Article 46

VIOLENCE IN THE SOUTH SECURITY CHAIN OF COMMAND

Chettha to assume total control
YUWADEE TUNYASIRI WASSANA NANUAM
Defence Minister Chettha Thanajaro will be given total authority over the security command in the deep South, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said yesterday.

Gen Chettha will be the top commander with power to order any security agency to do whatever he deems fit to end southern violence. A cabinet resolution will be passed formally recognising his authority, Mr Thaksin said.

Gen Chettha will organise the coordination of all security operations involving the military, police and local administrative officials. The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) will be in charge of all intelligence work concerning unrest in the deep South.

``It is at the NIA that all bits of the intelligence jigsaw will be pieced together,'' Mr Thaksin said.

! The prime minister did not expect the review of the chain of command would cause friction with the Special Branch Police, which takes care of a vast base of intelligence data.

Security strategies were back on the priority agenda following the murder of a judge on Friday and the ambush of four soldiers in Pattani on Monday. The soldiers, who previously served with the peace-keeping mission in East Timor, were seriously wounded.

Mr Thaksin asserted the approach to solving southern unrest need not change. It was only a matter of plugging the ``voids'' in intelligence links. The various intelligence agencies held a multitude of data but were rather slow in putting pieces together to create a comprehensive picture.

``Coordination needs to be a little more intense and Gen Chettha is aware of this,'' the prime minister said.

He had warned Gen Chettha many times about the intelligence shortcomings. Nonetheless, he was confident the situation would be br! ought under control.

Mr Thaksin said immediately after the late st attacks that the authorities would intensify their surveillance, which would sometime necessitate a search of people's property. He insisted this was essential if the insurgency was to be suppressed.

The Defence Ministry, meanwhile, is printing pictures of key insurgent leaders and international terrorists on playing cards issued to government troops, to make it easier for soldiers to remember and identify them.