Don was referring to a letter from Amnesty’s headquarters in the United Kingdom to Prime MinisterPrayut Chan-o-cha and him, urging Prayut who is also chief of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) to cancel NCPO order No 3/2015 and drop all charges against political activists.

Amnesty issued the letter after four student activists were arrested by security officials last Wednesday on charges of holding an illegal gathering at Thammasat University’s Rangsit campus. The Military Court released the students the next day but police warned the students they would be rounded up again if they gathered illegally.

NCPO order 3/2015 features measures to deal with any action intended to undermine or destroy peace and national security, violate notifications or orders of the NCPO, or to commit offences under the laws on firearms, ammunition, explosives, fireworks and artificial weapons which threaten the peace and security of the nation.

Don said he would like to invite representatives of the rights body to talk to him at the ministry about the matter.

“How could the government not have taken action against the students if they had not had ulterior motives or a hidden agenda?” Don said.

“This is an issue of three, five or ten students and then they said it is a national problem. If it happens to a small group of people who are deemed to have ulterior or suspicious intent, it is not a national issue,” he said.

Don questioned Amnesty’s motives for its move on social media to click like and share on its message “so Thailand drops charges against the students”.

“Do you have a hidden agenda for highlighting this issue? Don’t you have anything to do? We have many other issues to address for a majority of our people, why did you look at the issue of a few people and say it is a national problem?” the minister said.

“If there is an issue involving most of the people and we ignore the problem, then they can blame the government,” he said.

Don raised concern that Amnesty may have stirred up sentiment to mislead the world community to misunderstand the government, that it has violated human rights.

Asked if he believed that Amnesty had influence over other countries, Don said many countries do not pay attention to the rights body. “Thailand is the most gentle country in the world,” he said.

Don said the government had never restricted press freedom. Thai media can criticise the PM every day. “Do you really believe that Thais do not have freedom of expression?” Don asked reporters.