[BERNAMA] Southern Thai Split On Emergency Decree Extension
[He said the security forces felt that the decree allowed them to work efficiently to cope with the daily violence and undertake pre-emptive measures using the legal tool provided. Police and military officials told the seminar that there were 7,000 to 9,000 insurgents, with 274 of the 2,200 villages considered as red areas.
"They can detain a suspect for seven days under the martial law and a further 30 days under the emergency decree. This allows them to conduct interrogation and get more information, whereas under the normal criminal law, a suspect can be held for 24 hours only and they have right to attorney," he said.
He also said the level of violence had dropped with the emergency decree and round-up operations.
"But it could also be due to the fact there are 60,000 troops concentrated heavily in the three provinces. The military also said they have 759 bases and check-points throughout the provinces, so it surpresses the level of insurgency," he said.]
BP: That is quoting Srisompob of PSU. Some other interesting tidbits particularly on support for the current legal infrastructure.
Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.
In the article,Professor Srisompob says 80 percent of Muslims don't want the Emergency Decree. This number might be somewhat accurate, but in terms of attitudes towards the use of soldiers, Srisompob's numbers are quite different. For instance, compare the 80 percent he mentioned to his data on attitudes toward having a large number of security forces (see the graph at the bottom of this page: http://www.deepsouthwatch.org/node/296), and also compare this with his research that notes attitudes toward the use of soldiers to solve the problem in the south(see the bottom of this page: http://www.deepsouthwatch.org/node/369).
Granted these graphs don't show the differences between Muslims and Buddhists, but it still indicates that the widespread portrayal given by human rights activists and Patani Malay Muslim nationalist activists of almost universal animosity toward the security forces is exaggerated.