Curfew For Thailand's South Ruled Out

[webfact]

Curfew for Thailand's South ruled out

By English News

BANGKOK, Feb 15 – It is unlikely that a curfew will be imposed in Thailand’s three Muslim-dominated provinces in the far South after a preliminary feedback from most security agencies shows their confidence in handling the situation under normal circumstances, a senior official said today.

newsjs

Paradorn Pattanathabutr, secretary general of the National Security Council, said 80 per cent of security officials in the South believed the existing laws are sufficient to handle the southern situation.

He said southern people are cooperating more in providing information to the authorities and there is a positive sign concerning solutions to the southern crisis.

“Seeking the people’s cooperation is more efficient in dealing with the situation. After the militants’ attack on a marine base in Narathiwat’s Bacho province, residents were asked to refrain from leaving their houses. It was a softer measure,” he said.

Lt-Gen Paradorn said families of the 16 militants, killed in the Wednesday’s attack on the Bacho marine base, are not entitled to any financial assistance from the state.

“The dead militants intentionally attacked the authorities. They were not innocent people,” he said, adding that aid to their families will be extended on humanitarian grounds. (MCOT online news)

-- TNA 2013-02-15

[CHANGOVER]

But, but, but Chalerm said so!

[OzMick]

This thread deserves a subtitle "Chalerm is an Idiot". OTOH that's hardly news.

[Bellweather]

This thread deserves a subtitle "Chalerm is an Idiot". OTOH that's hardly news.

Chalerm should change his name to Nina Ricci as everything he does is cosmetic. All he's interested in is getting his beery face on TV so he can shout and wave his arms. The govt talks a lot to make it look as if they are doing something when nothing could be further from the truth and remember a couple of govts ago when he was responsible for the south he was sacked as he refused to actually visit the area fearing for his life. When the then PM, the late ' Pigs Nose ", found out he ordered Chalerm to stop hiding behind video calls and go south, then he removed him.

If I'm not mistaken the insurgents operate as much during the day as they do at night anyway

[Thai at Heart]

Did i hear a bit of face hit the footwell of a pink Bentley?

Not even a bogus story of a threat to a us consulate could save him.

[hellodolly]

"He said southern people are cooperating more in providing information to the authorities and there is a positive sign concerning solutions to the southern crisis."

I was wondering how many thousands were going to die before some one figured out that killing was not an answer to what ever is running through a fanatics head. Hope to see more enlightened people down that way.

Maybe they can get a clue from the governments enlightened idea to scrap the useless curfew.

useless curfew useless killings both ideas the product of very sick minds.

[ChrisY1]

The Boofhead lost face with the curfew....but tried to gain it back with a timely drug bust.......

[webfact]

UPDATE:

NSC RECOMMENDATION

Cabinet rejects curfew for South

The Nation

A rubber tapper goes about his task of collecting latex at night despite the aggravated tensions in the South.

Govt heeds opposition from locals as they are meeting other restrictions

BANGKOK: -- At the recommendation of the National Security Council (NSC), the Cabinet yesterday rejected a proposal to impose a curfew in the strife-torn deep South, as "requests to restrict night-time travel" had been respected by locals, who had cooperated fully with authorities, NSC secretary-general Lt-General Pharadorn Phatthanathabutr said.

The general cited strong opposition among locals surveyed in a report compiled jointly by the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC) and the Fourth Army Area as another reason for rejecting the curfew. More than 80 per cent of residents interviewed opposed the measure, which was proposed by Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung, Pharadorn said.

Officials from the NSC, and from a new centre headed jointly by Chalerm and the SBPAC, spent two hours meeting with military and police officials, before reaching a conclusion and making a joint recommendation. Chalerm said later that he was fine with the Cabinet decision not to impose a curfew, but said measures already in place would continue in order to minimise the chance of insurgent attacks.

Locals in Narathiwat are complying fully with a number of requests made by authorities, he said. "Security officials are in control of the situation, while earning the full trust and support of the people, which has limited insurgents' movements and discouraged them from harming the people, because they will lose more support from them," he said.

Pharadorn cited as an example a "request" that residents restrict travel at night in Narathiwat's Bacho district, where 16 insurgents were killed while attacking a Marine base on Wednesday morning, adding that all five local schools voluntarily closed their doors to allow for a full-scale manhunt. A wounded man suspected of participating in the attack was arrested and is now in military custody as a result of the manhunt made possible by the 24-hour travel restriction, he said.

The meeting of security officials also discussed arming kamnan and village heads with war weapons as an additional measure, but later abandoned the idea on grounds that handguns and shotguns already issued to them were sufficient for self-defence and guard duties, which focused on preventing impromptu insurgent attacks, Pharadorn said.

A statement by security agencies in Bacho district revealed the names of five insurgent leaders thought to have taken part in the assault on the Marine outpost: Abdulhakim Puta, a resident of Narathiwat's Chanae district; Yafree Saro-eng, from Pattani's Sai Buri district; Arpandee Kapha, another Sai Buri district resident; Rohpae-ing Useng, of Narathiwat's Rusoh district; and Madaree Walong, of Narathiwat's Yi-ngor district.

Chalerm earlier dismissed as propaganda a YouTube clip featuring funerals of the 16 dead insurgents, saying their planned assault, which was reported widely in the media, was an obvious act of insurgency.

-- The Nation 2013-02-16