Sonthi backs ending emergency in South
Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda meets Muslim students from southern provinces at a workshop at the Army Club on Vibhavadi-Rangsit Road aimed at creating understanding among Thais to end violence in the South.
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General Sonthi Boonyaratglin yesterday said he supported the idea of ending the emergency rule in the Muslim-majority South.
"Based on information from both the Interior Ministry and the military, I think emergency rule is no longer necessary," said Sonthi, who is chairman of the Council for National Security.
Defence Minister General Boonrawd Somtas said on Friday that emergency rule would end by January, two months after a revived regional mediation body begins its work.
An emergency decree was one of the measures initiated by the last government to curb the violence in the deep South. It needs to be renewed every three months. Under the decree, authorities can detain suspects for up to 30 days without charge, search and arrest without warrants and tap phones.
The idea of ending emergency rule came after the decision to revive the once-defunct Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC). The civilian-led SBPAC was believed to have been a crucial element in containing the violence in the deep South before former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra dissolved it soon after he came to power in 2001.
The SBPAC is scheduled to reopen tomorrow.
Nonthaburi Governor Pranai Suwannarat, the brother of Privy Council member and former SBPAC chairman Palakorn Suwannarat, is the front runner to run the revived SBPAC.
The junta has placed high hopes on the revived regional body to curb the unrest, which has continued unabated even since the interim government was appointed.
Meanwhile, a man was shot dead yesterday. A bomb went off in a separate incident, but no one was injured.
An auditor at Yala's Cooperative office, Sulaimee Cheloh, 24, was shot by two gunmen while riding his motorcycle to work in Muang district of Yala. He died later at a local hospital.
A five-kilogram bomb went off near a school in Bacho district of Narathiwat while a group of security officials was patrolling, but no one was hurt.
More than 1,700 people have been killed since the violence re-emerged in the three southernmost provinces in January 2004.
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