Emergency decree extended for the 28th time
The cabinet on June 19 approved the extension of emergency decree in three southernmost provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani (with the exception of Mae Larn district) for another three months as of June 20 until September 19.
This was the 28th extension since the decree was first imposed seven years ago.
Government spokesman Anusurn Iamsa-ard said the National Security Council had insisted that the decree was still necessary in the restive region despite protests from non-governmental organization and human rights advocacy groups which contended that extension of the decree would worsen the unrest situation.
The cabinet also instructed that the rehabilitation process for suspected insurgents who turned themselves in under Section 21 of the National Security Act should be rectified to shorten the judicial process so that the surrendered insurgents should be released and spared criminal prosecution after they had completed six months of re-education programme.
Ironically on the same day the Yala provincial court ordered a former student leader to be released after he was held in military detention for a week under the suspicion that he was involved in a bombing attack some time ago.
The court said that authorities had failed to come up with additional evidences against the detained student, Naruman Doloh, former student of Rajabhat University’s Yala campus, although the court had earlier agreed to extend his detention for seven days. Also, the court said that the suspect had a legitimate career and could be easily located so there was no need to keep him in dentention any further.
Meanwhile, the forward command of the Internal Security Operations Command reported that there were 57 violent incidents in the three southernmost provinces compared to 62 incidents in April.
Of the 57 incidents, there were 12 bombing attacks, two arsons and 42 shooting incidents. The death toll stood at 35 which included 15 civilians and the rest were government officials. Two suspected insurgents were killed.
The total death toll for April were 33 killed and 51 injured. The total casualties since January 2004 were 4,745 killed and 8,538 injured.