Privy Council head urged to defuse life-and-death crisis over 2 hunger strikers

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

PRIVY COUNCIL PRESIDENT Surayud Chulanont was today (Jan.31) petitioned to immediately help put an end to a life-and-death crisis involving a couple of young women on a severe hunger strike.

Thammasat University’s Sociology & Anthropology lecturer Anusorn Unno who submitted the letter of petition endorsed by 91 university lecturers, university students and others at Privy Council House said Surayud could potentially defuse the critical situation in which Tantawan “Tawan” Tuatulanond and Orawan “Bam” Pupong have refused to date to drink water or eat food provided in jail or at a hospital in sustained protest of the prolonged imprisonment of 21 political activists including themselves on lese majeste and sedition charges with bail requests being denied and no court verdict yet delivered.

The unprecedented petition filed to Surayud, who is a former prime minister and a former army chief, calls on the Privy Council head to immediately manage to save the hunger strikers’ lives.

Tantawan and Orawan, who are among the nine detainees charged with the draconian lese majeste law, better known as Section 112 of the Criminal Code, are currently in a very critical condition since they started their severe hunger strike on January 18.

Separate petitions including one openly endorsed with signatures of some 5,000 people have been earlier lodged in support of persistent calls of human rights groups for reform of the judicial process and abolition of the lese majeste law in addition to the immediate, unconditional release of those political detainees.

CAPTIONS:

Top: Tantawan “Tawan” Tuatulanond and Orawan “Bam” Pupong are holding a severe hunger strike after a roadside protest where they pour red dye, representing blood, over their head and body. Photo: Thai Rath

Insert: Thammasat University’s Sociology & Anthropology lecturer Anusorn Unno. Photo: Matichon

Front Page: Privy Council head Surayud Chulanont. Photo: Matichon Weekly

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