Emergency decree in Bangkok, adjacent provinces lifted

BANGKOK, March 18 (TNA) - The Cabinet has resolved to stop imposing the emergency decree in Bangkok and three nearby provinces and to, instead, exercise the Internal Security Act (ISA), taking effect from March 19, 2014. Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, who is on wheelchair for her injured ankle after her fall in Chiang Mai Province in the Thai North earlier, told journalists on Tuesday after the Cabinet's weekly meeting, held at the Royal Thai Police Academy Sam Pran in Bangkok's adjacent Nakon Pathom Province, that the end of the emergency decree enforcement is aimed to restore confidence in Thailand among international investors and travelers, as domestic political protests have alleviated. In response to anti-government protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban's refusal to nominate negotiators to discuss a solution to the domestic political deadlock as proposed by six independent organizations on March 17, Yingluck said it will, thus, be useless for her caretaker administration to nominate anyone to the negotiating panel. The caretaker prime minister insisted that her caretaker government has no conditions for the negotiation except that there should be its rules which are generally acceptable and any proposed solution is to abide by laws. Tarit Pengdith, a member of the caretaker government-run Center for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO), meanwhile, announced that the ISA will be imposed from March 19- April 30, 2014. The caretaker government earlier announced to impose the emergency decree to cope with anti-government protesters in all areas in Bangkok and Nonthaburi Province, as well as some areas in Pathum Thani (Lat Lum Kaew District) and Samut Prakan (Bang Phli District), taking effect from January 22, 2014.(TNA)