EMERGENCY DECREE EXTENDED

C O N F I D E N T I A L BANGKOK 006618

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/19/2015
TAGS: PGOV PHUM TH
SUBJECT: EMERGENCY DECREE EXTENDED

REF: (A) BANGKOK 6595 (B) BANGKOK 4697 (C) BANGKOK

4653 (D) BANGKOK 4596

Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR SUSAN SUTTON. REASON: 1.4 (D)


1. (U) Summary: On October 18, the Cabinet agreed to
extend the Emergency Decree on Public Administration in
Emergency Situations in the three southern border provinces
of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala for another three months.
The move was expected. Opponents of the measures are
criticizing the Decree as polarizing and counter-productive.
However, in the wake of the recent gruesome murders of a monk
and two young acolytes in Pattani by suspected separatists,
general public support for an extension of the measures will
continue. End summary.

EMERGENCY DECREE MEASURES EXTENDED


2. (U) At its October 18 Tuesday weekly meeting, the
Cabinet agreed to extend the Emergency Decree on Public
Administration in Emergency Situations in the three southern
border provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala for another
three months. The effective period of the extension will be
October 20, 2005 to January 20, 2006. Under the terms of the
Decree's article 5, the Prime Minister is empowered to extend
the declaration of emergency in specified areas for three
months with Cabinet approval. The decree first came into
effect on July 17 this year.

THAKSIN SAYS HE HAS NO CHOICE


3. (U) Critics have long maintained that the decree as
ineffective and likely to exacerbate already strong southern
Thai Muslim suspicions of the RTG's motives. In the face of
initial criticism by human rights groups, the political
opposition and media bodies, the government made haste to
assure that the provisions of the bill would be applied
sparingly and in only very specific locations. As noted in
Ref. B, the RTG announced that it would not to apply parts of
Articles 9 and 11 dealing with banning public assembly and
the sale of news or other publications. Critics have pointed
out that while the government has elected not to impose for
now some measures, the fact that it retains the authority to
apply all of the decree's provisions gives it great scope to
commit civil rights abuses.


4. (U) Opponents of the extension declared that the
emergency measures led many southern Thai Muslims to fear
that the government was empowering its security officials to
murder them with impunity in the name of battling the
separatists. Following the Cabinet session, Prime Minister
Thaksin, trying to justify provisions of the Decree,
reportedly claimed that the US and Britain allow the
detention of terrorist suspects for relatively long periods
without charge. The Prime Minister also said that the
current situation in the country's deep south gave his
government no choice but to extend the measure.


5. (C) Comment: The decision by the cabinet to extend the
emergency measures does not come as a surprise. The
situation in the southern border region has not improved.
Rather, several grisly incidents, the most recent being the
killings of a Buddhist Monk and two young acolytes by
suspected separatists, have hardened general Thai public
attitudes even as they highlighted the governments inability
to come to grips with the problem. For Thaksin, lifting the
measures, no matter how questionable their effectiveness,
would appear to be a retreat by his government.
BOYCE