US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK6618

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, Emergency Decree, Southern Thailand 
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