. I have to show solidarity, against the military. I’m scared, but I’m willing to march to show we won’t give up.

Montra Thongsuksan, a demonstrator carrying a sign saying “return power to the people”.

The protesters, from a group calling itself the New Democracy Movement, called the event to mark the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 19, 2006, coup that unseated then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra — an event that many see as the start of Thailand’s nearly decade-long political turmoil. The protest also appeared designed at least in part to embarrass the current leader, army chief-turned-Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who is scheduled to make an address this month at the U.N. General Assembly in New York. After initially promising quick elections to restore democracy after engineering the latest coup in 2014, Prayuth now says polls will not be held until at least 2017.

We are observing, to keep things in order. If things get out of hand, we’ll report it to our superiors.

Police commanding officer Major General Pongpan Wannapak

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