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Thailand extends emergency powers in southern region

The Thai government yesterday decided to keep in place a controversial emergency decree -- criticized as a "license to kill" -- in the country's troubled deep south, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.

"The implementation of the emergency decree will definitely be extended," Thaksin told reporters before attending a Cabinet meeting.

Thaksin pushed through an emergency decree on July 19, following a spate of bombings in Yala City, giving authorities the right to detain suspects without charges for up to a month and other draconian powers.

Indefinite extension

The decree's first implementation phase was scheduled to end tomorrow, but has now been extended indefinitely.

Thaksin defended the decree, dubbed a "license to kill" by former Thai prime minister Anand Panyarachun, and his decision to extend it, noting that similar emergency legislation has been passed and extended by the US and UK as part of their war on terrorism.

"The United Kingdom, which has been recognized as the model for democracy, has extended the implementation of its anti-terrorism law from 14 days to three months, while a similar law in the US has been extended up to six months," Thaksin said.

The Thai government has repeatedly insisted that the situation in its three southernmost provinces -- Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala -- has nothing to do with international terrorism but is strictly a domestic issue.

There is no sign that violence has abated in the deep south since the enforcement of the emergency decree three months ago.

Continued violence

During the past five days 12 more people have died in the area, including a beheading of a 68-year-old cattle raiser on Friday and the hacking to death of a Buddhist monk over the weekend.

Authorities estimate that more than 1,000 people have died from sectarian violence in the majority Muslim area since January last year.

A separatist movement has simmered on and off for decades in the deep south -- which was a separate Islamic kingdom before being defeated by Bangkok in 1786.

Nearly 87 percent of the 2 million people living in the three southern provinces are Muslim, making the region a cultural anomaly in predominantly Buddhist Thailand.
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