Thai anti-junta protesters enlist Hunger Games salute as act of defiance
Junta opponents risk arrest by flashing three-finger sign from film
Opponents of Thailand's military coup are risking arrest by flashing the three-finger salute from the Hunger Games movies to defy a junta that has banned all public protests.
The gesture has become the unofficial symbol of resistance against a military regime that has suspended democracy and severely curtailed freedom of expression.
"Showing three fingers has become a symbol to call for basic political rights in a country ruled by one person as if with the most sovereign power, who is General Prayuth Chan-ocha," Sombat Boonngamanong, a prominent activist wanted by the junta, wrote on Facebook.
Critics of the May 22 coup, including the youngest daughter of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, have posted photographs of themselves flashing three fingers on social media sites.
"Dear #HungerGames. We've taken your sign as our own. Our struggle is non-fiction," wrote one Twitter user.
In the Hunger Games movies, the residents of a dystopian future North America use the gesture to symbolise solidarity for their uprising against a wealthy, totalitarian regime.
In Thailand, some protesters say the salute is also a nod to the French revolutionary motto "liberty, equality and fraternity".