Thailand to roll back emergency rule

THAILAND’S Prime Minister said the state of emergency in force across about one-fifth of the country would be lifted gradually, after his Government faced fresh calls for the strict laws to be rolled back.

“The Government will proceed with gradually lifting (the decree) but not all at once,” Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said, a day after a reform committee he set up recommended ending emergency rule.

He said his Government believed there was still a threat of unrest involving the anti-government Red Shirt movement, which was behind two months of violent protests in Bangkok that ended in a deadly army crackdown in May.

“Under the state of emergency it would be difficult for protesters to move about as the authorities can arrest them easily,” he said.

On Tuesday the Government revoked the decree in three provinces but maintained the strict laws in 16 others, out of a total of 76, after calls by the US and rights groups for an end to emergency rule.

The authorities have used the powers – introduced in Bangkok on April 7 – to arrest hundreds of Red Shirt suspects and silence anti-government media.

Two months of mass rallies in Bangkok by the Reds, who were seeking immediate elections, sparked outbreaks of violence that left 90 people dead and nearly 1900 injured, mostly civilians.