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Hospitalized King of Thailand makes brief, rare public appearance

By Andrew V. Pestano
President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with the revered, reclusive King Bhumibol Adulyadej of the Kingdom of Thailand, at the Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2012. File Photo by UPI/Pete Souza/White House.
President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met with the revered, reclusive King Bhumibol Adulyadej of the Kingdom of Thailand, at the Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand, in 2012. File Photo by UPI/Pete Souza/White House. | License Photo

BANGKOK, May 5 (UPI) -- The 87-year-old King of Thailand, Bhumibol Adulyadej, made a brief, rare public appearance at a Coronation Day ceremony celebrating 65 years of his ascension to the throne.

He left the Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, where he has been confined for the last few months, and arrived to the Grand Palace for a Buddhist ceremony on Tuesday -- to the delight of many.

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"Long live the king," hundreds of people cheered as the king made his way. Adulyadej, the world's longest reigning monarch, remained at the palace for about 20 minutes before his departure. The wheelchair-bound king has been under repeated medical care since his hospitalization for flu and pneumonia in 2009. His gall bladder was removed last October.

Adulyadej's wife, Queen Sirikit, 83, did not attend the ceremony. She has been hospitalized since 2012 at the same hospital as her husband. She suffered a stroke in 2012.

The revered King Adulyadej is one of the rare unifying forces in Thailand. After months of protests, martial law was imposed in Thailand in May 2014 shortly before the military staged a coup, ousting the democratically-elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra. The National Council for Peace and Order military junta has ruled since, accused of violating civil liberties, censoring media and suppressing opposition.

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The country's current prime minister, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha, recently removed martial law in the country, but replaced it with an order giving him sweeping, ambiguous powers.

The law allows Prayuth to issue executive orders to "disrupt or suppress" threats to Thailand's security or the monarchy "with an aim to deploy military officers in tasks related to maintenance of national order."

Critics fear the new order would give the military government more power than before.

Human Rights Watch said Article 44 would allow Prayuth "to issue orders without administrative, legislative, or judicial oversight or accountability."

"Thailand's friends abroad should not be fooled by this obvious sleight of hand by the junta leader to replace martial law with a constitutional provision that effectively provides unlimited and unaccountable powers," Human Rights Watch's Asia director Brad Adams said, stating it symbolized the country's "deepening descent into dictatorship."

The junta previously promised to restore democracy and hold elections in 2015.

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