NSC:Emergency decree will alleviate political tension

BANGKOK, January 22 (TNA) - The National Security Council (NSC) says that the 60-day enforcement of the executive decree on public administration in emergency situations in Bangkok and some areas in surrounding provinces by Thailand's caretaker government, effective from January 22, 2014 is believed to help alleviate domestic political tension. NSC Secretary-General Lieutenant General Paradorn Pattanatabutr told journalists on Wednesday that the caretaker government's decision on Tuesday evening to impose the executive decree on public administration in emergency situations is aimed to ensure order, as persistent anti-government demonstrations led to more violence recently. Regarding continual movements by the anti-government People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) despite the enforcement of the emergency decree, Lieutenant General Paradorn analyzed that protest leaders had maintained their activities to psychologically retain their demonstrators. Under the emergency decree, Lieutenant General Paradorn acknowledged, the caretaker government can intensify its legal actions and resort to joint operations of police and soldiers in its protective measures. The NSC chief assured that the caretaker government will not crack down on demonstrators, but targeting only protest leaders and their strategic supporters. Besides, the government will regulate the media supporting the anti-government protesters, including the Bluesky channel, but the caretaker government has no plan to close the Bluesky channel and will talk to its director. The NSC chief explained that under the effect of the emergency decree, the caretaker government can also deploy its officials to supervise elections. Meanwhile, Thailand's Caretaker Prime Minister and Defence Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Wednesday morning declined to answer journalists’ questions when she arrived at the Office of the Permanent Secretary for Defence, her temporary office, where two layers of barbed wire have been erected as protesters were rallying nearby. In another political incident, a leader of pro-government, red-shirt people, Khwanchai Praipana, was shot and seriously injured at his house in Udon Thani Province in the Thai Northeast earlier in the day. His doctor later reported that he is now safe.(TNA)