Thailand’s junta warns over ‘Hunger Games’ salute

AOL

BANGKOK (AP) – Thailand’s military rulers said Tuesday they are monitoring a new form of silent resistance to the coup – a three-fingered salute borrowed from “The Hunger Games” – and will arrest those in large groups who ignore warnings to lower their arms.

Despite the warning to protesters, the junta offered a reprieve to the country’s vital tourism industry. It lifted the military’s curfew at three popular beach resorts – Phuket, Koh Samui and Pattaya – to ease the impact of the May 22 coup on tourists.

A midnight-to-4 a.m. curfew remained in effect for the rest of the country, including Bangkok, where the raised arm salute was unveiled over the weekend as an unofficial symbol of opposition to the coup.

“At this point we are monitoring the movement,” Col. Weerachon Sukhondhapatipak, a spokesman for the junta, told The Associated Press. “If it is an obvious form of resistance, then we have to control it so it doesn’t cause any disorder in the country.”

Since staging its bloodless coup, the military has prohibited political gatherings of more than five people and tried to enforce a ban on criticism of the coup by closing politically affiliated television stations and blocking hundreds of websites.

On Sunday, authorities deployed nearly 6,000 soldiers and police in Bangkok to prevent planned protests against the coup. Amid the heavy security, creative forms of protest emerged. Some people wore masks as they walked through a central shopping district. Others joined small flash mobs, or stood alone, and flashed three fingers in the air.

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