Published on July 16, 2005

Yala attacks prompt enforcement of measures to reduce legal instruments in dealing with violence in deep South

The Cabinet yesterday approved an executive decree giving the prime minister absolute power to handle states of emergency. This will allow him to order detention without charge, censor news and intercept telephone conversations.

The new decree, which was submitted for His Majesty the King’s endorsement yesterday, follows a co-ordinated attack by about 60 insurgents on Muang Yala on Thursday night.

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-Ngam said the Yala attacks prompted the government to bring the new decree into force to reduce the number of legal instruments in dealing with the situation.

Since last year, the government had been preparing to replace martial law in the deep South with a comprehensive legal instrument, together with six other laws, to deal with the situation, he said.

“We needed to integrate all legal instruments to deal with the state of emergency without any violation to the Constitution or basic human rights.”

Violence in the three restive southernmost provinces has claimed about 800 lives over the past 18 months.

The decree authorises the prime minister to announce a state of emergency with Cabinet consent and to impose curfews in particular areas deemed to be in crisis.

Such states of emergency under the new decree will last for three months and will be renewable.

Wissanu said the decree would take the power of the military under martial law and vest it with the prime minister.

“But this is better,” he said, “because the prime minister is subject to the Parliament, while the military has no accountability in that way.”

The new law has drawn strong criticism from civic groups, which have raised concerns that it gives too much power to the prime minister and violates many basic rights.

Cabinet Secretary Borwornsak Uwanno, who was an architect of the decree, admitted that it might, to some extent, limit the rights and freedoms of a certain group of people. But it was enforced to protect the rights of a majority of the people.

Unlike martial law, the decree allowed detention of suspects for a maximum of 30 days and only with court permission, he said.

To prevent further criticisms that might bring negative consequences for the government, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has instructed ministers to help explain the decree and the government’s need for the new powers to the public and to Parliament.

The government bypassed Parliament by making the new law an executive decree, rather than an act of legislation.

The government spokesman’s office yesterday recalled a draft of the decree that had been distributed to reporters, with the excuse that it could not be publicised prior to Royal endorsement.

Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai, concerned that claims of human rights violations might damage his bid for the post of UN secretary-general, instructed the Foreign Ministry to brief Bangkok’s diplomatic corps on the government’s need for the powers of the decree.

Deputy Foreign Minister Preecha Laohapongchana said his ministry would circulate English versions of the decree to diplomats to prevent confusion.

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