Tells security heads to rethink proposal

YUWADEE TUNYASIRI

Deputy Prime Minister Visanu Krue-ngarm doubts the need for a new security law, saying five existing security-related laws should be enough to cope with southern violence.

Top-level security officials including Gen Vinai Pattiyakul, secretary-general of the National Security Council, and staff from the National Intelligence Agency and Foreign and Defence ministries had met him about the proposal.

They brought with them copies of the Patriot Act of the United States, Internal Security Act of Malaysia and Internal Security Act of 1960 of Singapore and similar laws from England and Japan for him to see.

Mr Visanu said he invited the Council of State, the government's legal arm, and cabinet secretary-general Bavornsak Uvanno to join the talks.

He told them to go back and return to another meeting today with reasons backing up the proposal.

Mr Visanu said the country already has many laws dealing with security matters. They include the Martial Law Act, Emergency Administration Act, Criminal Procedures Act, Criminal Act, and Special Investigation Act.

He had asked whether the existing laws had been implemented fully. He wanted to know what problems they had met and asked them to suggest solutions.

Martial law alone, he said, gave authorities a wide range of powers, from search to seizure of assets and destruction.

Although martial law does not empower them to tap telephone lines, authorities can seek permission to do so from the Criminal Court's chief justice, Mr Visanu said.

Asked if his thinking was at odds with the prime minister, who reportedly said a new security law was necessary, Mr Visanu said Mr Thaksin said a new law would be needed only if the existing ones had holes.

Kraisak Choonhavan, chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee, said any new security law should be issued as an act, allowing scrutiny by the House of Representatives and the Senate, rather than as an executive decree.

If the government really needed a security law in a hurry, it could consult Parliament President Uthai Pimchaichon to call for an extraordinary parliamentary session.

Mr Kraisak did not think an executive decree would be effective, as executive decrees on terrorism had failed in the past.

The security law, if legislated, should also protect and respect the rights and freedom of innocent people