Military

DATE=12/03/04

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=THAILAND/SECURITY LAWS (L ONLY)

NUMBER=2-320885

BYLINE=RON CORBEN

DATELINE=BANGKOK

HEADLINE: Thailand Shelves Plans for Tough Security Laws

INTRO: Thailand has backed away from introducing tough new security laws as part of efforts to end the on-going violence in the country's mostly Muslim south. Ron Corben reports from Bangkok that critics - including some government ministers - felt existing laws were sufficient to deal with the situation.

TEXT: The proposed new laws failed to win approval Friday at a meeting between Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his security officials.

The talks centered on adopting laws similar to Singapore's and Malaysia's tough Internal Security Acts, and anti-terrorism legislation enacted in the United States after the attacks of September 11th, 2001. The prime minister wanted new laws in order to halt the violence in the country's largely-Muslim southern provinces, which has claimed more than 400 lives this year.

Not all of Mr. Thaksin's ministers agreed that tougher measures were needed. Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said the military in the region already had martial law powers that go beyond normal police powers. Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanjana indicated that he preferred revisions to the existing laws rather than the introduction of new ones.

Human rights activists sided with the two ministers. Gothom Arya, secretary general of the rights group Forum Asia, said tougher laws were not the answer to the crisis.

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"We think that the existing law is adequate for the situation in the south. We have already used emergency measures by declaring martial law, which is on the borderline of giving too much power and not enough protection for the civilians."

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The debate over tougher legislation follows an escalation in violence in the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in recent weeks. In late October, the authorities cracked down on a protest in a Narathiwat town that led to the death of 85 Muslim men - most of them crushed to death when they were jammed into military trucks.

Militants have responded to those deaths with a series of bombings and killings. The dead have included state officials, teachers and Buddhist and Muslim clerics.

The violence began in January, and has become the most severe outbreak of separatist bloodshed in Thailand in two decades.

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Critics have accused the government of a heavy-handed reaction to the violence, and the country's revered King Bhumipol Adulyadej has made a rare public call for a softer approach to be taken in the region.

Thais are now awaiting to see if King Bhumipol will again comment on the situation in his traditional birthday address to the nation. The king has often called for national unity during times of political and economic turbulence.

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Thailand is a predominately-Buddhist nation, but Muslims make up the majority in the far south, which borders Malaysia. (Signed)

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