More police, volunteers to be deployed in Thai deep South

BANGKOK, September 22 (TNA) - More police and volunteers will be deployed in Thailand's violence-plagued deep South in the future; while soldiers will be withdrawn from the region. National Security Council (NSC) newly-appointed Secretary-General Lieutenant General Paradorn Pattanatabut spoke of the official policy during the weekly broadcast program of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra Saturday morning, saying that additional 4,000 police officers will be recruited and the number of volunteers of the Ministry of Interior will also be increased to be stationed in the strife-torn Thai far South. Lieutenant General Paradorn acknowledged that the number of security personnel in the southernmost Thai region will be sufficient by next year, after that most soldiers will be withdrawn. According to the new Thai NSC chief, concerned security agencies are also considering lifting the emergency decree having long-imposed in the troubled southern border region. The new NSC chief noted that the newly-established government security agency for the Thai far South will not duplicate the operations of the existing agencies, including the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) and the Southern Border Provinces Administrative Centre (SBPAC), in solving violent unrest in the region, chiefly in Pattani, Yala, and Narathiwat provinces. Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister General Yuthasak Sasiprapha said during the same program that the government has drafted a development master plan for the Thai deep South which will be the guideline for all 66 agencies operating in the troubled region. General Yuthasak reiterated that the overall situation in the southern Thai border region has improved, as native people have gained more confidence in the government and intelligence gathering is becoming unified, insisting that the government will offer justice to 93 alleged troublemakers in the Thai deep South who reported themselves to local authorities recently. (TNA)