What you heard is not true, because General Prat always says the Thai Army belongs to the people, to all the people, not just one group. Throughout what happened in the past six months, the Army tried for reconciliation; we tried to get the two sides to have a dialogue, and we had no intention of taking sides against any party.
One though was the true planned, because you can't do the things at the last minute, surely there must be quite a lot of planning beforehand.
So far as I know, there was no advance planning, because if it were planned that will be illegitimate. If you go wondering why it happened so smoothly, that was because forces were already deployed in the cities; where when we declared a martial law, there were already joint military and peace forces in place in the area.
Why do you thought it necessary to detain so many people, even people making very small protest are being taken away – four hundred and fifty have been summoned, a hundred and seventy plus have been arrested. It's much harsher than the last time the military intervened.
The places these people are being kept are not really like places of detention, they are like guesthouses. There are no barb or sensors; we have showed these places to human right groups. We've even broadcast pictures of them on national TV stations. We showed interviews with some of the summoned people. Everyone was satisfied with this. So what you hear is not true, because as General Prat will says, the military belongs to all Thai people, not just one group.
But this isn't just about inviting people in; I mean people have been charged with very heavy crimes. People who just spoken their views are facing charges of inciting unrests, computer crimes, many, many years in prison. And that's creating a climate of fear.
You've received incorrect information. None of the summoned people have been charged with serious offences. We only charge on these disobeying our orders. When these cases reach court, they will be processed in a normal legal way. You could have a lawyer, even in a military court. Many of them are on bail like the Education Minister. This is a normal procedure, nothing unusually strange.
But it's not a normal judicial process against the military courts. The police have warned people that if they try to talk about protest on Facebook they will be charged under Article-116, that's inciting unrest, seven years in prison. These are heavy charges that hang over people.
But these are of civilian laws that existed before, not something from martial law. The punishment is to help make them more careful before they say something. I think you know about General Prayut's roadmap. That's when you bring about peace to the country, then continue to the second and third stages of the roadmap, so the country could move forward. The penalties you mentioned are the highest punishments. When it gets to courts, civilian or military, the punishment will not be that severe.
Parties linked to Taksin Shinowatra have won all of the elections in the last 40 years, they have now been pushed out by coup, two, twice. When you finish your reforms of the political system, would you accept Taksin Shinowatra and his family still have a political role in Thailand?
Regarding General Prayut's roadmap, at the second stage we will set up a council to discuss all kinds of reforms. Political reform is one of these issues, and it will not be, as you think, that we will pick people from just one group. We will select people from all supplies, from every political party for our sessions, so we get the best possible outcomes. When we reach the final stage with a new election, reforms will be completed. Everyone who is Thai and is qualified can take part in that selection, even the family of Taksin Shinowatra. You will see the way we run it. We are not hunting Taksin as we did before. He is free to do anything. We would like to see him come back and fight the legal charges against him. He is confident he can win, then he would be able to return to politics.