Thailand Prolongs Emergency Rule In South

[webfact]

Thailand prolongs emergency rule in south

BANGKOK, January 18, 2011 (AFP) - Thailand extended emergency rule in most of its violence-plagued deep south for another three months on Tuesday despite rights groups' concerns about the powers awarded to the military.

The decree, which was first introduced in 2005 and covers most of the Muslim-majority provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, has been criticised by rights campaigners who say it effectively gives the army legal immunity.

The state of emergency allows the military to detain suspects for questioning without charge.

The extension came despite Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva hinting during a visit to Pattani on Monday that he would consider gradually rolling back the decree, which was lifted in one district last month as a test case.

"I think the government is on the right track," he told reporters. "If other districts are ready we will lift the laws."

Suspected Islamic insurgents have waged a violent campaign in the region since early 2004, leaving more than 4,400 Muslims and Buddhists dead.

The latest victims included a 47-year-old Buddhist volunteer security guard who was shot dead at a grocery store in Narathiwat on Tuesday morning, as well as a Muslim deputy village headman, 39, killed in an ambush late on Monday.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2011-01-18

[asiawatcher]

Killings over religions - nothing new over the past 2,000 years - but religions are all propagated by man as a means of control an only in this little pimple on the billions of years of our evolution. Why die or kill for such stupidity! Leave the military in control. The Rights groups if they wish to complain, tell them to go live there and do their 'good deeds' from within, not from afar! See if they have any rights then.