Thai police and soldiers flooded downtown Bangkok on Saturday to pre-empt further protests against a May 22 coup after the army chief said a return to democracy would take more than a year.
In a televised address late on Friday, Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha said the military would need time to reconcile Thailand's antagonistic political forces and to engineer reforms.
Prayuth, who ousted the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra after months of sometimes violent protests, appealed for patience from Thailand's international allies after outlining his reform plan to the Southeast Asian nation.