Thaksin defends special powers decree for south

[dArKeR]

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday defended a decree giving him sweeping emergency powers to combat a violent insurgency in Thailand's Muslim-dominated south, comparing the situation to the US where some civil liberties were curtailed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The decree was issued after a daring raid on Thursday night by Islamic insurgents on the capital of Yala Province, in which they destroyed electrical transformers to black out the city, then caused chaos by firing automatic weapons and setting off bombs. Two policemen were killed and 22 other people were injured.

"The security agencies were well aware that a major attack was going to happen in Yala province on Thursday night, but they could not do anything to stop it because they said they have no power under the law. That was a very idiotic problem," Thaksin said in his weekly radio address.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/07/17/2003263871

[dArKeR]

1. Thais try to stem Muslim violence

Customers no longer come to Kaboh Sulong's teashop -- not since two gunmen walked in at noon, coldly shot a Buddhist cloth vendor, cut off his head and left it in a sack outside.

Ten days later Sulong was still terrified as he pointed to a wooden table where Lek Pongpla was relaxing when the attackers killed him. And all around him, Buddhists were packing and fleeing the worsening violence in Thailand's Muslim-majority south.

Beheadings and bombings are pushing tensions to a boiling point since a long-simmering Muslim separatist movement launched an armed struggle early last year that has left more than 860 people dead.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/07/18/2003264012