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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai prime minister targeted in troubled southern region |
| 2009-01-17 |
| Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was the target of a bomb plot on his first official visit to the country's troubled deep south Saturday, days after saying he would review controversial emergency laws permitting extended detention without trial. Police said they defused a two-kilogram roadside bomb placed in Yala province apparently designed to be detonated as the prime minister and his party passed by. Villagers had earlier warned police about an unexplained iron box by the road which turned out to contain the bomb, reported the Bangkok Post. Aphisit's Democrat Party controls most of Thailand's entire southern panhandle, including the majority Muslim Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat provinces where separatist guerilla attacks are now a daily occurrence. Bangkok pundits have suggested the new government might be able bring the level of violence down to the low levels that existed in the late 1990s when the Democrats were last in power. The prime minister admitted this week that the bloody Abhisit, accompanied by ministers responsible for development in the south and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, is to be briefed by officials and visit a 'task force for peace' and an experimental farm. Abhisit told foreign reporters on Wednesday he would review emergency laws in operation since October 2005 that allow the security authorities to hold suspects without charge and give immunity to security personnel carrying out 'hard' policing. The law must be approved by parliament every three months. Human rights groups have criticized the laws as permitting brutal security operations that ultimately exacerbate a nasty civil war. Amnesty International last week accused previous Thai governments of turning a blind eye to routine torture. With nearly 45 per cent of Thailand's armed forces based in the three provinces there is a perception that the military have added to the problem, especially as they enjoy immunity under the emergency decree. 'My basic assumption is that you will never have reconciliation unless there is justice,' Abhisit said last week. 'The same principle applies to the South.' |
| Posted by:ryuge |