Cabinet approves extension of emergency rule in restive South

BANGKOK, July 16 (TNA) - A plan to extend enforcement of the government's Executive Decree on Government Administration in Emergency Situations in Thailand's three insurgency-plagued southern border provinces won Cabinet approval on Tueday.

Speaking to journalists after the Cabinet meeting here, Nattawut Saikua, deputy government spokesman, said the cabinet agreed to the plan proposed by the National Security Council to extend the decree enforcement for a further three months.

The decree's current period is due to expire on Sunday.

The Executive Decree on Government Administration in Emergency Situations, effected by executive order of then prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has been enforced since it was first enacted in July 2005. It has been renewed every three months since then.

The decree gives security forces sweeping powers of arrest and detention in the three southernmost provinces.

Some 3,500 people have been killed since violence erupted in early 2004.