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Another report

Thai Thaksin Says Emergency Act Needed to End Southern Unrest

BANGKOK: -- Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said today that new legislation giving the government extraordinary powers to handle emergency situations is required to handle the rising violence in the country's south.

The Emergency Act, approved by the Cabinet at a special meeting yesterday, will be implemented in the country's three southernmost provinces once formally endorsed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej, replacing martial law in place in the area since violence flared last year, killings hundreds, Thaksin said today in his weekly radio address in Bangkok.

Thaksin said the provisions of the new emergency act will give special powers to the civilian government to restrict some individual freedoms for limited periods of time, rather than the unlimited powers given to local army commanders under martial law. He dismissed media criticism that he was seeking absolute power.

``This government is fully committed to resolving the crisis and will only use legal powers limiting individual rights as much as needed,'' Thaksin said. ``I'm sure that people can understand and accept this is needed to protect them from bombers.''

Police estimate more than 800 people have died in 18 months of violence, which has included bombings, beheadings and shootings in Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat, more than 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) south of Bangkok, closest to the Malaysian border. Another villager was killed by suspected militants this morning in Narathiwat province, the Thai News Agency reported today.

Thaksin today blamed the violence on ``several groups,'' including separatists seeking the independence of the Muslim- majority area. About 90 percent of Thailand's 65 million population is Buddhist.

--Bloomberg 2005-07-16