Thai DPM:NCPO has good intention

BANGKOK, April 7 (TNA) - Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan insists that the Thai army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has positive intention towards the nation. The deputy prime minister's Thursday remarks followed last week's issuance of an order by NCPO for giving military officers new police-like power to seize assets, search premises, as well as summon, arrest and interrogate suspected civilians. NCPO reasoned that the power given to the military officers is aimed at helping solve the problem of a shortage in police personnel in the country. The deputy prime minister stressed that the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs has, several times, explained to foreign countries the incumbent military government's desire to help solve domestic problems, covering crackdowns on influential persons, aimed at creating happiness for the public, while legal punishment is to be imposed on wrongdoers. The deputy premier, who oversees national security, meanwhile, brushed aside a criticism by the US State Department that recently called for limiting the role of Thai military officers to arrest and detain criminal suspects. NCPO ousted the elected government of ex-Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in the country's latest military intervention on May 22, 2014. (TNA)