Army chief, PM's advisor visit Thai far South

BANGKOK, April 25 (TNA) - Army Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha and an advisor to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, General Yutthasak Sasiprapa, are visiting the violence-plagued Thai far South to inspect the updated situation and to monitor developments, as well as to boost morale of local officials, security forces and community leaders. Before their departure to Pattani Province in the Thai deep South on Thursday morning, General Prayuth told journalists that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra discussed the situation in the southernmost Thai region with security authorities concerned in Bangkok on Wednesday and vowed to supervise relevant agencies tasked with finding solutions and facilitating peace restoration in the region herself. Asked whether he is concerned over the security situation in the troubled region on the 9th anniversary of the Krue Se mosque incident on April 28, in which 85 people were killed in a violent crackdown by state security officers, the army chief said he has been worried over the general security situation in the southernmost Thai region and has ordered authorities concerned to beef up their security measures. Regarding a British court’s recent ruling on fraud in the sale of fake bomb detectors, known as GT200, that the Thai military had procured, the army-commander-in chief acknowledged that the Thai military had stopped using the device for a few years. (TNA)