Betong getting safer, Isoc says

The Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc) will ask the cabinet to consider removing Yala’s Betong district from a list of “severe emergency areas” and use the Internal Security Act to maintain security there instead.

Gen Wallop Raksanoh, secretarygeneral of the National Security Council (NSC), revealed the results of yesterday’s meeting of the emergency situation management committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon.

Also present were Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda, deputy national police chief Srivara Ransibrahmanakul, and representatives of the armed forces.

At the meeting, the NSC proposed the district of Betong be delisted as a severe emergency area after the district passed an assessment by security agencies. The proposal will be tabled to the cabinet for approval, Gen Wallop said.

Betong is also being promoted under the government’s “triangle economy city model” programme in the three southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat.

Under the programme, a 3.4-billionbaht budget will be allocated for 15 development projects which are part of the government’s economic plan to boost the region and ease the southern insurgency.

The projects, which will focus on transport infrastructure, include a plan to build two bridges across the Golok River i n Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok and Tak Bai districts and a new airport in Yala’s Betong district.

Gen Wallop also said the meeting agreed to extend the use of the emergency decree for another three months in Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani provinces, with the exception of Pattani’s Mae Lan district.

The extension will be effective from March 20, Gen Wallop said, adding that it is the 51st extension of the decree.

Meanwhile, Col Thanawee Suwannarat, deputy spokesman of Isoc Region 4’s forward command, said the director of Isoc Region 4 has assigned the head of a special task force unit attached to the 43rd Rangers Regiment to file a lawsuit against Manager Online for running a story which claimed that a suspect in a security-related case was tortured to make a confession while he was being questioned in custody at the special task force in Pattani’s Nong Chik district.

Col Thanawee said that the lawsuit against Manager Online was meant to protect the reputation of the military unit. The online media outlet had spread distorted information, he said.

He rejected claims by some human rights organisations that the army was resorting to legal action to silence the media, conceal information and deter media efforts to scrutinise state agencies.