ID :
320980
Mon, 03/17/2014 - 12:32
Auther :

Thailand to revoke emergency decree this week

BANGKOK, March 17 (TNA) - Caretaker Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Surapong Tovichakchaikul says that the Cabinet is likely to decide on lifting the emergency decree at its weekly meeting on March 18. Surapong, in his capacity as advisory chair of the caretaker government-run Center for Maintaining Peace and Order (CMPO), told journalists on Monday that a CMPO proposal on the revocation of the emergency decree has been included on the agenda of the Cabinet's weekly meeting on Tuesday and it is expected that the Cabinet will approve the revocation of the 60-day emergency, which has been enforced since January 22. Surapong noted that the Internal Security Act (ISA) will be then exercised, instead, to cope with anti-government protesters after the revocation of the emergency decree. According to the caretaker deputy prime minister, he plans to propose the military at a CMPO meeting later on Monday to move their bunkers from Bangkok streets back to government offices and he will brief international diplomats of the updated domestic political situation thereafter to restore confidence in Thailand among global investors and tourists. In response to a latest incident in which two improvised explosive devices contained in fire extinguisher cylinders were found in trash bins in front of the Office of the Attorney General and the nearby Judicial Training Institute in Bangkok on Monday morning, the caretaker deputy prime minister opined that it might result from the Office of the Attorney General's withdrawal from a plan of six other Constitution-related independent organizations to propose a national solution later in the day. The caretaker deputy prime minister proposed that the independent organizations support election and promise to base their national reform ideas on honesty and transparency, and that a fresh general election be held immediately following a national reform. Meanwhile, Caretaker Labor Minister Police Captain Chalerm Yubamrung, in his capacity as the CMPO Director, gave a similar comment that the bombing attempt at the Office of the Attorney General, in which an official investigation is underway as ordered by National Police Chief Police General Adul Saengsingkaew, was in response to the office's refusal to join other independent organizations' plan to mediate for the settlement of persistent political protests in the country. The CMPO chief insisted although his CMPO will be disbanded along with the end of the imposition of the emergency decree, legal actions against anti-government protesters on charges of treason and obstruction to the February 2 general election will be carried on.(TNA)

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