Junta targets crime to clean up Thailand’s image

By Jocelyn Gecker

Published June 20, 2014 1:05pm ET

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Junta targets crime to clean up Thailand’s image — In this photo taken June 19, 2014, tourists, front left, talk to each other in front of a group of taxi drivers at a taxi stand at Suvarnabhumi international airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Since staging a coup on May 22, the military has led a crackdown on crime as part of what army commander Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha describes as a morality cleanse for Thai society. Before democracy can be restored, he says, corruption and lawlessness have to stop. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong) | Apichart Weerawong

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s new ruling junta doesn’t like the way the country is portrayed in the movies as a haven for drugs, thugs, lawlessness and ladies of the night.

It’s not that the movies are entirely wrong. But the junta chief says Thailand should be ashamed of its image, and has embarked on a cleanup campaign.

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