The Young People for Social-Democracy (YPD) group in Thailand and the student-based New Democracy Movement (NDM) hosted separate events as reminders of the 2014 coup this day.

At the October 14 Memorial, the YPD slammed the junta for failing to achieve any concrete goals despite enjoying sweeping powers. Such power even appears to have been misused, the group said, such as forcing villagers out of their long-inherited forest lands.

“The junta said this is a part of their reform plan to crack down on forest encroachment. But it turns out that the villagers have been much more affected than the real encroaching fat cats,” the YPD statement said

The group also blamed the junta for mismanaging national resources.

The YPD secretary-general, Sura Kaewkohsaba, said the junta also abused laws and human rights by arbitrarily detaining critics.

“People cannot check the junta’s use of power,” Sura said, “and it seems that this power alone acts illegally, more than anything else that people do.”

“The junta said they needed to seize power to bring about national reforms,” added YPD member Chatchai Kadum “But they apparently have failed to do so because they haven’t allowed public discussion on the subject at all.”

Sura said the YPD is an international organisation with at least 130 country members.

Meanwhile, at nearby Thammasat University’s Tha Prachan campus, the NDM organised a march to Democracy Monument to mark the junta’s second anniversary of power seizure, calling them to return power to the citizens.

“We ask the junta to listen to us. That’s all we want,” said key NDM member Rangsiman Rome.

Three officers from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) spoke to plainclothes police officers who had come to observe the march, before it began.

They declined to speak to media at the scene.

However, Jeremy Laurence, Public Information Officer of the OHCHR Regional Office for Southeast Asia, told The Nation, “We have to ensure that Thai people can exercise their right to peaceful assembly.”

There was danger of a clash when the protesters were confronted by a pro-junta group, consisting of at least five people, when they reached the Monument. Police, however, stepped in to prevent a clash between the two groups.

Last year, on the first anniversary of the coup, the YPD was banned by the junta for attempting to read a statement at the memorial, opposing the junta’s intervention. Members of the YPD and the NDM last year were also arrested after they staged an anti-coup demonstration at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.